I was here to get the process of having my child put on medication for her ADHD and to get a…read morereferral for OT, for her SPD.
I had completed the paperwork and returned it before hand for the doctor to look over before our appointment. When we got there they handed me the same stack of questions to answer. Letting me know first hand that the doctor had not reviewed anything before our appointment. There were two, one filled out by patents and the other by her teacher.
One of the first questions she asked was about us being self pay. I replied with, "Unfortunately I make too much money to be able to afford health insurance at this time". Yes I know a complete oxymoron. But when you're self-employed and your income is high, you're unable to purchase health insurance at any kind of reasonable cost. At no point did I say I don't have the money to be able to afford testing or therapy for my child, but this is how the doctor acted the whole time. My child has ADHD, OCD, anxiety which has manifested it self into a sensory processing disorder. She sat and had a conversation with my child, my daughter looked her in the eyes, held a conversation. I talked about family history, how I also have OCD anxiety and ADD. I told her how, unfortunately I was not diagnosed until adulthood, and I did not want my child to face the same struggles I did growing up in school. I wanted to stay on top of things and not have her struggle, doing day-to-day tasks that are easy for a "normal" child to do. Explained our difficulties in the morning, with My child's SPD and how it affects us every single day. I showed her the bottom of my child's feet where she picks up them from anxiety, it's also something I suffer from as well as do a lot of other Americans about 70%. But she wasn't listening, she didn't care. She said "I want to know where she is on the spectrum, and those tests are really, really expensive". I made her aware, that my mother gives these tests to children and has been doing so for over 20 years. I also explained to her that her teacher from kindergarten through second grade also gives test for IEP's to see, where children are on the spectrum. My child is not on the spectrum. I repeat my child is not on the spectrum. I said, you just had a conversation with her, she talked to every person in this office when she got here, she has no issues socially. Her sensory processing disorder, is a manifestation of her ADHD, OCD, anxiety. NOT every child who has a sensory processing disorder is on the spectrum. Why do I know this, and she not know? She wanted me to have my child tested through the school system. It is a long process and it will label my child with an IEP that will follow her into adult hood. That is not what I was there looking for. I was there to get her started on medication for her ADHD as this is her first year in public school. I was there for her to get a referral for OT therapy to work on her SPD. As a sensory processing disorder is not something she's going to grow out of but, something she needs to learn how to cope with. The doctor then said to me "well obviously keep doing what you're doing because it's working!" Why on earth would I be there talking to her if what I was doing at home was working? I'd just told her every day was a struggle to find a pair shoes that may have been OK the day before, but now my child thinks her feet are being set on fire by them, or a pair of pants that may feel soft to me but to my child it they feel like 20 million ants are biting her legs.
This doctor did not give two cents about what me as a parent was telling her about my child. She not once looked over the paperwork that I had filled out with my husband and that her teacher had filled out. She said "hopefully we can find something that's affordable for for your child". When she saw the look on my face she quickly changed it to "Oh, oh..I mean a therapy that will work for your daughter". Why was my appointment for my child based on what she thought I could or could not afford? This is unacceptable. It's unacceptable that she did not take my family history into consideration, refused to take anything that I said into consideration, that she took my financial status, that she has no idea about and used that to dictate our whole appointment with her. I have never been more disgusted in my life with a physician it was completely disgusting. I will go back to coastal children's clinic and see other doctors, ONLY for primary care, I will never return here for anything other than that. This woman is a disgusting human being, who is judge mental, who needs to learn what "listening ears" are, something I taught my daughter when she was two years old.
What a disgrace.
