Medical Update

For a girl who went to to doctor 52 times in her first 6 months at home with us (sometimes I like counting things), we're obviously out of the habit since we've been twice in the past month and I feel like that was a lot.

Yesterday she had her 2 year well child check, where...get this...she has actually gotten onto the percentile chart for height. I mean, it's only the 0.6 percentile, but that's better than 0.0! She grew 4 inches since her 18 month appointment. No wonder I had to buy her some new clothes this fall. And, even though she only gained 2lbs in that time, she's on the percentile chart for weight, too (6th percentile). Of course her head is in the 97th percentile, since I've known since the second she was born than she had a giant head (yeah, it hurt). She's 30.5 inches, and almost 23lbs. If you do that fancy "double your height at age two to get your adult height" thing, Daphne will be about 5 ft tall. Strangely, that is the exact height the geneticist said she would be when he came to visit her in the NICU.

Not to start a vaccination debate here, but we do have Daphne on a delayed vaccine schedule for various reasons, and there are a couple of vaccines we won't be giving her at all. As her doctor was reviewing with us the shots he would recommend for her, he said that since we've waited to vaccinate until after she's two, she only needs a fraction of the shots a baby would need. Don't you think they should tell parents that? That if you wait, you don't have to have nearly as many shots? I know it's not just as black and white as that, because obviously babies can get sick before they are 2, but still, it seems like people should know.

I asked about having blood work done to see if she has any natural immunity to any of the diseases he recommends vaccines for. Know what he said? He said it's very rarely done, but quite possibly in 3 out of the 4 vaccines he recommends, it's not uncommon for folks to be naturally immune. Wouldn't that be great if instead of giving every baby a whole slew of shots (don't even get me STARTED on vaccine ingredients), they would first check to see what was even needed? Again, I know it's not as black and white as that, but he never would have told me about natural immunity except I knew that checking for it is even a possibility. It's sad, really.

(Yes, I totally am that annoying parent/patient who questions everything my doctor tells me. I'm sure he silently curses me after we leave, but what can I say? The library is full of books and I like to read them, and then I learn things, and then I ask questions. I'm OK with that.)

Anyways, moving on...

In December we went to the Cleft Palate Clinic, a little thing our ENT's office puts on once a month. Basically, you sit in an examination room while specialist after specialist cycles through to examine the cleft patient. (That would be Daphne, in case you're new here. Or just forgetful.)

We saw an orthodontist, audiologist, speech therapist, cranio-facial surgeons, geneticist, social worker, and I'm sure I'm missing someone but it's hard to remember. After everyone comes through, they all meet, put together a health care plan and mail it out to you. The only ones we really needed were the surgeons and speech therapist, since Daphne has no hearing problems and her cleft didn't affect her teeth.

We got her follow-up letter right before Christmas, and let me tell you, it was full of great news. She needs no speech therapy, because according to the speech therapist she talks at the level of the 3 year old. I love that her one great skill is being a chatterbox. And her cleft is completely, 100% healed. It's like it was never there. Her ENT doesn't need to see her for 5 years. It's the weirdest thing to have this part of our lives just be...done. It's hard to fathom.

As her pediatrician was going over this information with us yesterday, he described Daphne as 'stellar.' Let me give you the definition of stellar, just in case you need it: (from www.definition.reference.com) 'like a star, as in brilliance, shape, etc.' Brilliant? Yes, I know.

Her parent, on the other hand, not so brilliant. It's 30 degrees out with a wind chill of like -10? Sure, let's go for a walk!l of like -10? Sure, let's go for a walk!"

brilliance, shape, etc.' Billiant, it says? Yes, I think so.



Her parents are brilliant, too. That's why yesterday we were like "hey, it's 30 degrees out with a wind chill of like -10? Sure, let's go for a walk!"