Why didn’t I think of that?

Yesterday I had to take Alivia for a follow-up appointment to her pediatric urologist. Alivia was born with Urinary Reflux, but it wasn’t diagnosed until she was 4. She had surgery in June 2008, and had been doing well until December of this year.

In December she started having accidents at school, and a lot of urgency. As you can imagine this was disconcerting to all of us, especially her. Nobody wants to pee their pants in first grade. I bet if you saw someone pee their pants when you were in elementary school you can at least remember that kid’s face, if not their name too. Yeah, I know I can. The idea of Alivia being that kid breaks my heart.

So, when this started happening in December I called her pediatrician immediately and took the first the appointment they had. I also took in a urine specimen to the lab before we even had the appointment.

The appointment turned out to be with another pediatrician, and right away I knew I didn’t like her. She only has one child, and it’s a baby, and I could tell she has no idea what it’s like to have a 1st grader who can’t control her bladder. She said there was no infection and she actually wanted me to take her off the medication for urinary urgency. When I asked her for an explanation of why a year and a half after surgery she would start having accidents again, she had no explanation.

Ok, thanks for nothing. Peace out. I hope I never see you again.

After another week or two of sending a backpack full of underwear and extra uniforms to school, I made an appointment with the pediatric urologist who did the surgery. Shawn took her to the appointment, and what do you know? She had a UTI. Shocking.

Longish story short, she was on antibiotics for 2 months, and then we had a follow-up appointment with the urologist again yesterday. This is the main point of this post, so hopefully you’ve made it this far!

The person we saw was actually a Nurse Practitioner, with the biggest Yooper accent in the whole wide world. She also had a Physician’s Assistant with her who had a wonky eye and I’m 99% sure she was actually student, even though she wasn’t introduced as such.

So, yooper nurse goes over the whole history with wonky eye girl, and then asks me if there have been any “incidents.” Aka, is your kid still peeing her pants? I tell her no. She then looks at and presses on Alivia’s belly, and tells us “If there any more infections I think you can just go to your pediatrician and have her treat it.”

Really? Really. What a novel idea.

You know had I just taken her to the pediatrician, I wouldn’t have had to take her out of school early to drive downtown and try to find your stupid building that has no signage out front and looks like a freakin’ parking garage. I wouldn’t have had to spend 10 minutes trying to find a space in the parking garage, and then take an elevator to another elevator just to get to your building. I wouldn’t have had to pay twice as much for my co-pay, because we’re seeing a “specialist” even though all we’re actually seeing is a nurse who I don’t even trust because you’re wearing a too short skirt paired with brown boots that don’t even match your royal blue school girl skirt. I also wouldn’t have had to try to smile politely at your physician assistant friend, even though I’m not even sure if she’s actually looking at me.

Yeah lady, you’re right. Why didn’t I think of that? Oh wait, I did.