I took today off to meet the pediatrician. It was fine. He was nice. I had my list of questions which seemed silly when I got to them.
We talked about what will happen at referral... He'll look over the medical info even though it is usually pretty general as well as notoriously unreliable. I still want it looked at in case anything weird jumps out at him. I forgot to ask what we would do if something weird did jump out at him. Oh well.
We talked about how to get help in China. E-mail. I was really hoping the man would offer a more direct number, but, no. Also, he won't write any prescriptions for a child he hasn't seen. I'm sure he's right, but every other adoptive family is trekking to China with a virtual pharmacy in tow. He won't even pony up some antibiotics since every kid pretty much has a cold in winter and we shouldn't be so willy-nilly with the meds. hmm. I know of other families who take syringes with them to China, since China is known to reuse needles. He said we didn't need to take them since we wouldn't be giving her shots. Duh! I'd still like a nice clean needle for a doctor to use on my child.
And we talked about when we come home. He'll run every test imaginable. Revaccinate and send me on to the developmental specialist if need be.
Overall, I like him okay. I wish I liked him more, but he's fine.
He started talking about how I should take care of myself right now because we're about to go thru a major change in our lives and if I needed to talk to someone, counselors are available. I could tell his being nice to me was going to make me cry, (it comes easily these days) so I tried thinking mean thoughts. I had a second of the lip quiver and I think I passed off a tear as being a contact lens problem, but he kept going on about me, me, me. And it was nice.
I'm about to have a baby here. It is emotional. So now that I have the rest of the day off, I think I'm going to put my PJ's back on, find a Law and Order marathon and knit that bunny at the top for Zoe. In pink, of course.
5 comments:
I hope you don't mind my 2-cents. We met with a ped and arranged her to be our daughter's doctor before we left. Our child was going to be this doctor's first adopted kiddo. She said, "Well, a child is a child. Everything should be fine."
When we brought her home and for the first visit, she looked her over, said she looked great ran some blood work, but not a lot and told us that she didn't believe in too much workup unless we detected some oddities.
We left and thought that over for a bit. Since we were newbies at being parents, how would we know what was normal and what wasn't.
So, we asked our Yahoo group for a recommendation and switched doctors about 6 weeks later.
The new doctor asked for stool samples and drew more blood to test for things other (adoptive) doctors did.
Ummmm, sorry about a post in your comments section. I was just trying to get across that you don't have to take those answers from that doctor.
(our second doctor was more than happy to write a anti-biotic script for A2)
I am sorry that you are not super thrilled with the pediatrician. It stinks that he won't write prescriptions for you. My pediatrician wouldn't give me syringes either.
And the doctor is so right, having an instant one year old is an extreme life change! I know it was major for me. So take care of/pamper yourself!
Mooseballs.
p.s. Miss Olivia would love to have a little bunny like that too.... cough cough.....
Hi there,
"De-lurking" to offer my .02.
I agree with johnny - you don't have to accept what this one dr. is offering.
Don't settle for someone you think is just OK. Speaking as a mother of a child with a chronic condition, I'd like to suggest that you LOVE your pediatrician. You may well need that doctor to advocate on your child's behalf at some point. You want someone who you connect with, a partner in helping you to raise a happy, healthy and well-adjusted person. It is, in my opinion, a supremely important relationship.
Email him from China? I don't know, seems like you could do better.
You do need to take care of yourself and that includes giving yourself as much peace of mind as you can.
Don't settle if you're not sold on the doc. - that's all I'm saying...
Peace and Joy,
kath
Post a Comment