Standing up for Yourself

I was looking through my emails when I noticed that someone had commented on my last post about our current doctor. I have the comments moderated so my older children who read my blog do not have to sit and listen to hurtful or ignorant things being said about their family.Normally, if it is something that I feel is not appropriate I will just delete the comment. Today I woke up in a slightly different mood however and I want to address what was said. You see, I made a comment that I did not feel the doctor was taking time to get to know my children. He is our pediatrician and I feel that he should be taking time to know each one of them, not to just breeze into the exam room listen to their heart, hear about their symptoms and try to diagnose as fast as possible so he can move on to the next patient. I want him to keep up to date on how they are doing, not just hazard a guess.
So in response to what I posted, I got this lovely comment...

" Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Dear....": Wow! I pay doctors to give me their professional medical opinion, not to blow sunshine up my butt. The sooner you realize that the world doesn't revolve around you, the better off those kids will be."

First off,  Anonymous, there are a LOT of doctors out there. You should NEVER see a doctor that you do not feel comfortable with or who is not addressing your concerns. While a doctor may have their own professional opinion they are not God, they DO make mistakes, hence why a LOT of people go get a second and even third opinion when they do not feel what their doctor is telling them is correct.

Secondly, we have physical therapist and occupational therapist that work with our children on a weekly basis that have done assessments about where they are developmentally. Seeing my children for 3 minutes does NOT qualify a doctor to make a realistic professional medical opinion about where they are developmentally. It is very hard for two babies to crawl all over and pull to a stand and show all their skills while being forced to lay on a table to be examined as they are being poked and prodded by the doctor. 

Also, as a parent, it is my job to stand up for my children. To be there to speak on behalf of their rights. To make sure they are being treated with respect and dignity. I will make sure my children get the best care possible.  We are paying the bill, and our insurance company has many doctors under their plan, so why would I be so ignorant as to stay with a doctor who does not take the time to get to know my children? One who is very hard to get ahold of when my kids are sick.

Maybe that is how you want to raise your kids, if you have any. But I want my kids to have the best doctor I can find them. Does that mean that I will always like what they say? NO it does not. What it does mean, is that the doctor we will see is going to take the time to listen to what the symptoms are, they will take the time to ask how they are doing, and IF they do not know what is wrong with my child they will ADMIT it and maybe refer us to a specialist or they will tell us they will do some research on it and get back to us.

So you do what you want with your health and the health of your family. As for me, I will find a doctor who actually cares about my children and will listen when we have concerns. We will do our best to make sure our children are comfortable in the doctors office and get the best care we can find.