Jeanmick
08-05-2004, 06:27 PM
This happened yesterday. My DS's 18 month appointment was scheduled for 9AM two weeks from this Friday, but unfortunately, I had to reschedule. I called the doctor's office (it's in a medical clinic and a group of pediatricians have their practice there) to change the date. When I talked to the receptionist, she told me that the first available appointment was in November. HUH? Wait 2 months for my DS's 18 month appointment which would take no more than 15-20 minutes tops? My son would be at least 20+ months old by then. Granted it's a well-baby checkup and there are no significant problems with my DS (thank goodness) but I couldn't believe that there was absolutely no available time until November. I was nice about it, but I asked her if this was common practice for pediatricians to have a parent wait for an 18 month well-baby checkup that long. She put me on hold to ask the nurse and when she came back on, she told me that the nurse said it was okay since there were no shots being given. I really didn't like that answer, so I politely insisted that this was unacceptable. I told her that if it was an appointment for me, maybe I'd consider waiting, but when it came to the children, I didn't think that children under two should have to wait that long for their well-baby checkups. The gal put me on hold again (probably to tell the nurse that she had a nutso-psycho parent on the other line) and lo and behold, there was an 8:30 AM opening the Wednesday after my original Friday appointment.
Was I wrong to insist? I don't think so. I guess it's my job as a parent to be my children's advocate. I'm not assertive/aggressive by nature, but I'm finding more often than not that I have to be this way. Oh well.
Was I wrong to insist? I don't think so. I guess it's my job as a parent to be my children's advocate. I'm not assertive/aggressive by nature, but I'm finding more often than not that I have to be this way. Oh well.