Know when to walk away....or out of the doctor's office

These days, you need to be your own advocate when it comes to your health. When you see a doctor, if you don't have confidence in their advice, if you think something is off, if you don't get the warm & fuzzy, its not written in stone that you need to follow that doctor's advice or even see them again. Mommy-sense is the 6th sense, and if its telling you to walk out of a doctor's office - DO IT! and don't look back. Always trust your mommy senses.

I say this all in light of our GI appt yesterday. A day I had high hopes for, with potential answers, medication alterations, and a full allergy panel so we could have some idea how in heck to make Chase's poor belly better. As I mentioned in a recent post, the little guy's reflux is out of control again. Note to self - lower expectations. What ended up was me walking out, bewildered, disgusted, and without any answers. FANTASTIC!

The appt started with the usual height and weight check - 28 1/2 in, 18lbs 14.5oz nakey nakey on their scale. A tad lower than I expected, but ok. The NP came in to talk to us about symptoms, reactions, and both of our diets. I explained how Mylanta was working while the Prevacid had lost its effectiveness. I shared with her our diets of veggies and fruits, with egg & meat for me, and minimal exposure to those items for the Bubs. I explained the constipation issues, and how he once screamed in pain while I helped him poop with a suppository. I explained the bloody poo from the early days, and the corn nightmare of late. She scribbled furiously on her notepad, keeping up with the rollercoaster of reflux that has been our life since July.

What happened next floored me. The NP said our diet lacked dairy (because he seemed allergic early on with bloody stool, dumbass) and guessed this was the cause of his weight issues, and that he should be eating things, now I am quoting verbatim here, MAC AND CHEESE. She also suggested we see a nutritionist, and made a somewhat snide comment about my post partum weight loss, implying, at least to the now frazzled me, that I have an eating disorder (Um, lady, I eat 4 meals a day, FU.) They wanted to decrease his Prevacid dosage, despite his condition getting worse and had no alternatives to Mylanta. In addition, there was no good answer for the chronic constipation other than "Just give him Mirilax for that." And to top it all off, they had a very hard time finding a vein to take blood for the allergy tests I literally had to beg for, so writhing and screaming in pain C$ was invetiably rescued from the horrid experience, no blood taken, no answers, nothing accomplished.

Stepping in when doc's are treating your child, or trying fruitlessly to draw blood, may seem like an overbearing act, and cause for some embarrassment or looks from said staff. Guess what? at that point, I couldn't give a flying you know what what anyone in that office thought of me - it wasn't the place for us to get answers from. So I scooped up my son in my arms, held him tight, tucked my momma bear claws away, and told him tomorrow would be a better day. Don't be afraid to do the same if you ever feel like your child's healthcare is being compromised or short changed. You da momma, you da boss, nuff said.