Friday, September 18, 2009

The four year check up and some rants

Yesterday was my annual checkup with my family doctor, who I've been seeing for five years now. When I called the office weeks before yesterday, the secretary told me that I will be seeing a resident doctor since my family doctor is on maternity leave. I said, sure, I don't mind. My family doctor was still on residency when I saw her the first time anyway. And here in quebec, it's very difficult to find a family doctor. Most of them don't accept new patients anymore. It has been a crisis for the longest time.

So I tagged my four year old son along with me to save me from another time off from work. When it comes to appointments, I'm a little bit on the organized freak side, especially when the appointment concerns my beloved kiddo. Prior to the visit, I went to Babycenter to at least know what to expect in the doctor's office. Here are the guidelines for a four year old annual checkup:

THE DOCTOR WILL...

  • weigh and measure your child to make sure he's growing at a healthy rate.
  • check his blood pressure.
  • check his immunization record and give him any shots that are new or that he's missed, along with shots he needs to start school, including the DTaP, polio, MMR, and chicken pox vaccines. Depending on which state you live in, your child may also receive the hepatitis A vaccine. Also, if he's at risk for tuberculosis, the doctor will test him for it.
  • do a hearing screening. Your child will put on headphones, and the doctor will ask him to respond (perhaps by raising his hand) whenever he hears a noise. The doctor will play sounds at different frequencies, from really high to really low. If your child doesn't respond well, he may be referred to an audiologist for more thorough testing to see if he has a hearing problem.
  • do an eye exam to check the structure and alignment of your child's eyes, his ability to move them correctly, and for signs of congential eye conditions or other problems.
  • draw blood for a lead test, if your child lives in a high-risk area for lead poisoning.
  • answer any questions you have about your child's growth or development.
  • talk to you about safety precautions you should take, such as having your child wear a bike helmet while riding, making sure there is a fence around your pool if you have one, and keeping guns, if you own any, in a locked cabinet separate from the ammunition.
  • talk to your child about things he enjoys or ask him to sing a song, to assess his language development.
  • possibly ask your child to draw a picture of a person in order to see how his mind is developing.
Source: Babycenter

There was a huge traffic before we reached the doctor's office but we still managed to come on time. Our appointment was at 9am until 10:15, 2 spots were reserved for me and my son. Anyway, we were called in at 9:30am then my "unfortunate events with this doctor" began. She was able to do at least maybe, half of the ones on the list, it's okay, well, to each his own. Through the whole checkup process, this doctor was rushing me because she said she's way behind schedule. Excuse me, I don't think it's my fault. She keeps on saying, I can't answer your questions no more because I'm so late, I'm busy, I'm working on a case blah blah blah. I was in the verge of saying, dude stop, that's not my problem! Then she became irritated when I ask something, I'm not asking what she ate that morning or something irrelevant. Of course, I'm asking some concerns that I have in mind with regards to my son. Then, she took the height of my son. She said it was 111. But what in heaven's name is 111? She said that's his height. Duh?! So I asked for interpretation in feet. You know what she said, "oh you cannot see because this one is different." But you could see it, because it can be read in ft and cm so I just looked at it myself. Then she asked if my son was having seizures, (my son was having febrile seizures on high temperatures when he was younger) I said "no but.." then she waved her hand and said "look stop! I just want to know if he has it now, I'm wayyyy behind schedule". So I shut up then moved on to the next questions that she would ask me. Then I saw on the my son's history, she wrote, no seizures. So I prompted her and said, "you wrote no seizures. He still has it from time to time". She said, "you didn't tell me! And what's the frequency (okay in my opinion, if you say frequency you have to have a basis, she wants me to give numbers just like that)". But anyway, I told her," I was telling you that but you told me to shut up". Then she asked me, "what milk does he drink". I said, " I shifted to 1% homogenized milk." Then she said, "go back to 2%, because he needs to have lots of vitamins that 2% has". I told her "my son is eating vegetables, fruits, meat, carbs and he's taking multivitamins and omega 3. I don't want him to be fat". She said, "2% is not fattening, it's the vitamins that's 2%". Obviously she doesn't know the biochemistry of homogenized milk. At that point I just want it to be over, I know that it's not going anywhere. I don't even think if she puts the correct medical result, she doesn't speak english nor french very well, so I doubt.

My husband wanted me to complain on her supervisor but I didn't want to create a scene. I don't want to have a bad impact on her career that she has not started yet. I'll just pray that in due time, she would realize that to be a doctor, you should think and act like one.

1 comments:

Golden said...

What a very irresponsible doctor!

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