Hate it Here - Ongoing
Background: Had a wonderful pediatrician back in Florida. (Dr. Wilde. Wesley Chapel. Look him up.)
This past Friday, I took my children to our pediatrician here. We'll call this young, tall, blonde, and annoyingly obtuse woman Dr. Bimbo.
Because it's my goddamn site. That's why.
"Wow," Dr. Bimbo said. "You guys haven't been here since July. They've been pretty healthy, huh?"
"We've been lucky," I said.
She diagnosed Oldest with an ear and upper respiratory infection. Youngest with just the URI.
"No doubt in three days," I said. "Youngest will have an earache, too."
Dr. Bimbo laughed and agreed.
Tuesday night at bedtime, Youngest complained that his ear was hurting him. I wasn't sure, he could've been leaning on it wrong, so I told him to get some sleep and hopefully it would go away.
Kid woke up at midnight crying about his sore ear.
This is unusual and so it certainly doesn't take a genius (or even a bimbo doctor) to know what has happened.
I gave him hugs, kisses, rocking chair moments, Tylenol and started him on his brother's antibiotic.
That's right. You heard me.
Stop yelling at the computer. I'm not some new and nervous mother. This has been our routine for eight years. Oldest gets RSV and a few days later Youngest gets it. Oldest gets his tonsils/adenoids removed. Then Youngest gets his removed. Same with colds and infections. I usually call Dr. Wilde and he calls in a prescription.
Piece of cake.
Usually.
Not this time.
Dr. Bimbo wants to see him before she will prescribe anything. Can't fit him in for a few days, though. But he needs to come in anyway.
I tried to talk some sense into her.
"Are you high? We were just there on Friday."
"Ummm. My boys are identical twins. This has happened at least once a year for the past eight years. One catches something and then the other."
"As you can see from their medical history, we don't go for antibiotics very often. So this must really be something. As you can see from their medical history, we're hardly ever in there. SO THIS MUST REALLY BE SOMETHING. Do you even have their medical history?"
"By the time you have an opening, he'll have had at least four doses of his brother's medicine. Is it safe to assume that when you finally take a look, his ear will look fine? Is it safe to assume that if he stops taking medicine, his infection will come back worse? Is it safe to assume that if his brother runs out of medicine because you won't replace it, *his* infection will come back worse?"
"Is it safe to assume that dumb blondes really can graduate from medical school?"
"Seriously? A co-pay and insurance money are that important to delay Youngest's medicine and drag us in to tell us what, as his mother, I'm telling *you* we already know?"
"Do you want Dr. Wilde's phone number? As proof I'm not insane?"
"I hope when you finally have kids, your uterus falls out."
Needless to say, in the end, we had to find a new doctor who could squeeze Youngest in this morning. An older doctor who has grandkids and chuckled knowingly when I mentioned the nonsense we'd just endured.
Safe to assume we will never again visit Dr. Bimbo's bony ass.
And I meant what I said. Uterus right out of her body and on the floor. That's what I hope.
posted by kate @ 9:25 AM
30 comments
30 Comments:
You know Doctors aren't a bit smarter than anyone else. This is one of the beauties of the internet, we can research anything just as well as they can. Also, 8 of 10 students cheat on exams and papers, I'm sure the numbers are no different in medical school. Hey, Docs are no worse than the general population, but they are no better either.
Well, doctors aren't smarter than smart people, anyway, and obviously not any less greedy than the general population. Next time, just go for the leeches.
Of course, the other side of the coin is that we live in a very litigious society, particularly when it comes to matters of health. For pediatric specialties this is doubly so, which is one of the reasons its harder and harder to find any pediatrician, let alone a good one. Doctors, particularly younger doctors, follow specific procedural rules not only because they don't want to get sued (or at least be able to say they did everything right when they invariably are), but also because insurance companies themselves have rules they force them to follow and if they don't(or at least lied about) then the doctor doesn't get paid. And still might get sued.
So look at it from her side. She hasn't seen you since June and has no real personal history with you as a patient. Medical histories are nice, but they also can be incomplete or even forged. The symptoms developed five days after the doctor's visit and appear to be more acute than those of his brother. You've already admitted to self-medicating, even though it's quite possible it's viral or a different bacterial strain that's resistant to the already prescribed antibiotics. On top of all of this, she has some woman who she doesn't know from Adam on the phone calling her professionalism into question and hoping her uterus falls out. Cut her some slack and campaign for tort reform and changes in health insurance regulation so doctors aren't afraid to treat people.
