save your ammunition for somebody else, I'm all second chances

So PaciBaby has mild torticollis, a shortening of the muscle on one side of her neck. It's resulted in her constantly tilting her head to one side and looking in one direction, and has affected her ability to lift her head when on her stomach and look around. She was diagnosed at her two month well baby visit when the doctor noticed that she could not lift her head when on her stomach (she was previously able to do this) and that she has a flat spot on the right side of the back of her head. That's the side she always turns it to. It's usually a result of her in-utero positioning, and the amount of room she had in there.

She has physical therapy weekly, and thus far she is making wonderful progress. She is turning her head from side to side with nearly full range beautifully. She doesn't like the home exercises, however. The goal for next week is to get her to touch her tummy and to bring her hands together, intentionally. She doesn't look down at her body, and is usually looking upwards towards the ceiling, or at eye-level. If she doesn't learn to look down, it becomes more difficult to teach her that she has a body, with fingers, toes, and a tummy, and this can slow other developments a bit. We've been working on these goals.

I bought her a swaddler this week, a blanket that keeps her swaddled instead of just wrapping her in a receiving blanket that she can kick out of, and she has been sleeping better in it most of the time. I can't believe we deprived OURSELVES out of the wonders of this invention for twelve weeks. I could kick myself.

She is coming up on her three-month birthday on the 30th, and I'm stunned. I swear I just gave birth yesterday. I'm trying to look back and see where all this time went! She has changed so much, learned an incredible amount, and is becoming more beautiful every day. Her smiles and giggles make me laugh even at 3 am when I am irritated to death and beg for sleep. She is learning to hold her head up when sitting up, supported. She is tracking things with her eyes, side to side. She is laughing when she finds things funny, and finds the camera intriguing.

I'm still not sure what I believe about her head and anything that may be going on there, but I am going to let it go until her four month well-baby checkup, unless anything drastic happens.

I am looking forward to everything the future brings the three of us, and we are enjoying every minute with this little munchkin! Now if only she would sleep...

yet another waste of a doctor's visit

After raising heck with the staff yesterday and demanding answers (and repayment of that ER visit), the ped's office called me this morning to tell me that she did actually have fluid on her brain, but that it was in the "range of normal". Then I was transferred from a nurse to somebody in charge (I need to write down these people's names and positions!) and she tried to explain the situation to me. She then said that it would be different if she was screaming like she was in pain, and I told her that that was exactly what she was doing. She is inconsolable most days. She asked if:

- she cried through her feedings (check)
- she cried like she was in pain (check)
- normal ways to relieve colic don't work (check)
- she bats her eyes from side to side (check)

...and several others I can't remember. After answering yes to all of them but one, she said to bring her in tonight to be checked out by another doctor.

So we did, and all he said was that he believed it is STOMACH problems, and prescribed an antibiotic to get her bowels moving and relieve any pain in her abdomen.

.............

I am speechless. Chad says no more doctors, and swears she's fine. The doctors tell me she's fine during the visits, but during the phone calls, they are concerned. I am seeing red at this point. My daughter is not "fine", children who are fine do not scream at the top of their lungs like they are being stabbed with pokers and refuse to eat or sleep.

I don't know what to think.

A scare I never want to have again

For the last week or more, PaciBaby's colic has been increasing in severity, to the point where in the last couple of days, she spent the majority of the day screaming, from dawn to dusk. Her feeding had decreased from 4 oz every couple of hours, to maybe 1.5 oz when we were lucky. I took her in to see her pediatrician yesterday morning, and she saw a nurse practitioner named Melanie. (I will never see an NP again, ever. Doctors only).

She examined PaciBaby and could not find anything obviously wrong, but for one thing. Her head size is increasing, quickly. She increased 1.25 cms since last Monday, 11 days prior, and went from the 50th percentile in head size to the 75th, while her body and weight are still in the 10th.

Alarming, at least to a parent. Melanie ordered a head ultrasound, and within a couple of hours, we were heading to the children's hospital in Norfolk. She screamed the entire time in the waiting room, while I received plenty of dirty looks from unsympathetic parents. I took her to the bathroom to calm down with a bottle while we waited.

The results came in a couple of hours later. A nurse called from the pediatrician's office, and told me that PaciBaby had some fluid on her brain. I immediately start crying, and she tells me that if she continues to scream in the way that she was (in the background) and refuse to eat, that I should take her in to the CHKD emergency room. So, I called Chad and my MIL and he left work to come meet me to get her there.

Luckily, we were seen quickly. Four hours and 100 wasted bucks later, we were told that her results AND THE RADIOLOGIST'S REPORT all came back normal, and left with a diagnosis of....colic.

I AM LIVID. Her pediatrician's office WILL be reimbursing us that money, I don't care how many people I have to raise heck with to get it. I called them this morning and reported what happened to the nursing staff, and was told by Melanie through another nurse that her results were totally normal. They had no idea where this first nurse got her information (!!!) I will be back Monday speaking with her main doctor and the office manager, filing a complaint. This is not the end.

I am, of course, SO THANKFUL that PaciBaby appears to be fine, but to go through that kind of hell for nothing is not going to be overlooked. No way.

So that is the story of how the last 36 hours have gone. Thankfully, she was great today with Chad while I was at work, and she is sleeping peacefully now. But my blood still boils.