A Visit with the Geneticist

My wife and I took our daughter to her annual genetics appointment this past week. We always love those because we love her geneticist and she always has all kinds of great ideas to help our little girl continue to progress.

At the visit we sat down with Dr Lewin, the geneticist, as well as a pediatrician and a cardiologist in residency who wanted to meet my little one. Dr. Lewin was so kind in her praise about my daughter's progress and the work we're putting in to help her. Then she offered some tips that might assist us:

Check in to Medicaid D: I've never spent much time looking into government assistance because I've had doubts about qualifying for it. As it turns out, Dr. Lewin says there are enough deductions that can be taken that my family may actually qualify and that will help bring in a few new services for my daughter.

Additional Therapy: My daughter is only getting about one hour of physical therapy a week now that she's graduated from Early Intervention and she's not getting any real speech therapy at all. To make more progress, we need to look into services offered outside our local school district. Our local children's hospital has a department that can assess a child and recommend therapy based on what might be covered by our insurance. That will help our little girl progress faster than just having to rely on the services in her school classes.

Developmental Pediatrician: Dr. Lewin recommended using a specialized pediatrician to help coordinate my daughter's care. She called it a Developmental Pediatrician. They are trained to deal with cases like my little girl's where there are so many doctors and issues taking place. That helps to take some of the pressure of coordinating and planning all my daughter's care off my wife and me. And anyone to help us carry the weight of my daughter's many needs is welcome!

Special Needs Pediatric Dentist: We've been searching for a good dentist for my extremely sensitive-mouthed daughter. So we asked. Turns out that our local children's hospital has a pediatric dentist's office that specializes in caring for disabled children. They sedate patients when necessary. And I suspect my little one will need it. I'm excited to talk to these folks because it's high time for a checkup.

Dr. Lewin also mentioned that my little girl should have her routine thyroid check and see her again in a year. My wife and I were very grateful for the valuable information and we'll be taking action on a bunch of them soon.