Dave and I are worriers. We worry about everything. Most of the time the things we worry about are a little different...I worry about things like whether we may have hurt someone's feelings by leaving a party and not saying "goodbye" (Dave laughs at that one), and what sort of emotional turmoil may be going on inside one of our kid's heads (when in reality they are most likely plugging along completely happy-go-lucky). Dave worries more about things like shipments from China for his business and making sure that he has every football game known to man tivo-ed. But the bottom line is that we are both total worriers. So Lucy makes us worry.
First of all she was born with six toes on one foot (hence the name for our blog...to read more about that check out the post from here). Then we noticed a little "Strawberry Hemangioma" on her head. Then another one popped up by her cheek. Each of these things in and of itself was fine. We had her sixth toe removed without much trauma (except that we still kinda miss it!) And Strawberry Hemangioma birthmarks, according to doctors, are really no big deal. They say that by age five most of them shrink back down and disappear. The one on her head is now pretty much covered by her hair and the one on her cheek is pretty small. But aside from those worries we worry about her development. Not only is she not walking at 16 and a half months (which I know in some cases can be totally normal), but she has been slow at a bunch of stuff. Everything from not smiling or laughing forever to not understanding that she needs to take her binky out of her mouth to eat. When I first told the doctor about my worries she brushed them off like it's no big deal and that every child develops at a different rate. But I have four other children. I've watched them each move through every milestone. I know generally what my kids should be doing at each different stage. And Lucy's different. Lucy makes us worry.
So at Lucy's last appointment the doctor took our worries more seriously. She seemed a little worried herself and had us schedule an MRI of the brain and an appointment with a developmental delay specialist. A couple developmental specialists have come and gone since then, and Lucy has qualified for speech therapy. We have more appointments coming up for that this week. I've been on the phone for countless hours trying to get to the bottom of insurance coverage and second opinions for the MRI. My neck and shoulder are sore from waiting on hold with insurance, doctors, hospitals, etc. and from talking to others with children with delays. It's just so scary to have to put your baby under anesthesia, and we've already been through it once with her toe. We just want to make sure the MRI is really necessary before we go ahead with it.
Chances are we're worrying over nothing, and the little bit of therapy they're recommending will be really helpful and put her on the right track. But we just want to cover all the bases and make sure we get any help we can. I hesitate to even write anything about this because I don't want to label her as having problems, but this is what we're going through right now and my heart aches worrying about this sweet girl who I love so much it hurts my heart. 
Labels: lucy
