The Doc's.....

Now, I have a burning question (and would also like to provisionally apologise in case this blog offends anyone)
 
Why is it doctors surgery receptionists are so rude? Now, I do know one lovely one so she is clearly an exception but the others I have dealt with, jeez!  Manners are free you know !!
 
Pre-child, I didn’t frequent the doctors very often. In fact I didn’t want to waste their time and would much rather suffer than go through the rig moral of arranging time off from work and making it up etc.  Plus us women just get on with it as oppose to the whole man-flu thing.
 
However, since my little ray of sunshine came into life and mixes with other little rays of sunshine’s at nursery and swimming I have been to the doctors more times in the last 12 months then the past 30 years and nope im not exaggerating.
 
At first you go through the ‘paranoid’ mum stage.   ‘is that a rash?’ ‘Is the glass test where you can see the rash through a glass or cant see a rash through the glass’ and ‘right im gonna Google it and see what comes up…….’ then scare yourself silly with the 1098,000 possible illnesses they may have!!
 
I especially remember the time babbas temperature rose to a whole 36.2 degrees when she was three months old and I spent all night ringing the NHS helpline and taking her temp every half an hour. 
 
Anyway, as a new mum doctors all know we can be a bit paranoid and neurotic and why not I say, when it comes to your child health is the most important thing and I still swear that mothers instinct over rules anything.  Everytime I have contacted the surgery, I’m asked stupid questions, I can’t ever pre-book appointments, I’m told if im that worried to go to the Walk in centre etc. (if it was that worrying of course I would do that silly woman!)
 
So when there had been an outbreak of the ol’ chicken pox and my little un suddenly had a couple of angry red spots sprout up, I thought ‘uh hah! She has the pox’ (my mum did have to ask me not to tell everyone that my baby had the pox as apparently it is different than chicken pox in that it is a Victorian std of some sort! Oops!) Excellent I thought, she seemed fine in herself and better for her to get it now then when she is older.  As you all know nursery/schools wont take them until the spots have scabbed.  (I have never understood this, isn’t the contagious period the two weeks before the spots appear??!!) So, after trying to sort childcare/swap days at work/book leave off work, I rang the docs to say I thought that my daughter had chicken pox as she had a few spots so could I see someone that day please. I was told that no one could see her and to be honest, there wasn’t much the doctor could do so they wouldn’t see her anyway.
 
Ooohhhhh I see!! I must have missed something, are all receptionists now medically trained and act as some sort of a triage??!! What a jolly good idea.  Oh hang on, nope your not medically trained and im ringing a doctors to say that my 13 month old had a rash which may be chicken pox and your saying no one will see me???
 
So, I politely, sternly and slowly explain the situation again. I - think – that – my – 13 – month – old – daughter – may – have – chicken – pox – but – she – only – has – 4 – spots -  so – I – don’t – know – if – its – something – else………
 
I know chicken pox cant be treated but I need a diagnosis!  What I have also forgotten to mention is that we had also just returned from Spain and I wanted mozzie bites and malaria ruled out but the receptionist smirked! Smirked !! ok, maybe the babe hasn’t got malaria but this is where the neurotic mum part comes in.
 
The receptionist still doc blocks me so I try another method. I call the doctors secretary herself.  She of course understands my worry as a first time mother and arranges an appointment for me to take babe in.  This is because as they always have, wait for it, emergency appts at the end of everyday especially for children.
 
Anyhoo, she did have chicken pox but was one of the lucky ones and only had 8 spots!!!
 
So, the moral of the story? Lunacy is perfectly acceptable in cases when it comes to your child being ill.  I must be fair though and add that my doctor is great and will always tell me to come back if im worried whilst assuring me that im  not a lunatic mother.  Even after the time when  he was trying to take babbas temp, and he asked me to hold her whilst she was sitting up, one arm and hand supporting the head, the other her hand.  So, while he was putting the thermometer in her ear and she of course started to cry, I rubbed her hand to soothe her.  It was until Doc said ‘ I know im a bit upset about upsetting your baby, but there’s no need to comfort me….and I am married you know’ Yep, you got it I had been in fact stroking my doctors hand not my child’s……………………..