We're Supporting the Entire Medical Industry!

Let's see, in a week, we will have had four doctors visits, ten new prescriptions and four specialist referrals. And that doesn't include all the over-the-counter crap that we've bought over the past couple days for Ben and myself or whatever comes of my doctor's appointment tomorrow. Plus, we've still got the results of all of those specialist referrals. Guh! A new year. A new opportunity to accumulate medical expenses to meet our deduction minimum. (I think it took until all of February in 2010) I suppose I should explain.

Conan had his 6 month appointment last week, and boy, was it fun. It really wasn't too bad, just much more came of it than expected. Since birth, Conan has had really bad eczema. I've tried just about everything over-the-counter that exists but with no success. This time, we not only got a prescription cream, but we also got a prescription vitamin drop and a referral for a dermatologist. Oh, but it doesn't stop there. You see, eczema, allergies, and hay-fever share the same gene, so we also got referred to an allergist. This is super uncommon for infants because as a rule, they haven't been exposed to enough to test accurately. However, when you have a history like my dear little family and the symptoms like my dear little (big giant) Coney, you do what you can to nip any potential problems in the bud. The truth is, we all know that any offspring that Ben and I produce are going to be plagued by respiratory problems untold. May as well try to figure their triggers out right off. Miles also got a referral for the allergist. Although he did get tested during our last stay at PCMC, he was not tested for foods. Conan is also being sent to the eye doctor. He shows a little bit of an astigmatism, but not a big deal at all. Miles went at this age too.

It's interesting that we have been so busy in the medical sense because this has been the longest that we have gone, since Miles' first birthday, without him being in the hospital. We've done surprisingly well considering the cold weather and bad air. The one problem that we've been battling lately is night coughing, and we have been battling that since our last hospital visit almost four months ago. Every night, without fail, Miles starts coughing uncontrollably a couple of hours after he goes to sleep, and it continues through the night. This is pretty typical for asthma and allergy sufferers, but the allergy and asthma medications haven't been controlling it. Until now, Miles has been on Flovent as a maintenance inhaler, singulair as a maintenance allergy medication, and xopanex as a rescue inhaler. Because it's persisted so long, we visited the pulmonologist last week. Miles' regular pulmonologist moved to Texas, so we had a new doctor. It ended up being great because it happened to be the same doctor that treated Miles at his last hospital visit. He knew what was going on, what we'd tried and already knew what to try next. For now, we're adding an additional inhaler at bedtime as well as two oral steroids and an additional rescue inhaler. We'll watch this for a while, and if it doesn't produce the results we're looking for, the next step would be a sleep study and maybe removing his adenoids. I was a little concerned because night coughing can be an indication of heart failure, but luckily, the pulmonologist does not think it's heart related. Still, I made our next cardiology appointment. It's not until March though.

Tomorrow, I have a doctor's appointment for myself. I've decided that it's a new year. I've got good insurance. I'm going to take care of all of those things that I've thought in the back of my mind, "I should look into that". Tomorrow's appointment is partially just a general checkup, so I can get refills on all of my asthma medication. Doctor's have gotten really lame and think that i should come in every time I need a new inhaler. Really? I don't see how coming in every month is going to change anything. I'm also going in to have my hormone levels checked. A quick explanation. I have a small, no big deal, non-cancerous, pituitary tumor that can mess up my hormone levels a little bit. That's why I've had to be on medication to get pregnant. I'm supposed to get annual MRI s, but I haven't had one since before I was pregnant with Miles. It's probably time that I checked on it all. Plus, I have been losing hair at an alarming rate, and after some research, I'm pretty confident that it's the result of my issues. I need to get that corrected because at the rate it's going, I'm going to be bald soon. Plus, I am done cleaning hair off of everything. I'm sure that that was too much information for everyone.

On a serious note, my heart is breaking right now for my friend, Heidi. For obvious reasons, I developed a special soft spot in my heart for "heart babies". My friend's little boy has undergone a couple of surgeries in the past week or so, and they haven't been as successful as hoped for. He'll require additional surgeries and most likely a heart transplant. Please, everyone say a prayer for baby Logan.