Not your average day

Last Friday I received a call (finally) from Al's new genetics doctor. She's the chief of Genetics at Georgetown Hospital and she called me, personally. FYI- She scored so many points in my book just for calling. She had received Al's records and wanted to see us Monday (today). This worried me quite a bit. Made me think she saw something in Al's records that other doctors had missed. Of course I was anxious about going. Plus I had to drive to DC and maneuver two kids through a huge hospital and entertain both of them while restraining Bug. (He's way too smart to be loose. He'd have their whole computer systems rewired before they knew what hit them.)

Just a few obstacles we encountered:

Plan A: Put Al in the baby Bjorn and single stroller Bug so he'd be strapped in. BUT the single stroller had been man handled too many times by the hubby that it wouldn't even open. Upon closer inspection...the whole frame work was bent. I struggled so much with that damn stroller with Al in the Bjorn that a strange man approached apprehensively and offered to help. Muggers are usually my main concern in parking garages but today I willed them to try me. Just try me.

The parking garage at GH leaves so much to be desired. There are plenty of elevators but none of them are accessible from three of the four parking aisles. We found a hole in the aluminum fence (construction I guess) and I lifted the double stroller over cars just to get through. It was a small feat.

The doors, all three of them leading to the hospital from the garage, are not handicap accessible. Anybody ever seen a mom trying to push a double stroller through a door?? Please help her. Luckily one very sweet woman helped me all the way to our floor. Bless her.

Once we were in our room awaiting the doctor, Bug decided to talk about 'ginas' and 'weins'. He swears he has a 'gina'. I keep telling him it's a 'wein'. I was so happy a poster encouraging reading lead his thoughts elsewhere.

Back to our new genetics doctor. She's absolutely wonderful. Very thorough and proactive. Al is finally in good hands. She's going to need physical therapy. She's been trying to crawl for months but never took off. She has very weak muscles in certain areas, could be a genetic thing. Definitely something her pediatrician should have picked up on a few months ago but didn't. She's going to have another eye exam and an x-ray of her pelvic region to check for any abnormalities. The genetics doctor will follow her progress until we know for sure she does not have NF. I'm happy. Finally we're searching for answers.

The new doctor also wants to see Bug and evaluate his speech problem. Hey hey, maybe we'll know for sure if he's apraxic or just needs speech therapy. I hope he just needs speech therapy. Apraxia can pose problems for kids for a long time.

The funniest thing about all of this...the hubs and I had a slight spat about doctors this evening. When we were searching for doctors several months ago, I wanted to find them one at Johns Hopkins or Georgetown. He said this, "Why would you do that? Why take them to a teaching hospital?" Um, probably because it's a really really good hospital. Ass. Now, just look where we are. Did I mention Al's new doctor is the Chief of Genetics. Yahtzee!