Over the past weekend, we attended the Spring Home & Garden Show that is hosted at our local County Fairgrounds Exhibit Hall. Vendors of windows, siding, roofing, hot tubs, ladnscaping companies, and gardens and of course, the local power company reps, the local paper, some "green" cleaning companies, and things like satellite, cable tv providers, and, new this year, a local eye center promoting Lasik.
Also at these shows, the occasional vendor of home-made soy candles, aroma therapeutic oils, home-made flavored oils, meat-buying clubs, and other such things appear. New this year, was the appearance of a fairly new Chiropractic clinic with a pediatric specialist. As I was standing near their booth (conveniently located right across from the restroom, drinking fountain and line for concessions), Capt coughed...it is that dry hacky cough of the changing seasons, brought on by dust, pollen, and lack of moisture in the air...and I told him to go get a drink. The doctor heard him cough, heard me tell him to get a drink and began questioning me about my children...
As any proud mother would do, I began spewing forth information in a sort of uncontrollable flow, words tripping over themselves, rushing faster and faster and before I knew it, we were sitting a their booth, and Capt was having a nifty little device rolled up his back on either side of his spine, sort of like the price gun at a store, only with wheels instead of a scanner or, from further back, the price tags. they took a quick scan of his spinal column and nerves, and said, step over here and we'll schedule you for a follow-up consultation to discuss recommended treatment options to help his asthma.
I was sort of herded over there and before I quite knew what was happening, we were scheduled to go in Tuesday morning...
Lo and behold, I talked to BB about it - it was a consultation that was free of charge, and would include x-rays as well as the scan - a $250 value for the total deal - so he said go ahead but get copies of the file, the x-rays, the scan, etc, and we'd take them to our normal chiropractor.
Well...after the visit yesterday morning (which lasted 90 minutes), I was told I had to come back after they interpreted the data and developed a treatment plan for him...
A couple things:
- I am not normally blindsided by things like this
- Captain has never been diagnosed as asthmatic or even having "real" allergies
- We already have a GREAT chiropractor that we love and will not be switching
- I hate doctors who tell things to children that are babyish and make-believe. Treat my child like a person - talk to them in an age-appropriate manner, but do NOT make things up...
The doctor whom we saw has no children, in single, and was not bad. She knew her stuff, but she asked me the same questions 6 times. Not that she asked in a different way, or was looking for further information, but the same, exact questions 6 times...OY! Then, as she was checking to see if Capt had any inflammation of lymph nodes, she told him that she had to see if he had any bugs in his body...
Ummmmm...do you know what happens when the almost-5-year-old boy, his 3-year-old sister and 1-year-old sister are in the room with him to hear these words? ALL 3 KIDS had nightmares last night. Capt and Princess were able to tell me that their bad dreams were about having bugs inside of them...
As in, I was up 9 times between midnight and 4 last night with screaming children having nightmares...
As in, now Captain is convinced that every itch, every bump, every gurgle or squeak or sound his body makes is because of the bugs in his body...
I am not advocating taking away my children's childhood by telling them things, BUT, we don't tell our kids that light bulbs light up from "magic" - we explain electricity in age-appropriate ways, or we tell them when we go to the doctor that what is making us sick is bad germs, and that medication (when appropriate) helps our bodies to fight the bad germs.
We don't pull punches in our house, and I take great exception at the mindset that a child cannot understand or accept the ways things really work.
I'd have much rather have her told Capt that there are parts of our bodies that act like the warning light on our cars - when something is wrong, they get uncomfortable, and that tells us that our bodies are fighting off things like bad germs, and that she can feel them by touching our wrists, or our necks, and that she needs to do that to find out if his body is fighting anything right now.
Don't tell children things that their imagination can take and run with...because when my kids' imagination gets started it doesn't run sprints - it runs a marathon...an iron man...
Sheesh...here's to hoping that I can erase the image of bugs in their bodies today and forevermore, to allow for much tamer bad dreams - you know, the kind where they dream about not having friends at the play ground, or no ice cream...
No comments:
Post a Comment