And may I also point out that the overperscription of antibiotics by the "older doctor who has grandkids and chuckled knowing when (you) mentioned the nonsense we'd just endured," is the exact reason we're now dealing with emergent superbugs that show a spectrum of resistance and seriously endanger one of the cornerstones of Western medicine.
QJ - Spoken like someone without children. Our current crisis of superbugs resistant to antibiotics has everything to do with a beef and dairy industry overusing such antibiotics and nothing to do with doctors who work *with* parents instead of against them.
Young doctors are afraid to go against medical procedure and I can't blame them. So - get us in there that fucking instant. Not the following day or the day after that. Explain yourself and stay late if need be. Don't breathe heavily into the phone and stand firm that several days from now is the best you can do.
I'm a mother and care about my son. So sue me.
God help me if/when my awesome pediatrician retires, I honestly don't know what I'll do.
Sounds as if you're a bit jealous that she's attractive and blonde, as well as being pissed off that she didn't do exactly what you wanted in order to protect herself and her practice from hysterical second-guessers.
Well, it is true that we're supposed to see patients and not diagnose over the phone. However, if they couldn't get you an appt the same day, I'd certainly call in an antibiotic, given the history. Resistance is caused by all antibiotic use, regardless of species. India and China have (I realize this is no revelation, by the way) huge populations and meds available over the counter. That's a huge problem for potential resistant organisms.
Anyway, as a PNP and a mom, I have a better appreciation for this topic than I did pre-kid, for sure. I bet you're correct that Ms. Bony Ass has none. : )
I once saw a new grad internist who didn't even want to do a throat culture, despite my history of getting strep, and I was standing right in front of her! She was sure (and wrong) that it was a URI. Kind of amazing, the arrogance sometimes.
And as for QJ saying some medical histories are "even forged." Dude, you are watching way too much Dateline.
You know, I was going to respond to this, but what's the point. Besides, Dateline's on and that's where I obviously get my information from.
Hi Rhonda, I was just going to write the same thing. People are over prescribed antibiotics for things that they don't need an antibiotic for, which greatly contributes to the resistant strains. I believe it's the ADULTS who think they need the meds for their own coughs and sniffles, not as much for their kids. Morons. Anyway, parents will always do battle with docs. I don't blame the docs for not wanting to get sued. The only condition I've ever heard a doctor/NP not needing to see a kid for, beforehand, regardless of sibling illness, is like, pink eye? Otherwise, yep, gotta bring 'em in. I also think dr's offices should keep available 2-3 appointments every day for last minute walk-ins such as this one, especially during school year/cold and flu season/whatever. Just a thought.
The fag is right. She writes a Rx without having seen the kid, something goes wrong, and the next thing you know some bitch like you is sueing the hell out of them for malpractice. You fucking libs painted your own selves into this corner. To bad your kids have to suffer both physically and with having to put up with your goddamned selfish political philosphy.
Getting sued for phoning in an order for antibiotics? Ehhhh, No. I don't think so. And, the resistance argument makes zero sense in this instance because Dr. Bimbo already prescribed antibiotics for the identical twin for what patient's mom and doc already predicted the unprescribed twin would end up with. As an attorney and the custodial father of identical twins who've had the same sort of thing happen to them, I have no problem completely siding with Kate on this one. Besides, even very, very, smart people like QJ need to know not to ever, EVER, mess with momma bear when she's defending her cubs.
don't forget about the abuse of coffee.
and now, because the followers of this blog were upset upset about a frickin flyer, these people lose their jobs:
"Starbucks eliminates 600 jobs in restructuring
Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:59pm EST"
Maxwell House for me. At least the underpaid gringos keeps his job.
The biology person has to ring in again... bacteria are fickle beings. You can put identical twins on the same antibiotic and a bacterium in one twin can mutate and become a resistant bug while the whole population of bacteria in the other twin is eradicated. That's why it is always relevant.
Doesn't change the essence of what should or shouldn't have happened in this particular situation, but that's the deal with resistance.
Yes, sue the doctors. If you're an attorney, as you claim, then you know you can sue a baloney sammich, you shithead. Sometimes it's not whether the case is legit or not, it's whether you want to pay to fend it off and if you want the bad PR from having it go forward.
