Love The Doctor, Hate The Staff!

I love our Doctor, but I just cannot stand the office staff at the location where we see him. So far, my son's new ADHD doctor's office has managed to get us started into their program pretty quickly (or so I had thought at first.)

But the office staff has managed to actually "Lose" two of our appointments and has detrimentally rescheduled a key appointment that my son really truly needed to keep at the time, delaying our official entry into the program itself.

I really do not know what to think about the whole thing. I have tried to keep a positive attitude about everything for my son's sake, but he has even noticed the many problems that they are having about getting him scheduled and actually seen by his doctor.

Today, we had an appointment scheduled for 3:15. I had to argue with the receptionist at the end of our last appointment because she keeps wanting to schedule us at about lunch-time during a school day every time.

She does offer to write us excuses saying that it will make everything alright, which I do appreciate the offer.

Each time she does this, I nicely try and explain to her that my son attends a school that places an emphasis on attendance as part of the criteria for continuation in their program. I know that we will be seeing the doctor at least once a month which will count as an absense each time, which will amount to too many absenses to stay in that school.

Each time I have the feeling that I am "Pulling teeth" just to get an after-school appointment at a time that I know that I can actually get us there, punctually.

I should have become suspicious when I didn't receive a reminder call from the office reminding me of the appointment today. I usually get these calls on the business day prior to the actual appointment.

That reminder call never came. I just shrugged it off and planned to make our appointment as our little business card reminder stated.

My son even made a point to write his reminder on his arm where he couldn't help but read it as he grabbed his books at the end of his school day.

My husband surprised me today and came home early from work so that he could watch our babies while I took Bregon to his appointment (a rare but special treat.)

I picked him up at school with very little fan-fare and we headed over the office. Traffic even went in our favor for once and we arrived about five minutes early for the appointment.

Things were going really well, or so I had thought. I had my copies of progress reports and standardized test scores that would give the doctor an idea of how Bregon js doing in school. I even had my little notebook with a page devoted to notes about his progress on the new medication.

When we checked in with the receptionist, the counselor was very happy to see us and immediately struck up a conversation with us. The receptionist, however, appeared very surprised to see us.

She disappeared into the backroom (seemingly to pull our file) while the counselor and I discussed the lack of availability of diet grape soda in grocery stores today, newspaper routes as good jobs for youths today, and the ironies of philanthropic Americans who gladly fund the rebuilding of bridges destroyed as acts of war in other countries yet will not pay to maintain our rather delapidated bridges here at home.

When she came back she seemed even more confused. At first, I had thought that she might just be confused over the topics of conversation that she had walked in on, but I was soon to find that was NOT the case.

She outright asked me why we were here. I showed her our appointment card for her inspection while she asked us who made the appointment for today and why.

As it turns out, the handwriting on the card was HERS. She then told us that we shouldn't be seeing the doctor yet because there is a PROCESS.

I told her as nicely as I could muster that we had been coming here since early July and I had thought that we were going THROUGH and complying with some sort of process.

The counselor had to intervene and begin translating for me because the receptionist seemed very VERY confused. She finally said that she had called someone and that they had verified that we were not "In-service" whatever that meant.

I asked her nicely to explain to me what that meant and please let me know what we needed to do to get classified as "In-service."

This really confused her even more. She told me that we appeared to already have done everything as she had just glanced down at our file and were just waiting for classification which could take months. Until then, we were not "Authorized" to see the doctor.

She then asked me who had told me to come in for this appointment. I tried to suppress a case of the giggles that kept trying to slip out because at this point, the counselor was still trying to simplify whatever I was telling her so that she could understand everything. (As it turned out, it was HER handwriting on that card!)

Keep in mind, we do NOT have a language barrier here, either! I tried to keep my poker face on as best as I could, telling her that the Doctor had told us to come back in 4 weeks so that he could monitor my son's NEW medication.

Her eyes got HUGE over this as she told me that we shouldn't have even seen that doctor yet (something that I had thought we had already covered under the "Process" heading!)

Apparently, classification doesn't really matter if the DOCTOR says that he wants to see you. She managed to get us in on the list for the day, though she remained confused.

I was so very glad that I didn't have the babies with us. They would have really made it a three-ringed circus in there! Thank goodness for sweet and caring and thoughtful husband!

Almost immediately, the Doctor called us back to his office as he had the receptionist take Bregon's height and weight. Poor Bregon had been taking the whole conversation in, as it turns out.

Once in our doctor's office, we started discussing Bregon things like grades, progress reports, and the effects of the new medication and its dosage. The doctor went over the print-outs that I had made for him and asked Bregon some questions.

Bregon was very sceptical at this point after what had happened in the office waiting room with the receptionist and yet another lost appointment and he answered the doctor's questions very half-heartedly.

I think the doctor must have understood and had seen some of what had gone on because he was very helpful and tolerant of him in spite of his lack of enthusiasm.

All in all, the actual appointment went well (or anti-appointment!) We were advised to come back in month to re-assess everything and Bregon's progress. I groaned because I would have to talk to the receptionist AGAIN.

This time, the counselor was NOT there to translate as he was with a patient. I let her know that we needed to come back in a month in an after school appointment, please!

She nodded and turned around from the computer to hand me an appointment card. The date really doesn't matter, but the time she put down was for 1p.m. in the afternoon. She smiled and offered to write us an excuse for it.

I apologized, and asked for something after 3p.m. AGAIN, and remembered to say "Please!" I was really feeling the need for my translator...the giggles had gone away for good this time, too~.

She very reluctantly moved the appointment to 3:30 after I making me go through the whole school-attendance-being-very-important-for-my-son-getting-to-STAY-at-that-particular-school spiel.

