Medical Update - Summer Dreamin'

5:30am

The wife is nursing the wee one down the hall and I am sitting in another room at the keyboard . . . "When is our next Pediatrician appointment?' I holler . . .

"August" came the reply. Which stops me dead in my tracks . . . "August?" you mean 4 whole months between appointments?

When we first found out we were pregnant last February, it felt like we were on a train bound for parenthood with no opportunity to get off (not that we wanted to). When we received the SB diagnosis it seemed like that train tour through the countryside had become a run-away freight train.

When the doctors told us Annie probably wouldn't survive the birth, it was as if they had announced that our run-away freight train was headed for a ravine . . . and the bridge was out up ahead . . . 

Once little Annie was here, it felt like we had finally jumped off the train - right, smack-dab in the middle of Pamplona just in time for the Running of the Bulls . . . . There were neurology appts, Urology appts, Plastic Surgery appts etc . . .

Step one was to get out of the NICU

Step Two, get Annie's back healed

Step Three, casting for clubbed feet

Step Four, the big feet surgery

Throw in a couple trips to the ER, a double brain surgery and all manner of checkups and therapy appointments and it makes for two very tired and frazzled parents . . .

Just for kicks, I went back through our calendar and counted 64 medical appointments in the past 9 months. And those are just the ones I wrote down. I can think of 5-10 more off the top of my head . . .

But dare I say it? It looks like the end of this race is in sight . . . here is the full-meal-deal update:

Plastic Surgery - Done!

Pediatrics - One-year checkup in August

Neurology - Next checkup is at the SD Clinic in August

Urology - Urodynamic study in August to measure Annie's abilities in terms of bowels and bladder

Orthopedics - Casts changed out on May 26, then 5 more weeks of casts, AFO's after that for the foreseeable future

Occupational Therapy- Once a month for the foreseeable future

Physical Therapy - Once a week for the foreseeable future

We have been wanting to plan a beach day and a camping trip but both those will have to wait until the casts come off in June . . . but still . . . I can feel a lightening of the load.

Provided all goes as planned, the wee one will be cast-free by the end of June. Sure, there are a number of appointments in August, but they aren't what I would call "procedures".

It appears that the major hurdles are beginning to fade into the distance and by July little Annie's only concern will be to grow up relatively just like any other little girl her age.

The thought of celebrating her first birthday with all of this behind us makes me a little misty . . 

And you thought YOU were looking forward to summer . . .