I Am Woman Hear Me Roar

The Beast "helping" me with the dishes.

Today, while driving in my van I heard a seal barking in the back seat.  I turned around and found, instead of a seal, my poor little Beast looking feverish and sick.  I took a deep breath not looking forward to the day ahead.  Having a sick kid sucks.  He was acting pretty normal other than that cough and a low grade fever.  So, after talking to our family "doctor" aka Aunt Doko (Seriously folks, if they gave medical degrees just on experience alone, my sister Kolette probably would've earned at least four degrees by now, one for each kid.)  I took the Beast to the local Pediatric Urgent Care.

In the waiting room I was busy filling out paperwork and chasing down the Beast who thought it was fun to run into the back and wait for me to chase him down.  We got called into the back and they took his temperature (101.8), checked his blood pressure, and weighed him.  They asked me why I was there and I said, "I think he has croup".  So, they took us to the exam room and we waited ever so patiently for the doctor to arrive.  The doctor, a small timid woman, came in and examined the Beast.  Checked his ears, his throat.  Listened to his stomach and his heart and then said, "Hmmm....use a cool mist humidifier and some ibuprofen.  If he was wheezing I would prescribe you some steroids but he's not, so....".  And that my friends is when the Momma Bear in me came out.


I said, "Listen, we have a High Deductible Insurance Plan.  I've already paid 40 dollars to see you.  I don't know if they are going to bill me even more later.  I don't know how much this visit is going to end up costing me, and I am NOT coming back when my son starts having a coughing attack and can't breathe for you to charge me again.  I have three kids.  I'm not new at this, and I know what is going on with my kid.  Here's what I want you to do.  I want you to write me a prescription for steroids, just in case.  If my son needs the steroids, then I can fill the prescription and give it to him.  If not, no harm no foul."  Can you guess what the doctor said?  "Okay."  Okay?  Really?  Just like that?  Sure enough, she left the room and came back a few minutes later with the prescription  I was shocked and oddly empowered.  How many times have you taken your child to the doctor certain that they're sick only to have the doctor tell you, "Oh, it's a virus.  Nothing we can do."?  Do you walk out of the office feeling like you've just been chastised for overreacting and making a mountain out of a molehill?  I can't even count how many times I have left the doctor's office feeling like that only to have to go back to the doctor's office a few days later with a very sick child, and walking out of there with a prescription for antibiotics.

Well tonight, something just cracked and I decided I'll be damned if I am going to come back here when the doctor can write a prescription right now just in case I need it!  And let me tell you people.  It felt good.  It felt really good.  I felt like I finally had control over my child's health.  In the past I have always been afraid to stand up to the doctor.  Doctor's intimidate me with all their fancy degrees and expensive book learning.  But you know what?  They are not my child's mother.  I am.  And I know better then they ever will when my child is sick and I have every right to stand my ground and fight for my child.  No one else is going to fight for them.  It's up to me as their Mother, and Dave as their Father to be their advocate and their voice.

I Am Woman Hear Me Roar!


*Everyone please remember the people of Japan in your prayers in the wake of this terrible disaster.