Obtaining Mercy

Bright and early on Tuesday morning, we loaded up Isaac (in a borrowed vehicle – more on that later), and headed to O-town.  We had many doctor's appointments lined up for the day!

Last month, I managed somehow to schedule 3 doctor's visits on a single day!  Now you may think that it was a mistake or an oversight on my part; but not at all. 

It was a major coup!!!

Two of the doctor's offices are in the same building, and the third was just about 4 blocks away.

The receptionist that I talked to on the day I managed this incredible feat suggested that my next task be to buy a lottery ticket!  (If I did such things…)  That's how incredible it was to schedule all 3 appointments for the same day.

We saw our pulmonologist first.  He was quite pleased with Isaac, mentioned how much he had grown, asked how he had been during the last year, and how we used his treatments when he was sick.  Evidently he had no complaints, and we were soon on our way out the door, while our medication refills were being sent by email to our pharmacy.  Toooooo cool, huh?

We headed up to the third floor to give Isaac his breakfast while we waited for our next appointemnt.  We met with the surgeon who performed Ike's last surgery.  Dr. Rich was super-pleased with Isaac's insicion site, and said it was healing perfectly.  Yay!

While we were there, we obtained the name of one of the doctors we encountered during his last surgery.  This is the doctor about whom we will be making a formal complaint to Arnold Palmer Hospital.  When the situation is resolved, I may share that story here. 

After that visit, we took our time heading back down to our vehicle, since we had some time to kill before the next appointment with Isaac's orthopedic surgeon.

This visit was the one we were dreading.  Isaac's left hip is basically out of socket.  By that, I do not mean that Isaac has this beautifully shaped hip socket and the ball of the femur has been knocked out of place. 

Instead Isaac has a very shallow, almost non-existent hip socket (due to the fact that he has never done much standing), and the head of the femur has had increased friction because of this.

So, after looking at new x-rays, we could see that the head of the femur is beginning to be misshapened, and the surgeon says that usually this means that the cartiledge is worn thin too.  (Think: arthritis)

The bottom line is pain management.  We are to try to figure out how much pain Isaac is having in the next few months.  After that, we will meet with the surgeon again to decide which surgical procedure we want to have done.

I did some research on our options today, but I'll tell you – I can only read about incisions, cutting bone, inserting pieces of metal and body casts in regard to my child, for so long.  Then I have to stop.  It becomes overwhelming.

After that third visit, we went to Jason's Deli for lunch.  I had a yummy (totally forbidden on our eating plan) roast beef sub.  The sub rolls at Jason's deli are "to die for" – flakey crispy on the outside, nice and soft on the inside.  That was the best part of my meal.  Doug had one of their mammoth baked potatoes.  I really should have snapped a picture of that – it was easily 6-7 inches long and 4-5 inches across – before they cut it open and filled it with cheddar and broccoli!

OH – and as to our using a borrowed vehicle for our busy day out – our truck died earlier this week.  Grammy and Papa were kind enough to allow us to use their Expedition – which was a pretty smooth ride!!!  (We did get our truck to the mechanic yesterday, and we need a new radiator.  Doug jokingly says we aren't buying a new vehicle.  We're just replacing our truck one piece at a time!)

Well, here's some pics – Enjoy!

A sunshine-y morning, complete with hot air balloons on the horizon

Isaac enjoying the ride.

Utterly captived by the traffic…he doesn't get such a grand view in our truck.

Check out that beautiful summer sky!

Finally – a little grin for the camera!

His feet actually touched the floor!

Happy, happy little man!

We reached home late in the afternoon, and crashed into our respective chairs for the rest of the evening! 😉

I told Doug that hopefully (prayerfully) we won't need to schedule that many visits again in one day.  Isaac manages the trip just fine, but Doug and I are exhausted by the time the day is over. 

(If Doug were writing this, he would break out in song ju-u-u-u-ust about here:  "The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be….ain't what she used to be…ain't what she used to be…")

(You know you've been together quite a long time when you can anticipate the jokes!!!  Next Friday will mark 23 years of married life for us!  We hope to have the day off alone together, leaving Isaac with his caregiver.  I am really looking forward to it!)

Until next post,

Alesha