What a Week

Have I mentioned lately how glad I am to have my new job. Its flexibility this week is paying off in dividends.

So Monday all was well. Tuesday, Ky had two appointments. She had to go to a dental specialist at 7AM in downtown Atlanta which means we had to leave at 5:30. Ick! We arrived and our name was not on the list of patients to be seen. After the trouble we had to go through to get this appointment, I knew they were going to send us back home. They typically see patients with cleft palette, jaw problems, etc. I had to beg and plead to get Kyleigh seen. Well, fortunately our early morning paid off and they did see us. They want her two teeth that are next to her two front teeth to grow in before they do anything else. Then, they said they would try to put in a semi-permanent bridge. Sadly, none of this is going to do anything to prevent bone loss so eventually she's going to need a bone graft to replace the bone that she loses in her upper jaw. Then, they will be able to do implants when she is 18 years old or so. This whole dental thing is going to be a big issue for years to come.

So, after the dentists we had a 9AM neurologist appointment. We didn't arrive until 9:30 because the dentist was late seeing us. However, we waited for the neurologist until 11:15 so I guess the being late just meant we didn't have to wait so long. He has determined that her dystonia is actually more prevalent than her spasticity. This means that her primary diagnosis is no longer CP, but actually dystonia. He is treating her with medications in the Parkinson family. If we see enough improvement, then we will consider deep brain stimulation. Currently she is taking 12 mg of Artane a day. Our instructions are to titrate her up until she is taking 50 mg of Artane a day. This is a huge amount for anyone with normal muscle movement, but for her, hopefully, it will help to control her abnormal movements. More medication issues: her carbadopa/levadopa combination med that she has been taking is being discontinued. This normally isn't a big deal because she's just taking a generic version. However, she's allergic to the non-generic version because it has yellow dye in it. The generic version has blue dye which she's not allergic too so we've been hunting a pharmacist that can make this for us.

Anyhow, after all this nonsense on Tuesday and Kyleigh arrives at school 2 hours before it gets out but I had to drop her off because I had an appointment that afternoon. Wednesday, she was up all night coughing and gagging from sinus drainage and so we kept her home because we knew she would be too tired to work. Aaron stayed home with her this day because I had previously scheduled appointments. Then, Thursday she said she was ready to go back to school although we knew she was still feeling badly. Unfortunately, she had been to the clinic twice before 9AM and they called me. So I went and picked her up, took her to the pediatrician and found that she has a sinus infection (no surprise) and lymphadenopathy. Her lymph nodes actually got infected themselves from working overtime to fight the infection. She wasn't eating because her glands were swollen to the size of summer grapes. It's pitiful. Needless to say, we kept her home on Friday too and she's still pretty miserable despite the added four medications to her usual four that she takes three times a day. Uck!

Christine K.

MCATDT

What a wonderful weekend. I got the pleasure of spending some time with my mom. I saw some old friends at Homecoming and I played the trumpet at a Florida State football game. The only thing that could have made the weekend better would have been if FSU had won. Oh well. I am hopeful that they are improving and that hopefully next year will be better still.

It is a lot more tiring to do a 12 hour day at my age than it was when I was 20. However, it was amazing that it was not only possible, but exhilarating. I look forward to being able to go again next year and possibly taking Alison with me. By then, she will have been in band for over a year and maybe she'll be inspired by seeing the best band in the country.

Christine K.