It's Not Her Ears =(

About a month ago I began noticing that Annalise was having a bit of trouble with her walking. It looked like maybe her balance was off. She also began falling a bit more than normal. Soon after that, she started running a fever and (as funny as it sounds) I was thrilled to find out that she had an ear infection and that it might be throwing her balance off. She was given antibiotic for 10 days. She finished that up while Bryce and I were in Baltimore. When John and the kids met us at the airport upon our return, I instantly wanted to cry when I saw Annalise. I knew something was definitely wrong with her walking. After a couple of sleepless nights, I took her back in for her follow-up appointment. The pediatrician (not our regular ped.) said that her ears looked great. She also thought that her walk looked fine, but because of Bryce's condition she thought I should go ahead and get her in to see the neurologist. I called and after getting some run around, they scheduled an appointment for Feb! When I expressed concern about waiting so long, they said they would put her on the cancellation list and if anyone canceled, they would call.

Well, that wasn't good enough for me and since Bryce had a neurology appointment a week later, I decided to take her with me. I'm glad I did because Dr. Narayanan is awesome and said that of course he would look at her. He did and he said that he can see what I am talking about with her walk, but he doesn't want to jump to conclusions. He did say however, that we should get an MRI done ASAP and that he would then set up an appointment himself with her. Since she is not yet an established patient of his, we have to go through the PCP to set this up. In the meantime, I decided to take her to an ENT just to be sure it is not a problem with her ears. I really didn't think this was the problem, but I sure hoped that it would be something that could be fixed as easily as putting tubes in the ears or something.

Well, today was the ENT appointment. She looked at her ears, which looked fine, and said that she would do some tests to see if there is fluid further in the ear canal that could not be seen. As we were talking, Annalise got down and began walking around. The doctor looked at me, pointed to her and said, "is that what you are talking about, is that what you have been seeing?" I said that it was and that she has also been falling a lot and is much slower now than she was just a few weeks ago. The doctor said that she would still have the tests done, but she was almost positive they would be normal. She said that if it were her ears she would look more like she was drunk or dizzy. She said that it looks to her like her knees or hips and maybe her feet have gotten weak and that she seems to be having a hard time holding herself up. That is exactly what I have been thinking. She said that if the tests were normal she would give me some information of a group of developmental pediatricians in Scottsdale that she thinks I should get in touch with. She said that if the tests were not normal we would talk again and figure out where to go from there.

We didn't talk again. The test were perfectly fine. In my heart I knew they would be. I know I should be happy about that, and although I am glad that she is hearing well and that her ears are fine, I must admit, I was really hoping and praying for a more simple solution than what it looks like we are getting into. I'm not convinced that it is the same thing that Bryce has, but whatever it is, it looks like the solution is going to be more involved than ear tubes.

Our regular pediatrician called yesterday and I talked to her a bit about what is going on. We will go in to see her tomorrow and she will set up the MRI of Annalise's head, spine, and possibly hips (if insurance will cover that). Depending on what she sees, she may also send us to see an orthopedic doctor to get some x-rays of her hips.