CHOA is the Best (and other News)

Sam had his ENT appointment in Atlanta today.  We nearly missed the appointment because somehow we got lost...even though the office was RIGHT outside of Sam's CICU stepdown room from when he had his surgery!  Of course from the second we step in the door, we remember why we love CHOA so much.  EVERYONE is nice, helpful, and truly cares.  Everything runs efficiently, everything is clean...it's just the best place for anyone to take their kid to if they are in need of special care.

Anyway, the doctor was super great.  He looked in Sam's ears with a microscope thing (of course the nurse and I had to totally restrain him which he of course fought with all his might).  He saw right away that Sam has his 8th double ear infection.  He also admitted that Sam definitely does need tubes.  He immediately asked us if we had every had Sam's hearing tested.  Of course we hadn't since he was born.  The doctor ordered a hearing test and the audiologist came right away.  Sam and Chris went into a sound booth and the audiologist did her thing.  In the end Sam's hearing came out below normal, and worse on the left than right.  She says it's probably just because of how clogged up his ears are, and we would retest after tubes were placed.

The doctor (who is the only ENT who does surgery with the cardiac anesthesiology unit at Egleston) looked at his surgery schedule to find us a date.  He is clearly a busy guy.  Not only is he the only ENT who does surgery at Egleston, he is also the only guy who does cochlear implants in Atlanta.  SOOOOO his first open appointment for surgery was OCTOBER 20!!  UGHSLKSHDFLHUGH!  He did graciously tell us that if anything came open before that date he would put us in. 

Poor little Sam, though.  I knew he was getting an ear infection.  Aside from our puke/diarrhea night, he has spent the last few nights crying every 30 min.  I've been giving him Motrin every 6 hours or so for the last day, and he still had a 99 fever at the ENT today.  He was a good boy the whole time (aside from battling me and the nurse).  He didn't like the ENT too much after the microscope incident.  As we were leaving, Sam, Chris, the ENT, and I were walking to the front door.  Sam, who was walking with us, wouldn't take his eyes off the ENT...didn't trust him I suppose.  Anyway, poor suspicious Sam walked right into a wall and dropped to the floor.  Chris and I were laughing so hard, the ENT ended up picking him up off the floor.  Poor kid.

So to recap: CHOA is amazing, Sam needs tubes (Oct 20), Sam walked into a wall. 

~Kathy