Doctor's Appointments

The last two Monday's we have spent a majority of our day at Mayo Clinic in Rochester at doctor appointments for Hudson.  Overall Hudson is a healthy boy but we have definitely had our fair share of visits to the doctor, from his respiratory issues to ear infections.  Last June he had his first set of tubes put in for multiple ear infections and hearing loss.  Luckily, once those were in place and they finally stopped draining (after 6 weeks) we did not really have anymore issues with his ears.  While we found out about a month ago that his left tube has fallen out and there was fluid build up in that ear but it did not look infected.  Sure enough we went to have his hearing checked last week and his left ear was showing signs of decreased hearing once again.  Met with our ENT doctor after that who, after reviewing his history of cough, runny nose, etc, decided to take a peek down his nose at his adenoids.  They were enlarged which is probably contributing to fluid in his ear and his never-ending runny nose.  So we are scheduled for surgery once again on May 14th for our second set of tubes as well as removing his adenoids.  Hopefully this will be the last time as I hate having to watch him go through it and this time he will need to be intubated, which of course makes mama nervous :(

We followed up that appointment with a trip to his pediatrician for his 2 year check.  Since he was born they have continued to monitor his height and weight as he is on the smaller size.  Over the last two winters they have seen him lose some weight and not gain a whole lot in height, this winter being worse than last.  We think this is partially related to the fact that both winters he ends up with some sort of virus that affects his breathing, causing him to wheeze, and he ends up on another round of steriods, not really eating or drinking until he is healthy.  We weren't able to see our normal pediatrician due to scheduling but the pediatrician we did see thought it was time to make a referral to endocrinology to discuss his growth.  First we needed to get some Xray's to look at his bone age.  Baby boy has had a couple chest XRay's so as soon as we walked into the room he started screaming :(  Which always breaks my heart but we made it through the left wrist and knee XRay's okay.

So back to Mayo we went yesterday for an appointment with the pediatric endocrinologist.  Waiting so patiently to see the doctor. 

Looking at this growth, his bone age shows him to be between 15 & 18 months which is not overally concerning at this point.  And yes, baby boy is at the 3% for both height & weight but that did not bother the MD too much.  However, we started talking about his history a little bit more and some questions were raised.  Between the amount of illnesses he has had, GI issues, and some developmental delay, he recommended we check a TSH to see how his thryoid was functioning.  Then he mentioned doing a sweat chloride test to rule out Cystic Fibrosis, my heart stopped......  He does not think he has it but thought we should rule that out.  Of course, now I start thinking about Hudson, his symptoms, and symptoms of cystic fibrosis......

Respiratory signs & symptoms - persistent cough (yes), wheezing (yes), repeated lung infections (a few), repeated sinus infections (none that we know of). 

Digestive signs & symptoms - constipation (yes), poor weight gain & growth (possibly), foul-smelling/greasy stools (not really), intestinal blockage as a newborn (no).

Here is baby boy with his arm wraps on for his sweat chloride test.

So now we sit and wait.  Not sure when we will hear the results, hopefully sooner rather than later.  Until then we will try to focus on his upcoming 2nd birthday and getting his party planned.