So this morning my right eye starts HURTING. Badly. I immediately remember how bad the iritis got in my left eye a month ago, decide that I don't want to miss another week of work (we can't afford that anyway) so I call Dr. Snook and get an appt. at 1:15. He looks and says I have the beginnings of a corneal ulcer, good for me for catching it so quickly, and to save me some money I can just use the same drops I was using for the iritis and then he gave me a sample of something else to use. Should be perfect in a week. He even put those awesome orange numbing drops in my eye. *sigh* That stuff is addicting, no wonder they won't prescribe it. Out the door 11 minutes later after just my $25 co-pay. Dr. Snook is awesome. (Free ad for him: He rotates between offices in Denton, Lewisville and Plano, accepts virtually every insurance, and he even does glasses and contacts exams! http://www.northdallaseye.com)
Then at 3:00 was Gracie's 15-month well exam and shots. We've had to postpone this a few times due to her always getting sick the week of her appointment. So now at 16.5 months she weighs 24lbs 7ozs (just above average for her age-group) and is 33in tall (in the top 5% of her age group!). Dr. Conger is not concerned at all about her weight because she is SO tall for her age. Everything looks fine, she's on an 18-month level developmentally (teeth, dexterity, habits and vocabulary)! The only thing of concern is the fluid that she has carried on her ears for over 6 months now. Before we go to an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist (which will cost us a ton of money because Gracie's insurance has anything to do with her ears on a separate $5750/year deductible), Dr. Conger wants us to add an inhaled steroid (Pulmicort) to her nebulizer and do it twice each day for one month. Back in October, she had us start giving Gracie a nosespray in the mornings to try to ease the pressure in her ears and therefore decrease ear infections, which actually worked. Since the nosespray idea was a success, she believes that by treating her airways and lungs and opening them up more it will further decrease the pressure and hopefully reduce the fluid in her ears, if not get rid of it entirely. So we will try this before we worry about tubes. If the Pulmicort does nothing after a couple of months, we will then go to the specialist. But if there is even a little improvement, we will continue with the Pulmicort until the fluid is gone, and then at that point probably continue the Pulmicort a few times each week to keep it that way. So pray that the Pulmicort works! We are so thankful to have such a great doctor for Gracie who is so willing to work with us and reduce cost by not always jumping into a "quick-fix".
I'm going to try to remember most of the words Gracie is saying now, but there are a LOT of them: Mommy, Daddy, Nanny, dog, ball, poo-poo, hi, bye-bye, that, now, juice, more, no, bubble, bath, and several more. She says sentences: "Hi Mommy (or Daddy or dog)", "Bye-bye poo-poo" (we flush her poops down the toilet and she waves bye to them), and "No juice". She shakes her head no and nods yes in answer to questions (which I love because I can actually have a sort of conversation with her... so cool!). She can point to her belly-button, nose and mouth and gets her ears and eyes mixed up but tries really hard. =) Still sleeping well in her toddler bed, but she hasn't attempted to get out of it in the middle of the night so I don't think she knows that she can. She is officially in all 2T-size clothes now; 18- and 24-months sizes are just not long enough for her. Our big girl!
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