Thursday, October 2, 2008

Doctor=Pain!

Today was the first time I'd taken Morgan to the pediatricians since he was two months old. It was like a new experience for both of us. Morgan seemed a little uneasy though, I must say, from the moment we arrived. He was even wary of going in the kids playroom and watching Mulan.
Even though I was there pretty early, they called us in rather quickly. How refreshing.
We went to our room and I was told to strip Morgan to his diaper. First he protested when I took his shoes off. Then he hollered when I took of his shirt. He tried to hold his pants on when I went for them. He's not accustomed to undressing in public.
The nurse did the measuring and the weighing. Morgan is in the 75th percentile for height, 50-60th percentile for weight, (tall and skinny, though you might look at him and think he was a chub.) and 90th percentile for head! Hah! What a smartie!
When the doctor came in, Doctor Edwards, Morgan was immediately showing off and jabbering. I asked my questions about his dry skin, warts and possible dairy allergy and the doc checked Morgans heart, lungs, and diaper area. Then he asked questions about Morgan and his speech and play, and pointed out that while Morgan had been doing a lot of "talking" while he was in there, he didn't understand a word.
Then came the questions about why Morgan's immunizations weren't up to date, (lack of insurance until lately sounded like a lame excuse) and then the lectures about how good modern medicine is and how safe vaccines are and where I could go to read about how safe they are and what a great advancement they are to science and such. Well, I wasn't ever arguing that. I recognize their worth, I do. I've read the articles. I've put more thought and effort into it than a lot of people, but I still want to space them out so Morgan's young immune system isn't being accosted all at once with tons of toxins. And I reserve the right to decline the ones that I don't think are necessary. Now, many readers may think me radical and single handedly trying to bring back Small Pox, and that's your prerogative. I just want to make sure that I am doing what is best for Morgan and his health and well-being.
Jumping off my soap box now, to recount where this tale gets especially rough on Morgan. First, the warts. I've meant to photograph them and do a post about his warty hands and feet. I think he has seven warts on one hand alone. I've been using compound W on them, but I don't notice any results. So, Dr. Edwards explains that sometimes all it will take is getting rid of one or two warts with acid, (compound W) or freezing them off and then the body will key into them and realize, "hey, what's with these warts? Let's get rid of them" and then they will all go away on their own. So guess what he proposed? I think he wanted to play with liquid nitrogen. He prepared some and got out some q-tip things and soaked them in the nitrogen and pressed them to the two warts on Morgan's foot. As he was leaving the room to get the materials before hand he let me know, "He'll cry, cause it will sting." Oh. Sorry Morgan. And he had to apply the LN then let it thaw, then repeat that two times. At first Morgan was curious, then a bit miffed. He started grunting. Then he got pretty mad, but he never cried, which surprised the doctor, even though I told him that Morgan was one tough kid who rarely cried when he was hurt.
The next indignity that Morgan had to suffer through was the hemoglobin test. They had to poke his toe to draw some blood. Once again I was warned that he would cry. So I held him while they got everything ready. Morgan watched as the nurse prepared his toe and put the funny plastic thing next to it and pushed the button. He didn't even jump. But the blood sure was interesting. He got a bandaid with Donkey, from Shrek, on it. How happy that was.
The last and the worst was the two vaccines shot into his thigh. HIB and DTP. He was mad that I was trying to take his pants off again, (I'd already dressed him at this point.) And he really screamed with indignation when he was jabbed. Scream, but not a cry. Then he was ready to go! No more waiting around this place, get me out of here! He was mad at everybody and wouldn't even go pick out a piece of candy without me there. Poor guy.
I don't think Morgan will be too eager to return to the doctor anytime soon.

5 comments:

Jana Lee Bumblebee said...

Melanie, You are the absolute best at writing interesting details. I loved this post. Did the doc say anything about Morgan's milk or skin sensitivities?

You're right about Morgan not liking doctors anymore. Our cats, who have been to the vet exactly one time each, won't even get in a car now.
If forced, they howl piteously and shed all their fur.

Sara said...

I'm pretty impressed with how tough he was for all that pricking and proding!

jjertmann said...

What a tough boy! And you're the mom, you absolutely have the right to choose when and what the doctor shoots into your child. Good for you.

tmataitusi said...

So why the warts? What causes that? Poor guy! He can't even associate candy with the doctor - good luck next time!

Arianne said...

Poor little guy, shots and wart burnings are no fun! Kallie got her shots last week too and was sick for 2 days after.