cirque du bebe

I don’t know what it is about medical receptionists but for some reason I rarely get along with or like many of them.  Today I had to take Monkey to get allergy tested because he had a reaction to the yellow jacket that stung him on Sunday.

First, when I made the appointment the receptionist was very curt and the only reason I decided to keep on with making the appointment was the fact that her office was the only one who seemed able to take a new patient within reasonable time (not a month or two).

Today we arrived and albeit, Monkey was being a bit of a pain.  Taking every magazine they had in the bin at the front and moving them somewhere else in the office.  Pushing chairs out of place.  You know, toddler behavior.

Then he decided to grab the sign-in clipboard from the front of the receptionist’s station and throw it on the ground.  This, of course, is unacceptable, destructive behavior but before I had the chance to correct him, the stupid little receptionist stood up and said in a very stern, cold, slightly loud voice, “You don’t touch that!”

I was dumbfounded for a second and then quickly debated what to do next.  I wanted to yell at her, “He’s MY kid and I’ll do the parenting!”  or “How dare you talk to my kid that way?”  But since this was our first time to the office and since he hadn’t been pricked, prodded or tested yet, I figured it best to just be catty by picking the clipboard up and slamming it down on the counter while giving her a dirty look.

So Monkey and I are finally called back and they have lollipops in a jar right in view of the scale where he needed to be weighed.  Hence, I spent the next hour and half of the appointment telling him that he could have one at the END of the appointment which eventually led to a temper tantrum because as a 2 year old, he doesn’t understand the concept of time or eventual ending of things quite yet.

DH had his own doctor’s appointment this morning but was able to meet us just before the doctor came into the room.  When he arrived, he said, “I can’t believe you forgot the medical card!  I left it on the buffet so you could bring it?”

I said, “What do you mean?  I took it.”

“Oh, the receptionist said she didn’t have it and I tried to give her the picture of it on my phone but she said she couldn’t use that,” he responded in a way that I knew she had already rubbed him the wrong way as well.

“She took a COPY of it! What the hell!” and then we decided that I should go to the front to straighten things out.

I stuck my hand with the card in it through her little glass case barrier and gruffly said, “Do you still need to make a copy of this?”  With the expected rudeness, she said, “Oh sorry,”  (not a hint of sorry in her tone mind you) “I must have mixed you up with someone else.”  So help me, if we get a bill saying we didn’t have insurance or that we need to submit this to insurance.

By the end of the appointment, it was decided that Monkey really didn’t the need testing right now and COULDN’T have the test for 6 weeks anyway because his body would still be reacting to the sting from Sunday.  Mind you, I made special arrangements with work and daycare to take off today AND I could have taken him to see the allergist our daycare provider recommended but who didn’t have an appointment until October.  Frustrating!  Although, the actual doctor was pleasant did give us another prescription for an EpiPen Jr. so we could keep one at the house and one at daycare should he have some sort of reaction the next time he is stung.

Overall, I was glad when we were through, Monkey had his cherished lollipop in hand and we were armed with the necessary medical prevention and knowledge for the next time.  But I hope I don’t have to see that receptionist anytime soon.