WOW. Just WOW.

The Big Appointment went great. Well, except for the part where they almost had to lock down the whole hospital. Twice. Because Little One took off faster than anyone could chase her.

That was interesting.

And that doesn't even include the time she got out of the exam room and ran buck naked all the way down the hall to the playroom. Or the time she ran off toward a bank of elevators and almost got on one when the door opened and I was still 20 feet behind. (Note to self: Must learn to run faster than my 2 year old.)

This is the kid who spent over a year in physical therapy. You know, because she couldn't even sit up.

Yeah, the two times I'm counting above were the times when she took off and was nowhere to be found for several hours minutes. One of the reasons we were there was to discuss her blood pressure. No one asked me about my blood pressure. I'm sure it hit a record high yesterday.

We started off the morning at the super high-security gate. The car was searched and wanded, I was wanded for various dangerous substances. IDs checked and rechecked. Orders from the hospital reviewed. Finally, we were waived through. Little did they know, the TERRORIST rode right in in her carseat!

We then proceeded to admitting. They warned me ahead of time, but we waited there for over an hour. (Although we did get a very snazzy Welcome Packet as a parting gift. Just in case you were worried about where your tax dollars are going.)

After the hour in admitting, where there were no toys (other than the massive bag of tricks I brought, which she burned through in about 10 minutes), we went to the pediatric clinic, where there is a really awesome waiting room with tons and tons of toys.

Fabulous. But, we were only there for about 5 minutes. We managed to lure Little One away from there with the promise of a treasure chest elsewhere and a nurse took all her vitals and measured her multiple times. (Standard practice at the endocrinologist.)

After submitting to all that, LO did indeed get to pick a treasure from the treasure chest - a pink flamingo beanie baby aptly named "Pinky." Pinky was a big hit with LO.

We were sent back to Awesome Waiting Room for five more minutes before we were called back to meet with the first doctor. She was awesome. Amazing. Very thorough. Great with kids. Probably younger than me, but I won't hold that against her. She spent a good hour with us. By the end of that, LO had enough. (It was during this time that she made her naked run for freedom.) The doctor went off to consult with her collegues and we went back to Awesome Waiting Room.

Then, we were summoned again to meet with all the doctors. This time, LO was not so easily persuaded to leave. I bribed her with offered her a cookie which did the trick. For about 5 seconds.

So here I am, finally sitting in a room with this famous doctor who I am thrilled to meet with and discuss my daughter, and the little monster darling will not shut up, stop trying to escape, throwing things around the room, fooling with expensive medical apparatus and generally being a pain in the ass.

I had a carefully thought-out two page list of questions to ask. In the end, I was running around the room, shouting out topics and desperately trying to hear the answers. But I got what I needed. (And hopefully the details will be found in the report they will send me.)

She validated my concerns that certain of her health care providers are not being proactive enough with some of her specific issues. So we will be seen by a larger group of doctors there. Experts in this syndrome. I am beyond thrilled. And feel much better now that I am asking my questions to someone who not only knows the answers, she wrote the answers.

Some of her answers were what I wanted to hear (like, "You don't need to start giving her injections of growth hormones yet.") and some were not (like, "Yes, she may have cognitive delays. Hold her back for kindergarten." And, "No impact sports. Ever.") but I am confident that they are the right answers. And that's why we were there.

We ended up in the lab where she had to have blood work. And the little monster darling was great. She didn't even cry. She looked at the needle in her arm and she looked at the wonderful phlebotomist who hit the vein on the first try and said "Get that out of my arm!"

Ok then.

She got four stickers and off we went. But we'll be back soon.

And I will be bringing a leash.