Visit to the IA Doctor

So Tuesday we loaded up the car and headed up to Minnesota for Dasha's IA doctor appt.  A regular drive would of been right at about 6 hours and 15 minutes.  It took us 8.5 hours!  But we stopped twice at rest stops etc.  We also stopped in Des Moines to see my cousin who was in a bad car accident the day we got back in the country.  She broke her neck and is in a halo.  She is like a sister to me and it was so good to see her and see that she was okay.  We made it to Minneapolis and checked into a wonderful hotel.  Funny story, when we got our referral, we applied for a Marriott rewards card where we got 50,000 free points, but since we had only two weeks between trips we weren't credited our points in time to use in Russia.  So we have all these points, so we got a great room in Minneapolis for free!

We then headed out to dinner, and got home and put two very tired kids to bed.  Dasha did not like the new environment, and really cried, but we got her calmed down and to sleep and we had a good nights sleep.  The next morning we got up and ate a wonderful breakfast and then loaded up to go to the University of Minnesota.  We got there, got checked in and within 5 minutes we were headed back.  They weighed Dasha, she was 23.6 lbs, 28%ile almost gained 2 pounds in a month and was 32 inches, 32%ile she has grown an inch since we have gotten back.  Crazy!

We gave the nurse the history that we knew, and then we met the nurse practictioner that I have been emailing back and forth with, gave over our wonderful stool sample and then they said Dr. Howard would be in shortly.  She was in so fast it was insane, she was WONDERFUL!!!!!  She was very hands on, and she spent almost 2 hours with us.  Talking, and answering questions, and then they brought in an OT to evaluate Dasha, and they did some skills with her, gave us some suggestions, and then they observed her run.  That has been my biggest concern, see Dasha runs with her legs straight, so she swings them out to the side when she runs.  So they went and got a PT to observe her and we were told that we should get her evaluated at home, she needs some work on that.

Overall I was super impressed with the whole process.  They were so nice and kind and it was more like friends meeting than a doctors appt.  Finally the last part was the blood draw.  I made Randy take her in and I stayed out in the waiting room with Camden.  I guess they tried in her right arm and couldn't get into her vein well, so they had to move to her left arm.  They got a good vein in her left arm and took all the blood they need.  They then did the TB prick and we were on our way.  They have a few things for us to do here.  We need to get an ultrasound of her kidney, they didn't think our insurance would cover it if they did it, and tomorrow I have to take Dasha in and get her TB test read.  Then I need to get her into our pedetrician and start catching her up on her vaccinations. 

After the appt. we went to the Mall of America and let Camden loose in the amusement park, he had a BLAST!  We took Dasha on one ride, and she did NOT like it, so we didn't try any others.  She was just happy running around.  Camden's favorite was the log jam ride, he rode it twice.  We left around 2 and made it home at 8:30.  The kids were exhaused, and Randy had to work today.  So it was a very quick trip, but I highly recommend anyone who is remotely close to Minnesota to go there for their IA appt.  We most likely will go back for her 6 month follow up.