Ortho Appointment/Mini Vacation

It seems like the past few weeks have been complicated by visits to a doctor or the hospital, and even hospital admits for a couple of people we care deeply about. After some uncertainty about whether we should go ahead with our trip to New Orleans last Sunday due to an unforeseen circumstance, we went ahead as planned and got settled in the hotel at around 8 that night. Our appointment with the ortho doctor was for 8AM the following morning, and we had to be there 15 minutes earlier. That was an unusually early time for Joseph and Mommy.

I did my husband proud by getting up early, and we arrived at Children's Hospital even earlier than 7:45. Of course, we didn't get to see the doctor until 9:30 or so. Considering it was Memorial Day Holiday, the waiting room was full. Joseph found some things to amuse him while we waited.

The ortho doctor, Dr. H, was pleasant enough, very professional and answered all our questions. He didn't respond to Joseph's interruptions, though, as our boy kept saying "Doctor, doctor, let me tell you something." Dr. H gave us some possible options to manage Joseph's hip pain and his bilateral hip subluxation. They included symptomatic treatment of pain and three surgical options that I would not bother to write here for now. They all sounded very invasive and painful. We didn't really explore and discuss the options in detail, as the right femur has to heal first before Dr. H would even x-ray the hips. Dr. H. also talked about doing some spinal x-rays to check for scoliosis. Brady and I both wish that we had a local pediatric orthopod so that Joseph could have seen one when he was much younger. But you know, we are at a geographical disadvantage and it's not that we could just take days off at work whenever we wanted to. That's what I tell myself whenever I'm "beating" myself up for not being as proactive as other SMA parents in that they're able to see Dr. Bach, Dr. Schroth, Dr. Swoboda, Dr. Wang, etc. I would like to believe that Brady and I have done a pretty good job with Joseph, considering he's now 6 1/2 years, with only Dr. Khan, the pediatric intensivist helping us along the way. Okay, this is me convincing myself that we've always tried to do the best for Joseph. I just wish sometimes that I had done some things differently. Anyway, Dr. H. wanted Joseph to have a long leg cast instead of the splint. We will go back in three weeks to remove the cast and take hip x-rays, etc. Brady and I have a lot of research to do about the surgical options.

We left the hospital after 10, and drove around in downtown New Orleans. We decided to wait until the next day to go to the Insectarium. We found a place to eat in the French Quarter area. Joseph loved it and even proclaimed that Landry's was the best restaurant in the world. That was until we had lunch at Golden Corral the following day. Brady and I love to eat out whenever we can, and although Joseph can't eat by mouth, you can't stop him from tasting everything.

The following day, Joseph reminded us that we had to go to the Insectarium. So we went.

It was an okay attraction. I guess, Brady and I were just ready to head home three hours away.

Joseph wanted to taste some bugs. But this was the only bug that we let him taste.

It was a good trip. Sort of a very "mini" vacation for us.