Doctors’ appointments

The first round of doctor “stuff” is done.
Annikah weighs 38 pounds!
Our pediatrician said, “My, she’s a healthy one, huh?” That translates to “she’s almost as big as her brothers and her big sister that are several years older than her”. LOL

We received a very nice booklet with her vaccination schedule in it from the director of the institution. It was in ENGLISH, which was quite helpful! In addition to the vaccination list, it noted things like the fact that she had chicken pox (and the date). So, we were actually able to do a pretty decent medical history thanks to that little booklet. In fact, our pediatrician suggested that we keep the booklet current since it was so nicely organized. So, they added her new info into the booklet for us. She was only missing her “5 year boosters”….just 2 shots. She CRIED during the shots. None of my boys ever cry with shots, so it’s been years since I’ve had a crying child to comfort after shots! She has a really pitiful cry too! Even the nurse said, “Awww, now I feel rotten!”

  She also had blood work done…..chromosome analysis(to get Down syndrome officially diagnosed), HIV test, thyroid, CBC (that’s all that I remember). We ended up having to go to the hospital for the blood draw because the lab tech in the pediatrician’s office couldn’t find a vein. She cried during the blood draw too….though only when they put the band on her arm to find a vein, not during the actual blood draw!

She had neck X-rays done and also an upper GI at the hospital too. The neck X-rays were clear. The upper GI showed mild reflux. I’m going to have to research that, though it doesn’t seem to be severe enough to bother her and the pediatrician doesn’t intend to treat it in any way.

We now have referrals to neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology. Her cardiology appointment is already scheduled for December 20th with the cardiologist that also sees Kullen (and he’s going on that same day). She had heart surgery in Bulgaria when she was a baby. So, we are hopeful that the cardiology visit will be a “the repair looks great, nice meeting you!” kind of visit. Her ophthalmology appointment isn’t until January. She had an eye surgery in Bulgaria, though she clearly needs something else done to help her eyes. We’re still waiting on the neurology appointment to be scheduled. She’ll see Xander’s neurologist and I expect to have that appointment date by the end of the week.

A referral has also been put in for speech therapy. She’ll go to the same private therapy center that the boys go to. We’ve opted to not do Occupational Therapy until she starts school next year. Her fine motor skills are pretty good and I’m not overly concerned about them right now. We know she’ll need help with school related OT stuff, so we’ll plan to add that in with school. Right now, we want to focus on speech and communication.

The last appointment to make will be with the dentist. They won’t schedule the appointment until cardiology clears her, so that’ll wait until January too.