Thursday, November 23, 2006

Today I took James to the hospital to have his Pre-Op appointment (this is when the go over everything regarding the "surgery" and you see the anesthetist to determine whether the person is well enough to have the procedure). James is suppose to have a endoscopy done (scope of the esophagus, stomach and large intestine), as well as the Echo and also to change his current G-tube to a Mickey (flat cap). Upon arrival I was told that the only thing they had on the list was the endoscopy, the other two were not scheduled. After talking to several different people I was left with the task of calling the other parties involved and making sure that everything was scheduled properly. Lovely that I was left with this task when it was suppose to be done already.

So the rest of my afternoon was wasted on the phone. My Ped. was not available in any way, shape, or form until Tuesday! This is not the first time I’ve run into issues and had not been able to get through to my Ped. She is only part-time and only in the office on Tuesday. As well, her receptionists are not always very cooperative. In the end I told them I wanted them to call Ped. Cardiology and find out what was going on because I knew Cardiology would not listen to me. Well at least they listened to that part because a while later I received a call from Cardiology. This call left me very upset and frustrated. It seems we are always getting mixed answers/signals and we’re always fighting our way to get things done. Peds Cardiology called me to let me know that they had booked an ECG for me sometime in February, at which I responded that I was suppose to have an Echo done NEXT week. Not wanting to get involved she quickly passed me along to the Cardiology nurse who I left a message with. Not long later she calls back to inform me that they have basically already diagnosed James. Okay, she didn’t say it like that, but that’s pretty much what she was getting at. According to her James likely only has a silent murmur since this murmur was not heard during the first six months of his life, therefore an Echo is not needed. My research on VSD’s gave me the same information - they are usually discovered in the first months of birth as these holes are from a child not developing properly in the womb. So she not be out to lunch on that part and I really hope she’s right, but she has not meet James and I gather from our conversation that she had not even seen his file or she would never have so freely made such a conclusion. After telling her that we were told that this Echo would be done she informed me that the hospital policy requires you to see a Cardiologist before you can have an Echo; it simply was not possible any other way. She did not like it when I informed her that James’ had previously been booked for an Echo which we had cancelled and we did not need to see a Cardiologist for that. In the end no matter what I said she insisted that it was not possible and besides there was no room in radiology for it to be done that day. Without my Pediatrician I had no where else to turn and had to leave it at that.

After getting myself under control again I figured the next person I better tackle is the Surgeon to confirm that they indeed do have him booked for the tube change. I had actually already spoken to the Surgeon nurse about this twice and she told me it was a go. I spoke to her again and she told me it was all booked and set to go.

They gave James a choice between a surgeon cap or a sticker at his appointment today. We took the surgeons hat. He doesn't really like to wear it, but will put it on for a few minutes if you ask him to see it. He'll smile brightly at you to say "see" and then take it off.