Did you hear about the 12 year old Massachusetts boy who DIED from the flu this past weekend? One day he’s fine and a few days later, gone.

I remember going to the doctor when the kids were little and often feeling like a total moron. The doctor would ask how long has he/she been coughing, or does he/she have a fever, and it never seemed long enough or bad enough to have warranted a visit (or a cure). I’d skulk away feeling like an over protective mother who had just wasted everyone’s precious time.

Then I got over it. The winter when Peter got strep five times, Greta had three ear infections, two colds, plus stitches, and Svenja had strep three times and the stomach bug twice, I almost lost my mind. The HOURS I spent in that doctor’s office, desperate for help. By springtime, I felt as though I’d practically qualified as a nurse: if you’d asked me a medical question regarding bodily fluids or upset stomachs, ear-twinges or muscle aches, I usually had an answer. Not always the right one, but I’d sure try.

I think mothers are vastly underestimated on the health care front. Take orthodontistry or dentistry as just one example.  I have three kids with three sets of braces. I work full time (thank GOD I have a flexible schedule or my kids’ teeth would be rotten and buck…). They need to go to the dentist every six weeks for a tune-up, and every three months for a clean-up. I can NEVER get appointments at the same time. Today I made eight appointments between now and September, and only two of them are on the same day.

My son’s school is a good 45 minutes away from the dentist’s office. Do they have evening hours? No, of course not. I have to pick him up early from 9th grade and have him miss school.

I’m not moaning here. I’m just acknowledging how much work we do that even WE don’t appreciate. I hate the dentist and always have. I now spend half my life at the dentist. I’ve made peace with that. I still don’t like it, but when I was driving home today, I thought, we’re making progress here! One down, hundreds to go.

In the end, my kids will have nice teeth and I even snuck in a good 40 minute chunk of quiet time in the waiting room reading The Reader by Bernhard Schlink.

See, my “wasted” hours today weren’t a total write off!

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 8:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.