DS Clinic Day

Where to start...?

Our trip last week went well! As we made our way to our little hotel in Westport I noticed that the bars were packed. On a Tuesday evening at 7pm? Then I drove past a big white party tent stuffed full of people and it hit me...Cinco de Mayo! Of course!

The hotel was kind of dumpy in the common areas, but the room was nice and comfy. Ralph found a chair and ottoman to climb on...he had a blast! The TV kept turning itself off so the maintenance man came to swap it out for a new one. I ordered a pizza to be delivered, 'cause I wasn't taking these babies out to a restaurant after 3 hours in the car. The pizza man showed up with the wrong order, argh!


In the morning we scrambled to get over to the hospital by 8am. Traffic was light and the hotel was even closer than I thought. Driving past Ronald McDonald Longfellow House took me back in time. I used to walk from there to Children's Mercy every morning when Ralph was there in 2007. I always felt safe and walking in the fresh morning air would clear my head.

Surprisingly, I was able to navigate winding hallways and two sets of elevators and found the Down Syndrome clinic right away! We were shown to our room for the day after checking in. I gave up the idea of Ralph sitting on the exam table right away. He was going to have to play on the floor or risk a skull fracture!

The clinic coordinator asked me if it was OK for a medical student to sit in on our appointment today. I said it was fine. She was in year five of a six year combined undergrad/MD program at UMKC. Neat program, huh? Six years instead of eight! It was nice to have an extra set of grown up hands.

One by one we saw a nutritionist, audiologist, pediatrician, occupational therapist, psychologist. Ralph had his hearing tested in a sound booth and may have a hearing loss at a certain level. We have a sedated test scheduled in June to confirm this. The OT watched him attempt to walk and immediately got us a script for ankle foot orthotics. The psychologist had some good advice and strategies to help us deal with negative behaviors like throwing things and biting. We were done before noon, just in time for lunch. They will send me a report in a few weeks.

We dropped by the lab first to have blood drawn to check for Celiac and thyroid levels. Then to get into the hospital to get lunch in the cafeteria we had to go through security. They have cool new scanners which copy your ID photo onto a name tag. It's nice to know that they take security seriously. Thomas and Ralph enjoyed playing with the jukebox after we ate. What a great helper Thomas was!

We headed for home after lunch. Ruby and Ralph slept most of the way. Thomas even slept for about an hour! We got home just in time to get ready for Awana awards night. What a busy day!

But productive.

Just the beginning of a very busy weekend. More to come...