Dumped By The ENT!

It's never too dull around here, that's for sure! The latest update with Jaden is His ENT Dumped Us/Him as a Patient! We received a letter in the mail a few days ago saying that Dr. Kay no longer wanted to see Jaden as a patient because he felt he would be better served elsewhere! I guess it turns out, they thought we didn't want to follow his directive dating back to the first visit when Jaden was 1. I really don't want to bore with all the strange details. But, I must tell you the basics!

Dr. Kay (A very nervous, strange, impatient man By the way), supposedly suggested a repeat visit 2 months after Jaden's initial visit. He claims we decided not to show up, however we never knew we were supposed to return 2 months later, or we would have. First Problem. Of course his office never called to remind or re-schedule this supposed visit. And Trust me, we write down every single appt. for Jaden, so either this was an oversight, or we forgot completely, or he never told us to come back at all, either way we had no idea we missed an appt! Second problem: Visit year 2, Dr. says Jaden's ears look great and everything looks great, tonsils etc. Then he does a hearing test which Jaden fails (even though we know he hears great), says he probably has wax and it could mean he has fluid that he didn't see. So he proceeds to scrape wax out of ears which brings out sounds in Jaden I've never heard as we both hold him down. After all the wax is scraped out, (which is a perfectly normal amount Dr. says), he then does see a small amount of fluid, but no infection or redness. So..he says we can put him on antibiotics to clear fluid. I ask "Why, when there is no infection and from everything I've heard & read, Antibiotics rarely clear fluid and if they do, it returns." to which he says: "Well, antibiotics are all we have right now, yes I am right that they will NOT WORK 91% of the time but DO work 9% of the time." To which Husband and I say, "No thanks, we'll wait to see if fluid clears up." to which Dr. says, "Ok, sounds good, that's fine, we'll re-schedule in 6 weeks." All the while the Dr. never gave Eye contact once, because he was inscribing in his electronic Notebook/scheduler the entire visit, just like the first time we were there. He also kept referring to Jaden as a "Downs Kid" over and over. And I would have corrected him politely and said that since the 1950's people have not been referring to kids with DS as "Downs Kids", but I never could even get a word in as we were rushed out the door.

Problem 3: Next day after 2nd visit, Jaden's ear is bleeding, and filled with dried blood to which I call the office, and trust me, I never call Dr's Offices for Anything!!! To which they said, they could see him in a few days, to which I said, we'll be coming in now beacause my son's ear is bleeding. They were rude, abrupt and condescending and assuming I was exaggerating because afterall, I'm a mom! I said that I wanted to make sure my sons ear drums weren't punctured because he had scraped out the earwax the day before, and now his ear was bleeding. So...I brought him back in to which Dr. Kay (South Florida, Boynton Beach), looked for 2 seconds and said his ears were fine. I then left feeling like this guy didn't give 2 sh.ts about my son!

Problem 4: I called back a week later thinking about adenoids and tonsils and how much difficulty Jaden still has breathing when he is sleeping and how congested he is all the time. After reading so many other parent's stories and experiences and speaking with Jaden's OT who has a Daughter with DS who just had her tonsils and adenoids removed, I decided this was probably a much more proactive approach. So, I called the office to make another appt. to talk with Dr. Kay about Adenoids instead of waiting 6 weeks. I went to the visit the following week and Dr. Kay says when he walks in the door: "Sorry it's me you have to see and not Dr. Spector", To which I said "What, what do you mean?" To which he says: "My notes say that you no longer wanted to see me and that you requested Dr. Spector." I then shook my head and said I had no idea what he meant. (First Big problem, especially since he seemed even more nervous and edgy than usual). I then proceeded to ask him about adenoids and tonsils, and that since Jaden was sleeping at the visit, he could hear what I meant about his breathing. He said, "Yes it's definitely his adenoids causing his congestion, fluid and breathing issues and that 30 years ago when kids had fluid, they just took out adenoids." To which he suggested a sleep study to confirm that it was tonsils and adenoids, or just adenoids causing breathing issues. I said great. He walked me out, I was told to call back next day to schedule sleep study.

Called back next day, was told I would hear from sleep clinic about making an appt. within 24 hours. 5 days later when I hadn't heard from anyone, I called back office to which they informed me, Dr. kay would no longer be seeing us in his office because I did not want to follow protocol and because of Jaden's "Underlying" condition. To which I was told I would be receiving a letter in the mail in a few days. I won't go into what my husband said or did after that, or what I said and did because it doesn't show the best in me, I will just say I was slightly upset.

We have now come to realize that in all of Palm Beach County there are only 2 Pediatric ENT specialists, and in Broward County all of 1!!!!! So...too bad for you if you don't like the ENT and they don't like you, you are completely Screwed!...Now we have scheduled an appt. with an ENT in Broward who was recommended by several other mother's to us, and we have an appt in Early April! Yes, that's right, Early April! If we want to get in sooner, we need to call the office everyday to see if there is an opening for the next day. That's all we can do, too bad for us! Very Frustrating, and I know there are parents who deal with much worse, so trust me, I'm not really complaining. It's just a reminder that our current Medical System is in need of a MAJOR OVERHAUL! Thank goodness Jaden is Ok, and he will be until the appt. but it is a sad state of affairs here in South Florida!