Specialists Week

Emma sees quite a few specialists on a regular basis. I am sure that she has seen more doctors in her 2 years than I have seen in my entire life. She is now on pretty much a 6 month follow-up schedule and April was the month these appointments hit. This week we have appointments with the orthopedic surgeon and the pediatric neurologist.

Our last visits with these doctors in October were overall positive and I expect to hear more of the same this week. But..........I've been burned by this expectation before and it makes me more cautious about how I approach the specialist appointments.

I walk into each specialist appointment looking forward to telling them all about Emma's progress. I like to emphasize how amazing Emma is in overcoming obstacles and winning the hearts of so many people. At the same time I'm usually sick to my stomach that they might dole out more bad news or make some bleak prediction that I could do without.

Truthfully, I don't think that any of the professionals can predict Emma's future, so I'm not sure why I get so nervous. They see Emma for 15 minutes every 6 months and Emma is distracted - looking all around at what is in the room, the lights, the instruments, not caring a bit about doing anything for the doctor in front of her. They don't really get to see the side of Emma we see at home. The side of her that laughs at our silly antics, that is making great progress at trying to crawl and walk, that is always up for an adventure.

Chris and I know Emma and think that we have the best shot at predicting what she can do in the future. We will continue to check in with the specialists- to make sure her hips are correctly set, that she stays seizure-free, that her therapies are appropriate, etc. I'm sure that I'll always be a little nervous before the specialist appointments, but I'm predicting that as time goes by Emma will amaze everyone on her team.