Ok, so that’s overly dramatic… although it did feel like my heart stood still for a moment.
One month ago I took Thaddeus to the pediatrician … it was simply to check out something funny his tummy had started doing the weekend before.
The whole thing was routine… he appears to be a fine healthy boy. Have no idea why his stomach is doing this, but bring him back if he appears to be in distress. Then I started asking questions. Since I had driven an hour to get there and actually had a professional’s ear … it was a long list of questions. She was very gracious about it and afterwards was telling me to make an appointment for his one year check up on my way out.
But I just had to ask about one more thing. I asked about -and she checked- his soft spot, which is still quite large.
She told me to wait … she was going to go get the doctor.
The doctor came in, looked him over, and then started talking about testing.
So, I and four kids rushed to the labs to get blood work done… which that experience alone is a whole story in of itself. Oiy.
Then we waited.
Then we fussed.
To call or not to call the doctor for results?
How soon is too soon to call?
How often should we call?
Thaddeus had his one year checkup coming soon and surely they would call us if the results were bad, right?
I finally spoke to one of the nurses on the phone and she gave me the news that the results were negative… everything was fine.
We were relieved and not really surprised.
So, on the 16th James stayed home with the children while I took Thaddeus for his one year checkup. The doctor gave him an exam, then sat down at his computer and began questioning me about his milestones. As I gave an affirmative to all the questions, on a few of them he would turn around and say “Really?” with a dubious tone and look. As I’d only met this doctor on one prior occasion, I thought it was strange but didn’t think too much of it.
When he was done with the milestones he then moved on to the test results. I of course was feeling quite confidant. We already knew what the results were –
so listening to them was just a formality.
“The thyroid test came back negative, that’s a good thing”
I just nodded and smiled.
“The genetics test however {as he’s turning to face me} show that Thaddeus has down syndrome”
THAT’S when the earth my heart stood still.
Apparently when I had called all of the results we not in.
The doctor was a very nice man; however, judging by the way he was speaking I think he mistook my shock. My shock came simply from not expecting to hear this news after thinking that we had received a good report from the test. Because, just as we were not really surprised by hearing that he DIDN’T have down syndrome…
We were equally not really surprised by hearing he DID have it.
So, what do you do when you hear that your child has this? If you’re me, you take the baby and run the three errands on your list. Two places you just sit in the car for a while then leave because it’s just not worth trying to go in. Then you do the grocery shopping that you really need to do because you live so far out of town. You wander dazed in the store and take way longer then you should because you just can’t focus or find anything even though you know where everything is. Oh, and you bury your phone at the bottom of your purse so that hopefully if your husband texts you … you won’t hear it because you don’t want to be in a position where your tempted to lie and say everything went well because
this is news that has to be shared in person.
To be continued……
Coming up: Why it took us a year to find out our son has down syndrome.