The doctor party

Yesterday Tom checked Natalie in at 5:30 a.m. for her 7 a.m. doctor party.  It may seem early, but it's wonderful to not have to keep her from eating or drinking beforehand (she can't eat past midnight before an anesthesia event).  Dr. ENT wanted to clean her ears and check her ear tubes, and anytime she goes under, we also call the other specialist who wants to check her out, Dr. Eyes.

Tom said at least two of the nurses recognized Natalie from previous visits (and she doesn't go THAT often).  While many other kids there for surgery were crying and not happy, Natalie wasn't bothered to be there (she enjoys the new toys she gets to play with).  Tom asked Natalie if she knew where she was, and she said "Doctor's office."  They always give Versed to calm the child down, but Natalie gets a half dose for her weight because it doesn't take much to calm her.  We think they gave her less anesthesia medicine, too, because Tom said the smell when he saw her in recovery was much less than other times...and she came awake so quickly!  They were home at 8:50 a.m.!  I hadn't finished school with Lukas yet, and I wasn't expecting them to be home so quickly...definitely Natalie's fastest out-patient procedure yet.

So the results...Dr. Eye said her pressures are higher than he would like to see (23).  It's not dangerous until it's over 30, but he wants her to be under 20 and ideally around 15.  So we need to give eye drops morning and night (we'd only been giving them at night because mornings are so crazy) and he will test her pressure again in the clinic in a few weeks.  If they aren't below 20 at that time, we will have to give a different eye drop in addition.  We're praying no new eye drops are necessary.

We had been delaying replacing Natalie's ear tubes, hoping she had outgrown the need.  Unfortunately, that left a problem undetected.  One of the ear tubes was out of place, but lodged in her ear canal, and had developed granulation over it (granulation is where unwanted skin grows at a surgery site).  So that's why her ears were weeping dark goo sometimes (we just thought they were ear infections, which they were, sort of, but a different kind of infection).  Anyway, he took that tube out and didn't replace it, to let the ear heal (there's still a hole there).  The tube in the other ear was replaced.

Wow!  She almost could have gone to school and therapy after such a quick event, but of course we didn't do that.  But I had previously scheduled a neurology follow up for the same afternoon, before the surgery was scheduled.  Since Natalie handles out-patient events so well, I didn't reschedule...because, you know, it's LOVELY to have a babysitter to watch the other kids while I take one child to the doctor.  So Aime watched the boys in the afternoon and I took Natalie to the neurologist.  Dr. Neuro is happy with how Natalie is doing, and we'll have more blood tests in two months to make sure she's not having side effects from the seizure medicine.  It's so nice to have this seizure thing figured out for Natalie!  At least for now.

But we still don't have the toilet thing figured out!  Natalie has been on antibiotics for her UTI for a week now, and she still hasn't used the toilet.  Praying that she will change her mind!

THEN we went to get Natalie a much-needed haircut.  I am continually amazed at how Natalie is growing and accepting change.  For several years now, Natalie has had her hair cut by my hair stylist, who understands about Natalie and is very calm and patient with her (there has been a lot of crying in the past).  But my hair stylist has decided to stay home with her kids, so we're seeing different people, trying to settle on a regular person.  And Natalie is fine with that!  She isn't bothered by someone cutting her hair, and doesn't mind it's someone she doesn't know!  I'm so proud of her!

Of course, we had to celebrate with a treat, so we shared a chocolate malt ice cream shake (see pic above).  It was so fun to have an afternoon with just my daughter.