Trading Places

Late Thursday night, as I was thinking out loud about what our schedule would be Friday morning so I could get Natalie to Children's Hospital Los Angeles by 8 a.m., I suddenly (!) remembered I'd have to also feed Dominik before we left.  Tom suggested he take Natalie instead and the more we thought about it, the more we realized it was the right thing to do.  And, boy, am I glad he took her, because I'm sure I would have had to feed Dominik during the doctor visit, and there's no telling whether it would have been convenient (probably not!)

Natalie saw a pediatric glaucoma specialist, who said she's currently seeing several kids with RTS (it's rare to find a doctor who has even heard of RTS, let alone treated one patient with RTS, and certainly not to be currently treating several patients with RTS, since the syndrome is so rare).  So she's familiar with the eye issues related to RTS, especially glaucoma and glaucoma-like symptoms.

The doctor complimented Natalie on her good behavior as Natalie again cooperated with several different eye exams.  The doctor wants to have special pictures taken of the inside of Natalie's eyes (under anesthesia) so she can track changes in Natalie's eyes over the years.  This would be an annual exam in addition to seeing Natalie's regular, local pediatric ophthalmologist during the year.

So Natalie had a real "LA" experience:  many more people and general craziness at that hospital than at our local hospital.  Even though we live close to LA, and it's nothing but city between here and there, I feel like we're in a small town compared to how crowded LA is.

Anyway, since Tom took Natalie to LA, I took the boys to visit Tom's parents just before they moved to Ventura.  We're sad they'll be living too far away for us to make a quick visit, but look forward to seeing them in a month or two after we recover from our trip to Ohio.  Here's Grandma posing with three of her 14 grandsons (she also has two granddaughters).