My quest for a pediatrician



Some of you might know about the quest. But if you don't, here's a recap:

Pediatrician 1: was actually a nurse practitioner. Originally I was fine with this. Well child checkups are mostly a matter of ensuring that your child's development is going well, and well in this connotation has a broad definition. But she wanted (adamantly so) to put him on solids at four months because of his size. Magnus, at three months, was a big hunk of love. He was above 95% in weight, length and head size. Clearly, things were going well but she pushed anyway. I pushed back, saying everything I've read stated 6 months. Ultimately, I agreed to a compromise (that I did not follow through on) that we would start at 5 months. Honestly, he really didn't eat solids until he was about 8 or 9 months. And he's still a big hunk of love. So something this basic was a red flag to me and we moved on.

Pediatrician 2: I loved. Still do and we would be with them yet if it weren't for the evil receptionist. I didn't blog this because she made me that mad. I'd use another word to describe her but I don't want to insult my dog and I don't want my son to use those words with regards to women. (Have you ever noticed that the worst insults still insult the mother? "Son of a b_ _ _ _" or bastard insinuates that the mother was bad.) Anyway there was a flu shot mixup, she called me a liar, I called her irresponsible, she told me my son didn't need a flu shot. I complained to the office manager, she was every bit as bad. Then they lost the fee slips to a meth addict, proving me right, that they are irresponsible. I don't want to go into details as I'm saving all that love for the letter that I'm sending to them, explaining why I'm taking my son to a better clinic.

Pediatrician 3: reminds me of church lady on SNL. She's awesome. We're changing to her for his next appointment. Here's why I like her:

She fully explains things in a way that I will understand without dumbing it down. (Or maybe she dumbs it down but I don't notice. I like that too.)

She's not afraid to disagree with me but she is open to hearing my questions and opinions. Basically, I want to hear it if I'm making a bad decision and she's not afraid to tell it.

Those two reasons alone sold me. But here's the clincher:

The office, though they were busy, made a big deal about how cute Magnus is. They don't do that at pediatrician 2's office. They never did. I've heard that they do, but I've never seen it. (The nurse did, the doctor did, but evil office manager and her sidekick never did.)

Oh yeah, and Leslie Vietmeyer's there. She was the nurse practitioner at me old clinic (I say old because I might move to this clinic as well) Leslie tells me nice little sides like yogurt and zinc for diarrhea and colds. She's great at general health and paps. For you guys that might be reading this, a bad pap is a bad pap.

In short, they were like a doctor's office in a small town. So I'm happy. Here's some new photos for you.




Posted: Tue - April 19, 2005 at 11:51 AM        

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