Children's Hospital

Today was the BIG day. We made our way down to Children's Hospital down in Los Angeles. The drive down there wasn't too bad and only took us a little over 2 hours to get here. The appointment went well with the doctors saying that he is actually doing much better than was indicated in his physical therapy referral. They also didn't think now was a good time for either the botox or the surgery and thought that we should wait and see how things go. They also very happy with the way his muscles would flex and thought that was a very good sign. There are still problems - but he seems to be doing well. They did prescribe new AFOs and gave me a detailed prescription for that before we left. We also had a chance to talk to a few different people about different types of insurance. We have a couple more people to call next week - but I think we are leaning toward Blue Cross/Blue Shield as a PPO.

Devin (being Devin) got really bored waiting in the doctors office and I let him play with my phone. There are some games on it so in the picture he is trying to play the games. In retrospect it wasn't really a good idea because when the doctors started coming in all he wanted to do was play the game and not anything else... That was a bit frustrating but oh well. The main good thing is that it appears all the work we have done with him - and that he has done - to work on his legs seems to have paid off. I told him a few weeks ago that the botox and surgery thing was all up to him and that if he worked really hard that they may not have to do either. So that is where we are now - so I was pretty proud of him for that.

On that note he wanted to walk around A LOT in the hospital and we made our way around the garden area and their little circle there. We also got a bit lost in the parking garage and ended up going to every floor until we came back to the right one. Devin really got a kick out of that.

One thing that was kind of funny that I just didn't realize is that we were near the "Hollywood" sign. We actually saw it when we were having lunch in Burger King. We were eating and I glanced out the window and saw it. I pointed it out to Devin but I am not sure if he really got what he was looking out. It was pretty cool though - and I took that cheesy picture to capture it.

Speaking of pictures, that camera store (Samy's Camerea) is freaking HUGE! I mean it is a four story building with different departments on each floor. They also had a great selection of stuff to include Domke bags. I was seriously considering buying a Domke bag but they didn't have the color of the style I wanted so I just waived it off. I did have them look at my 20mm lens and their service department said there was really nothing wrong with it so that was kind of cool. I also had the chance to check out some different lens that I was curious about. Their sales staff was pretty friendly and helpful too. Oh - and that part about them having valet parking - well it's true - and even the valet was pretty nice!

The real amazing thing about it is that Devin wanted to WALK up the stairs. I didn't think it was a good idea but he insisted on it. So we went up three flights of stairs to the digital camera area. It was slow going but he REALLY wanted to do it. It was really cool to. We even came down them too. So he walked his little bottom off today.

Okay - so basically we got home - I gave him his meds and came over to the computer to download the pictures and update the blog. So - there is a probably more I need to say - but I am beat and I am going to call it a night!

UPDATE! I forgot to mention this last night on the original post but the traffic coming back was TERRIBLE. The drive from Fairfax to Sunset Blvd which took me 15 minutes earlier in the day too almost an hour on the trip out. I think we hit EVERY stop light and on a few that were green we couldn't go because the traffic wasn't moving. Earlier in the day going the opposite direction I think I did better because I took an off street and drove through a residential area. I think that bypassed a lot of the traffic and got me moving fast - plus it wasn't 5 o'clock traffic either.

One thing I am surprised about is the fact I don't mind driving down in LA that much anymore. Before when we would have to go down there I would freak out and just about have a panic attach. Too much cars, motiion, traffic, people etc. But I think I have FINALLY gotten over that I am don't mind so much doing down there. I still don't like the parking lot freeways and I think I will stay away from the 405 but once you get off the freeway and if you travel surface streets is isn't so bad.