Doctor Visit

We had a doctor visit on Friday. As usual, Ella was all excited to go already as soon as she got out of bed. This time, she herself, had some questions for the doctor. She wanted to know about the drip that was coming out of her "baby balloon" at night time. She was very excited to ask him and was busy practicing her articulation of the question.

Her appointment was supposed to be at noon. But since the doctor sees her on his operating days between operations, we call in the morning to see if the scheduled time is going to work out. Sarah called in the morning and found out that 3:30 would work better. When Sarah told Ella that she didn't have to go until 3:30 Ella said that was okay and that we could just go at the same time and wait in the waiting room. Sarah thought that might be a little bit of a long time.

The time came for the appointment and Ella was again articulating how she was going to ask about her drip. Jim the nurse came in the room first and we told him that Ella had a question. What does Ella do? She starts talking in Curious George language! Jim just kind of looks at her confused. He leaves the room to get his magnifying goggles and Ella starts talking in English again. Sarah and I looked at each other, laughed, and said, "Oh Ella, why in the world with other people do you speak Curious George instead of English?"

We were quite interested in this doctor visit since we had some concerns about two of the expanders. As we have reported in earlier posts, we are not filling two of the expanders because the skin was getting thin in a couple of spots near the incisions. The skin didn't seem to be improving any and there was now one spot where the expander was exposed. So we were anxious to hear the doctor's opinion.

As usual, the doctor didn't seem too concerned. This appears to be his style. We trust his expertise and know that he has seen a lot more of these than we have. He instructed us to keep expanding the largest one (that one looks really good yet) and not to do any more expansion on the other two. Even though we are not expanding them we need to keep an eye on them for any signs of infection. If they were to get infected, the plan then would be to surgically take those two out, use as much of the expanded skin as possible, and leave the other one in and keep expanding it. Needless to say, we are hoping that we don't have to do this.

We are hoping that we can continue on as we are. Right now there is no sign of any infection and Jim says that Ella's body is doing a great job in keeping it away. Our prayer is that would continue to be the case.

I talked to the doctor and gave him a friendly reminder that we really need to have all of this done by August. He didn't seem too concerned and seemed to think that we have plenty of time no matter what happens.

So that's where we are today. We're praying that any infection will stay away. We are thankful that the main expander is still looking very good. And we are thankful for good health in general. When we left, one of the nurses told us that the ER was extremely busy with people with the flu. We are thankful that the flu has stayed away from our house. This might be because Ella doesn't get around any other kids. Yet, with me working in the hospital every day I'm amazed that I haven't brought it home!

Yesterday, my CPE group celebrated the half-way point of our program. We just finished up our final evaluations for the second quarter. For me it was another week of receiving feedback and defending Reformed theology! That seems to get more fun all the time!

All in all, we are thankful that God has led us to where we are. God continues to provide even when our faith and trust is tested. With the recent concerns with Ella's expanders, God's providential hand is again evident in bringing us geographically closer to her medical resources!