Ryan's Doctor Appointment

On Monday, July 2nd, I took Ryan to Dr. Parsi for his 4-year check up. Here he is in his exam gown, waiting for the doctor, and holding up 4 fingers to show me how old he is now.

I used this doctor's visit as an opportunity to ask about some things that had been concerning me. Starting with his throat. His tonsils and lymphnodes are always swollen. Even when he's not sick. So she looked at them and thought maybe he had strep. Nah. . . . they are always like that. In 4 years, as many times as he's been sick, and as often as they've swabbed for strep, he's never had it. Well, she decided to swab anyway. Good thing she did, because sure enough, he had strep. Poor little guy. No symptoms though - no fever, not complaining that his throat hurt. So that means one of two things: either we caught it early, or he's a carrier of it like I was.

Moving on, I asked her about his frequent complaints about a tummy ache. She felt his tummy and it seemed fine. Then I asked her to check this bump I noticed on his shoulder blade. It seemed to have just appeared one day about 2 weeks ago. She thought it was probably just bone, but since he had a few things going on, she decided we should do some blood work and get x-rays.

So our 4-year check up turned into a day of prescriptions, blood drawing and x-rays. For 3 hours, we were in and out of doctors offices and exam rooms. I have to say though, he was a real champ. He cried a little when they drew his blood, but other than that, he hung in there for all the tests.

While waiting for the results, we met Aunt Kelli for lunch at Cici's Pizza, then went to Wal-Mart to get Ryan a booster seat. Yep! He's 4 years old and almost 40 pounds - he has been waiting for the moment he could start riding in a booster seat. So we bought him a booster, a new pair of pajamas, and new swim trunks. JD was with us too, and he got new swim trucks as well.

While at Wal-Mart, we got the test results. All CLEAR! All the results came back normal, and they think the bump on his shoulder blade is abnormal bone growth. We are going back in a week for a follow up, and Dr. Parsi is also going to measure to bump so we can monitor it.

On our way home, after a full day of doctors, lunch/games, Wal-Mart shopping and prescription pick up, Ryan crashed out --- in his new booster seat. I know it doesn't look entirely comfortable, but compared to the neck-breaking sleep he got in his carseat, this is as good as a high-quality plush bed to him.