Today Sam had 2 appointments and a DEXA scan, at two different locations.
We started in St. Paul to meet with Dr. Sheridan, endocrinologist. Basically things are good, few things to watch and we go back in 6 months. His T3 was elevated but his TSH was normal. T4 was normal so for now we just watch. T3 can be elevated due to growing too. We are not going to do the pamidronate right now. While pamidronate does help strengthen the bone, it also changes its' structure. There is not enough long term studies out there on pediatric use. it is technically considered an off label use. If Sam were to have more fractures, like more than 5 in a year, its' use will be reconsidered. I didn't ask but I know it is used in children as pain control too. I will ask about that next time. 6 months will give us a good amount of time to see how he heals from the last surgery.
Dr. sheridan's nurse felt bad for us that we were running back and forth, so she gave us two coupons for free parking before we left. So before leaving St. Paul, I got Sam a treat from the Ginko cafe. We then took off for Burnsville.
There we met with April, the orthopedic nurse practioner. She pulled off the tagaderm and steristrips from Sam's incisions. I think this was the hardest part of the day for Sam. I ended up giving him acetaminophen and oxy-codone at this point. The incisions underneath looked very good. He can now go in water. So maybe a bath tonight will get rid of that dirt on his legs that will not scrub off. She went and talked to Dr. Healy, who was there too and came back and told us that we didn't need to go back for 6 months. Kind of surprised me. I thought we would get an x-ray close to the 6 week mark to see how the holes are filling in. Sam will get the standing lower body x-ray to check on everything. We will be starting PT in October.
We then got back in the car and went home to Rosemount to pick up Sam's sisters. I figured the DEXA scan would not finish before Richard had to go to work so I took them with. Well I took Ella with. Zoe I dropped off at her friends for a slumber party in Eagan.
Back in St. Paul we had the scan. this is the same kind of bone density scan used for post-menopausal women. however for kids they do more scans. It was actually 6, the lumbar spine area, right hip, left hip, right femur, left femur and a full body scan. The full body scan was the longest. It was actually 3 passes of the C shaped arm, right side, middle and left side. Ella did great waiting for us. Sam had a hard time keeping his toes still. He kept wiggling them and the hip and leg scans had to be restarted because of it. it will take a week to get the results. We finally got it done and could head home for the final time today.
So 6 months until we see a specialist again. Feels kind of strange after so many appointments for the last year. Time to regroup and let Sam be a kindergartner. Though I kind of felt this way August 2010, one year after the tree fell on my kids, my mom died, Sam broke tibea, then femur. Sam broke the other femur 6 weeks later. So what will happen?
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