Three Appointments and a Haircut

Our busy week continued with an eye doctor appointment Friday, a dentist appointment Monday, then an ENT appointment yesterday (Tuesday). We had a pretty relaxing weekend, but on Sunday we really stressed Tucker out with a haircut! Tucker was so well-behaved for the doctors, who knew the haircut would be the worst?? Tucker has always hated haircuts, so we have been letting him grow his hair longer between each one. This time, his hair looked very Justin Bieber-ish, what a cutie:) For those who don't know our family, it is full of so many girls! And right now, most of them have Justin Bieber-fever! Gina got a CD for Easter, and a poster of Justin Bieber came with it, so it's on Mom's fridge. Then last week we stayed with the Poches in Lake Charles, and they have the same poster on their fridge! Chris asked, "geez, is this guy everywhere?" So we finally decided it was too much hair! And on Sunday Aunt Alexis cut it for us. He squirmed and squealed! Uncle Andrew had to hold him down, I don't know why Chris gave him that mean job! After about 30 minutes, and a few breaks, they were done. After that he would not sit still for a picture! So I will have to get a good one and post it. So as for the doctor's appointments: Eye doctor: Tucker had mild ROP due to his prematurity, but it regressed without any treatment. He had bad strabismus (eye crossing from weak muscles) until he was 2, which is when the eye doctor fixed it with laser surgery. Anatomy-wise, his eyes are fine. The problem is that he has such a hard time looking at what he is doing! It seems like a very bad attention problem, but his teacher and therapists really think it is a vision problem. His teacher is writing his IEP this week, and every person keeps telling her, "If he would just LOOK at what he is doing!"....fill in the blanks. Even his PT at school called me today, saying that she thinks he could "graduate" from the PT program, but he does not look at what he is doing, so he seems too unsteady at times. So anyways, the eye doctor looked at Tucker for quite a while on Friday, she just watched him walk around the room. Tucker watched Mickey Mouse on Chris's phone, he watched a part of Nemo on the doctor's TV, and he played with different toys we had brought. The doctor said that his head tilting and eye squinting is very inconsistent, and if it was a vision problem it would be very consistent. Also, when it is something Tucker WANTS to look at, like Mickey, he pays great attention and looks right at it.......So, as Chris said, cross another one of Tucker's medical excuses off of the list!! Unfortunately, it may not be that simple! There is a type of therapy that's available, its vision therapy that helps the eyes to work together. This is for kids whose eyes seem totally fine, but they just can't see words and things the way they should. This is very controversial, eye doctors apparently do not believe in this therapy one bit. So we will see about that, I guess. We have been hearing about this type of therapy for a long time, but lately it just seems to be such a huge problem, so we may be starting that up soon. Dentist: Tucker has been to the dentist's office three times now. The first time was pretty bad, but the second time was fine. The dentist likes to just check his teeth and count them, and make sure nothing crazy is going on. Tucker has a high, skinny palette from being intibated so long, so we have major orthodontic work in Tuck's future, how fun! Well this time we did not get an appointment with his regular dentist, so we met one of the partners. We walked in and the hygeneist had all of the tools set out. I asked, "you are not using all of that, are you? He will freak out!" She explained to me that she was going to do a cleaning and give him fluoride. I can not overemphasize how much Tucker HATES brushing his teeth! Every morning it is a fight, when I say "time to brush your teeth" he starts gagging. He gags and fights me the whole time, and then gags for several minutes afterwards, until he gets every bit of toothpaste out of his mouth. His teacher sings a funny song at school about teeth brushing, she said Tucker loves it. I even tried singing that, and he still cries! So anyways I was pretty worried about getting a cleaning. I told Tucker the nurse was going to brush his teeth with her tools, and that he had to be a good boy and lay still. She let him play with the tools first, and feel the sensations on his fingers. When she put the brusher (I don't know what it's called!) in his mouth, he just laid there and let her polish every tooth. I was shocked. He was terrified of the sucker thing, though, so he jumped up at that point. Then she put some fluoride on a toothbrush and told him she had to brush his teeth again. He screamed "No!" at her, and I was so proud that he said "no!" He has started shaking his head for "no" lately, and he says "no no" sometimes, but this is the first time he said it so clearly:) So I smiled to myself, but told him "yes! you are doing what the nurse asks." So he sat down and let her brush his teeth with the fluoride. The dentist came in after that and looked at his teeth. He whimpered through this, probably wondering when all of these people would get their hands out of his mouth:( They had asked me if Tucker had any major changes over the last 6 months. I replied, "none that I can think of"..... The dentist looked at his throat, and she said that having his tonsils out was kind of a big deal. I failed to mention that Tuck got his tonsils and adenoids out three weeks ago, not to mention getting his trach out in the last 6 months! So now you see why Mom usually comes with us! She would have waited for me to answer the dentist's questions, then said "actually, he did have a few recent procedures....remember, Leigh?" ENT and Audiologist: On Tuesday Tucker saw the ENT for a follow-up on the tonsil and adenoid removal. She said he is looking great, and she may not have to do anything to him anymore! So that was exciting, since she has put Tuck in the hospital three times in the last 6 months. She did have to adjust his right ear tube, though, because it was trying to dig into his skin. She did that in the office with a long needle, it looked pretty scary! The nurse held Tucker's face, and I held his arms. We told him he had to be good, and then he would get a prize. He cried a little, but stayed pretty still. When she got the tube back in, he screamed pretty loud! I was kind of happy, though, because she said that part hurt, and I was glad that he actually felt and responded to the pain. He has such a high pain tolerance that he usually ignores things like that. The dr said that Tucker was one of the best behaved kids for that procedure. He got off of the exam table and said "bye." It was so cute! He did not even hug the doctor, and this is one of his favorite docs. So I guess she is not his favorite anymore, but that's okay since we will not be going back for 6 months, yay:) We went to the audiologist's office today to get Tucker some new custom ear molds so that his ears don't get wet in the tub. That was a breeze, it barely took ten minutes. Afterwards I took Tucker to Target and finally got him a prize! He got the new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse movie, Minnie's Bowtique. The 3 movies he already has are pretty worn out, they are skipping and it is kind of boring (for Chris and me) to watch the same ones over and over! Tucker also got a BIG bag of chips, what we call the "Bag of Bags". It is one of those variety pack bags, with 22 small bags of chips, Fritos being his favorite. He held onto that bag like he thought it was going to run away! So tomorrow we are going to relax! Then on Friday we have his IEP meeting, and we will meet his new teacher for next year, wish us luck!