Re: school stuff - Mon

[Guest guest]

The poor little thing. It really bothered her when the pain dr

said " So, what's a 15 year old girl doing in my office? " And the

tech at the vascular surgeon's office, who said he has never seen

anyone so young before there. That doesn't help much.

*****************************

You know the funny thing is that may be a good thing in the future. She will

begin to realize those comments mean that she is a very special little girl

who is getting real attention from people as important and Doctors and such.

She has entered a world of adult medicine ... not pediatric. That means she

will be the minority in the waiting room and very special to the staff and

doctors.

I say this because I got the same reactions when I was little. No one

understood what all was happening to me but they sure gave me kid glove

treatment

just because I was so little. I formed really good relationships with all these

doctors over the years. They sort of watched me grow up and I sure learned a

lot about me, the health care system and doctors personalities. Perhaps that

is why I ended up as a Risk Consultant in a malpractice trust! Hard to know

but I do know I have much more control of my health care than most just because

I entered the adult world of medicine so young.

Tell for me, Next time she goes to the doctor, consider it a learning

experience for her. See if you can play some games with her like.... How many

minutes (seconds) it is before the doctor started talking when you were

trying to explain what is wrong.

She will get a kick out of it when it turns out to be 30 seconds and it will

teach her that she needs to listen to her body VERY CAREFULLY and try to

condense how she talks to doctors to get her point across initially in as very

short time. If she learns this an a bunch of other physician quirks early on

she

will feel like she has much more control about her health. Control is

important for obsessive compulsive I understand (isn't it for all of us! ---

LOL) and

it will be a relief for her to fell less like a ginny pig and more like she

has something to say about which way her health program is going.

Little baby steps for her and I think you may find you have to do less and

less hand holding as she ages and matures with her illness and understanding of

the health care field.

For now.. it is probably not a good idea to let her in on how difficult it is

to obtain care.. That is your call of course but it may make her fell a

burden and then go deeper into fantasies of dying. I am no shrink by any means

so

this is all your call.

Just a thought from a former pampered child patient in an adult patient world.

Debbi