Oh the Frustration...

Today Anthony had a 9:30 appointment to get four shots as well as a wellness check that needed to be done for our agency, LSS.  Back on March 18th while I was at my own appointment at the clinic I set everything up.  I had just gotten his shot record and I spoke with three ladies at the clinic who helped me to figure out what he needed and how to make the upcoming appointment. Sounds simple enough, right?  WRONG!

Today we got to the clinic at 9:20 to check in.  At 9:45 his name hadn't been called, but I thought they might just be busy.  (By the way, there were only a handful of people in the waiting room who had all been called back.  We were all by ourselves.)  Finally at 10:00 I decide to go ask Kathy the receptionist if there was a delay or some major emergency - SOMETHING!  She couldn't believe that Anthony hadn't been seen yet and goes to check on it.  Five minutes later - 45 minutes of waiting with antsy 19 month old - we get called back.  Things are starting to look up, right?  WRONG again!

Joanna our favorite nurse took a day off - how dare she! - and we had a different nurse for this trip.  She asks me why we are here today and I tell her he needs his four shots as well as a wellness check with the doctor.  Immediately everything goes wrong.  She tells me that he doesn't have an appointment with the doctor and that there are no records of what shots he's has had or which ones he needs, etc. etc.  (Meanwhile Anthony keeps saying num-num and wants to go out in the hallway to explore a new environment.)  Apparently the information that I gave to the clinic on the 18th has mysteriously vanished.  Interesting.

Finally after two trips out of the exam room she pulls up his records on the computer and finds the list of shots he's already had.  She then pulls out the nurse cheat sheet of what shots he needs and proceeds to tell me that he's all caught up and doesn't need any shots.  This I know to be false because Cynthia, his birthmommy, as well as other nurses from this exact same clinic have told me that he needs another round of shots in April.  

Here's the kicker - actually kickerS: (1) When I tell her I'm not sure what shots he needs she says something like, "You ARE his mother?"  Lovely.  When I try to explain that we recently adopted Anthony and that's why there may be some holes in my knowledge of his previous medical history she looks at me like I'm an idiot.  Great.  (2) She then gives me the nurse cheat sheet of shots and asks me if I could figure out what shots he needs.  WHAT?!?!  At that point nice, sweet Tonja almost loses it.  It seems like she's going to do an eenie meenie miney mo and pick out four random shots to give him - I DON'T THINK SO!  I picked up Anthony and just walked out.   (Just to note: I was a mixture of emotions.  I was almost in tears because of her mom comment, but also was worried that I was being too rude to her.  Seriously... sometimes I even worry about my own got-to-be-nice-regardless-of-the-situation attitude.)

Needless to say, when I got out to Kathy I was trying hard not to cry and become one of those crazy parents I've seen too many times in my teaching career. (Luckily, Kathy is AWESOME, always so kind and, as an added bonus, her oldest is adopted as well.  She's been getting adoption updates for months when I go in for my lab appointments.)  While I was talking to her and trying to get everything figured out Nurse Ratched comes with a gas card for all of my "troubles" today.  A GAS CARD?!?!  You had NO CLUE what was going on and would have injected him with any concoction that you thought might work.  Please keep your gas card and work on getting a clue.  (On a side note, Mark can't believe I actually left the card behind - OF COURSE he would think that!)

Turns out the clinic lost the LSS paperwork, screwed up the whole nature of the appointment, and our nurse for the day FORGOT to get us from the waiting room.  She was wondering where we were at.  (Again, seriously?  Typically your patients are waiting in the WAITING ROOM!)

So Monday at 9:00 we are going to try this whole appointment thing once again.  I'm hoping that Joanna the Wonderful will be back (coincidentally she's adopting a 15 month old right now) and there will be no more guess work on his shots/insult the mother on her lack of medical knowledge.  I'll be sure to post an update next week. I'm truly hoping there won't be much to say...

PS - Thanks Nurse Erin for listening to my emotionally charged phone call when I returned home.  I always appreciate your opinion and thoughts.  You're like my own personal nurse THAT I can TRUST!  :)