Hannah's Physical

Hannah had her physical this morning. My kids are strange because they love to go to the doctor. They think it's a blast. In fact, Daniel was mad when he found out that Hannah went without him this morning. Personally, I've always hated going to the doctor, but whatever.

Hannah thought it was funny that they asked her to pee in a cup too. She says, "I pee like Daniel did!" LOL!

Anyway, the doctor and I talked about Hannah's asthma (the main reason I wanted to get established as a patient there) and he asked how she was doing. I told him that she's definately been using the nebulizer a lot less than before the move and she seems to be doing a lot better than before. He told me that more than likely, because her asthma is triggered by allergies, the relief she's seeing is because of the different allergens here. He told me that there will be a "honeymoon period" of up to a year before she starts exhibiting symptoms again. I asked him if it's possible that it's done and over. He told me that, while it can't be completely ruled out, it's probably just a matter of time. He said that allergy testing at this point really wouldn't work since her body hasn't really worked up the allergies yet (does that make sense?) and would show false negatives.

So, it looks like we take a "wait and see" approach to this. He did say continue doing what we are doing (Singulair, Albuterol as needed) because we don't want to mess with what's working. He did tell me not to worry...that whatever pops up, we'll handle it. That made me feel good.

New Pediatrician

One of the things I hate the most about moving is finding the kids a new doctor, especially when we've found one that we really like where we were. Luckily, we've only had one really bad doctor...the other three have been good. So, I head to the the new pediatrician's office yesterday with the boys to become established patients (Hannah goes on Thursday because they only allow two exams at once).

We walk in and I'm not really impressed with the office building...it's kind of old and looks a little run down. The kids were thrilled, however, with the plethora of toys and thought that was awesome. I began filling out the mountain of paperwork for the boys and we were called back to the exam room. The nurse begins asking standard questions and hands me some more forms that need to be filled out. She then takes the boys out to get their height and weight. They were excited when she then told them she needed a urine sample. For whatever reason, they love that.

One of the sheets the nurse gave me was a test of cognitive skills for Daniel. She tells me to start with question 1 and keep going until I get three "no" answers. I was confused at first, but caught on quickly.

First question (and no, I'm not going to go through them all) asked Daniel to copy a circle. Only I wasn't allowed to tell him what it was. I had to point to the circle and tell him to draw the same thing. He gets a "yes." Draw a plus sign. "Yes." Draw a person...does is have at least 6 parts? "Yes." It gives me some colors and asks me to ask what colors they are. Daniel gets a "yes."

Then, it asks for definitions. What is a ceiling for? "So people upstairs won't fall on you." What's a banana? "Fruit you eat." What's a chair? "To sit on." All "yes" responses.

Daniel was having a blast. The nurse was standing outside filling out her own paperwork and listening to what we were doing. Then we come to the question, "what's a cup for?" Daniel's response? "To pee in!" I about fell out of my chair laughing. The nurse pokes her head in the door and says, "you have no idea how common that answer is!" Apparently, it was an acceptable answer. LOL!

The doctor comes in and asks if I have any concerns...tells me the boys look good...asks what brought us out here. He then asks me if the boys had their chicken pox booster (I know how much Sue and Deb love this one!). I tell him no. He tells me that Kansas now requires a booster and the boys are due. I look at the boys and tell them that I'm sorry I was wrong about not getting any shots. Jacob just rolls with it. He really didn't care. Daniel starts freaking out. Screaming, crying and trying to leave. The doctor gives the boys a clean bill of health and says the nurse will be back in. Daniel, again tries to leave but runs into the nurse. Jacob volunteers to go first (what a good big brother) and doesn't make a peep. At this point, Daniel has fled the room and I had to go get him. I bring him back and put him on the table. He's flailing around and freaking out. I tell the nurse that I'll hold him on my lap. You don't realize how strong your kids are until they are trying to flee from a shot. Daniel's a strong kid. After the shot, he looked at me and said, "that wasn't bad!" See...I told you! I was completely exhausted at this point.

So, now we have a pediatrician. The nurse gave me a few cards for some dentists, so I'll be making some phone calls today.

It's A Heat Wave!!!!!

You know it's been cold when 40 degrees feels like a heat wave! LOL! Coats?!? Who needs one when it's so nice outside? It was so warm, I even had the window open in the van, and it felt nice. It's funny that it warmed up because I was talking with my friend, Sara, about temperatures this morning...how she was warned when she moved to VA that it snows there! LOL! I got so spoiled with winters in VA...so much warmer than what I was always used to. Especially coming out of Iowa where the temps this time of year is typically in the single digits. I don't know if it's just because I was formerly used to such cold weather, but I've managed to re acclimate pretty quickly.

I was finally able to get all of the salt off of the van today...it's just been way to cold to do it before now. The line at the car wash was long, but a clean van was worth the wait. We're supposed to get back into the 20's starting tomorrow, so it really had to be done today.

The boys have a physical with their new pediatrician this afternoon...Hannah has hers on Thursday. Luckily, the boys have early release today so I don't have to pull anyone out of school. Tomorrow should be fun...Daniel doesn't have school because of kindergarten round-up. Jacob's not happy about that because he has to go to school! He will get over it.