Dr. Patel is Olivia and Evan’s pediatrician who was recommended by a colleague after we moved to the area. He is an Indian, very good with kids, easy to talk to, responsible and detail oriented. We all love him.
He wants you to know everything that he may have the slightest concern about your children which is very good. But being a worrier, sometimes it can be stressful.
There is one time, we did a blood test for Evan’s GI problem and he called at my work telling me that the test result indicated that Evan’s blood is thicker than normal and a blood clot could be a concern. He consulted with the doctors at the Children’s hospital and they said that his stat was not serious enough to require him taking blood thinning medicine. It is however, something to keep an eye on.
Now, how am I going to keep an eye open on the thickness of his blood? At that time, I was already under a lot of stress as a second surgery to treat a reoccurring problem looked inevitable for Evan who was only 8 months old. News suggesting more problems was just something so hard for me to take.
As you can imagine, for the rest of that day, my heart felt so heavy and I kept on having this scary thought that my 8 months old is going to die from a blood clot. Now more than two years has passed, he is doing great. Is his blood still thicker than normal? I do not really know but I decided not to worry.
Well, back to the topic, today (
Olivia: 55.5 lbs (95%) and 49-3/4” (125cm, 95%)
Evan: 35.5 lbs (90%) and 39-3/4” (101 cm, 90%)
I am a little surprised that Evan is already over one meter now at the age of three. Actually they are both the tallest in their daycare classes, thanks to the two glasses of milk everyday and tons of junk food they eat. The results of the check up – they are both doing great physically.
Two episodes during the visit though. One, Olivia surprised Dr. Patel when he asked her what she likes to do the most in daycare. She giggled and said “Chasing boys on the playground.”
Two, when Dr. Patel asked Evan to stick his tongue out to check his throat, he noticed that the tip of Evan’s tongue was stuck behind his bottom lips. He asked him to do it again. All three of us including Olivia got our tongues out to show him how which must be a pretty amusing scene to look at. But Evan got self-conscious and refused to copy. We even tried with Smarties, the tip still did not come out. The kids took the candy and went outside the room to play while Dr. Patel and I kept on talking.
To provide some background information, Evan just started talking in long sentences last December around his 3rd birthday. Before that, he talked mostly in sentences with only 3 or 4 words and we were concerned.
Dr. Patel told me that a tight tongue can cause speech delay and the symptom of tight tongue is that one can not stick the tip of his/her tongue out as the muscle underneath is too tight. He asked me to check at home and let him know if Evan really can not stick the tip of his tongue out as he may need the surgery to correct it so that it does not affect his speech development.
After hearing this, my heart just dropped to my stomach again. Another surgery is the last thing I want for Evan, as the poor thing already went through it twice during the first year of his life.
Anyway, I was just trying to put myself together and leave when suddenly we heard running steps coming from the hallway. Then Olivia’s happy face showed up followed by Evan holding her hand with his entire tongue sticking out and a piece of Smartie on the tip of it.
Pointing at Evan’s tongue, Olivia was very excited to spread the news “Look, mommy, Evan CAN stick the tip of his tongue out! I asked him to get the Smartie with his tongue and he did it!”
I can not tell you how relieved I felt at that moment so I put my arms up in the air and went “Yeah!”
