One In A Million

So much to tell you from today. You and I spent a day in the med center while Brother was at MDO. This is the first time I have ever taken you there all by myself. I always have someone ride with me in case you throw up while I am on the freeway. But we have gone another 6 days without vomiting, and I needed someone to pick up Liam in case we were not home by 2:30. So you and I ventured out on our own. Despite the hard rain and very slow traffic that I did not count on, you did great!

First stop—GI. Long story short, we decided to leave well enough alone for now. When/if (who we are kidding?...when) things take a turn for the worse again, we will do an endoscopy under anesthesia to make sure the Hirschprung’s hasn’t made a reappearance.

We were done at TCH in record time, so we made a slight detour into Target as we drove down Main. And Audrey, for the first time in your entire life, I was frustrated by you. Earlier at TCH, I chose to use the umbrella stroller for you thinking it would suit our needs perfectly. And it would have except you decided before we even reached the door that you hated it. I mean pitiful, heart wrenching cries, big tears, the works. I got us inside the doors and examined you closely. There was nothing that looked at all uncomfortable or painful. I even tried putting your blanket underneath in case your non-existent bottom needed extra cushion. Still screaming. So I carried you in while pushing the stroller. As we left the doctor, I strapped you back in, thinking you would be more agreeable. No. Thirty seconds later was the same story. You had taken a firm stance on the stroller and were not going to waver.

So back to our Target detour. To avoid the same scenario, I did not take a stroller. Instead I left you in the car seat and stuck you in a cart. We weren’t two cars away before you started up again. And didn’t stop the entire way through the store. People kept asking what was wrong with you. Nothing was wrong with you. You didn’t need a diaper change. You weren’t hungry. You weren’t in any sort of pain. Your feelings didn’t get hurt. You weren’t overly tired. NOTHING. Of course, nobody believed me –I wouldn’t have believed me. You were super loud and convincing. But you just wanted to be held. And pushing a broken cart through Target while holding a baby connected to a pump inside that broken cart is not an easy feat. So I held you as much as I could, but when it came time to check out you just had to cope. Which you didn’t do well. We walked outside to a downpour. No sense in waiting I thought, let’s just run for it. I did and was soaking wet by the time we made it to the car. You were dry thanks to your car seat shade. We got in the car and the rain completely stopped. On to the next appointment.

I just carried your car seat into Dynamic Orthotics. More temper tantrum from you. I picked you up, you were mysteriously better. Grrr. We met Mr. T and I really liked him. I had put your braces on 15 minutes ahead of time so that he could see the color your feet turned. He agreed that blue and purple weren’t ideal. After checking you out thoroughly, he came to the realization that it wasn’t the pressure of the braces but the positioning. Just holding your feet in a corrected position for about 30 seconds causes the blue hue that takes minutes to go away. He wants PMR to check you out, which thank you Jesus, we have an appointment with on Tuesday. Otherwise it would set us back several more weeks. Mr. T suspects that the correction pinches an artery which is potentially problematic. But in the meantime we agreed to make a new set of AFO’s that correct enough for you to stand with the assistance of a wedge. He rushed it so that they will be ready Thursday morning before our appointment with genetics. That way we will have them a few days before we see PMR. Not everyone is as considerate, and we appreciated it.

As a side note: Mr. T says that out of 33 years of this career, he has only ever seen one other child with the same issue. Hmph. I told him he had no idea how many times I have heard that from various specialists.

We were quickly homeward bound, and made it in enough time to meet Liam at church where Grammy had just picked him up. Despite the pushiness on your part, I had a really great day with you shnook. Sometimes it is nice just to hang out the two of us.