Re-thinking the Plan..

Today were Ali and Jack's well child checks with the pediatrician. I think this has become our year for acquiring as much money as possible in medical bills so we can write off a small fortune next year in taxes...we're making some serious head-way.

The tragedy in this, is that if my medical bills keep growing, we are going to have to make some serious changes to the number of children we will be having. We might go broke having kid number five if we keep experiencing totally RANDOM illnesses.

The update:

Ali has excellent eye sight and hearing (ya!). She is still on the small side, only weighing 31 lbs and in the 15% for height, 8% for weight. This is not unusual. Despite her rather large 8lbs at birth, she has consistently come in at the bottom of the scale for height and weight, sometimes not even making the charts. In a word, she's 'tiny'. I can live with that because she's a girl and that is TOTALLY ACCEPTABLE!

So, when it's time to pee in the cup, I think things are going really well and I might actually catch a break...wrong. The Dr comes in and says Ali's got blood in her urine. What?! We have no medical history of such a thing, and there were no white blood cells in the urine indicating an infection. So, we ended up getting blood drawn so they can run a series of tests on her kidneys, as well as ruling out the possibility of infection. The best guess is that her kidneys are either producing too much or too little of some protein, or in some other manner malfunctioning. Ali has to do another pee test in the morning and we'll have to bring that to the lab to get analyzed and then we should hear back by Monday or Tuesday on the blood work. And so the wait begins...

But, it doesn't end there folks...nope, we're a full service operation! Jack had his wcc and when the Dr said he needed a few vaccinations, I mentioned to the Dr that he'd been in to see the ENT for his breathing difficulties and the swollen tonsils. I said he was on antibiotics to reduce the swelling and explained the symptoms he'd been having (waking up from sleep for lack of air, not eating certain foods, etc). She said the antibiotics wouldn't effect the vaccines, but the swelling could be the reason he's had a dramatic drop in growth. Excuse me, did you say dramatic drop in growth?

Oh yes. Jack, unlike his sister, has always stayed right in the middle on his growth chart. 50% or higher was Jacko's norm for weight and he was always right around the 50% mark for his height. When they measured him today, he was at 27lbs, which is the 50% mark, but his height is only in the 8%. Again, WHAT?! Talk about taking a nice long break from growing. During the years children show the most growth, my little one has grown less than two inches, in a WHOLE YEAR. I'd guarantee he's probably put on more inches around his waist than he has in height.

Anyhow, the Dr said that lack of oxygen while sleeping can stunt growth. This is not news parents (who are average in height to begin with) want to hear. The fact that the antibiotics don't seem to be visibly reducing the swelling, coupled with this new knowledge that my son's growth has possibly been impaired by the lack of oxygen he is receiving during his sleep because of the swelling, has me determined to have his tonsils and adenoids removed if at all possible. We've got another ENT appointment in a few weeks to check on them and I will be sure to inform the ENT of the Dr's assessment and that she agrees surgery is most likely his best option.

All in all, not the best day on record, but on a more positive note, the Dr did say Jack has a rather extensive vocabulary for a two year old and she was very impressed with his speech. So, I may be the mother of the short, fat kid in school, but he's a SMART, short, fat kid...take that!

(And, in all truth, he is a truly adorable smart, short, fat kid...you just can't help but love him!)