May 6th: Riding the Medical Merry-Go-Round

Today, Willow went for her first visit to the pediatrician. All things considered, she is doing well.


Dr. Tang watched her crawl around on the floor and walk, with Baba's help, of course! She said that she thought Willow will need some physcial therapy to strengthen her leg muscles. (Willow has an Early Intervention evaluation scheduled on May 21st with a speech pathologist and a physical therapist.


When Dr. Tang did the physical exam, "Weeping Willow" came through again! She cried and screamed and fussed the whole time. We had a hard time keeping her in place so the the doctor could record her height and weight! Everything looked good; Willow is in the range for her height and head size. However, her weight is still significantly below the range for her age. In fact, she weighed in at 20.7 lbs at the medical exam in Guangzhou but today she weighed in at 19.1. I was a little surprised to hear that she had lost weight! Guess I'll have to increase the portions!

Then came the exam of the mouth. Surprise, Surprise, Willow is teething. Her 2nd year molars are starting to come in. (No wonder she has been so cranky!) Dr. Tang said that the repair on her cleft lip looked good but that the gum would need some work and Willow will definitely need some orthodontia as well as some cosmetic surgery down the road. She only has 3 of the 4 front teeth and this is because of how the gum was affected by the cleft lip. She referred us to St. Peter's University Medical Hospital's Craniofacial & Neurosurgical Center for an evaluation at which Willow will be seen by a Craniofacial specialist, an ENT specialist, a Speech Therapist, a Physical Therapist, a Surgeon and an Orthodontist. She will also have a cursory hearing test and the go off for a complete hearing test. Poor thing! I don't envy her one bit! (And I don't envy us having to get her through it!) We have set up this appointment for June 18th.

Meanwhile back at Dr. Tang's office, she was given 4 vaccines (to try to catch her up; more will follow!) and a TB test as well as prescriptions for a very good (but very expensive!) cream for her eczema, a vitamin with fluoride and a battery of blood tests. We return to the office on Friday for the TB test results and then it is off to the lab to have blood drawn for the tests. (Neither of us are looking forward to this one either!)