Sorry..

...it took me so long to update about the appointment. it was just...kind of a rough day.

The assessment itself went well. In all other developmental areas aside from gross motor, she tested at 14-16 months. She will be 17 months in a couple of days, so this was a very slight delay, nothing major. Her gross motor skills were at 11 months, a delay of about 5 months, give or take. She ordered the normal battery of blood tests that she orders for any patient that comes in with Julia's concerns, and added a complete TS scan to the mix. So, she had a chromosome abnormality blood test, a CPK blood test (which is the test that determines and issues with her actual muscles...Basically seeing if the low tone has an actual cause), a thyroid blood test, a CBC, and the TS scan. Poor kid had 7, yes 7 vials of blood drawn.

We left, went to lunch and I came home to a message on the machine from the doctor, saying that she wanted to conduct one more diagnostic test, which she decided on after reviewing Julia's growth charts. My immediate thought was that she wasn't gaining enough weight (remember when she was little and had to have weight checks every couple of weeks?).

I called her back. She said that she had concerns about the rate at which Julia'a head was growing. Her head circumference was rather large, and had been increasing at a steady pace. It's funny. Everytime we go to the pedi, well not every but a lot, they have to remeasure her head. Even at birth, I clearly remember the doctor or the nurse saying something about a CT, but apparently they didn't think there was a problem.

Anyway, the diagnostic test she wants to perform? Yup, you guessed it.

An MRI.

I left the office feeling pretty good. The doctor , before calling back, was basically of the opinion that Julia was progressing normally, just at a slower rate than usual (i.e, she is doing everything in the right order and in the right way, just not in the amount of time that is considered appropriate).

Now, I am kind of scared. I am not sure if I am actually scared that they will find something on the MRI, or if I am scared of the MRI itself. Emily had an MRI back in July of 2004. Typically, a kid of her age would have had to have been sedated. We decided to try Emily without sedation and she did marvelously. She even fell asleep. I explained to her in depth what it would be like, what she would have to do etc. and she was fine.

Basically, Julia has no choice. Sedation will be a definite thing.

For some reason, that scares the hell out of me.