As you know I’ve learned to taper my speech to become patient and think things through before getting really upset. As new moms in the beginning it can burst out of you, I’ve learned that a cool head beats a hot head any day. But getting there takes time.
I blogged about Anna’s huge issue with her UTIs and how bad our time in Kentucky at the National Conference was. This was due to the urology team at U of M not willing to treat her symptoms. What can a mom do? You cannot go into the pharmacy and rob them for some antibiotics. It reminds me of the 2002 movie “John Q” with Denzel Washington. We cannot break laws but we will fight to get our kids what they need. And fight and speak up we do! The Warrior way.
Anna recently saw her urologist for a check up. I had to work (like most warrior moms I do not have enough sick/vacation days). Paul has to do most of the appointments now. So I sent him with some concerns to her doctor, notes to discuss with her. We have had the same urologist for about 13 years, and we like her. I asked Paul to ask her these questions, convey these follow ups to her:
*Tell her the new method of cathing every time with a strong antibiotic to prevent infection seems to be working very well, we’ve had very few UTI symptoms.
*Ask her if we need to switch to a new adult neurologist as we had to move to an adult for nephrology.
*Let them know that the last UTI we feel was not taken seriously. It got very bad for Anna. She was suffering. While we can’t go back in time we want to communicate how lost and unhelped we felt. Tell the doctor that I told the nursing staff we’ve been with this doctor for years and we’ve seen the care and the service go down. We wonder if any of this was ever brought to her attention. She had a white blood cell count of 10,000 when it should be around 300 and it had to happen twice for her to get it treated.
I received a letter recently from her office post visit that stated this:
“I discussed Anna’s case and her care with our nurses this morning. They are on board with helping to make sure that we have urine cultures cooking whenever you think that she might have an infection and even that we start antibiotics for her before the final results are in if she is having a lot of symptoms. We are writing a note in her chart that everyone in our division can see so feel free to reference what when you call!
Thank you for your patience (and being such wonderful patients)”
🙂
Dr. Vesna
Speak up, speak out and create change.
The world is harsh enough, be the voice!
Happy and Fun pictures from Halloween follow. I dressed up as a clown and visited Anna’s school. We passed out fun blow up balls. Her classroom took the prisoner theme and they made a sweet jail. Fun was had by everyone.
Why do I love clowns? They are happy and sad, they recognize that life is not to be taken too seriously, they have huge amount of emotion and display it openly. They have fun and bold clothing. Most of all they make people laugh. Be a clown.