Denver

We’re back from Denver and a return to no television stations, no decent stores, and NO TRAFFIC. There may be drawbacks to living in our little corner of Colorado, but there is no rush hour ridiculousness and no smog. Unbelievable, the amount of pollution hanging over the city. Plus, our mountains and scenery are not blighted by high rises and over-development.

Anyway, we took Zane to The Children’s Hospital for some clinics on Thursday and Friday. Things did not start well. Zane had an ABR (automated brainstem response) test for hearing scheduled. Or so we thought. Because we made the decision to have it be a non-sedated test, we sleep deprived the poor guy the night before and the day of the test. When he tried to drift off for a nap, Justin and I kept prodding him to stay awake (Jeff would have prodded, too, but he was at a conference). We arrived at audiology only to be told that only a traditional hearing screening had been scheduled. Plus, they added, they don’t do non-sedated tests with kids Zane’s age. I was livid. I tried to be kind and understanding, but it is hard when someone other than myself screwed up. And, it’s not like we live down the street from audiology. In fact, we’re eight hours away. They nonchalantly suggested we reschedule just as Zane drifted into a very still sleep in the office (would have been perfect to conduct the test under those conditions; even the audiologists admitted they could have done the test with him that sleepy and calm). As far as I am concerned, we won’t be doing an ABR in Denver anytime soon. It was no easy feat to get there to begin with—not to mention the expense of traveling.

On to Friday…Zane had three appointments that day: rehabilitation, urology, and ophthalmology. Zane has 20 percent curvature in his spine. When he reaches 50 percent, we’re looking at surgery for his scoliosis. That’s not now, so I’m not going to worry about it. Zane is now off prophylactic antibiotics for kidney reflux. If he experiences UTI’s again, he has to go back on them. If he doesn’t, his reflux is gone. We’ll see how it goes. Finally, Zane’s vision has improved. His far-sightedness has lessened, his strabismus is not as extreme as it once was, and his ptosis (partial closing of the left eye) is not causing vision loss so no surgery is recommended. Plus, he can now get some big-boy glasses. Goodbye to the Elton John classics many of you have seen in his photos. Yah!