Madera

Yesterday we ventured to Children's Hospital Madera. We are becoming very familiar with all the Children's Hospitals in our region. The GI doctor who follows Mia has moved from UCLA up there to head their GI division. So, up to Madera we went. The first thing I LOVED about Children's Hospital Madera is that the parking is FREE! Every time we go to UCLA we pay them $11 and that can add up quickly. Even Children's Hospital LA doesn't charge us that much for parking...but that's another story for another day. It was like driving into Disneyland when we got there. The hospital kind of looks castleish and there are all of these bushes sculpted into animals and shapes. It was really neat. The second thing I really liked about Madera was there wasn't any traffic to deal with on the way there. It took the exact amount of time it said it was going to take to get there, that was nice. Overall, my first impressions were very nice.

So, we met with a dietician and she suggested some other studies for Mia to have done, one of them being an emptying study. Maybe she's not emptying food out of her tummy at the rate we all do and so that's why she doesn't always have a desire to eat much. And we are also going to look for some silent reflux at the same time of the next study. Hopefully we'll do these in the next couple of weeks, but we are waiting to hear back from them.

After that, we did Mia's anal study to see if she could feel pressure down below. Praise God for great news, she can!!! And the GI doctor said that the amount she feels, she should be able to potty train. She is slightly less sensitive than you and I are, but it's not enough that she won't be able to potty train. That was such great news. Now the question is to figure out why she only goes a little bit at a time so frequently. He had some concerns about her sphincter being very narrow and so he wanted to discuss it with her GI surgeon at UCLA. We need to schedule an appt to see him soon anyway, so we can discuss that with him also.



After that, we came home and got to spend some time with Tim, Rachel and Joy. The two cousins (Mia and Joy) had so much fun together. After dinner, they were chasing each other up and down the hallway screaming. It was neat to see them get along so well.