It Seems Our Luck Has Run Out

 

             With all of the craziness that has been going on in the past few days (Birthday Extravaganza Giveaway Event on here, moving out of my parents' house finally, AND Myka's birthday party all happening the weekend before last, to name a few), Myka also had her 2 year check up on the 14^th as well. To be honest, I was just glad I remembered it. In all seriousness, though, I'm very glad and thankful that we found such a good pediatrician up here.

             I am very, let's say, particular, about doctors. I am personally not a huge fan of going to any type of doctor unless I think something is seriously wrong. My daughter is a different story, though, even if I'm still kind of picky about what pediatrician we go to. I've made sure to take her to all of her “regular” appointments these first two years of her life, even if I felt like at least one of them was a waste of time. So, when it came time to find her a pediatrician in Indiana, I figured there was no better way to find suggestions for a good one than “word of mouth”: I asked my friends and family for their input on Facebook.

             I was astounded when I received personal suggestions for literally only one doctor in the area from at least 6 or 7 of my friends. I won't mention his name, but needless to say, I was eager to give him a try! Since I'm so funny about the physicians we see, I wasn't anxious, for lack of a better way to put it, like I normally am when waiting to meet a doctor for the first time.

             Let me just say, I am SO glad we decided to go with him! He was so nice, spent quite a bit of time talking with us and asking us questions (I think we were back there with him for at least 20 minutes! Sorry! I'm that person, evidently.), spoke to my daughter as I would (you know, like a real person!), was not judgmental at all (the reason I stopped taking Myka to her first pediatrician), explained everything to me, and genuinely seemed to care what I had to say AND about my daughter. So, on top of all that, why I am so glad we found this guy?

             Well, because he had a bit of bad news for us. Now before you go thinking that I've got Munchhausen’s bi-proxy or something, let me explain. He actually checked Myka's diaper area when he was examining her. I can only remember either of her Arkansan pediatricians checking in that area once before and that's only because I remember having to fix her diaper after. He never commented on anything down there. And honestly, I always thought it was kind of strange that they didn't check “down there” during her routine examinations. Since this is my first child and, well, I'm not a doctor, I don't know if this is something that is supposed to be done during routine exams, but I think it should be, even if they are just babies and toddlers.

             As it turns out, Myka has labial adhesions. In layman's terms, part of her coochie (as we call it) is fused together that shouldn't be. While it causes no problems now, it will when she starts her menstrual cycle. As the doctor stated, “back in the old days” it wouldn't be caught until a girl started her menses and caused toxicity...Or something along those lines. (Myka was screaming at that point because she doesn't like the doctor poking and prodding at her with the stethoscope and otoscope and it was hard to hear what he was saying.)

             So, we will have to see a pediatric urologist. Quite frankly, I'd rather get it taken care of sooner rather than later so that she hopefully won't remember any of it...especially if (for whatever reason) we have to have it cut. One of my friend's daughter had the same thing several years ago when she was still in diapers. Since there is concern of infection if they cut it and the child is still in diapers and having fecal matter next to an open wound, chances are we will just have to use some estrogen cream for awhile. While I don't necessarily like the idea of rubbing synthetic hormones on my daughter, especially in her private area, it seems like a much less painful and invasive way of taking care of it.

             I can't help but wonder, though, what would have happened if we stayed in Arkansas and kept sending her to the same pediatric office. Would the labial adhesions gone unnoticed? Would she have had problems when she started her period and gotten really sick from it? Have any of you with daughters gone through this as well?