Today was another trip down to Miami Children's Hospital. I was dreading the trip so badly because it is such a long drive--3 hours--just to check Brandt's ear tubes and do some blood work. I had some genetic labwork ordered back in July that no local diagnostic center or hospital would do, so Miami Children's was my only way of getting it done. I felt like such a bad mom that I had held on to it so long, which made today's trip a bit of a relief.
Because I needed an appointment on a non-school day, I ended up with an appointment at 8:30am. Factor in a three hour drive, needing to stop for gas, and hitting Miami just in time for rush hour traffic, we decided to leave at 5:15am. Luckily, God was on our side and we ended up in Miami at 7:30.
Out first thought was that maybe no one would be in Patient Access for labwork yet since most of the doctor's offices weren't open for the day yet. We thought one hour should be perfect to get in and get out. It was too perfect that we were there with the perfect amount of time to get the labs done before Brandt's ENT appointment. So, we checked in with security and went straight over to Paetient Access. We opened the doors and the room was filled. We thought surely all of these people weren't there for labwork, as this was also the waiting room for surgical and imaging procedures. We checked in and waited for registration to call us. 30 minutes later, we were finally called for registration. With time running out, I asked how long the expected wait time was, and she informed me that there were still six people in front of us. So, we sat and waited but time was not on our side. Finally, we told the receptionist that we had to leave for our appointment and would come back.
The appointment with the ENT was just a standard check-up. Not much to say, other than he told me to get rid of the pacifier--which he's been telling me for a long time, and I don't see him going without a pacifier at night for a long time. He also said for my husband to stop cranking the A/C down to 72, as this makes the nose run more and the adenoids enlarge and are not able to properly filter. So, that's a relief for me because I freeze at night. Return in 3 months--oh joy...
So we went back to Patient Access and informed them that we had returned, so they bumped us to the front of the line since they had already called us when we were out, which I thought was so fabulous of them. The lady grabbed our file and was gone for about fifteen minutes preparing before finally returning to get us. As I followed her down the hall, I realized that she was a familiar face. She was the same lady who had done our genetic labwork in the past--which wasn't the best of memories for me to recount to her. Still, as we walked in the room, she said that she remembered doing Brandt's blood work before--without me even saying anything to her! I was blown away--what the heck was it that made us so memorable for her over the thousands of people she had seen in the past six months?!?! She continued to recount that she remembered the difficult time she had finding his vein and that she remembered three other nurses having to come in and hold him down. She remembered that we had a very specialized genetic lab order, and she was spot-on in her memories, but I could not help but wonder if there was something else that happened during that visit that made her remember us. Guess I'll have to go back and check that blog for any indication (Blog: Welcome to Miami, Bienvenido a Miami)!
I will say that this time, she did get his vein on the first try--thank goodness. However, it is good that I am so aware of Brandt's testing because as I was counting the ten tubes she had pulled out, I questioned why so many for only the two things that were being tested . She showed me the orders, and I told her that it was only supposed to be the two highlighted, as I had indicated to registration, because we had already done the rest at a local lab. Glad I caught that--poor baby just gave five tubes on Saturday for liver function tests. After catching that mix-up, he did four tubes today. And I know he has a follow-up labwork to retest for the effectiveness of his prevnor vaccine coming up again pretty soon.
All was done by 10am, and we hit the long road home. Thankfully, we were back home before 1pm, which gave me time to be a mom. I love it when I have time to just play and laugh and do whatever else without having to worry about doctors or medicine or breathing treatments. We had such a blast, and it was so nice to really see how much he is learning and strengthening. He is walking across the room now (although, a lot of wobbling), and he can even stand up without pulling up (sometimes). He plays patty cake and pats his hand over his mouth (like he's making little Indian calls)! I love my little munchkin!
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