Quick Trip to Urgent Care

Callum's been sounding a bit junky for the last couple of days so we made him an appointment with his doctor for first thing Monday morning. This obviously wasn't soon enough for Callum so he decided to get a fever of 39.2 centigrade (about 102.something Fahrenheit), not that huge but as he still has neutropenia and neutropenia and fevers can mean trouble we decided to get him checked out sooner rather than later.

It looks like it probably is just viral, ear and throat membranes are both a bit swollen, chest is clear, but because of the neutropenia the nurse practitioner gave him a course of antibiotics as a precaution. Only trouble is she either didn't tell me (or it went in one ear and out the other) what dosage to give him or how long to take it for AND she didn't write it on the bottle. Plus it's an antibiotic that hasn't worked particularly well in the past, so I think we'll keep the appointment with the GP tomorrow just to get a bit more info.

Poor boy is tired and sleepy but still happy and smiling.

Let Us Pray

Before I start this let me say that I'm not a religious person, an atheist with occasional leanings towards agnostic.

I took Callum into school one day last week and his teaching assistant was late, usually when that happens I stay in the classroom with him while all the other kids go to assembly. Well on this day Callum was in top form, hung his coat up, sat on the carpet without being asked and when they all lined up for assembly he did to. So the teacher and I decided to run with it and I said I'd wait outside the hall to intervene if he got antsy.

It's been many many years since I watched a primary (elementary) school assembly and I was surprised to hear them sing a hymn and then all bow their heads in prayer. There are all the kids with their eyes closed and heads bowed and what does Callum do....

He snores

Loudly

That's my boy!

Health update for me

I finally pulled my finger out and get a referal to see a neurologist here in England. I haven't had any eye issues since last summer and I've been putting off seeing a neurologist here because I don't even want to think about the possibility of MS, you know the stick your head in the sand approach!

Well the doctor seemed nice, did the usual neurological exam, spent a long time looking at my eyes which got me a bit worried but he said it all looks ok. Took lots of history and I of course can't remember all the details but at least I'd dug out my records from UCLA.

So at the end he says that everything looks fine, my previous MRI looks ok to him - lesions are small and not in places typically associated with MS. He asked me if I really wanted another MRI done, now I know that these things are expensive but for my own peace of mind I said yes. So at some point soon I'll be sent an appointment for an MRI of head and spine (they never did the spine before) and hopefully that will be the end of it.

Of course they can't say that I will never develop MS, he said there's about a 10-20% chance of developing it in the next 5 years, rising to about 30% in 10 years. So the odds are in my favour for the next 10 years at least...