don’t shoot up my baby

Yesterday, I had quite possibly the worst pediatrician appointment I’ve ever experienced. If you follow along on my family’s journey, you’ll know that Marina is having some issues the past month or so with breastfeeding and weight gaining. She was given the “Failure to Thrive” label and is just starting to pack on some pounds and gain some strength.

I’ve been going to lactation consultant and basically spending every hour of my life feeding her for the past two weeks. It’s been exhausting but she is improving every day.

Yesterday was Marina’s two-month well-care visit. I have been going to this practice for a few years with the older girls, but typically we see a different doctor than Marina has seen her past few visits. I haven’t been able to get an appointment with my doctor of choice because she’s booked, so I’ve just been taking whoever was available.

In walks the doctor. He’s older and I’ve never seen him before. I start to talk to him about Marina’s weight issues since they weren’t aware of anything that transpired over the past month. After about a minute or so of me detailing what she’s gone through, I paused to let him speak.

Without acknowledging anything I said, he set down the vaccine paper on the exam table and began to discuss what immunizations she was scheduled to get at this visit. That’s it. It’s like he didn’t hear a damn word I said. The guy looks like Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol so maybe his hearing was shot and he didn’t hear me tell him she fell off the charts and was just getting back to fighting weight.

Firstly, I’m not weird about vaccines. I typically follow science, and all my kids have received their full immunizations (aside from COVID). However, my mom-sense was telling me that it didn’t seem right to give a baby that was just bouncing back from a FTT diagnosis FIVE immunizations in ONE day. It just seemed like overkill. And I use the word overkill intentionally. I don’t think it’s a smart choice. And it’s unnecessary.

He tried to convince me that the science was behind everything. Blah blah. It still didn’t sit well. Maybe I would have been convinced if he would have seemed to acknowledge her weight challenges at first, but he didn’t. After we discussed it for about 20 minutes, no lie, 20 fucking minutes, he agreed to scale back on the immunizations and only give her three. I’ll have to go back in 6 weeks to get the rest which I’m totally fine with. By then she’ll be bigger, and it gives them another chance to see her before her 4 month well care visit.

After the 20-minute discussion about vaccinations, I signed the paper and the exam officially started. Literally all this man did was listen to her heart and lungs. That was it. I pointed out some lump behind her ear that Vince and the lactation consultant had mentioned before, but he dismissed it as just her lymph nodes. Hmmm, that feels wrong. I questioned him again, and he insisted. Then, he was done, and he left the room.

I’ve been to innumerable well care visits throughout my life and at each one, they do waaaayyyy more than that. They don’t just listen to their heart and their lungs. It was like all he cared about again was her shots and that was it.

I’m happy that he listened to me about the vaccinations, yes. But very irritated that her visit was basically just that. Now she won’t be checked again for another 2 months. At what point does a doctor hang up their stethoscope? Because I think it’s high time Ebenezer retires.