The Southbank clinic had arranged for Kaiden’s bloods to be taken to test for a number of things that could be affecting his walking and gross motor skills. They mentioned some enzymes and a chromosome check. The endocrinologist also wanted to do checks for hormone levels because of the damage to his pituitary gland. He said that the would make sure that the appointments were combined.
This appointment was made over the phone so when we arrived at Yorkhill today for our appointment we went to Ward 1C as instructed. The nurse who met us said “You should be in 7A!”. Well ok, that could be an easy mistake, one we could have made ourselves. “We have a room ready for you”. Hmmm, what?
Turns out the the appointment for the water deprivation test the endocrinologist had discussed was made for today, but no one bothered to notify us! Its extremely lucky we had an appointment already that day. No wonder 30% of appointments are no-shows, I bet at least half of those are due to a lack of communication.
We did not want to re-arrange the appointment as we are seeing the neurosurgeon next week and we want as many results as possible for her when we meet. The less roadblocks the better.
We were at the hospital for a 2pm blood taking and now need to change plans for an overnight at 4pm. Not enough time to go home, so off to Asda to buy jammies for the wee man and wife along with the usual trappings of an overnight stay at the hospital.
The new plan is for Kaiden to stay overnight and to fast from 4am to get bloods done at 9am. Hopefully he will not wake up after 4am for a drink, otherwise there might be a screaming match. He needed to get a drip attached so they could take the bloods easily multiple times and the nurses would also monitor his fluid intake and output.
There were two very nice doctors including one we had seen before on a visit to Yorkhill with Kaiden at 3am. Jadie commented that the other looked too young to be a doctor, but that is just what happens when you get older…everyone else looks younger. They tried to get the drip into Kaiden’s arm first and I have never heard Kaiden scream more than he did then. It was not the drip, it was having his arms immobilised that terrified him the most. This was very distressing for us as parents and Jadie especially as she insisted on holding him.
With Kaiden not really using his legs and his arms being his main mode of expression I can understand why he was so distraught.
Although they inserted the drip it stubbornly refused to dispense blood and they had to remove it. We were dreading another attempt, but they decided to go for the legs. This proved to be the best decision and Kaiden only cried when they were actually inserting the needle, before and after he was giggling and laughing. He pretty much ignored the vice grip on his legs and let them get on with it.
He did however put on a rather strange expressions when a nurse came in after his bath and attached a bag to his winkle (Jadie friendly word) so they could measure output.
I think that expression is surprise, he is too young for anything else!
Kaiden will be discharged tomorrow so I will be picking him and his mum up early afternoon.
0 comments:
Post a Comment