A Tale of Two Doctors

We have the best of doctors and the worst of doctors.  While Dickens didn't have this in mind it surely fits the bill when it comes to our boys doctor's office.  Our doctor is the best, someone that came highly recommended, and I can see why.  He is just one of those guys that makes you feel like nothing is ever wrong.  You could walk in with your arm completely chopped off and he would magically make you think that there was nothing wrong as if this thing happens to kids all the time.  I don't think that I have ever walked out of HIS office feeling like I got the wrong diagnosis.  I trust him.

Our awesome doctor, Dr. Shih with Carter

That being said we don't always get to see OUR doctor.  Since he is so great, everyone wants to be seen by him, which leaves us sometimes with some of the other doctors in the practice, other doctors that I don't care about in the least, or worse I don't trust.

My oldest son Tyler got hit by allergies pretty bad this spring.  Like a lot of people it turns out he is allergic to pollen.  We had gone on vacation two and a half weeks ago to DC and their pollen season starts a little before ours does in New Jersey, so he got smacked in the face by it.  He only developed these allergies last year so we weren't fully prepared for it.  Back then he was diagnosed with seasonal allergies and we were told to give him Zyrtec or any of the other medications available.  While the symptoms of the allergies lessened other complications arose including a cough that just would not go away.  Which brings us to the doctor in question.

Last year said doctor told us we should get Tyler on an inhaler for his cough.  Like any parent we listened and got him one.  Well that only made Tyler's cough worse, to the point that he would cough for like a minute straight, it was quite aggravating as we don't want to see our child go through anything like this, especially Tyler who has had problems in the past.  I should have known the inhaler was the wrong way to go as this doctor has had us get a nebulizer three times.  I swear you could walk in with a broken arm and this doctor would prescribe some sort of breathing apparatus.  He must think that every child that walks through the doors of his office is asthmatic.  Well since the inhaler obviously didn't work we saw OUR doctor a week later and he said that had a sinus infection, caused most likely by the allergies.  Two weeks later and a course of amoxicillin and Tyler was as good as new.

Fast forward a year later, and we are seeing the same doctor last Friday.  Tyler had all the same problems that he had last year and I explained all this to Dr. Doolittle(butprescribeunecessarymedicine) and I told him I thought it was a sinus infection.  Well, he told me it wasn't that and it was just allergies worsening.  While he didn't prescribe an inhaler or nebulizer, although he did ask us if we ever used one, he said a couple shots of Nasanex in the nostrils every night would do the trick.  I should have known better, this only made Tyler cough more and since we gave it to him before bedtime, this was a problem.  I took him back to the doctor last night and saw another doctor in the practice, not OUR doctor, but one that I trust.  After analyzing Tyler and hearing about his symptoms he diagnosed him with a sinus infection.  How could he ever think that?  Of course the two weeks of amoxicillin just started but I can't help but feel Tyler will be back to normal in no time.  That doctor could obviously be wrong too but I don't think so.

I know that being a doctor is an incredibly hard job, and they see all kinds of sick kids in the course of the day, but to have one that you don't trust is frightening.  You essentially put the lives of your children in the hands of these people, thinking that they know what is right for your child.  I am not a doctor, so I can only listen to what they have to say and trust that they know what they are talking about.  That being said, I will never take my sons to that doctor again, I don't trust him.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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