Shriner's

Today, Karsen had his first evaluation appointment with Shriner's children's hospital. I was shocked at how little we had to wait, in fact the doctor's (two of them) spent over an hour with us. I really thought the appointment was going to be a quick in-out. We ended up getting stuck there for two hours. I wasn't going to complain though, everyone was super nice and helpful. We sat around waiting for maybe 15 minutes total. After meeting with the physiatrist, he sent us to go get an x-ray of Karsen's hips to make sure his hip sockets were aligning properly. They were a little concerned when they did a physical exam of his hips which is why they wanted to do it in the first place. I should be getting a phone call with the results. Otherwise, if everything checks out, we would get routine x-rays as he grows (if his hips don't seem even, which they aren't now). 

We talked a little bit about serial casting, once Karsen starts walking. (All these medical professionals keep talking about Karsen walking like it would be any day.... I guess they don't see him that often). Serial casting is a method of casting the affected leg (in Karsen's case it would be his left) in the stretching position so he could get more range of motion out of it. It has really good results. I guess I haven't looked at much of this stuff because I feel like walking is SO far away. I mean, we've got a good 8 more months (medical professionals don't expect hemi cp kids to walk until age 2.). 

One of the people that met with us today seemed to have no clue what infantile spasms were. I was pretty shocked. In fact, I even asked her if she had ever heard of it before. Bold, I know.... I guess I don't tip toe around things anymore. Thanks to my hand phone with videos on it, I was able to show her exactly what they looked like. She then proceeded to ask me why the prednisone worked to stop them. uh...... I'm not doctor and I'm definitely no medicine research analyst. I think many neurologist don't know why one drug works for one kid but it wouldn't work for another. I was actually quite happy she was asking so many questions and seemed so interested. By the end of the appointment she told me she really wanted to do more research in IS since she felt like she didn't know anything about it. Honestly in a doctor? Since when? You mean you admit you didn't know what it was?! I was impressed. Impressed she had guts to admit she didn't know anything about it and even more impressed she was going to change that and educate herself.

All in all, our visit there went really well. Karsen even got a cute jelly fish suffy to take home. And it only took us 45 mins to get there! 45 mins!!!! Not 3 hours and 45mins. So, next appointment: in May. Successful day in Karsenville. 

Karsen with his new jelly fish, waiting for the x-ray tech.

Couldn't leave ya with out a pic of The Hulk from last night.