Thursday, March 11, 2010

Shock and embarrassment

This morning Tyrique and Markus had a Doctors appointment to get their school physicals. We got there right before 9:45 (their appointment) and I filled out all the new patient paper work. It took me only a few minutes and then the wait began!!! We were seen at about 11 am...yep, you read that right...11 am!!!

The waiting room was not very nice and the waiting room had no toys or books for children, this was a Pediatricians office mind you. My first impressions were NOT good! If I would not have had to have the school physicals, I would have walked out after waiting about 30 minutes. Well, we get in the back and the boys have their vitals checked and then we are taken into an examining room. We prepared for a loooooong wait in there....you know how the Doctors offices usually do it, make you wait forever in the waiting room and then make you wait even longer in the exam room. Not this time, we got into the exam room and start chit chatting and out of no where there is a knock on the door!!!

The Physicians Assistant walks into the room and starts to ask questions and then about 5 minutes into the conversation the Doctor himself walks in. We started with Tyrique, the Doctor checks him out and then he tells us that Tyrique is extremely flat footed. I took him to see a Podiatrist when he was little and was told he was flat footed and I was told to buy Nike or New Balance shoes for him because they have a really good arch support. No Doctor has ever mentioned anything else after that. This Doctor told me that Tyrique is going to have to get some support for his feet because this is causing him pain (which it is, we just didn't know it was from flat feet).

We then asked the Doctor about Tyrique's knees...you see Tyrique is really knock kneed and it hurts him to run and playing sports is excruciating for the poor thing. The Doctor looked at Tyrique's knees and said that there is some sort of bone or something that has grown in the front of his knee, under his knee cap and it needs to be surgically fixed. The Doctor then decided to measure Tyrique's legs and that is when we found out that Tyrique's left leg is 2-4 cm longer than his right leg, this can cause him a lot of pain. The Doctor ordered X-rays for Ty's knees and wants him to see a Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon.

Then...oh yes, there is a then. The Doctor looked at Tyrique's skin, Ty has really bad eczema that he has had since he was a baby and the Doctor said that he thinks Tyrique might need some sort of antibiotic cream and oral antibiotics because he thinks there is some sort of infection in the skin. Due to that the Doctor is sending Ty to see a Dermatologist.

Talk about craziness!!! I was in shock, I have taken my son to the Doctors a million times in his life and this Doctor is the only one to say any of these things!!!

On to the next son....

Now it was Markus's turn to be seen. The Doc started out by checking Markus's feet and he said that Markus has flat feet too but they are not as bad as Ty's. He then checks Markus's skin and sees that his skin is perfect. He tells Markus to let him listen to his heart and that is where it all went down hill for Markus.

The Doctor turned around and asked me if I had ever been told that Markus has a heart murmur. I told him that yes, I was told that when Markus was a baby but was told he would outgrow it and I also told him that no Doctor had ever mentioned it since Markus was 1.5-2 years old. He let the Physicians Assistant and Markus listen to the Murmur and then asked me if I wanted to hear it. I told him sure but I didn't know what to listen for. He then told me that normal people's heartbeats go dum dum...dum dum....dum dum but Markus's heartbeat only goes dum dum dum dum. There is no second beat in there!!! I listened and of course I heard it.
By now I was kinda freaked out!!! I explained to the Doctor that Markus was seen in January and no one mentioned a murmur then...No one had ever mentioned one since he was a little baby. Like Tyrique, Markus has been to the Doctors a million times since he was born. He has had surgery numerous times, why didn't anyone ever catch this??? Why don't I know about this???

We were talking to the Doctor then about some medical history for Markus and Markus mentioned to the Doc that he has really bad headaches (we have seen a Doctor for these and I was told to give him Tylenol or Motrin for the pain. I was also told some kids just get migraines). The Doctor told us that he doesn't dismiss headaches for children's migraines that easily. He said he wanted a full CT scan of Markus's brain and sinus's to make sure there was nothing there causing the pain.

We walked out of that appointment with these appointments

Tyrique
X-Ray of both knees (did today)
Consult for Dermatologist (will get a call for)
Consult for Pediatric Surgeon (will get a call for)

Markus
CT Scan of brain and sinus's (Tuesday morning)
EKG (Tuesday morning)
Echo cardiogram (Tuesday morning)
Consult with Pediatric Cardiologist (will get a call for)


Is this crazy or what??? I walked out of there scared out of my mind!! I think I need to make an appointment for Kobe to be seen too. I am so glad I did not walk out of that appointment because I was made wait for so long. I am so glad I didn't judge that Doctor based on his waiting room and walk out!!

