Anna's Neurosurgeon Appointment

We were finally able to have Anna see her neurosurgeon for an annual check-up. This is the appointment that was rescheduled twice. By his office. We arrived in the waiting room 15 minutes early and found only one other patient waiting. I was thinking that it was too good to be true. It was.

We quickly discovered that the doctor wasn't even there. He wasn't in the office or the building or the hospital or even the city. We were told that it had been a late night in the OR and he hoped to be in soon. I whispered to Rich that I would hope that by "late night" they meant that he didn't get home until 4 am.

Okay, so I completely understand emergencies. I completely understand that a doctor needs to sleep in order to function but why didn't his office just call us earlier in the morning and tell us this. We had to wait for more than an hour and a half for Anna to see him. AND the other patient who was waiting said that his appointment was at the same time as Anna's. Double-booking an infant!

There was good news though so I can't complain too much. I knew that Anna had extra tubing rolled up into her abdominal cavity that will unravel as she grows. What I didn't know was that there is supposed to be enough in there to accommodate her height as an adult. AND as long as the shunt is functioning properly, there are no anticipated surgeries. She does have a baby size valve but the doctor said that as long as it is working fine, they will not need to touch it.

He checked out the end of her spine as I was concerned with some dimples, which may indicate tethering. We were told that it looks fine. Yippee. He observed her walking (which was only a few steps because she was a little wary of him at that point). It looks like her calves might not be that strong but she should be a "normal" walker. Yippee.

He does want to have a CAT scan of her head now without problems so if they ever suspect that the shunt is malfunctioning, they will have a normal scan for comparison. We've already been warned that in order to keep from sedating her, we will have to keep her from moving for 30 seconds. I will take 30 seconds of flipping out and screaming over sedation.

Did I ever tell you what happened when Anna was "put under" for an MRI last year? The nurse gave her some medication by squirting it in her mouth. I guess this is what they give infants to put them asleep for a short period of time. We were told that the medication was oily and what goes in oily, comes out oily. Do you get where I'm going with this? Rich and I were trying to change Anna's diaper after the fact and let's just say that I needed to jump out of the way of flying oil. Rich wasn't too happy as I left him in the line of fire and he needed to go to work after. I always chuckle when I think of that.