Orthopedic surgeon appointment

Today was Owen's orthopedic surgeon appointment. It was.... frustrating. Very frustrating.

To start with- this appointment was supposed to be 2 weeks ago. Only they called 2 days before it saying there was an "emergency surgery" and the dr would have to reschedule. Okay. So it was rescheduled for last week. 2 days before that appointment they called to reschedule because of another "emergency surgery". That time I ripped into them. It's not a freaking EMERGENCY if the surgery can be scheduled *2* days in advance. If they have that much time to get it done, he could have done it at a time that he wasn't already booked, ya know (for the record- this doctor only does appointments in the afternoons because his mornings are supposed to be for surgery). So, I let them know that I was giving them one more chance. If they called to reschedule this appointment I would be going somewhere else. Only, at that time, I was told the appointment was for this monday. On Friday I got a call (recorded message) confirming his appointment on TUESDAY. Eh, whatever. I called and complained but what are you going to do?

So, appointment came. When I first scheduled the appointment I asked if we could do the x-rays before the appointment to get them done (so Owen would be able to take his time and not be rushed). They agreed that would be a good idea, but they couldn't give me the orders (because, at that time, he wasn't technically their patient). So they told me to get the orders from neurology (who referred him). So, I did. Today at noon I went to neurology to pick up the orders. I asked if there was anything else I needed to do and they said no- just go to x-ray and give them the papers. So I did. And we waited and waited and waited. And finally we were told that we needed to go to the ortho office anyway because neurology never registered him! So we went to the ortho office (fortunately was right next door) and registered. And waited some more. Finally they registered him and sent us back to x-ray. Where we waited even more. By the time he got back to the x-ray machine it was 1:15. Kinda defeated the whole purpose of getting there an hour early. He did great though, stood very still while they got 2 x-rays. Then we went back over to ortho where he saw a resident first. He did all his stuff then sent the head dr in. Head dr did his stuff and said O's x-rays look fine, no scoliosis. He said in kids with NF1 they typically will develop fine until around puberty and then more signs are seen (if they do, in fact, have NF1 and not just the spots). So, everything looks good now. Woo-hoo! He said he wanted to see us back in a year but we agreed that we wouldn't do more x-rays at that time. The resident was pushing for yearly x-rays. I told him I wasn't going to agree to Owen getting x-rays every year. I feel that would do more harm exposing him to that than it'll help. Head doctor agreed. We may do another x-ray in 4 or 5 years if he thinks something has changed.

So head doctor leaves and resident writes up the discharge papers. I took them to the front desk to give them to her. The receptionist schedules the appointment (a year in advice.... like I'll remember it. LOL!) and then tells me.... he gets an x-ray in a year. The d*mn resident wrote on there he needs yearly x-rays despite the head doctor saying he didn't! But, by this time I was late for work, I hadn't eaten anything all day and Owen had been in the hospital for 2 hours. I was done. I'll deal with it in a year.