thankful thursday

today i am thankful for God-things, or God-incidences, or whatever you may call them. basically, i'm thankful for that feeling you get after experiencing something like that. you just kind of sit back in awe and say, "thank you God! i totally didn't expect that, but how cool that You did that just for me!"

i had a God-incident today. but first, the story behind the story... (*spoiler allert: stop reading if you don't like poop stories!*)

one year ago, january 2008, ryan somehow developed a bad case of constipation. he was 6 months old and out of the blue this happened. i hadn't started him on any solid foods yet, but he was a bottle baby and the formula sure didn't help with this. so the first time he went to his doctor, dr. b (who i really like, by the way), she told me to start giving him pear juice and that should help.

well it didn't help and three months later i went back and told her he was still having problems. she didn't want to give him any medications if it weren't necessary, which i was grateful for. so i still tried to tweak his diet to help his bowel movements. this still didn't help so we went to the doctor three months later. "well hopefully since he's starting to crawl around and move a little bit more that will help his bowels get going," she said. again, no help.

the last two times i've taken him to the doctor i've gotten really frustrated with her. she keeps saying that she wants to change it with his diet and keeps asking "have you tried giving him any pear juice?"

YESSS! you told me to do that 9 months ago and it STILL ISN'T HELPING!!!!!!!!

actually, the last time i took him in i got really mad. i asked her if i could switch him to 2% milk to see if that would help with his constipation. and her reply was, "no, he really needs the fat from the whole milk until he's two. why? does he have little bouts of constipation every now and then?"

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! don't you people write this stuff down in their charts?!?! and YES I'VE GIVEN HIM PEAR JUICE!!!!

yes, she really did ask if i had tried giving him juice. come on lady, this is the 4th time i've talked to you about it. write it down. i'm not a first time mom, i know this isn't normal.

so now on to the God-incident story...

both of the kids had their well checkups today. and i had already decided that if ryan didn't get any help or if anything didn't change today that i was going to find another doctor. i had already called a pediatric GI (from children's mercy hospital) to make sure they take our insurance and to see if i need a referral. and i had my mind made up that our pediatrician was going to have to earn her right to remain our doctor. bottom line, give me some answers, and get ryan some help, or we're outta here!!

after the nurse checked the kids' weight and height and asked all her questions that needed to be asked, a 30-something year old doctor, dr. o, came in the room and told me that he was a doctor from CHILDREN'S MERCY HOSPITAL and that every couple months they go to different offices to see how things are going, etc. so he checked out both the kids (and i have to add that he was waaaaayyyyyy more thorough) and asked if there were any other problems or concerns. so i told him that ryan's had chronic constipation and that i wanted to get a referral for a GI and that he's had it for a year and that i've tried to fix it with his diet and that hasn't helped. so then he actually asked me what his diet was like (dr. b never asked that) and then he asked me what his bowel movements were like (dr. b never asked that either. she'd only ask if i'd given him pear juice! lol). and to tell you all the truth, he screams bloody murder almost every time he poops. his poop is hard like dried clay, it's usually the size of a silver dollar, and it usually has blood in it. he can't even poop on his own. we always have to take his diaper off so that there's a place for his poop to go. after all, it can't smash into his diaper... and we always have to hold his legs to help him push. this is definitely not normal.

so dr. o asked me if i had tried miralax and he told me that the GIs at children's mercy would start him out on miralax to clean him out and that i should try that first and save a trip! so later when dr. b came in she examined the kids also and might i add that both doctors were floored by how smart samantha was. and how stinkin' cute she was. she was actually answering all the questions that they asked me about her. "nope, no fever or colds or anything this week!" she said. =)

but anyway, when dr. b was done checking out ryan dr. o said that i also had a concern about constipation. and dr. b looked from ryan to samantha and asked, "for which one?" lol. i don't expect her to remember everything, but seriously. look in the chart once in a while! that is, if you wrote it in the chart! so i told her again that the diet hasn't helped and she also recommended miralax since he's a little bit older now. she explained to me what to do and i asked her what we'd do if for some reason this doesn't help after a couple weeks and she told me to call her right away and we'd pursue it more. well THANK YOU for finally doing something about this!

so the kids had a good checkup (and dr. b avoided the wrath of erin!). samantha weighs 35 lbs and is 42 inches tall. she's finally moved out of the 10th percentile for her height and weight!! and ryan weighs 25 lbs (50th percentile), but i'm not sure how long he is. he's grown though... he moved from the 75th to the 90th percentile for his height!

as we were walking out of the building i couldn't get over how awesome it was that God had put dr. o there today. and that he was from children's mercy and he knew what the GI there would do. ryan actually had an appointment last wednesday, january 28th, but at the last minute i changed it to today so that i could bring samantha at the same time.

no coincidences here! ...thank you God!

what are you thankful for today?