Medical This and That

Yesterday I took Timothy to his 2 month well baby check (a little late as he's really 2 1/2 months (10 weeks) right now).  Man o' man was that an adventure. 

I have no babysitter, so everything I do I do with all the kids...hence Anthony and Molly came along for the ride. Usually it's not that big of a deal, but yesterday I could have done without the entourage just because it was a stressful appointment in and of itself. My little guy was getting his first immunizations and if you're a parent, you know how difficult it is to watch your little one get stuck with a needle. Boo!

Right before getting his immunizations, Timothy took a huge poop. I'm talking MONSTER big, leaking from all corners of the diaper, oozing up his back, poop. It was everywhere....and I left the diaper bag in the car. *sigh* I asked the nurse for a diaper and wipes and she handed me a diaper and proceeded to try and give Timothy his oral polio vaccine. I looked at her bewildered and asked for her to wait and then asked again for the wipes she had forgotten to also give me. She hands me the wipes and I start to clean up the horrific poop mess, sitting him up and rolling his shirt so as to not drag poop ALL the way up his back, neck, and head. As I lied him back down to finish up, the nurse starts to give him the oral polio vaccine again. At this point I'm like "WTH lady! Give me a dang minute to finish cleaning the poop off my baby!" Ugh. Finally everything is cleaned up and we can proceed. The nurse gives him the oral polio stuff and then gives him 3 other vaccines in his legs. 

You know how after the first prick they are so startled that they give a 5 second silent cry before breaking out into a horrific, ear drum bursting scream? Yeah. I HATE that. Poor baby boy. I swooped him up and nursed him for a minute then loaded myself up like a pack mule with the baby, all the medical hand outs, shot record book, and dirty poop clothing before finally bolting out the door with the two other kids in tow. 

We made it to the car and I finished nursing Timothy. After strapping him into his car seat half naked, he puked all over himself. Oh joy. I took him back out, cleaned him up, cleaned the car seat up, and strapped him back in.

During this time the kids were complaining that they were hungry and the car was hot and other things I was too stressed out to hear. After giving them the death glare (you know the one I'm talking about), I made the hour long drive home....popping some ibuprofen on the way because I realized I had developed a headache. 

Timothy slept the whole way and by the time we got home he was all smiles. Look at his boo boos!

Today he is extra tired, grumpy, and in need of lots of cuddles. All of the kids get a little grumpy after getting their shots. Small price to pay though, in my opinion. I'm definitely pro vaccine and will deal with a little extra grumpiness in order to have my children protected against polio, whooping cough, etc. etc.

Timothy's 2 month stats are-

Weight: 12 pounds 0.5 ounces

Height: 22 inches

HC: 15.5 inches 

Now, onto some other important Timothy medical news! Remember how I talked about Timothy having what is called a sacral dimple? A sacral dimple is a dimple found just above the buttocks. It was noticed during his newborn examination after birth and could be a sign of a tethered cord or spina bifida occulta. To read about a tethered cord, click HERE. To read about spina bifida occulta click HERE. In many cases though, the sacral dimple is just kind of there and doesn't mean there are any underlying issues.

I have to admit, I was worried something would be wrong with Timothy. It's in my nature to worry. We scheduled an ultrasound for him on June 29th in Portland, OR, a two hour drive from our house, to see what his sacral dimple meant for him. The ultrasound tech was really sweet and said as far as she could tell, everything looked great. She made me feel a bit better, but I knew the image results needed to be examined by the doctors there. A few days later our pediatrician called and said she had the ultrasound results in. Timothy was perfectly fine! His spinal cord was completely formed and he had no tethering of his cord. Ohhh I sighed a great sigh of relief! Now I can breathe easy knowing the dimple is more of a birth mark than anything. FANTASTIC!

Now onto me! In the past I've written about and posted photos where you can see a scar on my chest. I got this scar from having a mole removed in May 2009....something I now regret doing. The mole removal went fine and all, but the healing was a bitch and it left me with a type of scar called a keliod. To read about a keloid scar, click HERE. My scar is raised, hard, and painful. I mean the scar actually hurts to touch and sometimes itches as well. I hate it. It prevents me form wearing outfits that would allow it to show because I'm really self conscious about it. Sucks. And having it hurt is just stupid. It's like adding insult to injury.

Last year, before I got pregnant with Timothy, I went to a dermatologist and he gave me a steroid injection right into the scar. This injection was to help soften and flatten the scar, though it would do nothing to lighten the color. You're suppose to get about 3 injections 2-3 months apart. The first injection did a fine job with softening my scar and taking the pain away. I was really pleased with that! After 3 months I went back for a second injection, though at a lower dose because the first dose did such a find job. It's kind of a tricky situation....too low of a dose and nothing happens. Too high of a dose and you could concave the skin around the scar. So not only do you have a raised scar, but all the skin around it is concaved. The second dose I received did nothing. I was really disappointed and was going to have the dermatologist up the third injection dose to be the level of the first injection received, but I got pregnant with Timothy and didn't go back for that third injection.

During this time my scar became hard again and all the pain came back. On the third of this month I took myself back to the dermatologist and ran through the injection history and results with him. We decided we would try again and also up the dosage. Oh my did it work!! The pain is gone, the scar is soft, and it has flattened out a significant amount. I go back in October to see what the next step is. My concern is that the injection will only work for a short while and that the scar will become raised, hard, and painful again. I hope that's not the case as I don't want to have to get injections periodically just to keep the scar flattened. What an expensive pain in the ass.

Below is a photo before I got any injections (it's a bowflex show off pic, LOL). See how raised and pink it is? Below that is a photo I took today. It's a lot flatter. The color is also lighter. Not because of the steroid injection, but from the silicon scar sheets I have been religiously using. My goal is to be able to put make up on it and have it look virtually invisible so I can gain back a little confidence and wear some clothing I haven't been able to. People don't realize just how much of a pain it is for me to go shopping because I'm so self conscious about it. I'm always saying, "I love this shirt! Too bad I can't buy it because it'll show my scar!" I'd like that to change. We'll see. Wish me luck. I'm optimistic.

And that's the medical wrap. 

With love,

Mama Hauck