But at least you've made it clear that if anyone here should ever want to obtain a divorce, they need to hire superdave524 to represent their spouse. Your lack of understanding the law vs. the real world will make sure your client lives their remaining life in poverty.
You're a damn idiot, davethedumbass524.
So this doctor, who's more intelligent, has better tits, and makes more money that the Yid cunt will ever hope to see, recognized she's got some bitch who not only wants things wholesale, she's also some lib fuck who's out to save the world, and she would gladly get some Heb lawyer relative to file the paperwork because the little shit was given medicine without the doctor physically checking to make sure it's what he really needed. So the bitch mother, wanting to save some time so she can blog rather than be a parent, wants her to phone it in. Used to be able to do that. Not as much anymore.
I read today about some bus driver who was taking kids who were misbehaving on her bus and taping their hands together and their mouths shut. Some of the parents are suing. When I was a kid if the bus driver had done that to me, my parents wouldn't sue, they'd be asking ME, as they were walking me behind the woodshed to whoop my ass, what I did that was so bad the bus driver had to take that kind of action. Different world.
"Ehhhh, No. I don't think so." FUCK YOU!!!! You're one of the goddamned problems.
Sounds like a good doctor. I really enjoy reading your blog, it always has great insight. But I am very frustrated with the media’s lack of questions to the presidential candidates about global warming. Now that it is down to just a few candidates I would think that this would be a bigger issue.
Live Earth just picked up this topic and put out an article ( http://www.liveearth.org/news.php ) asking why the presidential candidates are not being solicited for their stance on the issue of the climate change. I just saw an article describing each candidate’s stance on global warming and climate change on earthlab.com http://www.earthlab.com/articles/PresidentialCandidates.aspx . So obviously they care about it. Is it the Medias fault for not asking the right questions or is it the candidates’ fault for not highlighting the right platforms? Does anyone know of other websites or articles that touch on this subject and candidates’ views? This is the biggest problem of the century and for generations to come…you would think the next president of the United States would be more vocal about it.
Would someone please give Anon 6:08 a hand? He evidently has a stick up his @ss.
Not as big as the baseball bat that Kate apparently has up hers.....
"Where parenting and politics meet, but don't always play nice."
Lunar Alert:
94% of Full
It is vehwy, vehwy, quiet.
I love it, notice how the anonymous posters are generally the ones who sound like the creepy guy on the bus who talks to his hat?
And Kate, uterus on the floor? Maybe that's what I found in our hall this morning ... wait, no, just cat harf.
And Superdave: "And the one cannibal says to the other: "does this taste funny to you?"
Good catch, Chaser.
The ubiquitous anons.
Almost like slithy toves as they gyre and gimble in the wabe.
Without a name they are nothing - and everything.
Some write hate filled rhetoric, some mock.
Sort of like mimicking the named ones.
Well, Anon 2;16, you do get some credit for quoting Lewis Carroll.
just call me the zerox of passages
Zerox, Xerox ... whatever. Both score lots of points in Scrabble.
didn't want to be accused of plagiarism again.
sort of like what "is" is.
Sounds as if you're a bit jealous that she's attractive and blonde, as well as being pissed off that she didn't do exactly what you wanted in order to protect herself and her practice from hysterical second-guessers.
Anyone who has seen pictures of Kate and read about her plastic surgery understands she is just jealous about truly beautiful women.
I've seen the pictures and thinks she looks pretty good. Anyway, Kate, time for a new post.
I just have to chime in and mention it wasn't only the over-prescribing of antibiotics that created super-bugs, it was (and continues to be) also the mis-use of them by patients (not completing the course because they 'feel better').
My own pet peeve with our pediatrician is her penchant for pulling out templates to put my kids in. I really don't give a shit if my daughter can't pronounce all her letters at the designated, approved, pre-assigned age. If she can't do it by the age of 15, then maybe I'll start getting worried, but don't start recommending a speech therapist at the age of 4! (that last part is no joke! I just stared at the pediatrician with the best WTF? look I could muster.)
My daugher, BTW, was able to pronounce all her letters a year later. She didn't make the template and we've decided berate her about it daily and make her ride the short bus.
http://www.tinylittledots.com/pics/anonybus.jpg
t...
Post a Comment
<< Home