My Medical Rant

With all the appointments I've had to schedule for The Chubs in the last few months, I can honestly say I am royally annoyed with the health care system. Here are several things that have driven me crazy over the last few months:

• I receive a phone call from such and such department saying there is a referral for The Chubs and to call and set up an appointment. I make the call, give her name, date of birth, home address, etc, and they look her up. "What are we seeing her for?" Is always the question that follows. YOU TELL ME! You called me and said you received a referral! I dig through paperwork I've received to figure out why the heck she IS being seen because I can't keep them all straight! I finally find it and tell them and then I hear "Hmmm, it doesn't mention that here." This is where I go crazy. Seriously?!?!
  
• The previous annoyance almost rivals my frustrations with an office that makes you fill out 15 pages of lengthy information regarding why you are seeing the doctor, all to have the doctor walk in to the appointment without even GLANCING at the paper and asking you all over to repeat in verbal form everything you just spent 20 minutes trying to write out on their in-depth questionnaire.
  
  
• My daughter is almost 9 months old. We scheduled a GI appointment for her back when she was 5 1/2 months and have only been able to get in to see the GI ONCE. This means we have spent almost half of her life waiting on care that she really needs. I understand that Children's Hospital is busy, but when a child is not eating well and is already off the charts small, it seems like it should maybe be a little more urgent.
  
  
• Conflicting opinions drive me nuts. We have seen so many doctors and they all have a different idea of how to handle things.
  
  
• Drastic measures seem to be common at Children's Hospital. This was our experience in the NICU. There was no possible way my daughter just had something "simple" like reflux. She either had a stroke in the womb, meningitis, encephalitis, and was most definitely having seizures. WRONG! It was "just" reflux, so forgive me if when I have big scary procedures and diagnoses thrown at me left and right, I tune you out. I'm tired of the scare tactics. Let's have a little hope for a change.

End Rant.