THE Endocrinologist

I feel like we have really seen it all, or at least seen a lot, when it comes to medical personnel. I like to think of it as the good, bad and the ugly, or maybe rather, the weird, weirder and weirdest. In any case, I feel like I have shown great restraint when it comes to blogging about all of the "characters" we have met in the medical profession. Mainly this restraint is due to my husband saying after every appointment, in a very admonishing tone, "Now don't go and blog about him/her." But, whatever the reason, I have been quite proud of the restraint I have shown. After all, we have really met some good ones.

For instance, there was the lab geneticist who came to evaluate Camille when she was 3 days old. She showed not one ounce of compassion, but instead examined my newborn daughter as if she were one of her microscope slides. She then proceeded to tell us how she and her lab buddies liked to make bets on which kids had which diagnoses.

And then there was the touchy-feely surgery PA, who I swear if he had rubbed my shoulder just one more time during our appointment, I was going to break out some of my self-defense moves I learned in college.

And of course, I can't leave out the sweet, but slightly strange, little ultrasound tech who was making all sorts of weird noises to Camille during one of Camille's many ultrasounds. I suppose at one point I gave her a questioning look, and so she explained that all babies liked her noises, but only the ones that her cat approved first. You see, she would try all of her noises out on her cat, and if her cat liked them, then it was a sure-bet that the babies would too. No seriously, not making this stuff up.

Yes, I do believe I have showed great restraint by refraining from blogging about these folks. At least up until now.

You can blame it on THE endocrinologist that we saw recently for pushing me over the blogging edge, and causing me to finally let loose on all of these medical people. Don't get me wrong--we have met some awesome ones too. I absolutely adore Camille's neurologist, and our pediatrician has been wonderful to us, especially these last few weeks.

But this guy--THE endocrinologist--he is a completely different story. Our appointment was last week, in the late afternoon. It was supposed to be snowing/icing/sleeting around the time of our appointment, and so I called to see if they were still going to be open, and they were. It was indeed snowing pretty hard by the time we got there, and we were the only people in the office. You could tell from the moment he walked in that THE endocrinologist was not happy to still be there. Maybe he wanted to go home and play in the snow, maybe he was worried about the roads, maybe he is just plain unfriendly all of the time, but when he walked in and said to us in a disgusted tone, "What are you doing here?", I could tell this was not going to be a fun appointment. And things just went downhill from there.

Continuing in his completely unfriendly, lofty, disapproving tone, THE endocrinologist proceeded to make us feel completely inept and uncomfortable. He really didn't have a clue as to why we were there--he had not read Camille's chart at all. He had done no other prep-work for the appointment, such as obtaining the lab results for the tests that had already been run by our pediatrician. Instead, he berated us for not having copies of these labs. He then gave Camille a less-than-one-minute-glance-over-exam, and said that he thought what we were there for was really "nothing", but he would run a couple more labs just in case. He proceeded to use what I'm sure he fancied to be "big, impressive words" to describe the tests he would run, and then with a huge yawn, said he would follow up with us in 3 months. The real kicker, though, came when he said, as he was inching toward the door to go home and play in the snow or something, "Look, if I were you, this stuff would be the least of my concern with all of the problems she has." He topped this off with a disdainful gesture at Camille, and waltzed out the door.

I was literally seeing red. I promise, I was. I couldn't see for my eyes burning; I couldn't hear from the blood rushing to my ears; I couldn't talk from shaking so hard. I could not believe the treatment we had been given. I was absolutely furious.

I have since, however, calmed down and tried to think of THE endocrinologist in a different light. Maybe he was having a bad day; maybe he thought he was being friendly and helpful; maybe he was overtaken by an evil spirit for the duration of our appointment. Okay, so that last one really isn't "thinking of him in a different light". In any case, I have somehow managed to get over my anger.

We will, however, be seeing another endocrinologist for our follow-up in 3 months. No amount of "thinking about him in a different light" could change that.

And so, in an effort to end on a lighter note, I will return to my showing of great restraint and refrain from talking anymore about THE endocrinologist, but instead will leave you with 2 adorable Henry stories.

The first happened a couple of days after Christmas when Henry, Jason and I were shooting baskets with Henry's new basketball goal that Santa had brought him. At one point, Henry missed a basket and shouted, "Oh God!" I looked at him in sheer horror and disbelief. That is just one thing that we do not say in our house! I mustered up my best mommy voice and said, "Henry, we do NOT say that!". I emphasized the "not" part really well, hoping to drive my point home. And it worked, sort of. On his next miss, my precious, adorable little boy, who was no doubt trying to comply with his mommy's wishes, shouted, "Oh NOT God!"

The second happened just today, as we were getting into our car to leave church. I was talking to Jason and said something like, "I guess I have a reputation for that." Henry, who had already announced that he was starving, must have thought that a reputation was some sort of very tasty treat because he shouted from the backseat, "I want a reputation! Mama, I want a reputation!" Laughing, my very quick husband replied, "You've already got one, son. Boy do you have one."

We get some important lab results on Camille back tomorrow, and so I will update soon on those. Until then, may your first days of the New Year be filled with joy and peace.