4 Year Well Visit

Judith had her 4 year well visit this morning, complete with booster shots.  I wasn't sure how things would look because she's been fighting off a cold, but her ears looked good and her lungs sounded clear.

This year was the first year that they did a vision and hearing test on her.  Everyone thought the vision test was ridiculous because we know she has vision problems and is clearly being followed since she's wearing glasses, but because we have secondary insurance through medicaid (our state has a Katie Beckett Waiver lookalike program, which means kids who have CF and certain other conditions automatically qualify for the program, regardless of income) they had to do it and submit the results.  I didn't even think about the fact that our ophtho doesn't accept the medicaid plan that we need to have for her primary pediatrician, therefore they wouldn't know that she's being followed at least bi-annually (quarterly right now) by a specialist.  We did the best we could with the vision test, and I'm sure they'll make a note about how we're already being followed.  The hearing test was interesting, and Judith didn't quite understand what she was supposed to do.  We were finally able to get her to tell us if she heard a sound instead of raising her hand like they wanted.  She didn't fail the test, but it wasn't stellar either.  Her PCP wants us to see an ENT and get a more comprehensive test to see if there is something going on or if everything is indeed ok.  Some of the concern is stemming from the antibiotics she was on in the NICU, particularly those that she had to take to get rid of the late-onset group B strep infection.  So it looks like we'll be adding another specialist to our list.

Judith's eating habits have been poor lately, so I'm not surprised that she lost about half a pound since her October clinic visit.  Today she weighed 31 lbs 8 oz, which puts her at the 25%.  She did grow again, and is now 39.5", which puts her smack in the middle of the curve at 50%!  2, 3, and even 4 years ago I wouldn't have guessed that by age 4 she'd be that high on the curve for height, so it was a pretty awesome percentile to hear!  The downside, though, is her BMI.  I calculated it on the CDC's website (you can find the calculators here if you're interested), and she dropped back down to the 13%.  Clinic is a little less than a month away, so we'll see what things look like then, but it's pretty discouraging to see her have such big gains 2 months ago, and then suddenly slip back to where she was in such a short time.

I opted to get both sets of boosters for Judith at this visit so we could get it out of the way.  The vaccines were combos, so the MMR and varicella were combined, and the DTAP and polio were combined, so only 2 needle sticks, which still was akin to torture according to Judith.  She cried more before the shots, stopped as soon as it was over, then got overdramatic and held her arm as stiff as possible, acting like she couldn't use it at all.  Silly kid.

Despite the few blips, the appointment was a good one, and her pediatrician is pleased with the progress she's made in the last year and is impressed with how well she is doing with her CF.