Iowa City Trip - just Zay and Mommy...

I'm a little behind, but last week was my first time taking Zay to the Iowa City Children's Hospital all by myself. ANd it was NO BIG DEAL! Shane felt very guilty for having work obligations and not being able to go with us, but as you can see...we did just fine! :)

We met with Zay's PKU Dr. and his dietician. They both said that Zay is doing GREAT! His Phe levels have been managed very well and he is developmentally right on track! What a great appointment!

Later in the week we had Isaiah's 9 month well-child checkup. This appointment wasn't as fun...we found out that our little guy has a double ear infection! :( Bummer...I felt like a bad mom for not even knowing! Zay had been a little fussy the previous week, but he also had THREE teeth pop through!!! Poor little man...he really is a trooper! So...since he really didn't have symptoms of an ear infection, we have to take him back in a couple weeks to get his ears checked. Our doctor said if Zay was a little older he probably wouldn't worry about getting his ears re-checked, but since Zay is really starting to talk more and more he wants to make sure that an ear infection wouldn't cause any delays in saying more words, etc.

AND one other thing that came out of his 9 month appointment....we have been referred to an allergist. We have an appointment this next week to see if there is anything more we can be doing for Zay's breathing. We still haven't confirmed if he has asthma or allergies, so hopefully getting him tested will help us find a solution. (I'm really hoping that eventually we can get rid of the nebulizer treatments...) So - I guess we will know more after our appointment!

Overall, this probably seems like a lot of doctor appointments, follow-ups, etc. But honestly, it's like our new normal. Sad as it is, all our doctors and nurses know us by name, and care about Zay so much. They all say what a HAPPY and cute boy he is. As a matter of fact, last week I saw our doctor's nurse outside of Zay's appointment and she was asking me about him. She made the comment "you are so lucky".....at first I was taken by surprise. Lucky...? Is she serious....?

Lucky that we go to the doctor what seems like every other day? Lucky that we have to watch our sweet little boy get poked and prodded ALL THE TIME? Lucky we have to miss work to drive to Iowa City? Lucky we have to make our 9 month old sit on our laps and constantly try to prevent him from putting his mouth all over objects at the doctor’s office while we wait for lab work? Lucky that our "little man" has the pain tolerance of a man? Doesn't sound lucky to me...sounds sad!

HOWEVER, that comment has seriously changed my perspective! We are lucky! Zay is 1 in a million...actually Shane has done the math and he's more like 1 in 62 MILLION! :) Either way, God made the odds land in our favor! Zay is ours and we are lucky!!