What a day. Finally get a chance to relax since 4 a.m. this morning. Let me tell you what happened today.
Your brother woke up at 4 a.m. crying in pain. He complained that his leg was hurting. So I went to his room, laid down in bed next to him and gently massage his left thigh. He slowly went back to sleep, and I went back to my room. Not too long later, he cried and screamed in pain. Aidan has a pretty high tolerance of pain. If he's crying like this, he WAS in pain. I went over and slept with him, comforting and massaging his left leg again. He woke up periodically crying in pain. I knew I would have to take him to the doctor when the sun came up. This crying, massaging, soothing lasted until about 6:15 a.m. Daddy was smart enough to suggest Mortrin. Doh! Why didn't I think of it at 4 a.m.?? We gave him some Mortrin and called our "trusted" Kaiser. I called Kaiser way too often within the last 5 years as a parent. We're lucky enough to get an appointment with the pediatrician at 10:50 a.m. Phew!
The next few hours, I busied myself with calling work, calling your brother's school, sending work e-mails and such. It's really too bad because today was Aidan's first field trip from school, and they're going to a pumpkin patch. I told him that I would take him to another pumpkin patch to make up for it. But he was sad coz he's been looking forward to taking the school bus! Well that's what I told him before that he would be taking a school bus for field trips. He then dozed back to sleep, and periodically whimpered and cried about the pain, and demanded me to scratch his big toe, side of his leg, etc.
Getting him in and out of the car was an adventure at first. He had pain extending and bending his leg. It was quite an ordeal getting him buckled up in the car seat, and then transferring him to the umbrella stroller (Thanks to the Cheung's for the stroller during our Disneyland Trip). Got to Kaiser and waited for the doctor without much adventure. Dr. M examined Aidan, and believed it's not the leg that was the problem, but his hips. So, she ordered blood tests to rule out any infection, and an X-ray to check out his bones. She said sometimes kids just hurt for a few days, and then got better by itself. Sometimes, they get some sort of arthritis after a cold, and the pain will go away. But just in case, she ordered those tests and x-ray to rule out any other problem.
Aidan's not even 5 years old, and he already had blood work done several times (when he was dehydrated/undernourished at 4 days old), and two X-rays (one when he fractured his skull at 10 months old). How many more X-rays do I need to see him go through?? Aidan was a real trooper. I've always been very proud of him when he had to get his immunization shots. This time was a little different. Daddy had to transfer him from the stroller to my lap, gave the technicians his left arm and got blood drawn. He whimpered a little with the initial poke, but I was able to distract him with his toy. I am so proud of him!
Then off to Radiology. The all-too-familiar Radiology department. I remember passing by there very often on the way to see you when you're at the hospital. Once the doctor mentioned it's by the hospital wing, I immediately knew where it was. Not a good feeling. So, we got there and it's close to lunch time. Luckily, we didn't have to wait for too long and was called in to change Aidan's clothes. Getting the x-ray done wasn't too bad. He found the fun in staring at the mirror to look at his reflections and make silly faces. He was calm and listened to directions. A trooper again! I was relieved.
*waiting to get his X-ray*
Then off we went back to the pediatrician's office. I had to admit I was a little concerned when we're in the waiting room. I thought about little Alan, and was afraid Aidan might have some sort of cancer. I thought of you, and worried Aidan might also have a high percentage of mutated mitochondria that caused all this. We waited for about 30 minutes and was seen by Dr. M. again. She said she received 2 of the 3 blood test results and everything came back normal. She's not concerned about the other test. It appeared there's no infection. She looked at the X-ray and didn't see anything abnormal. But she wanted to confirm with the Radiologist before officially said everything was fine. She suggested us to go home and would contact us after speaking with the radiologist. So we left Kaiser at around 12:45 p.m.
I finally got the call back from Dr. M at around 3:45 p.m. She told me that the Radiologist saw something in Aidan's hip bone that might be of concern of a problem that is usually seen in kids 10 years and older. She also consulted with the two Orthopaedic surgeons, and both of them were NOT concerned. Am I concerned? Heck Yeah! I asked Dr. M if a history of Leigh's Disease would cause the problem. She said it had nothing to do with it. Minor sigh of relief here, because I know everything linked to a Mitochondrial disease is definitely BAD news. So for now, we would just monitor Aidan's pain. If it got worse and he has a fever, then we need to bring him to the ER. If the pain lessens and he can walk again, even with a limp, then we're going towards the right direction.
Please pray for your big brother and see that he gets better soon. We plan to all come to visit you this weekend. But now that he can't walk, we will probably stay home all weekend.
Love you,
Mommy
