Womens-Place

Another One Bites the Dust…

Hmmm…it is not a good thing when a mommy has to call the hospital switch board to page Neurosurgery to get the on call to respond to  your husband and nurses page to your child’s room in the hospital. Tisk, tisk. Naughty doctor on call. He responded faster to me and had his stuff together and apologized profusely for 20 minutes.  In his defense he is one of our favorite docs and he never has had a run in with me and has heard of what I am capable of doing to residents who lack compassion and ethics caring for my child.  Now, mind you, I do not beat them up. I do however hold them to HIGH standards when treating my child.  You do not say oops…when treating my child and you do not, NOT return a page. You will not PRACTICE medicine on my child and you WILL step out of your text book and become a human being when treating my child.  You will NOT be rude and cut me off when I am asking questions and You WILL answer questions.  You WILL know that I know my child best and you will NOT challenge that fact.  Sounds harsh?  Nope, not after watching my daughter have over 30 brain surgeries in a year.  Not after taking many medical courses to educate myself and not after knowing that God called that Amazing Gracie Nicole by name and entrusted her care to us the day he placed her in our care.  He is the one that guides us.  So you might be asking, did I really do it?  You bet your butt I did…and I  will do it over and over again!  I am that fiery and I will fight for my child with every breath that I take.  Not only did I do that but I set up Skype with Tim before I left,  not only to help soothe Grace during times when she needed me but to keep tabs on her care and to make my presence known to all.  This momma does not play around.

Earlier today I had to talk with one of her Dr’s who insisted she still did not need a med change but yet I am on the phone and I can hear my child crying out in pain and the meds she was on was not touching her.  I promptly told Tim to hand him the phone and when he got on he was not receiving from me so I had to INSIST that he listen and boy was his undies in a wad  because his pride was in the way.  Well if you have that much pride in the way that you cannot see a child is in need of a new pain med I am going to over ride you and you are about to get it in a realllllly bad way.  So, hence the theme of the blog today: Another resident Dr. Bites the Dust.  I got him on the phone and let him know that it was NOT going to be tolerated. He tried to tell me that she had pain meds. I told him her body has built up a tolerance to the narcotic he was using as she had been on it so long for so many different times and he WAS going to change it.  He tried to tell me no and I promptly gave him a very vivid mental picture of a kick to his manhood, we could just ice it and when he cried out we could offer Tylenol but we did have something stronger but I am sure we do not want to do too many things at once just in case the ice or Tylenol could work???  Hmmm…so the new pain med is on board and Grace is NOT in pain any longer.   I also told him he needed to change the setting on her shunt and confirm it with an x-ray as the last time a HUGE error was made and it was wrong. He tried to argue with me the machine confirms it and is accurate and I said the last two time the machine was wrong and Grace was the brunt of the machines error and you will do what I ask.  He asked why I was trying to argue. I told him he had not seen me nor heard me argue this was me telling him to do what I asked.  I told  him once again you will order the x-ray, please and confirm.  He said okay.  Then I told him when my husband pages you through the nurse you will come to the room or at least let them know you are aware of the page and you will put the required orders in for the pain meds.  He answered yes.  He was on a roll once I had him understanding I meant business.

I had Tim on the phone and told him I wanted to speak to the nurse now.  I told her I was going to have Tim press the call bell every hour not to harass her but to send a message to her Dr. until all the changes were made and she was “you go mom”  It was not to punish the nurse but to send a message that we are not just measly parents sitting by leaving the care for our children up to them.  We are their voices. We have to stand up and be educated and also strong to say NO…you will not do that or NO you will do this or whatever it is you have to be in sync with the Holy Spirit and stand firm and not be bullied into making fearful decisions because they have MD behind their name. You have MOMMY and DADDY behind yours!

The nurse jumped on board and did not agree with the Dr at all…so she got the attending on call and went over his head.  So everything that I requested of the Resident on call earlier was placed in order.  When he came back in the room to see Grace I was on Skype with her and he was a totally different Dr.  He was respectful and Tim and I were like “wow”.  We saw the change in his whole demeanor.   Now our daughter is comfortable and not in pain at this moment.  We fought for what we knew was right. Never be afraid…when you know in your heart it is right you fight like mad to make it happen.

So after the resident left… mommy wanted to make her Grace laugh.  So I went to You Tube.  Where I found the song by Queen.  Another One Bites the Dust.  Gracie, Daddy and I sang it and danced to it on the web cams.  She laughed, smiled and just was happy.  If that is what it takes I am willing to do it all over again.  I am not afraid to fight for what I believe in…what fight do you need to believe in?