The Specialist

Today was Madeline's first appointment with the specialist. Most children with vocal cord dysfunction see a speech therapist to work with their breathing not my Maddie. She sees a behavioral mental health therapist. Why you may ask? Well I did ask this question today, and here is the response I got. He is the one who trained the other speech therapists in our area with the breathing techniques, and will help her deal with some of the stress that accompanies her sports. He also specializes in sports medicine. I was still a little leery right up until Maddie started understanding him and he started speaking her language. Most of the doctors Maddie has seen hasn't understood how hard the kids today are playing their sport....this doctor did. Since there are sometimes other things that can accompany the VCD he went over everything all over again with us. According to him there is a connection with gastric reflux and VCD which Maddie didn't appear to have. One of the other things had to do with sleep. I'm not sure what the connection is but I guess there can be one. She seem to be good in that area, however I wasn't able to answer all the questions he asked because I guess I'm not as attentive as I should be while she is sleeping. I have to watch her and let him know next time. She did one breathing exercise with him that was where she pushed against his hands as hard as she could. I've watched her do this many times with her brother, friends, family, etc, and I never noticed it. SHE HOLDS HER BREATH. He had her breathe out while she tried this again, it took her several times to accomplish this. When she did she almost knocked him over his chair. He said how did that feel? She answered I have more power, and that she did. She wanted to try it again to make sure she was doing it right. This time the doctor planted his feet. That was the medical side of the visit. I will post later on the funny ha-ha's of the visit.