Doctor Vent

I'm not a big fan of going to the doctor. I get more and more cynical about them as I get older, and I tend to second guess every word that comes out of their mouth. I feel like for the most part (when it's a non-life threatening issue, of course) I can fix it myself with some common sense, a wee bit of googling, and 2 cents from friends and family. That said, I'm not a radical here - I'll take my baby to his check ups and get the official verification that all is well and good in his development, and even uneasily allow him to get the required vaccinations (though, he's on an alternative spread out schedule).

But I'd like a minute on my soap box for a bit of a vent. We go to the most popular practice in Bay Ridge, and saw this one doctor, let's call her She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named (SWSNBN for short), at Kenzo's 4-day check up (required since he was discharged early). She freaked out saying he was totally jaundiced and needed his bilirubin checked. "Oh no! Well, so check it then", I said. She says, "Ohhhhh no - you see, it's Saturday and our office closes in a couple of hours (2pm), so we wouldn't have time to get the lab results until Tuesday, because, you know, Monday is a holiday." I took that to mean she would rather us rush to the emergency room and expose our newborn baby to god knows what kinda germs just because she can't be bothered with getting a call from the lab on her cell phone while not at work to find out if her patient is actually sick and in need of emergency treatment or is completely fine and in no need to visit a hospital. So, off we went in a taxi to the hospital, new mom hysterically crying and also not in the best of physical shape for such an adventure, you know, having gone through a 50 hour labor and pushing an 8 pound baby out of her hoo-hah just 4 days prior. Long story short, Kenzo was FINE. Below the critical threshold and in no need of UV treatment or anything. Thanks Dr. SWSNBN for a WONDERFUL day, which cost us $240 to boot (ER visit and round-trip cab ride)! Did I mention she had also given me crap about Kenzo having lost 10% of his weight (which is NORMAL), and that I NEEDED to supplement him with formula?? She made us come back in for a weight check that next Tuesday, by which time he was already back above his birth weight. I'm glad I didn't listen to her or the ER doc pushing the formula. Shame shame shame on them!!!

Since that fateful day, we've seen several other doctors at the practice, who have all been absolutely wonderful. No complaints! But today, for Kenzo's 4 month check up, ahhhh, wouldn't ya know, it was Dr. SWSNBN again. She rubbed me the wrong way right from the get go. She says there are 2 options at this age and starts talking about the first option being to go ahead and start the baby on solid foods. I immediately start shaking my head and she looks at me funny, and reluctantly switches to telling me option number 2 which is to stick with breastfeeding-only until later. I chime in and say, yes, we're planning to wait until 6 months for food. And she says "OK, that's what WE'LL do - WE'LL wait until 6 months to introduce food". OMG. I don't know why her saying "we'll" bothered me so much, but it did. Ick. WE are not a team. The "we" here is me, my husband, and my baby. YOU are not part of this decision making team, douche.

From there, things just got better. She started examing Kenzo. He's a pretty chill dude. He's doesn't give away smiles and grins easily, but he really only gets upset when he's super tired. But, man, he took a look at her and got that pouty chin (which is super cute, I have to add) and started to wail!!! Hmmmmm, this kid is a gifted judge of character ^_^ Next came vaccines - one in each leg, ouch! More wailing, to the next level of course (tomato red face all scrunched up, so sad)!! She puts on the bandaids and says I can pick him up. Then she says, "Oh, oops" - and tells me she put one of the bandaids in the wrong spot. Nice one. I look down and there is blood on Kenzo's clothes because of her error, and he now 2 bandaids on one leg. She couldn't even be bothered to take off the one that isn't even covering anything up. Thanks.

To cap it all off, I get home and checked our health records that they update at each visit and send us home with. Updates are hand written by each doc, and it has everything on it including his birth stats! Dr. SWSNBN wrote down the wrong date for today and today's vaccinations. Yeah. Sounds about right.

Next time, when I call to make the appointment and they ask me with which doctor, I will no longer say "Oh, whoever is available". Lesson learned!!

Because this was such an unusually negative post, sorry about that, I'll leave you with Kenzo's cutie patootie photo collage: