“Doctor's Visits and Paternal Instincts”

Lauren had her nine month (and one day) checkup this morning. Corinne and I both went, as we always have.

She's a model of baby health, except that she has one possible (and hard to miss) symptom of premature pituitary activity (the pituitary gland should remain dormant for another ten years or so). The doctor was a little concerned, so he scheduled an appointment with the Endocrinologists at Yale.

The folks at Yale told him to have some blood work done and her wrists X-Rayed before she goes down there, to save us a trip to New Haven.

The doctor was able to get an appointment at Pequot Medical Center (a local mini-hospital owned by Lawrence and Memorial, the main local hospital) at 2:30 this afternoon.

There was no point in both of us going over there, and I deal with blood and horrified screams of agony (from needles) better than Corinne does. (In other words, I don't start crying too.) So, I went.

The X-Ray was fine, and she laughed and smiled her way through it. To her, it was nothing more than "Opa" holding her hands down on a cold piece of glass for a few seconds.

The blood drawing was not so fine. We were there at shift change (3:00 PM), so we had a doctor, an intern, and then another doctor. The first two couldn't find the vein in her arm with their fingers. The second doctor (assisted by the same intern, and me) tried both arms, and finally settled on her right. He tied that rubber tourniquet very tightly, and I asked him to confirm that he was trying to do this with a single prick. I also told Lauren she could punch the doctor in the nose if he got her more than once.

Nice, huh?

Now I feel a little guilty, though. The poor guy is trying to do his job, and I got all protective of my little girl who isn't really mine. She's had lots of shots, but I knew this would take a lot longer than a shot, and I wanted it clear that they'd better hit the vein the first time.

Thankfully, they hit the vein on the first attempt. She screamed bloody murder. I did my best to soothe her, but by the time it was done the bed around her head was soaked with tears. :-(

They took quite a bit, but they did it all with one large syringe so it would go faster. They needed three separate vials for the testst that had been ordered, so the doctor divided the blood up after it was drawn.

Now we wait. She'll be fine.