Vent

Here's your warning - this is a vent on my part, so don't continue reading if you don't want to! My mother and Jerry got an earful about this yesterday, but it's still in my system...

So Carrie's one year check up was yesterday. Jerry and I were all excited to find out how much she weighed and how long she is now that's she's the big 0-1. We arrive at the new pediatrician's office and fill out all the fun paperwork, and are immediately whisked back into a room. 1 point to the office for not making us wait for a long time! We go back and the nurses arrive and get Carrie's shot record from me, and ask routine questions. Any concerns? Nope, Carrie's a dream; I just want to talk to the doc about vaccine scheduling. This gets a raised eyebrow, but no comment. Is she on formula or regular milk? Neither - she's still nursing once a day and drinking some that I've frozen, but we are trying regular milk slowly and she's not too sure about it yet. Another raised eyebrow. I guess this should have been my red flag, but whatever. They leave and we're getting Carrie ready for her check-up with the doc. (by the way, she weighed 18 lbs 13 oz and was 29 inches long - definitely petite!)

So our doc comes in and is super nice. She's good with Carrie and talks to her very sweetly and the whole nine yards. She lets me hold Carrie while she's examining her, to the extent that it's possible, and Carrie plays with her monkey on her stethoscope. Everything's great, blah, blah, blah. Then she starts talking about all of the vaccines Carrie should get at this visit. She starts listing them off...I'm slowly counting up the number of needles involved, and I ask "Am I counting right - she'll get five shots today?" "Yep, that's right. Five shots." WHAT??? I don't think so. Who the heck wants to get FIVE shots in one day? So I launch into my carefully rehearsed speech about how I don't have a problem with her actually getting the vaccines, I'm not convinced the vaccines cause autism, but what I do have a problem with is my child getting all those medicines in one dose and expecting her tiny little body to be able to efficiently and safely process all of that in one fell swoop. The doc proceeds to tell me that she's of the opinion that it's best to get them done and over with so Carrie doesn't have to keep coming back and getting shots. Okay, maybe I'd buy that argument if it were me getting the shots, but not with my child. It was obvious that I was getting upset - I was crying. I probably overreacted, no doubt, but here's my problem - the research is inconclusive about the autism thing (or at least what I've seen - there's just too many 'coincidences' out there it seems...), not to mention having all that stuff floating around in her body at one time would be bound to make her sick or feel like crap. I feel like it's my job to protect her - what if something did happen, God forbid, as a result of me allowing her to get five vaccines in one day? I know I couldn't live with myself. I'd constantly be saying to myself "what if I had stuck to my guns and stood up for what I believed was best for my child?" I basically told the ped that we would not be doing all those shots in one day...she said "Well, she's your child." I just said "Yes, she is, now let's figure out which 2 shots she's getting today, which 2 she'll get in 6 weeks, and then which 2 she'll get at the 15 month check-up." Which, by the way, at that check-up she'll be caught up and on track again. All of this over one extra visit. Give me a break.

Then I got the third degree again. From the check-out clerk. Seriously? I told her we needed to make a shot appointment and her check-up. I told her which shots she'd be receiving in 6 weeks, and the clerk said "What happened? Isn't she supposed to get those today?" At this point I snapped.
"Yes, techically she was 'supposed' to get them today, but we're coming back in 6 weeks for those." This should have been enough for her, but it wasn't.
"Why didn't she get them today."
"Because I don't want her getting all those shots at once." (funny look from clerk)
"Okay...when do you want to bring her back in for those shots?"
(funny look from me - haven't I just told you this?)
"In six weeks."
"SIX weeks??? Why are you waiting so long? Is there a reason?"
"Yes, there is a reason. I want her shots spread out. Her 15 month check-up is, by definition, in 3 months from now. That means 12 weeks, and six weeks is half of that, so that's when I want to bring her in for her shots."

Whatever happened to letting the parents parent and, as long as we aren't abusing our child or putting her in harm's way, letting us make the decisions?

Okay, I'm done venting now. :)