Update on Mary Kate

Hey y'all... (I miss my southern "roots"!!! )

Look at Little Mary Sunshine!

Mary saw a pediatrician Tuesday. She is WONDERFUL. Iloved her. She and her medical student gave Mary Kate an excellent once over. My only reservation was that she was not at all familiar with the symptoms that MKT has nor had she ever heard of some of the things we have to do to stimulate the salivary glands.... ie. sour candy, fruit, juice, lemons, etc. This helps to stimulate the saliva and if there is something going on in the salivary gland or parodid, it a) hurt her very much, but helps bring the swelling down.

She sent us for blood work.. what a joy. MKT is so so so funny... I told her that getting blood work is no big deal and that... best case senerio... she'd know if she was ready to get her ears pierced.. for which she's been begging. Well she screamed, but handled it well. At the end, "I think I'm not ready to handle getting my ears done, Mom, we'll have to wait till I'm seven or eight!" Too cute.

They did a cbc, cem 7 (told you I watched too much ER in my day) and a HBS or c, can't rememebr that one... also an Epstein Bar which is the mono test. They also did a strep culture, just in case. Everything came back fine. So I breathed a big sign. The doc had asked me to cancel her ENT appt. that she wants her to be seen by a Pediatric ENT specifically at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh. They did a phone consult and the doc there wants her to have a CT Scan on Tue am. They are going to try and do it without sedation so that the same thing doesn't happen again. My awesome Aunt Robin is going to go with me to help keep the girl still and quiet. A CT, if they have the newer equiptment is much quicker than an MRI, so I'm hoping she is just fine.... I'm sure we'll brib her with something awesome. It should work as long as she doesn't panic.. .which is what she did with the blood work. But I am sure she'll be fine.

The Doc at Children's said she thinks that it is likely to be either an infected salivary gland, or a blocked salivary or parodid gland, which could include a "stone" much like a gall stone or kidney stone. Sometimes they come out with manipulation and sometimes you have to go in and get them. They have put her on an antibiotic, and say they'll need to watch her closely over the next few weeks/months to see if it comes back... she'll have to have the RX every time, so they may need to put her on a mantainance RX, which would mean an antibiotic every day..... time will tell on that. And the CT will help.

Her swelling comes and goes as is the MO. The pain does too. We can usually tell by her mood, which has been fierce lately. She is super tired too, so maybe it is an infection...we'll see.

Say a prayer for the little lady.... she's so cute. I got this picture today.. delevoped an old roll of film hoping that their might be some shots with my dad and the girls. But it was from her preschool graduation last year... She'll be so excited to see them.