Clinic Visit Fall 2011

It was a very early morning for our family today – I try to get Gavin in for the first available appointments so I know we won’t spend a lot of time waiting and before the waiting area fills with kids.

After a few minutes of checking out the scenery (our clinic just moved to a brand new location & we’d only been there once before)

 

…watching cartoons on a submarine bench

…and playing with a oversized marble maze…

…we got to visit with Gavin’s medical team. And it was an outstanding visit! His weight is good, his height is good and his cuteness levels are off the charts. As long as things go well, we don’t have to go back until February when Gavin goes in for a big day of annual testing.

Gavin’s entire medical team is made up of women – but today he was thrown for a loop. While nearly his entire team joined us in our “room,” his pulmonologist arrived with a medical student - who is a…man! Gavin hid underneath a child sized table only peering out if his favorite “Dr. Dadunaaaaaaa!” asked him a question or needed to listen to his heart & lungs “wit her stefastope.” I just asked him if he would nicer to his doctor’s “helper” next time and I was told, “I think about it.”

He proudly told everyone that he wears “big boy underwears” and that he is asking Santa for video games and socks. Yep, socks. He also informed them that his favorite store is Lowes (thanks to the kid carts with steering wheels) and that when he turns three his cousin Grant will be four.

We got a little information on the latest Vertex news – but because the Minnesota CF Education day is this upcoming Saturday we’ll be getting a lot of information there. His pulmonologist did say, “this is very exciting stuff” so we’ll take that as a good omen for the news we’ll hear in a couple days. Our clinic is number one in the country (by 10%) for lung function in ages 6-12 – just another reminder why we make the 1.5 hour drive to the Twin Cities vs. seeing a doctor at Mayo Clinic just five minutes from our house. No drive is too far to get our child seen at one of the top three CF centers in the country.

The entire family got our flu shots while we were there – hopefully saving us some copays! While Gavin tweaked out about the shot, he did think it was pretty cool that all three of us received matching Snoopy stickers! And a note about tweaking out – Gavin’s least favorite part of the entire experience is getting weighed. He refuses to stand on the scale without me, but calmly listens to everything else he has to do…that kid…

After clinic I decided to follow the advice of several other CF mama friends – do something fun! So we made the quick trip to St. Paul to visit the Children’s Museum. When we left Gavin told me it was the best day ever :)

 

and it took just five minutes in the car for him to totally pass out.

I’m still having trouble believing that Thanksgiving is just a week away. Time is flying by much too quickly – and the lack of snow makes it difficult to relate to the holidays. We woke up to 15 degree weather – if it’s going to be that cold, can we please have some white stuff to play in (but after we get back from a road trip for Turkey Day Mother Nature – thanks!)