Wednesday, October 17, 2012

15 Month Doctor's Appointment

And. Worst. Day. Ever.

The appointment started out well. The doctor looked me over and I am as healthy as can be! My pneumonia is all gone! I weighed in at 22lbs 3oz (30%), I'm 2' 7" tall (22%) and my head circum is 47.7 (74%). Then the bad day began. I had to get 4 shots - 3 normal vaccines and 1 flu shot. I cried for just a minute and then it was over. Whew. You'd think that's where the torture ends, right? Apparently NOT. A month ago I was retested for my iron levels and the doctor wants to see how my levels are after being on medicine for the last month. That means an intravenous blood draw. We have to go to another office for that, since they have to draw the blood through my arm. I've had this done before, twice now, and it was not nearly as bad as today went. The lady who took my blood stuck the needle in my arm and missed my vein. I didn't cry this whole time and layed real still. She then spent the next few minutes digging around (literally) in my arm with the needle. That's when I started balling. Finally another lady (put on her glasses) and tried to help. She finally hit my vein, but when they connected the vial to collect the blood, it pulled the needle loose (yes, I want to know why no one held the needle in place too!!!). They then tried to get it back in place, while squeezing my arm trying to get the blood to come out, and finally got a few drops of blood. Enough that we could call it done. Never again - that's what mommy says. Never again.

A few hours later mommy got a phone call from the nurse with the results from my blood draw. Apparently there were two numbers we were paying attention to (I was only told about one this whole time, but whatever…)... My "hemoglobin blood" a month ago was 10.4 and today it measured at 11 (this number they wanted to go up, so yea! It is on the low side of normal, but at least it is normal now! Normal is 10.5 to 13.5). The second number they have been watching is my "red blood cell width distribution." Last month it was 15.9 and now it's 15.6 (this number they wanted to do down, which it did, but not enough. Normal is 11.5 to 14.5). So, three more months of iron supplement medicine and another blood test. Mommy is going to beg, plead and barter for them to do a toe prick... We'll see who wins. If the doctor will not allow the toe prick, she is definitely not letting just anyone (the next nurse in line at the lab) do my blood draw!! We will wait for the one who is comfortable and hopefully specializes in pediatrics!!

Next appointment will be in January for my 18 month and blood retest.

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