Three Doctors Appointments

It was a difficult day today. A nurse called me for my medical history and the list of what is wrong with me coupled with the number of medication I am allergic to depressed me. I am not quite sure why other than I had never heard it all in one sentence.

We had a total of 3 separate doctor appointments as well. We met with the geneticist for our oldest daughter. We have been concerned about her sleeping and her hips. There was no good answer for her hips. Even if she does have hip damage, there is little the doctors can do. Hip replacements do not go well with hyper mobile joints. The hips become damaged because the sockets are formed from pressure on the head of the leg bone and the hip socket. With use, the hip socket becomes deeper and smooth. Because our ligaments do not supply adequate pressure, the socket is shallow and can become "uneven." He did not agree with the chorodolysis diagnosis either.

Her sleep problems are something that we can continue to address. She has had problems sleeping for over a year. We have tried addressing it through bio-feedback, sleep hygiene, melatonin, Benadryl, progressive muscle relaxation and so forth, but falling asleep and staying asleep are still giving her problems. The geneticist will refer her to a sleep clinic where they will hopefully send her to a sleep behaviorist.

The difficult part of this appointment is the lack of solutions. Really, there is little we can do to keep traumatic events such as dislocations and broken bones from happening. Each time we go to a doctor appointment it is a reminder that what we had expected of our life, is no longer possible. This is not entirely bad, just different. We are still grieving our expectations. Today, along with getting ready for surgery and our other daughters broken ankle, it felt like a slap in the face.

Our youngest daughter had to go back to the orthopedist because her heel was giving her pain. She woke us up in the middle of the night, complaining of pain. They took the waterproof, walking cast and put on a cotton cast with the heel cut out. This means that she must stay off her foot. She has to use her chair or be carried.

More and more we are confronted with the fact that a 2 story house is not meeting our needs. I am not sure what we are going to do about it now, but we did discuss the possibility of moving her bedroom to the dining room area. We would still need to carry her to the bathroom to take a shower, however.

I know what will happen if we modify the house or move. The traumatic event will stop and we will wonder why we made such a big move. We shall see...