Dear families and friends (as well as those of you that root for Philadelphia),
I thought now might be a good time to give everyone a clinic update. I used to do this all the time when it was just me, but as we’ve gotten bigger, I let these go to the back burner. From time to time, I’m going to try to put out something that I either liked, found funny, found horrible or that is just plain weird. This doesn’t speak for all the doctors, it just speaks for me.
Dr. Klein told me I could give everyone an update. For those of you that don’t know, little Maddox decided that he was not going to stay for the whole show and decided to come 10 weeks early. Maddox, being a boy, is choosing not to go easy on his family. He is still trying to figure out this whole eating thing (which I could’ve showed him – I’m really good at it). Dr. Klein has essentially been living at the NICU. Those of you that have had your children there for a while know that environment is not conducive to mental health. The problem with being a pediatrician, and having children, is that we know all of the possibilities that can go wrong. So she has had a lot of time to get to worry. Maddox just made it through surgery the other day where he got a tube to help him till he gets better at feeding ; got a pair hernias repaired and had a bit trimmed off the top (a.k.a. circumcision). Dr. Klein tells me that he is a trooper and is doing very well. She is looking forward to getting him home to get to be a mommy for him and his brother. Since we want to make sure that Dr. Klein gets the time that she needs, we are not certain of when she’ll be coming back to work. We are playing it by ear at this time, but we have fingers crossed for August.
Also, as some of my families have noted, I’ve missed quite a bit of work this year. For a while I was having super intense headaches (think ice picks digging into my head to the tune of a Rush song – Rush was a band very popular in the 80s and 90s…please don’t make me feel older than I am). Well, it seemed I managed to get the headaches under control (had nothing to do a stress, really, I mean it, couldn’t be). About 2 months ago, I tried to pick up my son while we were wrestling using a technique known as “this is not how you are supposed to lift things”. Now, I’ve hurt my back before but this time, it wouldn’t go away. And then my hip started hurting, followed closely by the side of my leg down to my big toe. Then I had trouble walking, which got worse and worse. My wife may have mentioned that I needed to go to the doctor or something like that. I really don’t like going to the doctor mostly because I keep finding about new things that are going wrong (I’ve gotten to the point where I ask what is still working). After donating to a radiologist’s kids college fund, I find out that I managed to pop the disc out of my spine, and it is not playing nice with 1 of my nerve roots. Plus, I’ve got two other spots that could be a problem. Yay me! I am usually limping within 25 steps and crying like a banshee by 50 steps. Plus, I’m on a diet. Adding these together, I may not be the most pleasant person to be around (which is not entirely different from my usual). Because of all this, I have had to limit my schedule. I am sorry to those of you that I haven’t been able to see. Trust me, I’d rather be taking care of my kiddos then getting to talk to a spine doc.
So, we are down one doc and have another doc on injured reserve. Some of you have seen Ms. Angie or Ms. Carol recently. They have been helping out, but have had limited availability. Doctors Carter, Gronberg and Robertson are working their tails off (literally, they have no butt). We would like to find some good people to join us but it is a slow process and I won’t let just anybody take care of our patients.
I apologize to you folks that have had to have appointments canceled or couldn’t get the appointment that you needed when you needed it. I am hopeful all of this will be just a short inconvenience. Thank you for being patient with us. I’ll be trying to give everyone regular updates, and possibly just strange things that I found unbelievably funny.
Doc M
(PS, if you do find the things that I post funny, we do have a list of mental health professionals that will be happy to help you).
