Medical Update - 2/17/09 - Part 1

This was our first full-blown Spinal Defects clinic day.

Because spinal defects involve so many doctors from so many disciplines, Children's Hospital holds a Spinal Defects clinic twice a month. Typically the patients come in the morning to have any necessary tests done and then you are put in an exam room all afternoon as the various different doctors file in and out discussing their particular piece of the puzzle.

The other nice thing about the SDC is that if a situation arises that requires a multidisciplinary approach, all the docs are right there and can consult. We loaded the diaper bag to the gills and steeled ourselves for a good 8 hour day of doctor's appointments.

We arrived at the hospital at 8am for our first consult . . .

Club Foot Clinic:


It has been a month since Annie had her casts off and Dr. W. wanted to check in to make sure that her feet were not regressing to their original position while we wait for surgery on April 14th. He pronounced that everything was just fine and set our next appointment for April 7th - one last consult a week before surgery day.

We had about 2 hours before our next appointment so we headed to the cafeteria for some breakfast. On the way, the wife noticed a teenager in a wheelchair. On the back of the chair was a sticker for the Life Rolls On foundation.

When we got situated in the cafeteria, we fired up the laptop and discovered that Life Rolls On is a non-profit foundation set up by former professional surfer Jesse Billauer (who you may recognize from the movie Step Into Liquid - he is the one in the wheelchair) to help those with disabilities learn to surf.


Ultrasound and X-rays:


After breakfast, we headed to radiology an hour early - hoping to get in to our next appointment early. The waiting room was full - many of whom were there to have images taken for the SDC later in the day. There is nothing like a trip to radiology on SDC day to give you some perspective in life . . . .


My wife recognized the teen with the Life Rolls On sticker across the room and they exchanged smiles. A mother sitting next to us, her 20 year old son in a wheelchair (WC) with spina bifida, struck up a conversation with us and asked us all about Annabelle and how it was going.



The mother was telling us that her son went most of his life with the same shunt he had received at birth without any complications. Then recently, shortly after her husband was killed in an accident . . .


That's when her son's name was called and she had to cut her story short.


After they left, my wife turned to me with tears in her eyes . . . willing herself to hold it all together in the face of so many with such enormous challenges . . . . "How do people do it? She asked me . . ."


As we waited, a couple more teenagers came in - both in wc's - clearly a boyfriend and girlfriend. They recognized the Life Rolls On teen and there were all the typical greetings you would expect to see between good teenage friends. We sat there transfixed.


The wife and I have never personally known anyone wc bound and here were these three teens - a boyfriend and girlfriend to boot - all hanging out. We felt like we were getting a glimpse into another reality.


They finally called Annie's name and we headed in to have her ultrasound done. The wife was bold enough to ask if she could shoot some photos and the tech obliged.

It occurred to me as we sat there looking at kidneys and bladder and who knows what else that the last time I sat in a darkened room for an ultrasound was before Annabelle was born - and we were looking at her inside my wife. Now here we were looking directly inside Annie. It all had that mirror-within-a-mirror feel to it . . . .

The ultrasound complete - it was then off to x-rays . . .

Yes, I am wearing a pink lead apron with Cinderella on it . . . . Look, I just took the first one they offered me . . . .

Annie actually slept through the ultrasound and was 100% cooperative during the x-rays.

After x-rays, it was down to the SDC where we waited for about an hour before they called us in at 1pm.

(to be continued)