Thursday, June 29, 2006
Call Me Any Any Time… Or Not?
When we go to our family doctor, we wait hours and hours to get in an see him, with the consolation being that when we have an emergency, we too will be able to get in and see him while other people wait.
And so it is that after 13 minutes on hold with not the normal nurse-receptionist or even the backup nurse-receptionist, we have an appointment at 2:15 for Sadie with not-our-doctor.
Total bullshit.
Absolute total bullshit.
And I didn’t think to ask if we could see him tomorrow instead. We’re sure she didn’t ask him if he’d fit us in. It’ll be all of a three minute visit, ending in either “looks like she buised her hipbone” or that kind of thing and “give her some ibuprofen and it’ll heal in a couple weeks,” or else “go see the specialist.”
Some random person filled in reception and didn’t know us. Or our doctor. Apparently it’s all well and good for him to have a policy of “call me!” It just goes completely astray in execution, especially when there are surrogate minions.
Anyway, after I made the appointment, and after I started typing this, we got sufficiently concerned and, well, angry, that I called back and canceled. Gave the reason of preferring to see our own doctor, and disconnected before the at least friendlier-this-time surrogate minion could verify he also has no openings tomorrow.
So what is wrong with Sadie anyway? Probably nothing that a little time and ibuprofen can’t cure. It’s borderline on whether to bother having it looked at; I just decided I ought to err on the side of caution, and it was worth spending yet another $25 for peace of mind and guidance. Of course, the tone of the reception drone initially was “have you been beating your kid?” Which was one of the factors weighed in deciding whether to take her. It’s obvious we haven’t, and our doctor would never dream of suspecting it or taking that tone. He’s the one who joked about seeing her for stitches under the chin when she manifested as an unstoppable climber.
The problem manifested itself in diaper changes. I lay her in the bassinet, unhook the diaper, and grab usually her right leg to lift her butt up to wipe her clean. She’s never been thrilled by the grab a leg thing, but it works.
Starting a few days ago, that made her scream in pain. She didn’t even seem to like to lay flat. Either leg, but more the right. If you lay her down flat now she cringes in anticipation, which makes us wonder if some of the reaction is not liking it because it used to hurt even if now not so much.
We’ve tried bending the leg and hip, prodding all over the place, trying to see if there was a locus of pain. Closest I came to a result prodding was one side of her lower back down near the hip.
Almost forgot; she seems to be pained by it if the diaper is fastened too tight, and the same few days ago she started fighting being put into the normal position and strapped into her car seat, almost as if it was hurting her. Not the agony of the grab leg and lift butt thing, but apparent discomfort that she gets over or tolerates enough to ride fine.
She had no obvious difficulties or changes to behavior. She can still walk, run, climb, stomp… but last night she was having clear difficulty climbing into and out of her chair at the kitchen table, even needing help. She falls in the tub and thinks nothing of it. She sits and bends her legs in the same ways that bother her if we have her on her back trying to identify the problem. I think I caught a slight limp earlier, and maybe there’s a little reversion to pointing her toes inward, but it’s hard to say. Mostly she’s fine. It’s very strange and subtle. Clearly not a broken bone, for instance. If it weren’t for the diaper changing hysteria, we’d suspect nothing. And the hysteria is clearly pain-induced. Or maybe “memory of pain” induced, in some part.
It’s probably a pulled muscle or deep bruise that doesn’t show on the surface, and will simply fade away. It’s the kind of thing that I wouldn’t take myself to a doctor for, but Sadie can’t really tell us what we’d like to know about it, and I decided to take advantage of the “family practice” pitch for once, to reassure us.
If it still bothers her when I have my appointment next week, I’ll bring it up then, maybe bring her with me for the day anyway. And I’ll chat with the doctor about what exactly the “call me” policy means and what I should expect from the minions guarding his gates.
Meanwhile, I do hope she stops falling and banging off of and into things so much.