The Diagnosis

Tukker had his giant preemie follow up clinic appointment a couple of weeks ago, the one that lasts four hours and involves seeing 5 or 6 different specialists who are all crammed in one building for the event. It is a thing to be dreaded, and not just because it gives me 4 hours of trying to keep the Tukk occupied and fed (do you have any idea how much food I have to pack to keep bottomless pit child from starving to death for a 4-hour span? I contemplated packing a wagon full of fruit snacks). Mostly I dread it because every time we've been the docs have had some new "concerns" for us to flip out about.

The last time he had one of these clinic days was a year ago, and we had both the pediatrician and the physical therapist tell us they were convinced that his hip was back out of the socket, and that was why he wasn't walking yet, even though he was almost 2. While the thought of another hip surgery and 3 months in a body cast was sufficiently horrifying to give me instant diarrhea (TMI?), their worries that if it wasn't the hip we'd have to start thinking about possible neurological damage was an even more terrifying thought.

Still, Tukker's been doing so well that I wasn't too nervous about this appointment. I didn't even pack a bottle of Pepto in my purse.

The first person we met with was a new pediatrician, who started telling me we should be concerned about his head shape and asked if he'd ever had an MRI and bla bla bla. I began to twitch just a little bit and fantasize about punching her in the throat (bless her heart). Then I told her we'd already had an MRI AND head ultrasound and both had yielded normal results. And we'd already met with a plastic surgeon numerous times to discuss his poor flat head (compliments of the fact that he had chest tubes as a newbie & couldn't be positioned off the back of his head), and the plastic surgeon thought it was correcting itself well enough on its own. Also, the good Lord blessed him with a thick head of crazy curly hair, so it's barely noticeable unless you're really looking, and we weren't concerned about it, thank you very much.

Ummm... I should probably mention at this point that I'm getting a little tired of being needlessly freaked out by doctors. It makes me grouchy.

Anyway, after hearing about ALL the specialists we'd already seen and all the tests Tukk had already had (and probably sensing that I was on the verge of some serious Chuck Norris roundhouse kick to the face action), she told me she was sure he was just fine and sent me on my way.

Then we met with the eye doc, who said Tukk's eyes look perfect. He said you'd never be able to tell he was a preemie or had had ROP (retinopathy of prematurity) based on his eyes. Awesomeness.

We also met with the psychologist, who tests these kiddos for cognitive development. Last year he said Tukker was almost a year behind cognitively. Barftastic. This year he said that while Tukk has a hard time focusing (he got bored with the puzzle games and kept trying to climb into the sink and turn it on), once you could get him to focus he did just fine. He said he was amazed by how far Tukker had come in the last year. And when he rated his development... drum roll please... HE SAID TUKK IS ON TRACK COGNITIVELY. I will go ahead and pause while you take some time to celebrate. You better be fistpumping right now.

We celebrated with a giant Oreo cupcake from The Sweet Tooth Fairy. Tukk was so tired after his 4-hour appointment he feel asleep after the first bite. That is some serious exhaustion.

Throughout the past (almost) 3 years we've been asked a billion times by docs and other parents of special needs kids what Tukker's diagnosis is. Does he have cerebral palsy or other brain damage? Does he have a genetic condition? Is he part elf ?(Although we haven't done any official bloodwork, based on his size and ability to consume mass quantities of sugar, we believe the answer to that one is yes.) We have been very lucky to escape some of those difficult problems, and now we feel like Tukk's only official diagnosis is Rock Star. Of the most awesome kind. We have truly been blessed with miracles with this boy. We're so grateful.