2 Year Check Up

Today Jake had his 2 year doctor visit. This post is going to be a long vent, but I will give you the basics right now so if you don't want to you don't have to read the whole vent!!!

He is 30 pounds which is the 75th percentile and 34 1/4" tall which is the 50th percentile. Everything looks good from that side! No shots today. After asking for a couple of weeks to see the doctor I don't think he will ask about it again. Because my nephew was a doctor for Halloween every time we talked about the doctor Jake would say "I want to see the Doctor." He didn't realize who the doctor was and wasn't happy when she started touching him.

That is the basics of the visit now on to my vent!!!

We will NEVER go to Cobb Pediatrics again!!! I promise NEVER!! I am on the hunt for a new ped right now. If you live in my area and you know of a great one please pass the name on to me.

I should have known this place was no good for us when at 4 months the nurse got his weight & height wrong on the chart so then at 6 months they were freaking out about his weight. But it took then several weight checks over several weeks before they realized it must have been a mistake on the chart. You think? I kept trying to tell them because the chart also showed that he had shrunk in length over those 2 months as well. Last time I checked babies aren't really shrinking.

I called this morning to double check that Jake's appointment was at 11:30 as I didn't get the usual courtesy call the day before. The girl who answers says "yes, we have Jacob down for 11:30 today." Great Jake and I head to the office if you know me you know that I am not late. In fact being late is one of my biggest pet peeves. So in true Melissa form I show up to the office at 11:10. Knowing that I would have a couple of papers to fill out and giving Jake some time to get used to the office. I go to sign in and the lady at the window ask who I was signing in (this women has never really had the friendliest attitude). She says she doesn't have a chart for him and then ask the lady at the window next to her(the sick sign in window) if she has it. Yes, she does Jake is scheduled for a sick visit today. I look at the lady and say "really? I scheduled his appointment over a month ago and obviously would not have known if he was going to be sick today." She says it is ok the doctor should have enough room to fit in a well check up instead.

I should break here to mention that I had the appointment scheduled for his 2 year check up, but I also had a couple of questions and wanted the doctor to look at his circumcision as it had been looking a little different. Other wise I might have just changed the appointment.

So we go to the waiting room. Jake is acting perfectly fine playing and getting up and down from the chairs 500 times and asking me "whats that, mommy?" 1000 more times. At 12:10 we still haven't been called back so I go ask the not so friendly lady at the window if she knows about how much longer the wait will be since our appointment was at 11:30. She says we are next and shouldn't be much longer they are just really backed up. Apparently only this particular doctor was backed up as others who had come in the office after me were being seen before me. This practice has several doctors in it. I just took the appointment with the one who had the earliest available when I called a month ago. So Jake & I continue to wait. FINALLY at 12:35 I hear Jacob called.

I go to where the nurse is supposed to be and she is not there. She has another little boy on the scale who is between the age of 8-10. "I say did you call Jacob?" The other mother looks at me and says "yes, this is Jacob." Clearly Jacob is a very popular name (nurse you might want to consider this). The nurse looks at the boy then at me and says are you Jacob (last name). I say yes, and then she looks at the chart and says "yes, he does like a lot more like the 2 year old who I have a chart for." Lucky for her she was taking us back or I might have seriously lost it!!

She stands Jake on the scale and then takes his temperature and says "oh he has a fever of 101." This office does have a sick and well waiting room, but still with lots of sick kids coming in this time of year no wonder after an hour of waiting my child now has a fever. Plus it was pretty warm in the waiting room.

We go back to the exam room and the doctor comes right in and says I may need to step out, but we will go ahead and get started. "Excuse me, I have been waiting over an hour and you might have to step out" this of course is only what I thought. I was really trying to have a good attitude about the whole thing. Especially since my giving for the day was me bringing in a bunch of magazines that I had at the house. This peds office never has anything for the parents to look at while they wait. She goes on with her exam thankfully never having to leave the room. But now at this point because he does have the low fever they are automatically assuming he is sick. And if you know my child you know he doesn't like other people. So of course as soon as the doctor started touching him he was crying which made his nose run. So she says you can tell he isn't felling well. "What? He was acting perfectly fine for the entire hour we waited." She checks ears...clear, then she checks his throat and says his tonsils look a little white so she wants to do a strep test. The strep test comes back negative as well. But she tells me " I am sure he isn't feeling well so you can just give him motrin every 6 hours. "Ok, Thank you." I am not a give my child medicine at every turn so I just take this info with a grain of salt knowing that his fever will probably be gone later that afternoon.

While the Doctor is doing her exam she is checking his boy area and says " I am having a hard time finding his 2nd testicle, have they ever had this problem before?" Me, "Umm, no, at least not that anyone has ever mentioned."(this is not what one of my questions was aobut...the circumcision area is what looked a little different to me not his other part) She then says, "this is kind of serious if one hasn't dropped it can cause testicular cancer. Are you sure there have always been two?" Me, "as far as I know yes, they have always been able to find two." She then says she will try again after she finishes the rest of his exam. She eventually finds it, but only after giving me a small heart attack thinking he might have something more serious wrong with him. I thought you didn't mention serious possibilities until you were sure.

Did I mention that the entire time the doctor is with us she is turning her head to cough? And then she asks me if she went over the growth chart. I say "no." She says to me "oh, I am not feeling well and my heads a little cloudy, I must have forgotten." Umm...HELLO!!! And you wonder why my child might have a fever....you just said you are sick and you are breathing all over my child while you are looking in his nose, eyes, ears, & throat. Of course he had the fever before he saw the Dr., but still if you are sick aren't you supposed to stay home.

There is a sliver lining in all of this craziness. My hubby & I still hadn't come to a complete decision about the flu shot. I know kind of crazy to still not know when I am at the doctors office. But I was trying to decide what to say or what choice to make. Because of the fever there was no choice to make. He didn't get any shots which I am perfectly happy with. The only thing I can think is he wasn't supposed to get the shots and that is why this fever all of a sudden popped up out of nowhere.

As I write this Jake is down for his nap & I am pretty sure he will be perfectly fine when he wakes up.

But top it to say I will NEVER go back to Cobb Pediatrics again. So the search continues for a new doctor. He doesn't go back until he is 3 so hopefully by then I will have found a doctor I like much better.

Now that I have that off my chest....I can go about my day happy and playing with my sweet little boy!! If you made it through this entire post please comment. Do you have any tips when looking for a pediatrician? Does your child see a pediatrician or a family practitioner? Any great data base you know of to search for peds in your area?