Recap of Doctors Visits

Beau had 2 appointments last week. We visited the pediatrician on Tuesday and the nephrologist on Thursday. Here is a little recap of those visits. This is mostly so that I will remember all of these details, so don't feel like you have to read this. :) It is kind of long and probably pretty boring.

Pediatrician

We arrived a few minutes early in order to fill out any necessary paperwork. Beau did not like waiting in the waiting room, so I took him outside and carried him up and down a sidewalk. I knew Raleigh would come and get us when it was our turn. Beau really likes to be carried since he is accustomed to riding in a carrier worn by his foster mom.

Once we were taken back to an exam room, the screaming began. Ha Ha! We received pretty extensive medical records from Korea, and it is obvious that Beau went to the doctor a lot. I think he knew where we were just by the atmosphere. First we were asked to undress Beau so that they could weigh him. This took several minutes. As I was picking Beau up off of the scale, he peed all over me. Ha! Ha! Then the nurse said that she was going to put a urine bag on him in hopes of collecting a sample. In my mind I was thinking, wouldn't it have been smarter to put the urine bag on him immediately after removing his diaper?!?! Oh well! It's a memory and he of course didn't pee into the bag since he had already peed on me! :)

We talked to the doctor and she did a general check-up. Everything seemed to be fine, but we are going back in a month for a follow-up visit since he had only been home a few days at the time of our visit.

The doctor was not too concerned that he is still on a mostly formula diet. She of course wants us to introduce more table foods, but she said it was fine to take it slowly since he has experienced so much change in a short amount of time.

Beau did receive 3 shots so that he would be all caught up on vaccinations. He received Prevnar, Hib, and Hepatitis B.

Beau screamed throughout the appointment, but once we left the building and were outside, he totally calmed down and even enjoyed his car ride home.

Here were his stats from his appointment:

Beau at 13 months old-

Height: 29.2 inches /18th percentile

Weight: 19.8 pounds/ 6th percentile

Head Circumference: 18.1 inches/ 29th percentile

Nephrologist

Thursday afternoon we headed to Emory for our visit to the nephrologist. When I called to book our appointment, I was informed that the doctor we had been working with (via email) was on vacation until the end of August. I was given the option to schedule an appointment with a fellow or wait until the doctor returned to schedule the visit. Not knowing the severity of Beau's kidney issues, we decided to take an early appointment with the fellow. My thoughts were that the initial visit would be mostly talking and then when we come back for our next visit, the doctor would be back from vacation. The doctor has been sooooo kind to review some of Beau's files for us and I was really looking forward to meeting him and working with him.

In retrospect, I would have waited for a later appointment with the doctor. I'm sure that the fellow is a very bright man with a lot of expertise in the field of nephrology. However, there was somewhat of a language barrier which made communication very difficult. He could barely understand us and we could barely understand him.

Also, I had mailed copies of all of Beau's medical records and had them VERY organized. I had divided them into sections and labeled each section so that it would be very easy for the doctors to review. It was obvious that the fellow had not even opened the file before he entered our room. Now, I totally understand that doctors see patients back to back and see many patients each day, but it seems like they would want to take a look at a new patient's file before consulting with the parents. He kept asking us questions about Beau's biological parents and I very patiently explained multiple times that the only information we have is what I included in the file. I even took the liberty to ask him to open the file and then I showed him the paperwork. He definitely did not understand the unique situation of international adoption. While we have lots and lots of medical history on Beau, there are still some missing pieces and he did not seem to understand that. He also asked multiple times why Beau was crying. You would think that a fellow in the field of pediatric medicine would understand that some children do not like being at the doctor and some children are going to cry.

They had to take some blood, and since Beau was screaming they wrapped him up like a burrito. I know that is common practice, but it was still sad to watch.

In the end, we didn't leave with any additional information about Beau's kidneys. They told us to make an appointment with a urologist. The urologist will be able to give us an idea of whether or not Beau will need surgery to repair the obstruction in his ureter.

I have to give credit where credit is due and say that the lead nurse we worked with was SO friendly and helpful. The doctor (who was on vacation) had told her about us back in March when we consulted with him about Beau's medical files. She remembered us and was just lovely. I think our visit would have been totally different if we had waited and made our appointment with the doctor. Oh well! Raleigh and I may schedule another appointment with the doctor once he is back, since we were not really able to verbally communicate with the fellow. All we would be out is another copay and an afternoon of our time, so it might be worth it just so we will have a little more understanding of Beau's condition.

(Please do not be offended if you are a medical student or fellow. I am sure that many, many fellows have a wonderful bedside manner and are excellent physicians. This was just not our experience in this particular case.)