Carson update – 21 months

Some of you may remember when I wrote about Carson’s 18-month appointment, our doctor was semi-concerned about Carson’s (lack of) speech. He didn’t really have any words or sounds that sounded like anything, other than “GOOOOOOOOooooo”, which was usually aimed at a football field.

But before I get to that followup appointment, we had another appointment with the same doctor the day before the speech appointment. Carson had been working on a cough the whole time we were in Florida and it got way worse last Monday night. Like so bad that if Rick had been home (and not at the Ann Arbor rental house cleaning & painting), I would have taken Carson to the emergency room. His cough was so barky and painful sounding, it was making me almost want to cry. Instead I tried to get a call back from the on call nurses all night (having to call FIVE TIMES before getting a return call isn’t acceptable) but since we both did finally sleep for a little, I decided to wait until the morning so hopefully his regular doctors could see him.

We ended up with an 11.45a appointment – not ideal given the fact that he usually naps at 11.30a + he hadn’t slept the night before but I couldn’t go another night with him coughing like that so I took it.

The doctor said Carson’s cough sounded horrible, but his lungs were totally clear. She had us do a breathing treatment in the office and then she re-checked him. Weirdly enough – his lungs sounded worse after the breathing treatment so she was confused. She even actually said “I don’t know what’s going on” (which made Rick angry when I reported this to him later). But – we were sent home with a nebulizer and instructions to do breathing treatments every 4-6 hours AROUND THE CLOCK EVEN AT NIGHT. I asked if we could just do the speech eval while we were there and save us from making another trip the next day, but she said she wanted to re-check his cough anyway. This is why I wasn’t mad about her not knowing what the problem was. If she had said “don’t know what it is, do the breathing treatments and I’ll see you in a month” – I’d have been irritated. But with Mallory’s asthma history – the doctor wanted to stay on top of it.

When we got home from the doctor and  after Carson napped and we did the next scheduled breathing treatment, Carson was coughing worse than before. So a call to the doctor earned us some steroids for my boy too. I was game for anything if it meant he would sleep.

I have to admit that because he slept – and slept well – I didn’t wake him up for his treatment during the night. The treatment consists of putting a mask over his nose & mouth and holding it there for 10-15 minutes while this machine pumps mist for him to breathe. Everyone warned us he would HATE IT, but he gets to keep his paci in and we usually watch some Mickey Mouse during so he’s pretty good. He got to go to school and had a treatment before his nap there – and supposedly he fell asleep during the treatment – so obviously it doesn’t bother him. He’s so cool.

We finally had the speech follow-up appointment that afternoon. First she wanted to listen to his lungs – and everything, including how he looked, had improved over the day before, so the doctor was super happy about that. We had to continue using the nebulizer until we “forgot” because he wasn’t coughing anymore. We ended up needing it for three full days – he is still coughing a little, so I might have us do it at bedtime tonight just to try to clean him up for good!

Anyway, then it was time to talk words. The doctor asked us how many words he has. I started listing them.

*No
*Go
*Mo (for more)
*Oh (which is deserving of a post all it’s own, complete with video, because it’s HYSTERICAL)
*Wow
*Nigh-nigh (night-night)
*Mama – sometimes
*Gaga (for daddy) – sometimes

He has a couple of signs that he can do:

*more
*milk
*all done
*help

And some animal sounds:

*Moo
*Wow-wow (for bow-wow)
*Ehhhhhhh (for neigh)
*ROOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR (for “what does a [tiger/bear/lion] say”)

We also told the doctor that he will repeat almost anything Mallory asks him to say.

She was encouraged by this list, and also that he totally understands everything we say. I told the doctor about how when we were in Florida the week before, and I was trying to get Carson to fall asleep at bedtime, and I told Rick “you & Mallory go for a walk while I put him to sleep” and Carson FREAKED OUT and was reaching for the door [same thing happened on the bowl trip – Rick & Mallory went to the Hospitality Room at bedtime one night, and I had to go down there with Carson in his pjs so he could fall asleep on me with everyone else around us – so funny!].

Her assessment is that he’s fine and we have nothing to worry about. I did confess that I think letting Mallory listen to “Boom Boom Pow” and Taio Cruz instead of nursery rhymes in the car is probably not good for Carson (at this age, Mallory had all kids songs all the time, and could sing tons of songs to us). The doctor confirmed that it would be a good idea to let Carson have his own music ;-)

She offered to send us to Early On (for speech therapy) but was confident that they would send us home.

We now have 3 months to get Carson saying “countless words” before his two-year appointment. The doctor is expecting an explosion soon!