You never know what you are going to get involved in with kids. It's only been 3 years and it's been and adventure. What did we do before kids and how did we survive without all these adventures?
At Aubrey's 3 year old check up, we questioned a couple of bumps that had appeared in the corner of her left eye. Her primary doctor referred us to a dermatologist practice in North Charleston (that will remain nameless, unless you ask me in person) at Trident Hospital complex. When I scheduled the appointment, I didn't know one doctor from the rest so I took who was available. It turns out I should have done some research in advance because LA had been to this practice and mom goes to this practice. As a good parent, I looked online quickly today to see about the doctor and found nothing bad and overall good reviews about the practice. I also found out we were seeing an experienced doctor of the practice with over 31 years of experience.
Let me tell you my thoughts about how this was going to go down and then I will tell you how it actually went down.
I naively thought the doctor would look at it, give us some topical medicine and in a few weeks the bumps would be gone and it would take about 15 minutes. However, most of that is correct...Well actually all of that is correct except there were a few other steps. Having an old codger can go either way...he is either glad he made it this far and is just seeing a few patients each week to keep active or he is a go getter and is still working 60 hours a weeks, taking new patients and has lost any bedside manner that he might have ever had. So the doctor comes in and say's "I'm doctor _____ (ask LA and I in person and we will reveal his name), who's got the bumps." - not exactly a people person entrance or an entrance for someone who potentially might have to perform a procedure on their child. Aubrey sits on the examining bed and he looks at the bumps, calls them some type of cyst and says we need to remove them and walks out the room. LA and I look at each other like "whoops, this is not quite what we expected". The nurse comes in with an ice pack (this will be the extent of the numbing medicine and where they were located it is difficult to get the ice pack on them) and the doctor is back in the room in a few minutes. Aubrey is lying down on the bed/operating table (doing pretty good at this point). Dr. Personality gets a small scalpel, Aubrey turns her head and he cuts them open (she starts crying). He makes some comments about "their going to call the police because of all the crying and screaming (to be honest, I don't think she is crying as loud as I would have been). He then gets a pick and takes both cysts out (more crying and screaming, more comments - he must not have any kids or grandkids) and leaves the room to examine them under a microscope. I am not sure exactly what he was expecting from a 3 year old that is having someone cut and dig in the corner of their eye and has made her bleed. He returns and tells us they were benign and not to worry. If they reappear, he tells us to let them work themselves out. The nurse puts on some Vaseline, Aubrey got a sucker(Clemson (orange) tootsie pop) and we were out the door. So, I was right....it took about 15 minutes and Aubrey got some Vaseline. I missed out on the minor surgery (maybe not minor surgery but if I think this is major surgery, then this qualifies as minor surgery) - probably traumatizing Aubrey for every doctors visit going forward and Wyatt (he was with us eating Cheerios and generally not interested but I am sure he was taking mental notes about what was going on). I feel sorry for the next doctor that has to do something to her. I think I will skip that appointment and let LA take her. Aubrey was a champ throughout the whole process and she had recovered in about 10 minutes. We were proud of her and how big she was and because she didn't kick him in his nuts for what he did to her (actually, I was proud LA and I didn't kick him in his nuts...jackass).
It wasn't what we expected when we walked in the door to say the least and it would have been nicer if the bed side manor would have been a little better. He must have been an ER doctor(see post from last week) before getting into dermatology. He probably is the best doctor in the area and an adult male would love him (this is the problem, this is the solution and were done - no small talk) but that method isn't exactly the best for a small child. Call us before you or your child go to the dermatologist.
As a side note to the visit, we brought the average age of patients (and doctor) to about 65.
What adventure awaits us this weekend?
Update - I will give him an A on the procedure. This morning her eye is not much worse color wise than an normal day. LA, me and the doctor was were pretty she was going to have a black eye from it - because she moved but she doesn't
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