Tuesday, December 1, 2009

When is a trip to the doctor not just a trip to the doctor??

... when you are 4 weeks post partum, sleep deprived, and emotionally wacked; taking your 4 and 2 year olds, along with new born to an eye appointment for 2 year old (yep, the same one who has now been to THREE dr. appointments in 3 weeks...)

Caution, Rant coming on - feel free to exit the blog at any time...

I woke up this morning (can you 'wake up' from a nursing-all-night-not-really-sleeping-session??) with a horrible head ache, only to have to load up the kiddos for a fun-filled eye appointment for Joshy (he was born with Dwayne's syndrome - where the nerves of his left eye didn't attach to the outer eye muscle, so his left eye doesn't go past midline. Not a big deal, doesn't affect his eyesight, and nothing will correct it, they just check it each year to keep tabs on it...).

-- appt at 9:00. Ben gymnastics at 10:00. I gave myself a 1 hour window - plenty of time, right? WRONG...
-- we got in to first room at 9:20 - get set up with the nurse. She takes us to different waiting room, where I discover that Elizabeth has had MAJOR poopy blowout, herself, her clothes, blanket, and carseat. (oh, and when I picked her up, on me as well...). Her new diaper, wipes, and extra clothes are up the stairs, out the door, and in the car. Great.
-- Right when I was holding her (with the other people in the room looking around with their "what is that smell??" looks) wondering what to do, we get called in again.

"Great!" I think - we should be outta hear pretty quick, then I can change her, get Ben to gymnastics, everything will work out, right? WRONG...

After another check, we get sent back to the waiting room. I make the mad dash (can you really call taking three kids along with you a mad dash??!) to get Elizabeth all cleaned up and changed, then back to the waiting room.
... Where we wait
and wait
and wait.
Then finally get called in to the Main doctor. Who happens to be one of the 'great experts' on Dwaynes Syndrome - which is a good thing because he has ZERO bedside manner. He spends all of 3 minutes with us (literally!!), then mumbles some things to himself about glasses and surgery, and says, "let's send you back to get dilated then come in again" So we go BACK to room #2 where they put drops in joshy's eyes (why the didn't do it the first time we were there, I have no idea!)... and the lady didn't understand why my 2 year old got so freaked out about getting drops in his eyes as she kept saying, "these don't hurt! it's just like bath water"

Then we get sent back to waiting room... and get put to the BACK of the patient pack.
So we wait
and wait
and wait
and Ben misses gymnastics (and I make the mistake of telling him this), so he starts wailing. And Joshy gets antsy, so he starts climbing on every piece of furniture in the room... and I let him... (hey, if they don't want him disturbing everything, then GET HIM CHECKED so we can leave!), and Elizabeth decides she has waited long enough to eat, so she starts wailing, and I remember that I have forgotten to bring the binki...
... so we finally get called in to expert-with-zero-people-skills Dr. where he does another super-speedy exam, telling his nurse (as opposed to telling the MOTHER of the patient!) that we will set him up with glasses, and schedule a surgery...
To which I have finally had enough and blurt out, "what are you talking about? Is his vision bad? Does he have to have surgery? What is going on??"
... and AS HE IS WALING OUT THE DOOR (he literally stood in the doorway as he explained things to me...) says, "we'll get him set up with glasses to see if we can correct the developing problem (never really says exactly what that problem is...), but most likely will have to schedule surgery in 6 weeks..." he did explain a bit more about the 'simple' surgery (is there such a thing as simple surgery with a toddler??!), but it all became mush to me and I didn't say anymore, simply because I could feel my throat close in and knew that if I opened my mouth again, the tears would start flowing. (add 2 year old in surgery to already hormonal body - what did you expect??!)

... so we go to yet ANOTHER room to start the glass fitting procedure, which is really a joke - seriously?? Any of you that know Joshy know what a joke it's going to be to try to get him to actually keep the glasses on for more than 3 seconds. Even 'fitting' him was a joke - the lady would put them on, he would tear them off.
Ben, on the other hand, decided that he did want glasses, so he started wailing again because HE wanted to try them on. Meanwhile I have not yet fed Elizabeth, so her cries are reaching a new height of despair. All of this among a room full of now-quite-annoyed people.

... We finally got the glasses ordered - (great - so now I just had to pay a crazy amount for glasses that my son is not going to wear, and which the the doctor said are most likely not going to work, so we are going to have to come back in 6 weeks and most likely schedule a surgery anyway??! Where is the logic in this again??).

... I finally got the whole zoo out to the car, and into our home, (almost 3 HOURS after we had left said house!!) where I sat in a chair and zoned.

... May we not set foot in another doctors office for a LOOOONG time!!!

3 comments:

Dad Howe said...

I'm having a bad day too... want me to come out there and rough somebody up?

Wow Jen, really bad day for sure. Remember the word of wisdom prohibits binge drinking, which seems like a pretty good solution

Jolene said...

I second the guy above!
You should have brought your kidos over here! You are in big trouble! Hope to talk to you soon! I am so tired, we need a girls night.

Robin Conner said...

Oh My Goodness Jen!!!!!! I could feel my throat close up as I read the story too! I wanted to cry and I wasn't even there! You deserve a HUGE award for being such a good mom! Seriously. Stupid Doctor. I hate doctors like that. I seriously wanted to call him and yell at him! Ug!!! I hope you have better days ahead, without all the chaos!