I am so nervous about all of this. I feel so bad for my poor children, why did we not know about all of this in advance?? Why didn't any other Doctor see this?? Now the wait begins, we should find out the results for Tyrique's X-ray's at the beginning of next week. We are waiting for the Doctor to call to tell me about the Dermatologist (he is his friend and he is supposedly really good. Also he doesn't accept my insurance but the boy's Doc is going to see if he will this one time because of how bad Ty's skin is).

Markus's results will take a little more time because he wont be seen until Tuesday. I sure hope my poor baby is okay! That is so scary! I know of too many cases where heart murmurs were fatal or required major surgery! I do also know of plenty of cases where the heart murmur went away on it's own. I am going to be optimistic with all of this and just try to think positive. I am just really scared :o(


Wanna know the embarrassing part of the day?

I thought so :o)

So, I took Tyrique to get his X-ray and the lady that was signing us in and getting all the insurance information was really friendly and was chit chatting with Tyrique and I. Tyrique was telling her we lived in Iceland, that he had 3 brothers, that we just moved from VA Beach, that the hospital we were in for the X-ray was the biggest one he had ever been in, etc. Then we start talking about pets, Tyrique told the lady about Maya and how we only have girl pets because I don't have a daughter. Then he says, well we did have a hamster named peanut, he was a boy but, Mom killed him!!!

You see, I really did kill their Hamster. It was such an accident and I cried my eyes out over it and the boys didn't. The lady about died from laughing and my face was beet red and I wanted to crawl under the table and die. I had to explain the story to her while I laughed.

You see Peanut was always in the boys's room and one day we had family staying over and Peanut was making a lot of noise on his running wheel. I was asked to please take the rat (their words, not mine) out of the room so I did. I took him downstairs to the laundry room for the night. We didn't have the heat on in the house because it was the beginning of November and it hadn't gotten very cold yet. That night it did!!!

Poor Peanut froze to death in the laundry room while we all slept upstairs under our warm covers :o( I discovered him dead in his cage and bawled like a baby and when I told the boys they were like...oh, well that just means we don't have to clean his cage anymore!!! Wow, talk about cold hearted huh?

So that was my day! How did yours go???

11 comments:

TheFitHousewife said...

Wow, what a crazy day!! Sounds like fate that you ended up (and stayed) at that doctor's office! I hope everything goes well.

Stacey said...

Poor peanut.:( I'm sure everything will be fine with the boys. I will say a prayer for them.

Mass Hole Mommy said...

I'm sure everything will work out with the boys. I guess it's better to be safe than sorry, right? The poor boys (and you)! Thank god you switched to this new doctor. He sounds very thorough and that is what you want when dealing with your kids!!!

Jamie said...

Wow, you crammed a year into one day didn't you? It sounds like your doctor just wants to get a good handle on what is going on with the boys. I would look at that as a good thing.

Let us know how it goes.

Erin said...

Oh that just sucks! I'm sorry you had to find out all of that in one day. I hope that it all works out okay and that you have a good doctor looking after them now. Sometimes it's better to overtest and worry at the beginning to find out that nothing is really wrong and you will laugh about it later. Hang in there. I'd come give you a hug if I lived closer cause after an appointment like that you probably need one.

Laura said...

Oh my gosh hun, what a crazy stressful day!! So glad you stayed to see that doctor...I hope everything turns out okay. Thinking of you! {hugs}

Murdock's mama said...

Holy Craziness! I'll be thinking of your family...hang in there and keep us posted! Thanks for sharing!

Dimes2Vines said...

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Holy Heck that was quite the doctor's appointment. WOW! and poor peanut!

Pennie said...

I am SO GLAD you found a good doctor...what a blessing - I know it's stressful, but be grateful Helga...this doctor caught things that had been overlooked for a long time.

I'll pray for your boys, though. You should probably get an exam, too - perhaps the military doctors weren't up to par?

Krajcimama said...

That's a lot to deal with - I'll be thinking about you. I'm sure everything will be fine but I know it's scary and stressful. Hang in there - when it's all over you will feel better knowing that they are fine and you checked everything out that you could!

My husband had gerbils as a kid and his mom thought they would like a little sun one day - and forgot to move them . . . it gets pretty hot in those plastic cages . . . so he feels your pain. :)