We left with an increase in dosage for the new medication and our appointment slated for AFTER school. I also left with a huge sense of dread that the appointment will again be "Lost" and struck from the books for whatever reason AGAIN.

Don't get me wrong, Bregon and I adore this Doctor and the Counselor is really cute, too. I just cannot develop any affection for the office staff.

I had thought that we had something going there after our last appointment, but I was so very wrong about that!

It was really funny to watch the look on the receptionist's face when the Counselor told me how the state hires the staff for this particular office and how they didn't have any say over any of it (implying competency issues.)

My biggest worry, though, is that this time, my son really noticed and felt the whole "Lost appointment" issue. It was reflected in his rapore with the Doctor and his session.

The only thing that helps remind Bregon that the Doctor is an okay kind of guy is the fact that he is a classmate's father and volunteers at the school festivals with me. It really did help a little that he told him that he would see him on Friday at the 7th grade festival.

As a Mum, I am torn on this issue. What do you do when you love the Doctor, hate the staff?

The Much Awaited Appointment

Today, we had Bregon's ADHD doctor's appointment. The office had so unceremoniously decided to reschedule our back to school appointment for the week after school started.

To make matters worse, they had decided that 3:00 p.m. would give me plenty of time to get him there. This meant that I needed to pick him up after school and bee-line it from Caddo Middle Magnet off of Line Avenue, all the way down to the Youree Drive Extension.

Ha Ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha hah. Yes it really was funny after the fact. I managed to leave the house with the trio in tow and the car packed about 2 p.m. I should have had just enough time to run by my father's and check on our cat and get the mail.

His house is all of two minutes from mine, but today of all days, they had decided to film on location at the house around the corner. This meant that a normally narrow street was made even smaller and very maze-like to navigate with all of the trailers and eighteen wheeler's and such parked all over and down the street.

They were heralded by the two lone police cars that were strategically placed to suggest to drivers that they might want to alter their route. I actually made it through the maze and to Daddy's house somehow, but it did take quite a bit longer dodging obstacles and all.

I was still basically on time at this point. It was about 2:20 and the school bell would ring at 2:45. I even made it to the school with little or no fanfare. I innocently pulled into the pick-up line and claimed my spot in line.

The bell rang and that line didn't start to move at all. I should have known something was up when the second line next to us was steadily flowing and I was STILL in the same spot. 10 minutes later, that line finally started moving.

For a fleeting second, I had horrible thoughts of Bregon forgetting about the appointment and accidentally riding the bus home. Then, I saw him sitting there talking to his friends, patiently waiting for me to show up. As luck would have it, he had written himself a message in very large very bold print...on his for-arm so that he wouldn't forget to wait for me to pick him up.

It took me until 3:15 to get him to his appointment and make that drive. I was 15 minutes late and it was driving me crazy. As I drove, I had thoughts of the office staff refusing to see him because we were late or maybe they forgot to log this appointment into the appointment system like the past two times. What if they decided that we would have to reschedule, what would happen to Bregon in the meantime?

I was soo frazzled by the time I got him to the office, that I went ahead and sent him inside to let them know that we were here while I unloaded the babies. Some poor, well-meaning lady tried to tell me something from the car parked next to us, but I couldn't really hear what she was saying because of the traffic.

I think she was trying to say something nice about my trio, but I cannot be sure because I was much too focused on trying to get them out of the car and into the stroller in some fashion that would avoid baby conflict (just not going to happen no matter what but in my state of mind I had refused to believe it!)

Bregon met me in the hallway of the office to let me know that everything was okay and that they would see us immediately. As luck would have it, it was a different receptionist lady than we had ever seen before. She was very nice and apologized because she couldn't find some of our paperwork.

The doctor turned out to be a man that I had worked with last year at Bregon's school Renaissance Festival Committee. He is a very nice man, and I really hoped that my tiny three ringed circus didn't get too much in the way.

Poor Bregon seemed to spend more time trying to help me prevent the babies from crying and hair pulling and trying to calm them down than actually fielding his questions for his appointment. We both really did try and answer as much as we could and talk about as many concerns as could be remembered.

I felt really bad about having to have the babies with us for the appointment. They were so loud and silly (which is unusual for them, but they had just spent the past hour and fifteen minutes in the car waiting so they were fussy.)

I had meant to try and leave them with a baby-sitter for the appointment (which had originally been last Monday and would have been after the funeral) but the rescheduled day conflicted with a business trip and work day of my baby-sitters.

Lucky for us, the doctor didn't find us to outlandish. We managed to leave with our prescription for new medicine that promises to last much longer and not have the side effects that had kept Bregon from sleeping and more importantly eating and growing (he has gained about 5 lbs this summer alone while off of the medications!)

I also had a coupon for the medicine. It was in the form of this card that had to be activated by calling a toll-free number. Of course being from a major drug company, it came with many many MANY questions that I had to try and answer while listening to the babies scream from my backseat.

I finally got the thing activated, and bravely headed to target to try and get the medication filled. I was so very grateful to the pharmacy there. This visit was hassle-free and within 30 minutes I was on my way home with my very hungry very fussy trio and my very patient saint of a 12 year old.

All in all, it was a productive day. I was reminded that even if I leave the house very early, I will still most likely find a way to be late. I also really need to remember that there really isn't much I can do about it if the circumstances are beyond my control as they were today.

And finally, after five appointments and three visits to that office later, we finally have the medication that will hopefully help my child have a better school year. Tonight, he asked me for his dance money. He will need to buy his first tickets to his first school dance. He even has a date. I suppose he is off to a pretty good start!