A Few Weeks of Specialists {Try New Adventures Thursday!}

Events always seem to get clustered together in our life.  Appointments, registrations, parties...and now, specialists.  On top of our regular well child visits and routine appointments, the past 2 weeks were jam packed with seeing specialists. 

Our oldest child consumes the majority of our time with doctors and balancing medications.  However, when it comes to mental health disorders, I don't believe that openly blogging about it is appropriate (at least for the time being).  So with that being said, lets just leave it at- it's been a very challenging season for Minh and as a family, we have had to adjust on many, many levels.  Fortunately, we are an incredibly strong family unit, proactive about positive parenting and he has an amazing professional team.  Minh also has braces and was supposed to get them off last week.  However, one of the lower brackets broke off and his teeth shifted, so he has to wait a month or so longer.  :/  Poor kiddo, he (and we-do you KNOW how hard it is to maintain an 8 year olds braces!?!) were sooo looking forward to getting them off!




Nam has recently thrown us some curveballs that has required setting up appointments with specialists.  Nothing really major, but it certainly has turned into an unexpected adventure!  About four months ago, he started having nosebleeds.  At first, we thought maybe he had just hit is nose or he was diggin' around up there (after all, he just turned 2 last month!), but after 7 or 8 nosebleeds and 2 Pediatrician appointments, it became clear it was something more.  Sooooo, we were referred to an ENT, and after a super fun nose examination *mmm hmmmm* it turned out he had 3 extremely large blood vessels in his nose that were so large, that just by rubbing his nose or sneezing caused them to bleed.  The best part? this very normal and it doesn't hurt him.  The not so great part? they don't want to cauterize them until he is 3 and half, unless he has them daily in which we would need to put him under mild anesthesia.  Soooo, we're not at that level yet, but he just had his 20th nosebleed 2 nights ago...so they are becoming more frequent.  Below is a photo I snapped before we went to the Pediatrician to show we were talking about more than just a nik in the nose.  I have a few seconds of mommy panic everytime he gets one...as well as Zombie movie flashbacks ;)


Poor Nam seemed to be falling apart.  On top of the nosebleeds, his hand and legs started to develop large white blotches, which after 3 months, covered about 80% of both legs and arms.  We again took him to the Pediatrician and were referred out to a Dermatologist.  When we went to her office, it turned out to be a friend of mine from high school who treated him!  How cool is that!?  After examining him, he was diagnosed with Eczema, which looked pretty severe on him because of his dark skin.  I also didn't know Eczema could be white rather than red.  Soooo, even though there is no cure for it, we have a lotion that we smother him in 3x a day called CeraVe, a bathing version of CeraVe when he takes his showers, and a prescription Locoid (basically a steroid) used on areas that are irritated and look like lesions are forming.  Hopefully the skin on his face won't turn white, but that's really out of our control at this point and she said it can spread to his entire trunk as well, or may just stay on his limbs.  I attempted to get a few pictures below, but they don't really do it justice.  It is quite jarring when he is trotting around the house in his diaper.

Thao also had an appointment at All Childrens Hospital after he failed his hearing test (3 times!) at the Pediatrician for his 4 year old well child visit.  He did GREAT and was cracking all the techs up!  He is one chatty little boy!  He passed with flying colors.  whew!  Below is a photo I snapped ;)  hee hee



Sooooo, seeing specialists this month certainly has been QUITE the adventure!