Hear That?

Actually it should be "ear" that, as in KC has an inner ear infection.  Yesterday at breakfast he announced rather casually that his ear hurt.  K had just gently cleaned the outer part of his ear and she asked if it was somehow related to that.  Nope, he answered, still totally casual, it had been hurting since last night.  As my kids would say "Uh, what the?" 

The thing is, KC is my guy with a super sensitive nose and taste buds.  He loathes hates and despises the taste of every medication he has ever had in his life.  Until he made the acquaintance of the red tylenol meltaways he would rather have a fever or a blinding headache than take the med. and if they only have purple meltaways you are out of luck. He will lie there in agony instead of ingesting the stupid thing.  I have bribed.  I have pinned.  I have cajoled.  I have done the mean military momma (which I really rot at doing incidently). It only works when he decides it will work and it is.never.easy.  So it was no surprise that he was concealing the pain.  He would rather hope it goes away on its own.  And I suppose at some level, his avoidance of meds is reassuring to me.  His first mom did use substances (as did most of my kids first moms) and I worry that there will be a predisposition toward addictions. 

At any rate, we called our doctor, who was amazingly in.  Typically for  my family he is on vacation any time we need him.  LOL  He wanted to see KC as he feels it is not common to see ear infections in the summer.  I was fine with an office visit but I knew we were right as he had a cold a week or so ago and he also went swimming in a pool and likely got water in his ears then.  Sure enough, he has an ear infection and last night was the first dose of the 5 day liquid antibiotic.  1 down and 4 to go.  If you were at my house last night, you would know why I am counting!

I heart my doctor

I have had the same doctor since I was in high school. We have an amicable relationship. He accepts that I am more likely to self treat with herbs and natural remedies than I am to ask him for an antibiotic. I have maybe one antibiotic course every year or two. I am allergic to many medicines so I began a path to a more natural, holistic approach many many years ago.

disclaimer: I am not a person who denies my children medical care. While I do all in my power through our life style to minimize the need for medical intervention I do not prevent it!

There, that will hopefully prevent trolls from getting all busy on me! :-)

I accept the fact that much of what is wrong with our medical system is nothing my doctor has any control over. He has very few minutes to devote to any patient in his practice. This is true of everyone I know so I see no value in changing physicians. What is good about him, is that he is willing to entertain the possibility that I am informed on various issues. I research, sometimes a tad obcessively. When Chet was about 14 I brought to him my research that was leading me to believe that Chet should have a dx of Aspergers Syndrome. He listened, looked at my research and notes and agreed. Now to be sure, he didn't go write that on Chet's chart. We were stuck with PDD NOS until a neuropysch eval confirmed my hypothesis, but I wasn't dismissed out of hand.

Likewise, I have always been upfront with the natural meds that i use and he is fine with that. Perhaps in the back of his overworked mind there is a bit of relief that I am not calling for every sniffle and asking for the latest and greatest med that was advertised on television the night before.

However the test of our relationship began about 6 months ago when he sent me a note saying to schedule a routine medical procedure that requires radiation. I don't do x-rays. My exception is in cases of severe unexplained pain, such as when Elisabeth broke her hip last winter. Other than that, I believe that exposing our bodies to radiation to stay healthy is something of an oxymoron. Lest you all think the bats have flown from my belfry a number of credible medical journals support this concept. LOL

So I pitched the note. And the second note. Sigh. And the third. Finally last week came a reminder letter for the same test with a handwritten note at the bottom. Please "help him out" and schedule said test or write a letter explaining what was up.

I agonized over the letter. I didn't want to offend my doctor. But there was no way I was having the test. I wrote the letter, including a few links to research that informed my decision. I made two friends read it to see if it sounded acceptable. Then I mailed it, fingers crossed that I somehow wasn't crossing some line that would make my hitherto nice doctor throw me and my family out of his practice. When I got home last night, there was a letter from him.

I opened it with more than a little trepidation. He said he could certainly understand and respect my decision and that now at least he had information to pass on to the insurance company! Wahoo! Life is good. I don't know whether his insurer was concerned (like in a malpractice way) or my insurer wanted it. I suspect the former more than the latter, but I am just glad that it all turned out so positively.