Nursing in Vein

Lets go back to last month.....Bella starts breaking out in hives & develops some wheezing associated with eating certain foods. Foods shes eaten before. Weird. I schedule an appointment with the allergist. (Luckily due to her funky newborn testing she had been seen at an allergist/pulmonary Drs office prior to this. So we could go back.) I get her the soonest appointment which was the next day. Unfortunately its not at the Roseville office, we had to go to the Sacramento office. So we go. The medical assistant calls us in, weighs her, takes us to the room, asks if shes on any meds currently and says the Dr will be in soon. Instead a nurse comes in and says she wants to get more info for the Dr. Then, Amanda or Andrea...whatever her name is, is an RN, looks over the chart and doesn't know what the initials FTT or FA mean. Starts asking about symptoms, etc. I told her FTT means Failure To Thrive & FA is Food Allergies. Seriously??? In the office you work in you'd freaking hope you know what FA at least stands for. She immediately lost credibility with me. On the list of symptoms shes going over shes says things such as: hives (yes, when it happens), wheezing (yes, a bit occasionally with the hives), redness (yes, when it happens)....blah blah blah. She interrupted me and says "What do you mean when it happens?" I explained that WHEN she had an allergic reaction to something the redness & hives HAPPEN. Sometimes they are accompanied by some wheezing. She was irritating the crap out of me. She said the dr would be in and then left. The rest of the appointment went well.

Then we had all the blood testing done and results came in. A nurse called me, I scheduled the follow up, another nurse called me, they told me all the results, I was confused, I talked to the Dr...less confusion.

Well today was our follow up. Luckily we were able to get into the Roseville office this time. Unfortunately we didn't even get called into the office till 45 minutes past our appointment time. Bella was not thrilled with the waiting and she didn't understand the need to be quiet today. It was hard on her. Part of it might have also been the timing. So the medical assistant weighs Bella again, takes us to our room, asks about any meds shes on (Zyrtec of Xyzal as needed), then she says the Dr will be in soon. Once again just a minute later in walks nurse A. OK SERIOUSLY??? Maybe she was new and has gotten more training in the 5 weeks its been. Please let her be better.

Well she starts going over the infamous form. Same questions as before. Similar answers. So then she snidely says "Well did you eliminate anything from her diet?" YES! I told her that once the nurse called me and told me the blood tests all came back negative and then I had spoken with Dr Miller that we started seasoning foods again, did some baking again and added some foods back one at a time.

She then said rudely "Well just so you know you should be giving her the Xyzal or Zyrtec everyday as you were directed."

I told her I refused to give my child a drug that wasn't necessary in her system and that wasn't what the Dr had told me to do.

She then said "Well then could you tell me what the Dr told you to do?"

I told her that I respected the fact that she is an RN and has some medical training, but I didn't schedule an appointment to see a nurse or to get the nurses opinion on how this is to be treated. I told her I pay good money to get a Drs opinion and she isn't one and that I will listen and follow what a Dr tells me to do.

She said "Well are you irritated with me for some reason? You seem pretty irritable and I can leave the room if that will make it better."

I told her that we get to our appointments 10 minutes early, check in and expect to be seen promptly. Then after expecting to be seen at 930am I had to sit in a waiting room with a 20 month old child for over 45 minutes! The child wants to run around and oh yeah, be a child, but she can't. I had to take her out in the cold, to calm her down several times. I told her that yes, now I'm irritated because after all that I was now getting harassed by a nurse that thinks she can tell me what to do, when I was already following the Drs orders instead of letting the doctor come in and see my child.

She rolled her eyes (for the umpteenth time). Then again she told me that "Well the anti-histamine would stop all the symptoms such as the red eyes, runny nose & recurring hives. If those are really symptoms she is having then "as needed" means everyday in this case."

Once again I told her that as needed meant "when the symptoms occurred" and that "doesn't happen everyday". It happens when she eats something "funny" and has an allergic reaction. (We are still trying to figure out what foods actually effect her.) Then & only then do I give her the meds. I'm not going to give her meds everyday for the rest of her life....unless necessary. We've given her back a new food every few days and there were flare ups...even to the things that tested negative.

She started to talk....

I interrupted and said that I'd be waiting to talk to the Dr. Thanks.

The Dr was lovely. I apologized for being irritable and distracted. I told him the nurses BS (this & last time) and he said he'd have a talk with her. He specifically told me...get this...I AM RIGHT!!! hahaha!!!

Well the rest of the appointment went well and then I headed out. We are only supposed to come back in 6 months if necessary...and of course if we have insurance. Grr. So we get out to the car and climb in and buckle up. I was handing Bella a cup of her fruit from breakfast when I noticed that Nurse A was storming out of the back office towards the parking lot. She was crying. She climbed into her car and sat there for a few minutes. Little did she know we were parked 2 cars away. I watched as she threw a temper tantrum in her Toureg and then did a deep breathing exercise. She wipes her face and as we were pulling out she walked back in.

Too bad, so sad. Don't act like an idiot and maybe the Dr won't almost fire you. Don't take your job in "vein"....or vain. haha. You are NOT a Dr!!! You definitely aren't a mother either. So don't try to treat patients. Ahh. There is the long awaited story.