Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Trip to the Pulmonologist

Evan's scheduled appointment to see Dr. Brown at the Children's Multi-Specialty Center in Tucson was bumped up a week to today. The doc wants to see Evan a little more regularly (every 3-4 months) to check on his development. He says his lungs sound great (aside from the bit of upper respiratory funk he had today). He is concerned (as we all are) about Evan's slow weight gain. I asked him if Evan was a unique case and he reassured me that it's nothing he hasn't seen before (whew). I think we've all come to realization this kid is going to grow on his terms, not according to any charts! As Evan gets bigger, his lungs will continue to strengthen.

Dr. Brown also wants us to take Evan to see a pediatric gastroenterologist. Luckily, there is one in Sierra Vista, Dr. Hassan! Woo-hoo, one less trip to Tucson. His appointment isn't until late next month. Dr. Brown was concerned about Evan's daily (if not multi-daily) vomiting. Not sure if I mentioned this before, but Evan loves to stick his hand in his mouth to make himself throw up. By seeing Dr. Hassan, hopefully we can determine if there is a GERD issue.

One other test Dr. Brown wants to run is a sweat test. This is to rule out Cystic Fibrosis. He is almost positive that Evan will be negative for this based off of other questions he had asked us, but he's wanting to rule it out. We'll get that done at University Medical Center in Tucson after the new year.

With all these trips to the doctor's offices for shots and check-ups, Evan has now come to fear the white labcoat! We knew this day would come! He screamed almost throughout the entire check-up with Dr. Brown. The nurse barely got a decent pulse oximeter reading on him (the more the crying, the lower oxygen saturation levels). We managed to get his reading to 98% for a fleeting second and that was good enough.

Dr. Brown is now seeing patients down in Sierra Vista.....another woo-hoo! So we'll see him again in March or April.

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