Vancouver Check up

I should have taken more pictures but I have to say I was a tad busy with just little man and I. In the past we've done the trek together via the airplane to Vancouver. But its been a few years since its just been the two of us on the plane. So things are a tad different now. Instead of huggin him on my lap he's now in his own seat. As you know he can't sit unsupported so that means I had to take a car seat with us. Of course I have the biggest most succumb car seat on the market which is great apart from when you have to carry it through security, carry it down the corridor and onto the plane. It wouldn't be that bad if it was just the car seat I carried. But I also had Alistair in a stroller and a carryon back pack with all the stuff we needed for two days. I didn't want to waste time at the luggage carrousel so I was pretty good at fine tuning the little back pack. Jason and Francis took us to the airport for 6 am. That was the other thing, I had to take a massive gulp and put my big mama pants on as this was the first time leaving Francis behind. It really wasn't that bad but still just got me a little gulpy.

 

Boarding the plane was fabulous, yay WestJet! The concern on how I was going to manage went out the window. They were more then helpful. The one thing I learnt was I need to allow people to help me. I read that somewhere lately from some special needs mom. That is, get use to allowing people to help you while they are little so that you don't end up hurting/damaging yourself before you learn the lesson to accept and ask for help. I have to say I did ask for help more than I'm use to but I still could have said yes to a little bit more. All part of the learning curve. Anyhow, I even had help from the pilot to carry my car seat off! Another thing was I also got to see a couple other teenage special needs kids come on and got a visual of how those non weight baring children managed. Just a nice thing to put in my memory bank and realize its   all  doable with a nice bit of patience. Anyhow, thanks to my buddies Kim & Don I also had no worries when I arrived in Van. They scooped me up, handed me a key to their apartment, fed me, gave me some scrummy wine, and just all and all made the whole trip very uncomplicated and less medical.

 

I could have seen more specialist this trip but I have learnt to prioritize and decrease the hectic nature by limiting who I see. It just can get so much that its ridiculous and the information I would receive from some specialist can wait for another day. So we were there for two days. The first day we just got all the tests done. Alistair was put under general again and got a CT & MRI. The little man did so well with it all. Then I scooped him up and took him for x-rays. After that we went for a relatively long walk to down town Vancouver where my friends live. I happened to get a little lost, which is the reason the walk was a tad long. But I realized I was in the wrong area when I noticed people started to look a tad on the twitchy side. OOPS..and thank goodness for the iPhone I was able to sort out my bearings and get back on track. Anyhow the next day we saw the Ortho doc first, Dr. Alvaraz. She's following how his hips and feet are progressing. This was the first time he had his hips and feet x-rayed. I was relatively pleased with the results. Numerous health professionals were wondering if he had "missing parts" in his feet or the layout was incorrect. Anyhow they are ok. The only issue is because he flexes his feet so much he is creating a high arch in his feet which in the future could cause issues.

 As for his hips everything is presently ok. However, his hip joint comes into his socket at a high angle which could cause issues in the future. SO basically with both of these concerns I need to get him weight baring. Easier said then done. He has decided its not a worth while cause anymore but mama may just help him change his mind. I have a beautiful stander at home and my goal is to start with getting him in it 15 min a day and work up to 2 hours a day. Right now we are barely making 15 min and I do everything I can imagine to keep him happy there: dance, sing, dangle things, roll him around the house....its not so that he will walk in the future. The goal is to assist with his bone density and hopefully prevent osteoporosis from lingering in to early in his life too early.



 

The next doc I saw was Dr. Rilley, the neurologist. This was the second time we caught up with him. This visit was so much better than the last just because Alistair wasn't hollering away making it impossible to communicate with the man. Anyhow I was pretty stressed about this appointment. I didn't realize it like most appointments until after the fact. Once I get the information and feel like bursting into tears I think WOW I was feeling a tad intense about this. Anyhow, the great news is that there is no indication of wear and tear on the spinal cord at the moment. As usual there are some new anomalies

We knew that Alistair had the top two vertebrae displaced but through the CT they were able to look at them in more detail. So I guess the top vertebrae isn't growing like the rest. One can kinda see it in the x-ray above (two pictures up) the spinous process (or tail) of the vertebrae is a lot shorter. But the bigger issue is that the vertebral foramen (hole in vertebrae) is quite small. This could provide an indication for surgery. However, they also did x-rays of his neck in flexion and extension and because the top two appear to be working together surgery is being held off. So this is a great thing. 

So now its just a matter of waiting and monitoring. So in another 9 months we'll be off to Van again. But I guess we'll wait a couple years now before we sedate Alistair again for another MRI. I'm pleased with this as the poor kid has been sedated enough as it is in his little four years of life. I'm thinking this was the fifth time...but don't quote me.

 

We did get some down time while in Van but like I said I just forgot to take pictures and enjoyed the moments. But after we were all done with the specialists we walked to Granville Island and I found a goose poop free spot to lay Alistair out on the grass. As in typical Alistair fashion he refuses to sleep unless he is completely stretched out. My buddy Kim met us down there with her son Grady and we hung out, ate some yummy food, and watched Grady splash about in the water park.

So there you have it. A relatively uneventful trip. We got back home to PG at 9pm to Francis sitting up on Daddy's shoulders greating us with big smiles. Yay for family.