New Doctor's for New Problems

Not much has been going on lately except we are trying desperately to coordinate doctor visits. It seems like every time I turn around I am constantly rearranging appointments so I can be involved with my families health care. Bryon feels fine, but we are trying to keep his MRI appointment, doctor appointment, and port maintenance appointments straight. To add to the confusion, Anna has begun her adventure in orthodontics and is seeing an orthodontist in Pocatello. My poor mother took Anna for her first "fitting" visit and it just so happened to be on one of those lovely days when the snow was flying. I am very grateful to both of my parents that they are so willing to help out with these driving arrangements. Since I have an appointment every Monday in Logan and my days off limited, these little pieces of time need to be budgeted very carefully and their help has made it work.

We now add a new doctor to the pile. Anna has been complaining of stomach pain a lot for the last two weeks. It really got obvious on Thanksgiving that she was not comfortable at all. She would eat fine and play until her stomach decided it had had enough. She went for a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa Westerberg's house and was even able to play at Granny's for a day. Saturday night she attended an Aggie basketball game(she was thrilled that they won) with her dad, sister and grandparents. By the end of her evening she was wiped out and in pretty constant pain. As a mother your heart bleeds for your child when they hurt the way Anna was, but you also have to keep a cool head for your kids sake. I tried to decide how much was drama and how much was real suffering. When the pain got bad enough she was doubled over, I asked her many times if she felt that a visit to the hospital was necessary(I was told that if there was no fever or risk of dehydration and all that stuff, then it wasn't an emergency. Hence y hesitation in this case). She said she would like to see a doctor and we packed up and headed to Logan.

That poor little girl was put through so much crap while she was trying to endure the pain and difficulty of not being able to rest. There were IV's and needles, poking and prodding,urine and blood samples, X-rays and even an ultrasound. By the time we got there and had been put through the ringer, Anna had a fever of 103. Some Tylenol and a Maalox cocktail took care of the fever and dulled the pain for a few hours so she could sleep. She was kept till 7:00am for observation and the doctor admitted she had no clue what was happening, but that there was definitely something wrong. Appendix comes to mind, but there was nothing conclusive that said for sure she was in need of surgery.

So, today we have made some arrangements to go back to the hospital and discuss the weekends events with a pediatrician and decide if the next step is to be the CAT Scan and possible surgery, or if she has some fancy disorder that I can't spell. The radiologist who did her ultrasound noted that her lymph nodes in her abdomen were very inflamed which coincided with her blood work. Apparently there is a word for it, but heck if I can recall it , let alone spell it.

In total, we have 5 doctor visits to complete in the next 9 days. Audrey seems to be the only one without an ailment and is loving the idea of taking care of her family. She has helped out enough that I agreed to pay her for every chore she completed while we were dealing with all this junk. She took to that like a fish to water. She has already earned a dollar for cleaning her room and plans to help with laundry to earn a few more. All in all I think we are busy but doing well. Results of our adventures will be eagerly anticipated, but at least we have the snow to distract us till they come in.