A Happy Ending

Let's just say that my day off from work was not really a day off. You always want what you can't have and that rings true as a working mother of two. Friday's are usually days at work you wish the weekend would come on already. You count down the hours until quitting time and race out of your office life you were about to win the gold medal at a finish line. But really all you are doing is rushing to get out the door so you can relax and breath easy, AAAHHH the weekend. Most mothers know that's not the case. The real work is just beginning. As was the case for me yesterday....Friday.....I took the day off because after a handful of phone calls, a half a dozen times of shuffling around appointments, I managed to have 3 different doctor appointments scheduled all in the same day at DIFFERENT times and in different offices. That in itself is a miracle. It all started with an 8:15 a.m. appointment with a dermatologist for my eldest son, Zachery. We, meaning myself, Zachery and Nolan had to leave our house at 7:30 in order to make our appointment. We found the office fine, but what I wasn't prepared for was our rude nurse. She was short, (verbally) snippy, a know it all and very condescending. She ended our little meeting pre-doctor visit in a nice way playfully smiling and cooing with Nolan, so I wrote it off as maybe taking her wrong. Then Jeanette, the PA arrives. Nice enough, so it seemed, until she starts performing a medicinal task without introduction or so much as an explanation. This was the beginning of my dismay. I questioned what it was she was doing and asked if she could explain it to me. She stopped and after discussion and the ability to make a decision myself for my son, I asked her to presume. She then made the comment, "well that's what I was going to do in the first place." That being said and done, she proceeded to scurry about and tried wrapping up our appointment without so much as a thorough examination. I kept finding and seeing more things she missed and would point them out to her dismay. As we were leaving and walking out the door I noticed some more missed diagnosis, due to her obvious "hurry" to get out the door and on to the next Number. She seemed irritated by this and went on out the door and sent the nurse in to finish her job (the job she didn't thoroughly complete). So, here I am again with the lovely nurse. She proceeds to finish the job, but she is doing this in a way that is causing my son great discomfort. I can see him tensing in pain and when the tears started dropping from his eyes onto his lap, that's when I spoke up. This is hurting him, when the doctor did this he didn't cry and she didn't do it that way. Her response, "Well, this is how I was trained and this is how I do it." That infuriated me!!! She finished up and I stormed out of there. At check out we needed to schedule a check up visit. The lady tried scheduling me with the same person. I refused the same person and said I do NOT want to see her again I need to be scheduled with someone else. The look on her face was astonishing! She almost fumbled over herself. At this point most people would have caused a scene. If you know me at all, I am not that kind of person. I am probably one of the most patient, understanding people you will meet. I get along with most anyone and I avoid conflict at all measures. This incident was pushing it for me. As I was standing there facing her my hands were shaking ( a definite sign that I've had it) and my usually smiling face was stiff and unfriendly. She could see this and didn't push it with me. As we were exiting the building I was getting madder and madder by the second. When I made it to the car the first thing I did was to call my husband. He got an earful from me and quickly said, what's their number? My husband and I are very different in how we handle adversity. Because of this incident, my husband was late in making an out of town appointment. He was still at home when we arrived back and as we entered our home, the phone rang. It was a call back from the head doctor in charge of this practice. My husband exited to the basement and engaged in a conversation with complete rhetoric, pretty much word for word of my experience with our treatment. The doctor, apologized, said he would talk with both of them and offered to see us personally and for free at our next visit if we chose to come back. This satisfied me, as long as I don't have to see that nurse again. I'm not sure at this point if I will go back. Our next appointment was for Nolan, at 2:15. This visit went well. Nolan has had 4-5 ear infections in his short 6 month life and that caused me great concern. I don't like seeing him sick and I was concerned of there being hearing damage. Being greeted by this nurse and doctor was like night and day. It was good to have someone to compare this with, because without a doubt I could see it wasn't just me. Nolan does meet the criteria for tubes in his ears, but the doctor thinks we should wait and get through the winter season and more into spring before we make any decisions. I totally agreed with him and was actually relieved. I don't want to rush into surgery especially if it's not completely necessary. Next, we were on to the next office. Nolan's 6 month check up. This go around only required 2 injections.....WHEW. He handled them pretty well. He is developmentally right on target and actually the doctor seemed surprised that I already had him sleeping in his crib in his own room. This shock actually shocked me. He's been sleeping in his own room since between 3 and 4 months old. I guess I'm doing better than I thought. He also sleeps through the night and has for some time now. It's actually a very simple process of putting him to bed. He usually goes to sleep around 8:30 by just laying him in bed and giving him his blanket. No fuss, no mess, right off to sleepy land. I'm blessed with 2 wonderful boys. Anyway, that visit went well, the nurse was extra nice as if she knew about my previous engagement with the nurse from he**. The doctor was not in a rush to get out of the room with us and spoke to me slowly, carefully and like I was the only patient he had that day. Things were looking up. We headed back to town (approx. 30 min. drive) and rushed to change and get ready for the evening we had planned. Brian, myself and Zachery were driving to see David Copperfield. My husband was already in that direction at a wrestling event at the Arena. This meant that me and Zachery had to drive there and meet him. Grandma Paula so graciously arrived at our house to keep Nolan for us - thanks! As soon as she showed up we flew out the door and headed out. First of all, I am not good with directions. Mix that with Friday night traffic, rain and dark and this makes for a bad combination. We were scooting right along making good time and doing well, then we hit a bottle neck of traffic. This delayed us about 10 - 15 minutes. Not too bad, so far we still had plenty of time to make our 8:30 show time. Now the fun begins. I'm supposed to be able to find a place I've never been, by following directions my husband gives me that I've written down while driving in the rain and dark...........well, you guessed it I got lost. When I'm in these kinds of situations I panic. I can't think straight and I get very stressed. After a couple of phone exchanges with my husband I figure out where I am and what I need to do. My poor son tries so hard to help me by naming every street sign he sees, reminding me of the time and so forth. This in his eyes is helpful, in mine it's added pressure! We meet up with Brian and follow him to the easy to locate hotel down the interstate. What did we do without cell phones!!! As I'm tailing him and searching for the Quality Inn while talking on the cell phone......do you see it? No. It's supposed to be on the right hand sign, Oh man, not another red light! We need to switch lanes, now we need to turn around. This exchange goes on for quite some time. Finally we decide to ditch his car in another hotel parking lot and at this point take off like superman, as fast as a speeding bullet, because it is now 7:45. We need to be at the David Copperfield show by 8:30 and we have 27 miles to go to get to the destination, mind you we've never been there, so more directions! We surprisingly don't have any problems finding it and quickly park our car. By this time it is 8:20......shew, we made it. My son, Zachery, is a stickler for being on time, actually he likes to be early for everything. So this, to him, was late. We jetted into the beautiful and new center to find our seats. Oh, yeah I forgot to mention. Zachery and I never ate dinner. That was supposed to happen before the show, because we had SOOOO much time. Never fear, we'll hit concessions inside. That's great except all they had to offer was candy and chips. We both ate a snickers, because they satisfy you and drank some lemonade. I know, not a wonderfully, nutritious meal or combination, but we were desperate. We sat in our seats, which thanks to Uncle Wes, were wonderful. Finally, we sat back and relaxed. The show was amazing, mind boggling and entertaining. All of the running around, frantic, stressful inconvenience was worth it when I looked over and saw the expression on my 10 year olds face!!!! Every bad experience, and ill feelings disappeared instantly and brought a smile to my face and to my heart. If I had to go through all of those bad times, and unwanted instances again to see his face I'd do it all again, no question. What a happy ending to a very stressful day.