I Am No Fan of Doctors

Doctors suck.  Sorry but that’s how I feel.  I cannot tell you how incredibly sick I am of doctors.  It’s bad enough when they screw up something having to do with me, but I’m a whole other animal when it involves my kids.  This last experience I had is the icing on the cake.  First I need to give you a little back story.

My son Alex has had a chronic cough for the past two years.  Not your average cough though.  I’m talking about the kind of cough that was so bad that it would keep not only him awake, but all of us - for hours on end in the middle of the night.  It started shortly after his fourth birthday and a bout of coughing would last for weeks at a time.

We started with his pediatrician thinking it was just a cold.  He was treated with cough medicine and sent on his way.  Well the cough never went away.  So then we were given antibiotics.  The cough did go away for a while.  But a few weeks later he got sick again.  So after several trips back and forth to our pediatrician, I figured whatever Alex had was more than just a cold and we had to find someone who could get to the bottom of it. I had a feeling that maybe the problem was caused by his adenoids and/or tonsils since I had problems with both when I was a kid.  So I took him to a highly regarded Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist.

At the first examination, the ENT we saw in Florida at the time who was VERY conservative, did confirm that Alex’s adenoids and tonsils were “larger than normal”.  However, since Alex did not have sleep apnea or snore, and he had NEVER had strep throat, he told us he wanted to “watch” Alex for a few months before he even considered any kind of surgery.  He sent us to an allergist where Alex was given all sorts of allergy and asthma testing.  He tested negative for both.  The doctor thought maybe the coughing was due to allergies so we went through all of that and every allergy medicine possible for several months which didn’t do squat.

Then the ENT thought the cough might be caused from acid reflux so he sent us to a gastroenterologist.  We had yet another test done called a barium swallow to see if there was some anatomical reason in his stomach and throat (they watched him swallow during this test while standing behind an x-ray machine) was the cause if there even WAS reflux but again…nope.  No anatomical problems.  Oh and I forgot to mention that we also had a cat scan taken of his sinuses.  Clear.

I cannot even tell you how frustrated I was.  They couldn’t find a cause for this horrible and very productive/juicy cough that was keeping my son up half the night.  WTF!!!   And still, the ENT did not see a reason to have Alex’s adenoids removed because he didn’t have sleep apnea or snore.   So every time we went in there because the cough was so unbearable, all he did was give us another band-aid antibiotic.

Then we moved to up here to North Carolina.  We were hoping that maybe there was something in the Florida air or in our 30 year old town house that was causing the problem and that maybe a change of environment would clear it up.  No dice.   Again, I had to find an ENT up here.   So I found a guy that was highly recommended and supposedly very good.

The first time I met and him and I had to explain Alex’s entire history with these coughs I was practically crying out of frustration.   He immediately said that his adenoids needed to come out. Well hallefreakinlujah!  He said he had no doubt that from everything I described that it was the adenoids and that they needed to come out since they were obviously not doing their job by catching all of the bacteria they were supposed to.

So we promptly made an appointment to have Alex’s adenoids removed.  Before the surgery though, I met with the Dr. to go over everything and I specifically asked him if we should go ahead and remove the tonsils as well.  I was concerned that whatever bacteria was attacking Alex’s adenoids would then go to his tonsils.  I was assured “it doesn’t work like that” and that should not happen.   He said “if you want to take the tonsils out I will do it, but I honestly don’t see a need to since he has never had any problems with his tonsils.  They ARE big, but he hasn’t had any strep throat infections so you don’t really need to take them out.”   My husband and I went back and forth with this and had the doctor advised us to go ahead and do it, we would have in a heartbeat since Alex would already be under for the adenoids.  But the doctor said it was up to us.  My husband and I talked it over and decided NOT to do it since we weren’t advised to and the recovery period would be a lot longer and much more painful.  We figured if he really didn’t need it than why should we put him through that?  Well I obviously should have went with my gut since it turns out my fear came true and now he has had strep throat 3 times in the last 2 months.

When I asked the doctor last week if the bacteria that was attacking the adenoids is now going to the tonsils he said “it looks that way which is really weird because that never ever happens. I can’t even remember if/when I’ve ever had a patient who has had that happen after an adenoidectomy.”  Are you kidding me???  I guess we are the case study then huh?

So now I have to put my poor kid under again and I am a friggin wreck! I know it’s a very common thing and he did great the last time so I’m probably freaking myself out for nothing but if God forbid anything happens to him I will never forgive myself!  Especially when it could have been done the first time and I royally screwed that one up.

I just want it to be over.  All of it.  The surgery, the sickness, the coughing and the constant use of various medications.  Please pray for us that this works!