ENT update

This started as a rough morning. I needed to drop Anna-Kate at a friends' house at 8:30 to have a shot at getting to the doctor on time. Ryan woke up crying, (his pull up was wet and he was traumatized) and he never stopped. Can I tell you what that does to nerves? Geesh. I finally had them in the car, at 8:30 mind you, (and I'd even showered. Wonders never cease.) when I went to push the alarm. Wouldn't you know it, in my rush I must have hit the "panic" button instead of the "alarm" button. So the alarm is going off. It's loud. Nerves completely shot. (I failed to make coffee this morning. I know. Not the morning.). So I had to sit there and wait for my alarm company to call me (if they call and don't get me, they dispatch a police car and if it's a false alarm you get charged.). For 7 minutes I waited until I got a phone call...from my neighbor taking AK to school. Her kids were in the car, so I just left and hoped for the best. Got a call from my alarm co's emergency contact, Leigh-Ann, telling me that a cop was on his way. Super.

P.S.A. for today, if you accidently push panic, they don't call you to allow you to call them off with your password in case you have a gun to your head. They will always send a cop.

So I was finally on my way and then realized that it had been 48 hours (give or take) since the last rain and evidently the entire city had forgotten how to drive in inclement weather in that time. Traffic was absolutely not moving. It took me 25 minutes to get on the highway from my house (generally, a 10 minute thing). I called the ENT to say I was stuck in horrendous traffic and she said she'd talk with the doctor to see if I should come in or not. {excuse me?? I'm coming!}. She called back and said evidently everyone was running late so just come on. (must have been my amazing speechlessness followed by a witty, "but I really need Ryan to be seen today" that won her over.).

So, here's the scoop, for the 10's of you who asked. :) I loved the doctor I saw today (and if you were wondering, he is a pediatric ENT, which Kaiser doesn't have, so he wasn't a Kaiser doc. Interesting, huh?). Ryan did awesome being checked and really seemed to like the doctor (who was great with kids. The novelty of a pediatric doctor having a good presence with kids. Who'da thought?) Bottom line is that he prescribed me steroids to keep on hand to use as needed (and hopefully keep us out of the ER). I am thrilled and can't wait to get my hot little fingers on the drugs and feel the safety and security of knowing they're there. Interestingly enough (to me at least) he prescribed zantac, for acid reflux. I said that he'd never had/been diagnosed with reflux. Evidently, recurrent croup and reflux often go hand-in-hand. He said that he could be 100% wrong about the reflux, but it was a cheaper, less invasive, no side-effect way of seeing if it helped than ordering a ton of tests. So, hello drugs, here we come. He also wants me to schedule a surgery of sorts. They would put him to sleep and then stick a camera down his throat and scope it all out to see if there are any restrictions, scarring etc. I am hesitant to do that simply because it scares me and there isn't much that can come of the test except "knowing". The only date they had available that they had a calendar open for was the day before my C-section. I opted to not spend the day before I spend 5 days in the hospital in the hospital. Call me crazy. We're taking the wait until summer and see if we really have to do this route.

I'll keep ya posted.