Day 281- Pedi Appt, X-rays & Blowouts
Thursday, October 7th, 2021
James had a pediatric appointment today early in the morning. We scheduled it early to try and avoid the Florida heat in the afternoon. That was also our first time going to an appointment with our M, TH, F nurse. When we got to the appointment they asked her to leave and sit in the waiting room. The rule was that there can only be two people with the baby due to covid. So I guess in our previous appointments we lucked out because our nurse was able to come back with us. Overall the appointment was good. We were there simply because it was his 9-month checkup. They said that he was due for a hepatitis b shot even though he already got them all. The reason they said he was due is because his last shot was given "9 days early" and therefore didn't count. 🤔 They also wanted to give James the flu shot. They did his measurements and weighed him.
Weight: 7106 grams (15lb 10oz)
Height: 59.5cm (23.42 inches)
Head Circumference: 43cm
There were 2 things that we brought up during the appointment: Strabismus and the fact that his eyelids are really red. For the strabismus she referred us to an ophthalmologist to schedule an appointment with them. James has a version of exotropia, where is right eye goes out a little further. For the redness on the eyelids she said that was probably allergies.
We did good in this appointment in the fact that we immediately plugged in the ventilator and the suction machine to charge it while we were waiting in the doctor's office. We also turned off our oxygen tank and plugged into the wall oxygen to conserve what little we had left.
Towards the end of the appointment James started making a weird sound. Basically you could hear the ventilator pressure through his mouth and nose as if the cuff was completely deflated, but it definitely wasn't. He started to seem in distress. At this point the doctor recommended we get him x-ray downstairs in the same building. We recommended that we hold off on shots and vaccines until our next appointment.
We went down to the first floor, met up with our nurse, and explained to her what was going on. We waited FOREVER in the lobby, just to register, and then again waited a very long time to get called back. It is absolutely ridiculous but such a medically complex child to not be called back first. We tried to find a spot where there was an outlet (you know that feeling in an airport where everyone is hoarding the outlets). We knew his pulse ox was going to die soon, what's worse is that the ventilator battery does not last long even with the backup batteries attached and we were pretty low on oxygen. Dad asked the front desk when we would get called back and the woman responded saying, "you can't cut in line". Yeah super friendly.
Eventually we are called back to get the X-ray. We need to take James out of the car seat again, and take his onesie off again (we just did this upstairs in the pediatric office to get the height and weight). When Mom took him out of the car seat she noticed that James had a blowout. There was poop literally all the way up to his shoulder blades, all over him and his outfit. The technician was very nice and said, "It's not the first time and it won't be the last". We put him on the table, and had to turn him to the side for one x-ray, oh my goodness it was everywhere. The technician gave us a bag for his onesie. Afterwards we changed his diaper, wiped him down as best we could, put on a new onesie. We knew when we got home we were going to have to do a more detailed cleaning.
Results from the X-ray came in later in the afternoon. Everything looked good...well they look the same as the last x-ray in September right before we were discharged. James was so exhausted from the long morning. We had started packing up the car at 8:15am and got home at 1:00pm. He ended up taking a two hour nap.
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