Nana Camp!
February 25, 2012This guy
Gets to spend his vacation week at Nana’s house. He is so excited.
Archive for February, 2012
The First Broken Bone…
February 24, 2012
A few hours after the accident
Last Tuesday was Valentine’s Day. I was in the mood for a little celebration. We put up a few decorations, got a few games for the kids and a few chocolates too. I planned a dinner I knew everyone would enjoy and bought my husband a nice gift. I planned on having a nice, happy day.
About 12:30 I got a call from the school nurse. Xander had fallen on the playground and I needed to come pick him up. I could hear Xander crying in the background. I felt bad for my sad little guy, but didn’t quite understand how a playground fall necessitated going home from school. When I got the call, I was returning to my office with food in my hand. I turned around and walked back out, still with food in my hand (planning to eat it on the way to the school). Instead of inhaling my lunch in the car, I spent that time on the phone with Zach and my office making sure everyone knew where I was, and that everything I had dropped that afternoon would be covered.
When I arrived at school I found my son bleeding from his face – his nose, his lips, his chin. He was still sobbing. His jacket, snow pants, hat and mittens were covered in blood and bagged up for us. The nurse showed me two red lines along his upper gum line that appeared to be bruises. She was concerned that there may be damage to his adult teeth and that I might want to call our dentist. Apparently Xander was climbing on the jungle gym, and was worried about jumping from up high, and then fell as he tried to climb down – his face landing squarely on the ice.
I bundled this bloody mess up and put him into my car. Then I took a picture and texted Zach. I tend to over-react to these sorts of situations – wanting to get a medical professional’s opinion. Zach tends to be more level headed and take the ‘wait and see’ approach. We stopped by my office so I could close things up for the afternoon. Zach sat in the car with Xander while I went inside, and when I got back out, he thought we should see a doctor, which just confirmed my concerns. Unfortunately, it was 12:40 and our doctor’s office closes from 12pm-1pm for lunch. The dentist was closed from 11:30am-1pm for lunch as well. So, I took Xander to the ER.
Thankfully, it was relatively quiet at our ER, and a sobbing 5 year old bleeding from his face got us pretty quick service. Unfortunately, we had to explain Xander’s injury to the triage nurse, then the the ER nurse, then to the ER PA, and when she couldn’t give me a definitive answer on whether or not we should have an x-ray, we finally consulted with an ER doctor. Two hours after we arrived, we visited radiology and Xander had his first x-rays done. The technicians were very sweet with him – one of the women put on an apron and stood with him while taking the x-rays (they made me wait around the corner), and let us check out the pictures when they were done.
Xander did pretty well through this whole process. His face hurt, and before the fall he already had a cold, and his nose bled and ran for hours. He was great with the x-ray technicians, and relatively patient with the parade of people coming in to check out his injuries, but he cried more every time someone lifted up his lip to see the giant cut under it. Every time he cried, his nose ran more, and bled more – it was a mess.
The triage nurse took pity on us when we returned from radiology and she found out neither of us had eaten lunch (it was almost 2pm) and brought us some egg salad sandwiches. Xander of course couldn’t really eat much, he tried to eat the sandwich and attempted the ice cream, but didn’t really eat much of that either. Finally, almost three hours after we arrived, we left. The initial conclusion was scrapes and bruises but no breaks. We were told to keep things clean, give him something for the pain (Tylenol or Advil) and elevate him to sleep to keep some of the swelling down.
For a few days, he was a mess – everything was swollen and sore. He ate only liquids or soft things (tomato soup, jello, applesauce, yogurt, etc.) for about three days. This past weekend finally the swelling started to go down. His bruises have started to turn yellow and he was able to eat mostly normal food again.
Monday the radiologist called. They only call if they find an abnormality when reviewing the scans. I’m surprised it took them nearly a week to get around to reviewing our scans, but apparently Xander’s nose is indeed broken. They don’t do anything for broken noses unless it needs some sort of cosmetic adjustment.
So at the tender age of 5 years and 5 months my son christened us into the world of x-rays and broken bones. Since we have two sons, and Xander is by far the more cautious of the two, I am certain that this will not be the last broken bone in our little family. Thankfully this time no casts or further intervention is required, so I guess I should be grateful that our first broken bone was a relatively simple process…
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This is why doctor offices irritate me:
February 2, 2012I received a letter in the mail yesterday that looks like this:
January 27, 2012
To the Parents/Guardian of:
Alexander
(address here)
We’re sorry we missed you!
Your provider, Dr. So-and-so, has asked us to schedule an appointment for you with the Ophthalmology Department at Dartmouth-Hitchcock in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
We’ve left several messages for you at the phone number we were given, but we haven’t heard from you. Now we think you may not want this appointment, so we won’t try calling you again.
However, if you would like an appointment after all, please call us at —– weekdays between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., and any of our schedulers can help you.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
The Staff of the Connection Center
sal
CC: Joe So-and-so, MD
______________________________________________________________________________________
So, I put the following letter into the mail this morning:
February 2, 2012
Dear Staff of the Connection Center,
My provider, Dr. So-and-so asked you to schedule an appointment for my son, Alexander with the Opthalmology Department at Dartmouth-Hitchcock in Lebanon, New Hampshire. You left me several messages.
I did not return your phone calls. To be more specific, I called you four times. My son Alexander had his 5th year annual exam on Monday, September 26th. The following day Dr. So-and-so made the referral for Xander to your office. On Wednesday, September 28th, I called your office to confirm that you had received the referral. The office assistant informed me that you had received the referral, but that the calendar had not yet ‘opened up’ to book the appointment and I would likely hear from you next month.
So I waited. On October 26th, I called again. The office assistant informed me that the calendar had not yet ‘opened up’ and that they had just finished booking the referrals from August, so I should hear back from your office next month.
So I waited some more. On November 16th, I called your office again. Once again, the office assistant informed me that the calendar had not yet ‘opened up ‘ for January, but I should hear from someone soon.
So I waited some more. On December 15th, I called again. This time the office assistant I spoke with was new. She was not familiar with the referral process, but offered to transfer me to another office assistant who was apparently at lunch, but she assured me I would receive a call back that afternoon.
On Wednesday, December 21st, I still had not received a return phone call. So to review, I called your office once a month for four months. Each time, I was told the calendar was not yet ‘open’. Finally, after the fourth month, I felt a little silly. My son is in a full day kindergarten program. He is active and busy all day every day. If his vision was a problem, I decided I could no longer wait for a calendar to open up. I called Dr. So-and-so’s office and asked for a new referral. One of the nurses gave me some names and numbers of a few offices in the area. I called a local optometrist and booked an appointment for the very next day.
Dr. Eyes was wonderful with Xander. I could not have been more pleased with the exam and the service we received through his office. Ultimately I decided my son’s needs were better met by someone who could actually take the time to see him. Your office blew me off for four months before finally getting around to calling me. Dr. Eyes’ office scheduled an appointment for my son the day after I called. It turns out Xander’s vision is 20/30. Nothing to worry about this year, and we will return to Dr. Eyes’ office again next year for a follow up.
I appreciate your note, but I definitely do not need your assistance and will not be calling to set up an appointment.
Sincerely,
Sara
The Parent/Guardian of: Alexander
CC: Joe So-and-so, MD
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