A Four Appointment Day

I woke up this morning aware of the fact it was going to be a long day. I had two appointments in the morning and one in the afternoon. I had spaced them just right so I could make all of them on time. I knew I'd be cutting it a bit close between the sleep doctor and the Endocrinologist. The three big kids were still at Grandma's so this just left the two babies.
The only problem is Inara is still exclusively breastfed. She thinks that bottles make great teething rings but she has yet to see any other use for them. I knew I'd have to fit in trips home between appointments. I could have taken her with but she has a cold and I didn't want to take her out.
The first trip was to the sleep doctor. Things went ok and they yet again decided to switch his mask out. This made it the third mask for him in a six week time period. We found out the memory reader on his machine was broken which meant he needed a whole new machine. We went upstairs to get him fitted for the new mask. I was pleased with the results. The new mask is much lighter but covers both his nose and mouth so the pressure will be divide more.I had a half an hour to spare once we left the sleep clinic. I ran home fed Inara and my mom drove us over to Ronan's Endocrinology. The reason my mom was going with us was because she is going to provide respite for Ronan and she had to finish up her paperwork at the same place I was going for Ronan's speech evaluation. The Endocrinologist checked Ronan out and then sent us down to the lab to check his thyroid levels.

At this point none of us had eaten lunch so my mom stood in the lunch line while I ran Ronan down to the lab. Usually the lab is empty and Ronan is done within ten minutes but we must have hit the busy time because the waiting room was packed. I waited 20 minutes but it came time I had to leave or we would be late for my mom's respite meeting. I asked the receptionist if we could come back later and she said that would be fine.

I found my mom who had arms full of lunch bags and drinks. Thankfully she had had enough time to eat her lunch so she could drive while I ate. When we got there she ran in while I stayed in the car feeding Ronan his lunch. I still had about an hour until his speech appointment. After he was full we headed inside and waited. I'm excited for Ronan to have speech therapy. They are going to teach him more signs. Also the therapist we saw today is going to call Ronan's doctor and recommend another swallow study. After he has the swallow study he can get into their feeding clinic. The feeding clinic has a waiting list so she's going to put Ronan on the list now so that by the time the swallow study is complete there will hopefully be an opening.

Conveniently my mom and I were both done at the same time and she could now officially be Ronan's respite provider. Ronan is thrilled to have extra Grandma time. Before my mom could finalize everything she was required to get a TB test so we rushed over to the required clinic and waited close to an hour for them to fit her in. After the TB test we had to get back to the lab before it closed. We made it on time and got Ronan's blood sample in. On the way home Ronan's cough was getting more raspy. I called the late night clinic and got him an appointment.

I had a break to feed Inara and fix dinner then it was out the door to Ronan's clinic visit. He has bronchitis and was put on an antibiotic. We made it home and I got Ronan ready for bed. I was setting up his equipment for the night and I noticed the cord for his machine didn't fit exactly right. I thought maybe I was missing something so I had Isaac take a look. He agreed we'd been given the wrong cord. Turns out when they had switched out machines earlier today that had selected the wrong cord. I called the on call number and the respiratory therapist on call brought us the right cord.
I'm very impressed with this therapist. He is great with Ronan and no matter when we see him he always has a great attitude. I think I'm going to write a note and send it to his boss to let his boss know how much we appreciate the therapist's help. Finally it is bedtime. Ronan is struggling a little with the mask but once I get Inara to bed I'm going to focus more on making this work.