The Follow-Up

This appointment was supposed to be a route follow-up from Justin's prior ear infection. I finally met their regular Pedi. I was telling her that we had a rough patch with sick kids and including myself. I was getting frustrated why Justin kept getting those low-grade fever because it seem like every time he had one it would be another 'ear infection'. She did say he had one again. She decided to check his throat culture and made him open his mouth WIDE open. She then started telling me that she saw small ulcers in the back of his throat and was going to be right back. She hand me the papers and said this is what he have called 'Gingivostomatitis'. This is similar to 'Foot, Mouth, and Hand' disease.

This may explained the reason why he wasn't improving with talking, eating, or wasn't being himself for the longest time. He has been going through over 6 months of speech therapy. We knew that he wasn't showing any sign of improvement. I told the Pedi that we were getting frustrated because he hasn't really shown much improvement with talking. She says that with chronic ear infection can cause speech delay. I didn't realized how it could affect him to be this way.

I am still not sure why we had waited this long because Justin's ear infection kept coming up 4 times in the last 6 month. We were referred to ENT DR (Dr. Piazza). We were hoping to get the bottom of all of the ongoing issues such as talking delay, not chewing/swallowing and eating poorly. I was beginning to think they may have missed his 'diagnosis' this long.

By the time we met with the ENT DR. John and I agree that we were not happy with the appointment. It was very unsettling because we didn't get any answers from him. I felt like why do we have to press him to pay attention to what we were telling him. We walk out of the office not knowing what to do.

I knew I had to start looking for a new pedi DR for both of them. I wanted to find a DR that would have compassion to understand what we are going through. I finally got a chance to switch them to a new pedi. I met and felt very comfortable since I was in the middle of the ongoing situation. The new pedi DR says to call his office as soon if Justin get another ear infection.

From the ENT DR we got medicine only to help Justin to get through his pain in his throat. It took about another week before he could come around and start talking again. He started to come around and finally kind of open his shell with talking and eating again.

We do hope that time that he will start having the real 'explosion' of words. This has been a upside down battle for us. Because the fact that we had to always 2nd guess what he want from us. Rianna's reading/language level is at 3 year old. She has been nonstop chatting since she turned '2'.

The good news is that we're getting there with both of them!