We had a doctor's appointment today for Theona. Her yearly. More on that later. We had to get the kids' all flu shots. Well, Pax was actually the only one who had to get that shot. Theona and Kaden got the mist. They both took it rather well. I was pleasantly surprised. Paxton cried for about 30 seconds, but he was fine after that. The funny thing was the boys had been traumatized moments earlier when Dr. Keown checked them with a Woods Lamp. Basically it's a fancy black light that allows you to see the tumors under the skin. Loren's mom had a condition called Neurofibromatosis. It causes tumors to grow usually just beneath the surface of the skin. They are almost always benign but can sometimes become malignant. His mom had them all over, on the inside of her body. She was in a car accident just before Christmas when Loren was 8. Because the accident was so severe, and on top of the fact that she already had these tumors all over, they made the hardest decision anyone can make. To turn off life support. Needless to say, Loren always has a nagging fear that he will develop tumors or that the kids will.
When he brought that up to Dr. Keown, she was quick to grab that lamp and check all three. They had to turn the light off in the room to do the exam, which immediately had the boys sobbing. All three of the kids sleep with a light on. They found one on Paxton near his left shoulder on his back. It was about 2 centimeters in diameter. She said the only reason to be concerned is if he had more than 3 that were that size or bigger. The absolute irony is that she said she hadn't had to use that lamp in about 25 years and diagnosed a patient right before us with NF 2.
Well, when that was over, I just held Paxton until he calmed down. I gave him some yogurt melt things (he LOVES them) and he was fine and dandy. And even smiling at the nurse...until she gave him the second half of his flu shot. Ha!
So back to Theona's appointment...
We came in, she got weighed. 54 lbs, in the 66th percentile. And measured. 57 inches, in the 97th percentile! Peed in a cup. Had her hearing and vision checked. She's fine on both accounts and was very proud of the fact that she heard all the sounds in the headphones. She got the once over from Dr. Keown and her ears are great on the inside, of course. Then she asked if we had any questions and brought up something I wrote on her history form. When she was 4, she woke up from a nap and had trouble catching her breath. We took her to the ER and they did an x-ray. She was born with a bone anomaly on her rib cage. Her left side is "caved in". So when they did the x-ray, we could see that her heart wasn't in the right place. It's almost in the center. Dr. Keown checked it out and gave us a referral sheet for Vandy to get another x-ray done so she can determine if she needs an echo cardiogram. She didn't detect a murmur, but when she had Theona lay down she could tell that her heart shifted a bit to the center.
I told her I wasn't too worried about her heart if she wasn't. But I was concerned about when she hits puberty and starts developing. And when I voiced that to her, she said she doesn't have any breast tissue on that side, and she'd fight to have insurance cover corrective surgery when she needs it. This is why I love Dr. Keown. She truly cares about her patients and she doesn't rush us out the door. She answers our questions and doesn't dismiss our concerns. And I'm so grateful that, for the most part, we have 3 healthy babies!! And it's really bizarre to think that at some point, Theona is going to have a boob job...ha!
No comments:
Post a Comment