Tuesday, December 2, 2008

The Pedi GI Doctor... 12/2/08

Hi everyone!

While the kids are laying in bed I thought I would take this time to update you all on the appointment today instead of adding it to tomorrow's chemo update and making it, yet another, loooong blog! :)

I have to start out by saying I LOVE LOVE LOVE our new pediatrician. He is wonderful! Since I love him so much I absolutely trusted the first doctor that he referred us to for Mike's GI consult. And I am soooo glad I did. She was great! First, any doctor that comes in early so that one patient who is on chemo doesn't have to sit in a waiting room full of sick children gets a BIG plus in the pro column. Second, any doctor who spends 1 Hour 15 minutes with a patient gets another BIG plus in the pro column! She was great! She was so thorough and so patient with Mike. (He can be a real challenge for the medical professionals that have to check him out.)

So, here's the upshot of the visit. First, his eating habits suck. They always have and now that he is on chemo I am trying my hardest to get him to eat more. She said that as long as he is eating let him eat what he will. It would be great to have more of a balanced diet going on but I have to take what I can get right now. She gave us a supplement to try adding to his rice milk. I just tried it tonight and he didn't like it too much so I'm hoping the more I expose him to it the more likely he will be to try it. Next, we can't do any allergy testing on Mike right now b/c the chemo will have altered the blood work and any reactions he would have to any substance. So allergy testing is postponned for at least 14 months. The 3rd thing is that she wanted blood work done. Now, most of you don't know Mike and the medical profession. I was being kind before when I said he is a challenge. As his mom it is heart breaking to watch him and have to be the one to hold him and try to keep him calm and still. He HATES doctors and nurses and pretty much the medical profession as a whole. He screams, yells, kicks, cries, flails around, waves his arms and tosses and turns as much as he can to get them to not touch him. Sooo... with that being said, she wasn't too thrilled with the idea of drawing blood herself or one of her nurses drawing blood. I called Sloan because our appt is tomorrow anyway and they said that they would add her labs to his orders and draw the blood from him when they access the port tomorrow. That saved Mike (and me... and the medical staff in her office!) a HUGE amount of heartache and stress today! Tomorrow it won't add any more time or pain or aggravation to his appt, just add a few more vials of blood taken from the port when they access him. Lastly, she wants me to talk to the neuro-oncology team about vitamins. Now, I had been giving him multi-vitamins when we were in Florida because his diet was so bad but when I got to Sloan they said don't give him anymore. The GI dr. asked why and I was truthful when I told her that I just don't know. Everything had happened so fast I just kind of took what they said about the multi-vitamin and didn't question it(probably the only thing I didn't question!! lol). So, that goes on my list of questions for tomorrow!!

All in all, it was a good visit. She was very informative and seems very on the ball about things. She was great with Mike and listened to everything I had to say. We go back to see her on 1/6 but she wants me to call her next week to let her know how the supplements are going.

Hopefully we will have answers to the multi-vitamin question and blood results tomorrow so I will update on those in the Chemo Week 6 blog.

Hope you are all well. Please keep those good thoughts and prayers coming!!

Love to you all,
Chrissie

2 comments:

LocalvoreFarmGirl said...

No idea how I found your blog, but wanted to let you know that you are now apart of my morning routine of checking my few blogs I follow.
I have been keeping you in my prayers and little Mike.
I pray the chemo continues to heal your little man and you can draw closer to the Lord during this time and find Hope in Him.
Just wanted to let you know, there are even strangers out there praying for your family.

Gracie said...

Hi Chrissy,

As far as nutritional suppliments a suggestion, one of the things I give Tori is called Delicious Kids Greens 8000 because she refuses to eat a vegetable.

http://www.nokomisnutrition.com/p-1205-delicious-kids-greens-8000.aspx

She loves it because it's sweet but it's packed with good stuff.

I'm a great believer in nutritional suppliments because they have worked for me.

Love your blog by the way.

God bless and you all are in our prayers,

Grace and Tori