an annoying (and probably boring) story + ped report

Well, many of you will find this post to be rather dull since it does not include pictures, but I know there are some who are DYING to know how much Silas weighs these days...He just had a pediatrician appointment today- wait, let me back up.

I have decided that our DC pediatrician was awful. That's because we had to wait for at least an hour and a half before every appointment, the pediatrician was very opinionated against Baby Wise and generally not helpful in answering my questions, and calling their office is a huge headache, which I will illustrate with a story...

About 6 weeks ago, I called the doctor's office and asked how I could get Silas' medical records. They transferred me to Medical Records. The phone rang. And rang. And rang. I hung up and called back. They yelled back to someone that they should go back to Medical Records because someone was calling. Finally, I got through to this girl who sounded like she was in high school. She was very unhelpful and somewhat rude, but I was able to put in a request to have Silas' medical records sent to me, due to arrive in 3-5 days. This supposedly included a $15 fee.

Well, about 2 weeks later I realized that I had never received the records. I called again. I finally got through to someone, who told me they had no record of my request. Anyway, this person offered to send his records directly to the new pediatrician, which didn't include a fee. I said, great, and thought that this person seemed more competent and would get the job done.

Today, about an hour before Silas' appointment, his new pediatrican called to inform me that they had never received Silas' medical records. Silas couldn't get vaccinated today if we didn't have his immunization chart. Nathan decided to handle it from here. He called Silas' old pediatrician and was transferred to Medical Records, where no one answered the phone. Then he called back, and they said the person in Medical Records wasn't there, they didn't know where she was. Apparently no one else could fax the records. He called again and tried asking the advice nurse, who transferred him somewhere, probably right back to Medical Records, where the phone rang and rang. Finally a man picked up and said that Medical Records was on vacation; he had just been walking by and heard the phone ring. Nathan explained our problem. The guy said, sorry, I can't help you but I'll transfer you to someone else.

Finally Nathan got through to this guy named Keith, who said he couldn't just send the form to a random fax number, but we could have the Pediatrician call him to verify when we got there, and then he would fax the form. Nathan didn't want to take this chance, so he said why don't you call them and get their fax number. Keith reluctantly agreed. Half an hour passed. We called our new ped office. They hadn't received the form. We called a few minutes later. They hadn't received it. Nathan called Keith again. The fax machine was broken, but Keith assured us he would try to get it to go though.

How do these people do business??!?!

We were actually at the Pediatrician getting Silas weighed when the fax finally came through. Huge relief; thank you, Lord! And thank you, Keith, for following through.

Okay, only a handful of you who have experienced the wonderful automated prompts you get EVERY TIME you call the pediatrician can fully appreciate the annoying-ness of that story, so that was for you.

Anyway, Silas is doing great. He weighed in at 14 lbs. 1 oz and measured 24 3/4" long. I really liked our new pediatrician. He said Silas is just about in the 50th percentile all around and was really healthy. Silas took his shots like a champ, which was a relief considering how cranky he was after his last shots. And yes, we have decided to go ahead with all immunizations, although I don't really care to open that can of worms in this post. :)