What I Love About Being a DS Mom #17

Almost-Doctor Status

Have you ever wanted to be a doctor?  I have not.  I hate needles, get queasy at the sight of blood, can't remember really large medical terms, and don't really care about anatomy.  But you know what?  When you have a child with Down Syndrome, you are thrown into the medical world...ready or not!  

When I was pregnant with Ty, the doctors started throwing really large medical terms at me just halfway through my pregnancy.  "Chylothorax", "ventricular septal defect", "hydrocephalus", and "craniosynostosis" were all words that I was forced to learn, understand, and use in context...really quickly.  The doctors' explanations of the terms were wordy, formal, and just not user-friendly.  If I was going to give my son a fighting chance, I had to know what they were talking about in order to ask the right questions and prepare for what may be in our future.  So like it or not, I had to study and think like a doctor.  It was the first step toward the almost-career that I never wanted.

I have no idea what they could have possibly seen wrong with this adorable profile!

Thankfully, Ty was born without most of those scary conditions that I had read about while I was pregnant, and his heart defects healed themselves two weeks after birth.  The kid was truly a miracle baby.  However, having a child with Down Syndrome goes hand-in-hand with continual monitoring, testing, and evaluating of medical issues that are common in people with that 47th chromosome.  On the outside, Ty was a strong, healthy boy, but there's always a little mystery in the way that extra chromosome will affect different systems in the body.  So once again, I had to hit the books.  Within the first week of Ty's life, he had his heart, brain, kidneys, hips and blood scanned and tested for the numerous anomolies that he could possibly have.  As the doctors threw new terms at me like cranial sector scan, echocardiogram, and hypothyroidism, I did all I could to educate myself about what they were doing, and why.  To everyone's surprise, he was deemed healthy, and was sent home to begin our journey together.



Our little peanut in the NICU...
he wasn't as jaundiced as he looks here!!!



First time we saw our boy without wires!

As Ty has grown up, I have continued to stay aware of new medical issues that could arise, and never hesitate to research a word or medical condition when I need to.  And you know?  I'm actually pretty good!  I know the difference between the prefixes "hypo" and "hyper" and how they change the meanings of medical terms.  I can recite Ty's medical history in doctor-friendly language (they love those big words!), and can read through his medical records without a dictonary on hand most of the time!  I've had more than one doctor ask me if I was in the medical field myself, because I present like I know my stuff.  (Little did they know, I was studying up that morning, but that's okay!)  

His sleep study mug-shot...no injuries, just lots of gauze and tape to hold the wires in place! :)

As for the blood and gore that I hate so much, I've toughened up a bit!  I can watch Ty have an IV put in without flinching, and have yet to cry when he gets a shot (I still don't understand when I hear mothers say they cried watching their kid get a flu shot...really?!?!).  I have seen Ty wrapped in wires, and have had a vile of his blood spilled next to me by a very incompetent phlebotomist.  I have grown some very thick skin in my role as a mother!  So, I wouldn't say I have all the necessary schooling to be a doctor, but I'm at least worthy of an honorary degree at this point! :-)