The Jones Girls

On Wednesday, September 13th, Amanda had an evaluation for Occupational Therapy at Woodcrest with a wonderful therapist named Michelle.   I took all of the triplets.     The evaluation went from 11am-1:00pm.     Amanda will be receiving Occupational Therapy after her thumb reconstruction surgery, probably at the end of October or early November.  She will be going once a week for 45 minutes.  The facility is located in Fullerton.   Our goals for Amanda will be to work on her fine motor skills, helping her find her center line since one arm is slight shorter than the other, helping her button, zip, etc. 

Amanda was receiving Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy from Regional Center of Orange County, a non-profit organization that offers in-home therapy for children 3 and under that are developmentally behind.    Amanda was evaluated in June by Kim, her physical therapist, and the report stated Amanda was no longer delayed and was developmentally at her age.    The occupational therapist, Deborah, will be evaluating Amanda this week and she will be report that Amanda is no longer delayed and is developmentally at the correct age now.   This is such a huge and wonderful goal that Amanda has met.   She was receiving therapy since she was just a few months old.   

Since the birth of the triplets, Maryssa has always had congestion, stuffy nose, snoring, and problems drinking her bottle when she was an infant.  When she began solids, she was and has been very apprehensive about taking bites, chewing and swalling.   When she was 4 months old we took her to the ENT and he thought it was normal and that it was coming from her esophagus.  That didn’t sound right to me.    When she was 8 months old I took her to see a different ENT for a 2nd opinion.  He ordered X-Rays of her facial plate andhe couldn’t findanything wrong with her.  He also did a follow up on her 6 months later and said she was fine andhe didn’t really see anything wrong with her.

My “mommy gut instinct” told me that this was unacceptable.  I knew something just wasn’t right with Maryssa.    She was the middle sized baby at birth, and in the past 2 years she has become the smalled baby of the trio.   Her weight is 24 1/2 lbs and height 32 inches, compared to Miranda 30 1/2 lbs and 34 inches and Amanda 29 1/2 lbs and 34 1/2.    I contribute her regression in growth to an ENT problem.   So I requested a 3rd opinion with a Pediatric ENT.   For over a year my Medical Group denied a Pediatric ENT.   I kept fighting and didn’t give up.  Finally, in July, I finally got an authorization for Maryssa to be seen by a Pediatric ENT at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.   I am so glad I was persistent and didn’t accept the denials and refusals that they kept giving us.  

I made Maryssa appt with Dr. Koempf the same day as Amanda’s appt. with Dr. Wright.   I took the triplets and we drove up to Children’s Hospital on Tuesday September 12th.   We were there form 10am-2:30pm.  Boy what a long day that was!!

Dr. Koempf ordered X-Ray’s of Maryssa’sface plate.   He diagnosed her with swollen adenoids and recommended an adenoidectomy.   Finally, we have an answer to all of this.    For 2 years I had been thinking her problems were caused by swollen adenoids, but the other ENT’s dismissed the idea.    So, Maryssa will be having surgery on Monday September 29th.  

Amanda will be having her thumb reconstructive surgery, called Pollicization, on Friday September 26th.   I have the surgeries planned so close together because my sister, Nadine, will be flying out to help me from September 25th – October 5th.  She said might as well get everything done and handled while she was here.

It is going to be a very busy and stressful end of the month.    I do believe that this is better to get this done for both girls while they are little.   The will recover much faster being so young and this will be all behind us.