Monday, September 25, 2006

Would you trust this doctor? (Chloe update)

We had our appointment with the (one and only) pediatrician today. He was a 50-ish Asian man. Maybe he's really experienced and has seen a lot of kids with transient tics. Or maybe he was really patronizing. I'm not sure.

I told him that Chloe had been blinking a lot for the past 6 weeks, and showed him a video we took when it was at its worst. I said that I have a cousin with Tourette's and that her blinks looked a lot like his.

He guaranteed me that it is nothing (he literally said guarantee). He said we should relax and have fun and it will go away. He said it absolutely will not turn into Tourette's and it's very common (according to my internet research, up to 20% of kids experience some sort of tic while they are growing up). He didn't ask any questions. He didn't ask how often she did it. He didn't examine her at all. He said it can be stressful for her to have a little brother, since they carry on the family name.

HELLO! She's not even 4. She doesn't even know what a family name is.

So I asked if we should have her re-evaluated after a certain length of time if it doesn't go away. He said no, he wouldn't give me any time limit because if he did then I would stress about the time and that would make it not go away. He said moms are for worrying.

He did look at her chart. He said that her immunizations are up to date, and is the first doctor not to comment on the fact that she has not had the chicken pox vax.

So was he trying to be reassuring from his experience, or was he talking down to the mom he saw as overly worried and stressed out?

FYI, our plan is wait another 3-4 weeks, and if she is still ticcing, then we will fight to get a second opinion and probably even to see a specialist. I'm sure it will be a hard and stressful fight since this doctor is obviously not going to give us any kind of reccomendation to see a specialist!

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