Fabulous Friday!!

Friday is here again! Oh how I love Fridays!! :-)

I took the day off today because our Friday is chock full of doctor's appointments. Rachel and I go back and see the neurologist for both of us and Stephen has an appointment with the pedi to talk about his growth (or lack of).

Medical Updates:

Orthopedic - Rachel had an appointment with the orthopedic yesterday and basically, he believes, having ruled out all other possibilities, that her right shoulder blade issue may just be recurring muscle strain. How? Why? who knows.... so, he gave her a lovely shot and said, hopefully, she'll feel better in that area by Monday. If not...well, we didn't ask that question. Not sure what we'd do at that point but perhaps get a second opinion. The surgery needed for her left shoulder that is way loose is set right now for May 1.

Neurologist:
Rachel - just a follow up today from the MRI's that were ordered pre Christmas. I already know the results were normal, so not sure if there will be anything interesting come from this appointment for Rachel.

MA - same doctor, different patient (ME). My stuff is a little more active. While my numbness is generally overall better, it's still there often. If I do the traction daily and exercises, it seems to generally keep it somewhat lessened, but really not gone away. In addition, the last couple of weeks I've developed some pain starting to be uncomfortable at the base of my neck so .... not sure where this will lead, but my guess may be a nuerosurgeon for further discussions. I'm putting off the surgery as long as I can but they may be able to give me some injections to lessen the pain if it gets too uncomfortable.

Pediatrician for Stephen:
Stephen's small size is becoming more and more noticeable amongst his peers. His weight sits around 75 which is where it has been within 5 lbs for nearly 3 years or more. More concerning though is his height at 4 feet 5 inches. We believe on the overall growth charts, that puts him at the 3% percentile. Rob mentioned he had some growth assistance as a child, so we are going to start down the path for evaulation for growth hormone deficiency. I imagine we'll end up with a pediatric endocrinologist for evaulation. There have been some studies recently that have shown that ADHD has little to do with growth hormone, but that lack of oxygen at birth does. Stephen did suffer a traumatic birth with an unknown time without oxygen. Some other signs are signficant delay in baby teeth replacement. He actively started losing his baby teeth just recently. Comparing him to Rachel, she had lost them all and had all her permanent teeth in by end of 5th grade and was in braces by beginning of 6th grade. So...we'll see where this leads.

Please pray for him... kids at this age are just down right mean and when you standout, for whatever reason, you are a target for mean kids to make fun of. He happens to be in this situation with his size and the kids are not treating him well at school. He's having a tough time dealing with this along with just the normal issues an ADHD kid has dealing with social skills overall. This is a tough time for him and for his Mama Bear who wants to go have a word or two with all those kids for treating her baby bear so ugly, but who knows, clearly... that won't work.

So... that's our day today!! I think after this set of visits today, we're having Los Ramirez for dinner with a Sangria Margarita for Mama Bear!!

Love to all!!

MA