MORE Appointments

Poor Anna. She had TWO appointments today. The first was a CT scan ordered by her neurosurgeon last month (before we knew that she was inflicted with baby hernias.) Conveniently, her urologist wanted to see her today as well for a post-surgery check-up.

Anna's neurosurgeon believes that her shunt is functioning as it should and wanted a CT scan taken of her head so that if we suspect a problem, he will have a baseline for comparison. The CT scan doesn't involve any pain but the baby needs to hold still. Sometimes they give babies "stuff" to knock them out. We didn't want to knock her out.

I do have to say that the staff who assisted with the CT scan were awesome. They had a portable DVD player and a Wiggles DVD. The situation didn't look good at first but amazingly enough, between crying fits, Anna magically kept her head still for the required scan on the FIRST try. I don't know how it happened but it did. I was so proud of her.

The nurse, Bob, told us that he didn't see anything glaringly wrong on the scan. He was in the "safe room" watching the scan while Rich and I soaked up the radiation. Hopefully, we DON'T hear anything from the neurosurgeon. They have the policy of "we'll only call you if something is wrong."

Moving along to urology...

So Anna's urologist is from South America. He speaks with an accent and pronounces Anna's name as "Ana." When he briefed us after her surgery, he discussed again how important it is for us to cath her throughout the day. We assured him that we have been doing so. We also discussed future precautionary procedures to ensure that her bladder and kidneys are safe and sound. At the end of the discussion, he told us that as "Ana" gets older she will become less of a burden to us. She will be able to cath herself and she will have fewer appointments.

I looked at him with tears in my eyes and voice and said, "She's no trouble to me. Really, no trouble at all." And I meant it.

I think he saw the stress on our faces and in our movements and was trying to offer us some hope. Some relief.

I can't imagine my life without that crazy baby. All the appointments and cathing don't bother me. It's the fact that it bothers Anna. Who wants to see their baby scared and in pain? She's no burden. She's my baby.