July. It is that time of year again when the appointments I made months ago rear their ugly heads on the kitchen calendar (yes, I am old school and still use a wall calendar for keeping track of my life.) Every summer around this time Cody has his yearly follow-up appointments at Children’s Hospital in Seattle. I am not complaining. A year between follow-ups is great. It used to be every month, then every three months, then six months and then I about cried when they said they were comfortable with every year. I don’t know if we have ever really made it a full year without going there. With the increase in seizure activity last year we have added visits for simple EEGs, or been there as an in patient for a twenty-four hour EEG (that was fun), or arrived to their emergency room frazzled and scared after Cody seized in the car while we were out running errands.
Children’s Hospital is great. They do their best to fit our appointments into one day so we don’t have to drive all the way up there more than once. It has gotten harder for them to do so since one of Cody’s doctors is only in the clinic one day a month. This year we have two days of appointments, tomorrow and next Thursday. Tomorrow will be easy, just one appointment with the Neurodevelopment clinic. It was in this clinic a few years ago, as we watch Cody walk up and down the hall, that the diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy was first spoken. It was also in this clinic that the Neurodevelopment doctor, after looking over Cody’s history, flat out told us we were lucky. Next Thursday we have an appointment with Neurology, a haste MRI, and two appointments with the Neurosurgery clinic. Thursday will be taxing on all of us.
The trips up to Children’s have gotten much easier as the kids have gotten older. No one is nursing. No one is potty training. No one requires an afternoon nap (unless you include me!). There are no diapers to deal with, no strollers to push, and I don’t have to constantly ply them with snacks to make them sit still. It is also easier to explain to Cody and Carter what is happening and why.
We try to fit in a trip to the zoo or at least a park so that the hospital visit is not central to the day. The doctors visits in and of themselves are rather uneventful, luckily, and the day mostly consists of waiting around for the fifteen minutes or so that we get to chat with this doctor or that doctor. Each and every shunt scan has come back normal and no one is talking seriously about seizure medication.
Every time I step across the threshold of Children’s Hospital for our follow-up appointments, I think about how lucky we are. Fingers crossed for another round of boring, uneventful doctors visits.
Shoes On The Wrong Feet 
May it be boring, boring, yawn, yawn. May the zoo be the excitement! I like the monkeys.
The zoo was a great time and the hospital was rather boring – it made for a nice day.
Excellent. Glad to hear it.
I think we can do wonderful things in the mundane and sure even stealing gloves and blowing them up can be such fun
At Children’s Hospital you don’t have to steal the gloves, the doctors are right there with you blowing them up into balloons! 🙂
good … maybe I should change doctors
boring uneventful doctor’s visits are absolutely the best kind! I did not go through what you are–but both my boys were very premature, so I spent a lot of time at hospitals when they were little — they are now 21 and 26, strong and smart and eat me out of house and home — which is a good thing (though they are not home all the time–I am not yet a full empty-nester)
I always get a chill being at a hospital for one of the boys even if it is just for a follow-up appointment. We were lucky to have yet another rather boring appointment.
And talking about eating you out of house and home – this morning Cody ate 4 pieces of bacon, 2 eggs, and an English muffin. He is only 6! 🙂
oh oh – you will need to win a big lottery as he grows up just to keep him fed.
yah for boring doctor’s appointments
I’m sending you all the good luck I have, I hope you have a very uneventful day!
Oh, I hope you saved a bit of good luck for yourself – with Delilah lurking around you it sounds like you need a little luck sometimes. We had a good visit with the doctor and a great time at the zoo.
I wish you all the best!
Thank you, the support means a lot to me.
Good luck – sending tons of positive thoughts…May the visit be a yawner (which will be a highlight of course) and I hope whatever fun activity you do afterwards truly celebrates the uneventful trip to Childrens..
Thanks, you are right that the yawner of a doctor visit is the highlight (for us and not the boys). The boys will remember the zoo and eating out when they think back on the day.
And you will remember the tension that left your body after leaving the doctor..
Love Seattle Children’s we’ve been there a few times as well and they’ve always been topnotch.Here’s hoping for a nice uneventful visit!
It is such a great place to be when you have a sick kiddo. We have had nothing but positive experiences with them.
My youngest, Connor, has juvenille arthritis. Later this summer, we’ll be taking our annual trek to the children’s hospital as well. Fortunately, we too have had a boring year. We used to make quarterly visits. This is the longest we’ve gone without a check-up. It’s wonderful. Praying your life stays boring as well!
I am sorry to hear about your son Connor. Glad you are down to yearly visits instead of quarterly ones. A quiet, boring life (at least in the health department) is very nice.
Best wishes! I hope all is going well today and I hope all goes well next week. 🙂
Thanks. One down and one to go. Yesterday went well. I am not looking forward to next week but hopefully it will go well too.
I’m glad yesterday went well. Fingers crossed for next week! 🙂
Good luck!!! Hope it is all as boring as possible!
Boring is best when it comes to these type of things and that is pretty much what we got. 🙂
I am hoping the best for you and your family. My daughter had seizures so I understand what it’s like to have constant doctors appointments and EEG’s.
Were they febrile seizures and if so what age did she out grown them (if you don’t mind me asking)? The day went well, his seizures are still associated with fever so there is still the expectation that he will out grow them. Developmentally he is delayed in some areas, no surprise to us, but he is doing quite well overall.
She has febrile seizures and she hasn’t had one in over a year. However, because I have epilepsy they are monitoring it because she may develop it later. I had 15 seizures while pregnant with her. We have medication if she has another one and she had them as an infant too. That’s when I first started them and then nothing until I was 16.
Thank you for sharing this. It is so hard watching and waiting for another one to happen especially since with Cody there are no real consistent indicators that he is about to have one. He usually spikes a fever after the seizure. I can not imagine having them myself, how scary. I very much hope your daughter does not develop epilepsy.
Thank you, me as well. We monitor her fevers closely and are quick to administer Tylenol to try and lower it. It’s one thing to have them myself, but now I know how my parents felt watching me have them.
We do the same with Cody even if the seizures usually come on before the fever. I swear, no matter how many Cody has, I always feel helpless watching them. I don’t think it has gotten easier for me other than I now know that when I have to, administering the Diastat is not hard to do.
For some reason all your comments keep going straight to the spam folder. 😦 Sorry that they keep needing approval before posting, I am not sure how to fix that.
No worries! I hope he outgrows them soon!
My fingers are crossed for you!
Thanks, mine were crossed too! The day went well.
Great to hear!
Children’s Hospital is a blessing! I got my son in for an appointment with a pediatric dermatologist there and the wait is 4 months because apparently, there are only 5 pediatric derms in the entire state of WA and they are all at Children’s.
I credit Children’s Hospital for allowing Cody to have basically a normal life. We asked for a second opinion from a Pediatric Neurosurgeon when he was 2 months old (a HUGE deal, because he was hooked up to a respirator and other various things and they had to transport him there) because they wanted to do yet another surgery on his VP shunt. The doctors at Children’s were less eager to cut and looked to Cody’s demeanor as well as the medical information. They waited and watched and no further surgery was required. He was home in two weeks.
That is crazy that there are only 5 ped derms in all of WA! It tells you something about Children’s that they are all working there. Great place!