testing, testing...

I have lost count of the number of doctor's appointments Silas has had in the last 3 months. I decided it would be helpful to give a clear update here.

Pediatric Neurologist
Most people don't know that Silas has been seeing a neurologist for the past several week. We wanted to keep it quiet until we knew what we were dealing with, because the outcome of these tests may have been difficult to share. Silas' pediatrician decided that it would be a good time to pursue further testing to find out if there is a known cause for all of the physical delays Silas still struggles with. Two reasons for this:

1) Silas is currently on Passport, the state insurance that we are very thankful for. Passport pays for all medical bills in their entirety.

2) Silas is currently involved in First Steps, the state's early intervention program. This program is for kids under the age of 3 and is completely free. We tried to get Silas started in some outpatient therapy, but it was denied by Passport because he is not yet 3 (so can just do First Steps) and because there is no medical diagnosis. As a result of this denial, Dr. Sturgeon encouraged us to pursue testing in case there is a medical diagnosis we can claim with insurance companies, enabling us to continue therapy after he turns 3.

We are incredibly thankful, because Silas's MRI of his brain came back completely NORMAL. The neurologist also ordered some further blood work and a urine test (try to get YOUR 2-year-old to pee in a bag), but we have not yet received results.

Hematologist
We discovered that Silas is anemic back in February. At first we thought it was an iron deficiency and increased the iron in his diet, also giving him iron supplement drops. Nothing changed, so we were referred to the hematologist. They told us it is apparent that he does NOT have an iron deficiency, but there must be some other reason for the low hemoglobin. He had a bunch of blood work done that was sent to Mayo Clinic; it all came back normal. He has an ultrasound of his spleen scheduled, and we have to do more blood tests and stool tests. We are thankful that everything has come back normal so far, but we are praying for answers.


Ear/Nose/Throat Specialist
Silas continued to have fluid in his ears on and off throughout the spring and early summer, causing several ear infections. We were referred to an ENT, and they did a hearing screening, which Silas did not pass. He recently retook the hearing screening and passed, so we have every reason to believe his hearing is fine and he only failed the first time because it is hard to gauge a 2-year-old's reactions to random sounds. His ears have been fluid-free as of late, so we are holding off on putting tubes in for now. If he gets 3 ear infections this fall/winter, we will move forward with tubes.


Whew. As you can imagine, these appointments are time-consuming and not fun for our kid. Plus, lucky Ivy gets to come along for most of them. The Lord has been gracious with me, and they have done pretty well for the most part. However, we are looking forward to finishing all this testing, getting some answers, and slowing down the appointments.

We continue to trust the Lord with Silas's health and believe that he is good no matter what the doctors find out. And we are so grateful that it seems so far that they haven't found out anything seriously wrong with Silas; what a true blessing and answer to prayer! Please continue to pray with us for Silas's complete healing.