Lots of Doctor Appointments

Last week was the big kids’ 4 year check-up appointment, and this week was Henry’s follow-up with the neurosurgeon and Penelope’s appointment with the allergy doctor. 

We had Henry’s appointment yesterday afternoon.  Long story short, Henry has been released.  The holes in his skull appear to be doing fine, and since the last appointment we’ve had with the neurosurgeon, we’ve learned that both my dad (Papa) and I have holes in our heads.  I have one and Dad has two.  That made the neurosurgeon feel much better that what we have going on is a genetic thing instead of a more serious problem.  Henry had some x-rays, we talked to the doctor, and we were done. 

Because Henry’s appointment was downtown in the afternoon, I knew we wouldn’t have much time to get him home and get back to work.  So, I decided to just bring Henry with me to the office to reduce driving time.  We grabbed an ice cream treat then headed to my office.

At some point, Henry started really looking around at all the pictures on my office wall.  He told me, “You have too much kids in your room.”  I’ve always wondered at what point I’m going to cross that line into having too many photos of my kids in my office, and I’ve decided to cross that line proudly.  Henry is apparently not as proud.

My friend Amanda happened to have some dinosaurs in her office, and brought them by for Henry.  They were a huge hit.

Henry then spent a little time flipping through the Alabama Code.  It was pretty funny, actually.  He very seriously studied a few different volumes for quite a while. 

I was surprised that I actually got some work done while Henry was there.  He really kept himself entertained.  I think he had a good time – I know he was ready for bed last night!

Penelope’s appointment with the allergist was this morning.  She was skin tested for a nut panel, an environmental panel, and a shellfish mix.  The only things that she reacted to were peanuts and hazelnuts.  The next step was to draw blood to see how allergic she is, but despite four of us attempting to hold her down, we couldn’t get her still enough to draw enough blood out of either arm.  She was a maniac.  She was yelling all sorts of things, like “No!” and “Stop!” and “Go home!”  As soon as we let her up, she demanded, “Suckers!”  She got 3 suckers – and we got an order to go to Children’s Hospital for the bloodwork.  I have no idea what they’re going to do to get the blood drawn, but I guess we’ll find out when we go.

Other than that, Penelope handled it all quite well.  I got a kick out of the nurses asking her how old she was.  She’d hold up her hand and say, “Four!”  She seriously thinks she is as old as the big kids!!

We will discuss the results of the bloodwork about two weeks after it’s drawn and then will determine our strategy.  Hopefully she will outgrow the allergy, but we’ll just have to see.  Until then, no nuts and we’ll be keeping an epi-pen handy at all times. 

Here’s to hoping that we avoid doctor’s appointments for a while after all of these recent ones. . . .