Upcoming Appointments

We have a tough couple of weeks ahead with lots of appointments, most of them being out of town. Part of me would like to fast forward three weeks and just be done with it all. The anticipation of it all makes me crazy - I was reading the packet of information the U of M sent to me about Kara's surgery and my heart started racing, the anxiety was terrible and I had to put it away. I'll review it before her preop, or right before the sleep study. I can't think about that stuff right now.

To help me keep what we have, and when, I'm going to blog about it. Hopefully this will help me get my thoughts down so I don't forget anything!

• Monday, 5/23: Kara's 2 Year Check: The regular Well Child Check. This will be the opportunity to discuss Kara's (lack of) height. I'm not sure if I've said much about it on here or not but in a matter of a few months, Kara managed to drop from the 25th percentile down to about 2%. The GI doctor didn't seem too concerned so that put my mind at ease but it was something her Allergist was pretty concerned about, even mentioning having her see an Endocrinologist after discussing it with her Primary. In my research and mostly from talking with other FPIES Moms who's little ones are right around Kara's age, it seems to be quite the trend. Roughly between 18 and 24 months it's like they just quit growing, or grow very, very slow. A few kiddos have upcoming appointments with Endocrinology so I'm just as anxious to hear what they find out. There are SO MANY strange connections with FPIES and it has my mind constantly rolling. Other than her height I dont' have any other concerns. In the last two weeks Kara started talking and now it's non-stop. She mimics nearly everything we say and has even picked up on "meanie" and "dumb", no thanks to her older sister! (Dumb, and now meanie are and have been on the "naughty words" list, by the way!) I think she's all caught up on milestones, thank goodness!
• Wednesday, 5/25: GI Follow Up. Out of the last six weeks, I dont' think we've been able to give Kara her newly prescribed Prevacid for more than four consecutive days and that was only had 1/2 of the dose. We were definitely seeing an improvement with her constant wet burps, and she hadn't done much of the random vomiting but it was all I could pinpoint to making her so constipated. That is a whole new road that we are NOT used to going down with her! I'd back off, not give it to her for a few days, she'd be much better and then the reflux would come back in full force after a few days of being off of it. It's been an icky cycle. Not sure what is going to come out of this appointment. I am glad that we have it on the books, however, because we are doing a green bean re-trial and it is coming with some very odd results. I plan on blogging about this whole ordeal at some other time, when it's not bedtime and I get some quiet time to concentrate! :)
• Tuesday, 5/31: Sleep Study. I don't even want to go there. I'm hoping all goes well and I'm just going to take it as it comes. Gillette Children's worked Kara into the schedule to get in at an earlier date but with that comes a later check in time. 8:30 PM to be exact. Now, Kara goes to bed by 8:00 nearly every night, and wants her crib for the most part. After reading the book they sent us on it I'm SO nervous of terrifying her for life! The nurse that I spoke with let me know they have different ways of doing it on toddlers and it is possible that we can get her to sleep and hook her all up at that point. It was explained that since we are from out of town they will make sure to accommodate both Brian and I. We will be in a separate room from Kara but close, and they will come get us if we are needed at all. It was explained that they don't want anyone in the room because of possible snoring (A yes for both of us, LOL!) and possibly getting up in the night. They don't want any noise to risk waking her up, especially from REM.
• Monday, 6/6: Pre Op with ENT, U of M: Dr. Rimmel, the Pediatric ENT that will be doing Kara's procedures, wants to meet with us before the surgery. At this point we will decide, based on the sleep study results, if it will be just tubes and adenoids or tonsils as well. We will discuss her surgery plan - giving her steroids before hand to help offset any possible reactions that might happen and keeping her inpatient for a day after because of her anesthesia reaction after her scope. Kara also tends to get dehydrated so easily so that's another thing we really have to watch with a tonsillectomy.
• Tuesday, 6/7: Pre Op with her Primary: The scheduler at the U told me we needed both these appointments, both with Dr. Rimmel and then with our primary but I'm not sure if this is right or not. It seems like they should be able to do it all at at her ENT PreOp appointment but maybe not. Regardless, its' just one more thing on my already too busy schedule! At least we dont' have to travel for this one!
• Monday, 6/13: Surgery Day. Ugh. I'm planning on taking a week off of work. The scariest thing is that we have NO CLUE what will happen. She could do perfectly fine, have no reaction what so ever. The scope deal could have been a totally fluke thing. I'm not good about not having control and this is one situation that is going to make me crazy. I may need drugs myself this day! Seriously. Remember me saying how I nearly had anxiety from simply READING about the procedure?

So, there we go. Looks like this summer is going to start out about as rough as last summer did. We are fighters though and will be ok, just please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.