Thursday, February 10, 2011

New Pediatrician and a Cardiologist update

So I switched the kids to a new pediatrician. I researched and researched and looked for a pediatrician who is a small office. I'm sick of the offices that have 9 doctors and 4 nurses plus a whole office staff. I feel like we don't get any kind of personalized care. They kept telling me to "let it run it's course" with Andrew and then look what happened. They told me they only vaccinate their way, and there was no way around that.




So I found this pediatrician nearby (closer than the other office!) and set up a consultation with her. I saw her and she looked at Andrew the very same day. Gave me meds for him and talked to me. I set up his 2 month well check (although 2 weeks late!) with her. I took him yesterday for his 2 month well visit.



12lbs 12oz and 21 1/3 inches long. His head was 17cm and she asked me about any concerns I had about him. I told her about the congestion that he STILL has and she agreed with me that it's still all in his nose and at least for now his lungs and everything sound much better and are clear. She said that RSV can last up to 6 weeks so she wants to give him 2 more weeks to try to clear up. If he's not better then, then we'll talk more. She mentioned how she looked in his nose to see if the boys might have put a bead or something in there. I can promise you they did NOT. First of all we don't have any beads or anything small enough to put in his nose. Second of all I pay way to close of attention to them when they are with Andrew for that to happen. She didn't see anything in his nose (told ya!) and said maybe because he has such a small nasal passageway it's causing him to remain congested.



She asked me what we were doing about vaccinations and I told her we wanted to follow the delayed vaccination schedule and without even blinking an eye she said "no problem." and went to the front desk and grabbed the delayed schedule and showed me it to see if it was the one I wanted to follow. It was, and she stapled it to his chart. She said "Today he'll get the DTAP then!" and I said "and the rotavirus right?" She then told me that she doesn't give the rotavirus vaccine. She said she has found that the risks outweigh the benefits in that vaccine. She went on to say that everyone gets rotavirus and even with the vaccine you still get the virus. She said that they feel that we have great access to medical care with her and the hospital and urgent care that the risk of the children getting dehydrated with the virus are very minimal. She said that most children get a gastrointestinal effect from the vaccine and they just don't feel it's worth it.



Fine by me! So Andrew got his DTAP and will go back next month for 2 more vaccines. He'll be seen monthly basically with every other month just being a vaccine appt. He'll only get 1-2 vaccines at a time. Which is exactly what I wanted.



And now he's crying so I gotta go!



**



Ok back....I also went back to the cardiologist last week. They ran another EKG and told me my ECHO that I had done a few weeks before didn't show anything. Everything looked normal on it. The only thing they say was some "gurgling" or something or other in some part of my heart. I asked what that meant and she said "it's basically heartburn" But because I was only a week out of having Andrew she wasn't concerned because I had HORRIBLE heartburn at the end of the pregnancy. She will re-do the ECHO in 6 months to see if it's gone away completely. I was told I'd get a call the next day with the results from the EKG they ran. I never did get that phone call. It took them a full week to call me back. When they called back she said "Everything looks normal" I said "so the extended QT is gone?" And she said "Everything is normal". Why don't I trust them?! Roy says that they have to be telling the truth or it could be a lawsuit. But I still don't trust them. Nothing I can do though. So as of right now it looks like everything was caused by the pregnancy and the fluid retention afterwards.

1 comment:

Shari said...

So important to be comfortable with your pediatrician, glad you found a good one. Cameron got one dose of the rotavirus vaccine as a baby and was so sick afterward that I refused the rest. After, I read a lot that made me wish I had read up on it before and not even let him have that one dose, but no bad long term effects, thank goodness.

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