Visiting the Good Doctor

I took my thundering herd to see the good Doctor yesterday.  

Dr. S has been our Family Physician for the past 13 years.  He is the best.

Today's visit was scheduled to be a well-child check-up for Jersey #5.  Normally, I try to schedule the kids' well-child appointments within a month of their birthday.  It is easier for me to keep track of them that way.  Well, last Fall, life was a bit crazy, so I got behind on appointments, and now I am trying to catch up.  

I have learned my lesson!  It has been a challenge to catch up the missed well-child check-ups for my late summer babies, at the same time that my winter and spring babies are having more birthdays.  It seems like we are visiting the doctor's clinic a lot lately.

Today, I took full advantage of the scheduled appointment.

In addition to going through the well-child routine for Jersey #5, I lines up all of the kids and asked Dr. S to scan their current ailments.  He is real good about that.

We addressed Jersey #5's little, crooked toes.  Poor kid has toes that are various lengths, and overlap each other.  It doesn't appear to inhibit his motion, running and playing, so there is nothing to do but wait it out and see how his feet grow.

Jersey #1 sprained her ankle.  I dismissed her complaints at first, because she tends to be over-dramatic about every bump.  But, this time she was serious.  Her instep is showing the bruising discoloration.  The doctor examined it (or made it "really hurt" by pressing all over her foot, according to Jersey #1).  She should mend well with rest and some Ibuprofen.  She should be ready to run again for her next AWANA Games practice.

Jersey #2 has had a rough time this winter with dry skin on her hands.  We've tried all kinds of lotions and grease, and could not get it to mend.  The good Doctor gave us some hydrocortisone cream to try with the lotion.  The pharmacist also agreed that it should do the trick to help with her hands.

Jersey #3 developed a sudden cough, with no prior illness.  I suspect it is his allergies, which are really terrible right now.  But, just to be safe, I asked Dr. S to listen to his lungs.  All clear!  That is good news.  We will stick with my allergy theory.

Jersey #4 has a terrible wart problem on her hands.  Warts are caused by a virus, and will usually go away once the immune system rises to the challenge (which can take a long time, it seems).  One wart is really bothering her, because it is on her thumb and pressing into her nail.  I started a home treatment for her  thumb wart, and it made the skin all over her thumb start to peel away.  I had Dr. S take a look at it and make sure she wasn't having a bad reaction.  We are going to continue the home treatment and hope it works.  I dread her having to have them frozen off.  That is not fun.

Jersey #5 is healthy and growing great.  At his 2-year old check-up, his height and weight measurements were completely off the top of the growth chart.  Dr. S simply wrote down "greater than 100%" and laughed it off.  He said Jersey #5 was the largest 2-year old in the USA.

Now, at age 3 1/2, Jersey #5 has returned to the growth chart.  He is 3 feet, 5 inches tall (92%), and weighs 42 pounds (97%).  He is still a BIG boy!  

BMI calculations are popular now, instead of the height and weight curves.  According to his BMI, Jersey #5 is overweight.  The Doctor and I had a fun chuckle over that.  I am not sure there are any recommendations for what to do with that information for a 3-year old.  We dismiss it.  Jersey #1 and Jersey #3 were the same way at that age.  By kindergarten, they both gained more height than weight, and completely flipped their BMI status.  We will see if Jersey #5 does the same thing.

Poor Jersey #5 had to get 2 shots today.  We do not follow the full vaccine recommendations, choosing to decline the unethical vaccines that are made from cell lines of aborted babies.  But, we vaccinate with most of the ethically-manufactured vaccines.  I did not expect Jersey #5 to need any vaccines today, but I had forgotten that he was behind on 1 that was out of stock for a while when he was younger.  We caught that one up today, in addition to permitting an additional dosing of the pneumococcal vaccine.  Normally, I am not a fan of the recommendation to add a booster to the vaccine regimen just because there is an increase in disease (I would much prefer a more calculated recommendation taking into account how recent the original vaccine was given, and the reason for the increase in disease, before a booster is also given).  This time, I approved the booster because of the source (respiratory tract) of the illness that the vaccine prevents, and the child (Jersey #5) who is known to have a weaker respiratory response to illness.  I tend to have to make these choices on a case-by-case basis with my kids.

Jersey #5 was so brave for his immunizations.  He announced, "that hurts," but he did not cry.  He was pleased to pick out a sticker, and even asked the nurse for a second sticker.  He was so sweet, that the nurse gave him 3 stickers!  That made his day, and the pain of the shots was forgotten.  

At the end of the visit, Dr. S asked me how I was doing.  I shared with him my status of having better days and worse days, and that I seem to be progressing into more better days with time.  I also told him about how folks were recommending I see him for antidepressants at 2 weeks, because I admitted to being intensely sad, and I was crying a lot.  He shook his head in disbelief, and told me that there is a trend in society to try to eliminate sadness and pain.  He encouraged me by saying that since I am usually such a positive, happy person, that if I was crying in deep sadness then folks were probably nervous that the world was coming to an end!  That made me laugh.

Our Family Doctor is so sweet.