New Doctor

The military medical clinic on base at Quantico was full when we arrived, so the Tricare office gave us a list of local doctors who accept our insurance as full payment for services.  I found one pediatrician's name on this list, then saw his ad on the back of the parish bulletin, and looked him up in the phone book.  He is advertised as an expert in dealing with ADHD, and when I called the office, they also told me he has 6 patients with Down Syndrome.  I thought those were all good signs, so I switched all of the kids (even Katie, since they said he could see her till she's 21) to him, dropped off everyone's records and spent an hour there yesterday filling out registration paperwork, and had my first appt with him for Mick this afternoon.  It was basically just to introduce Mick to him, and to request referrals for Mick's annual audiology and ophthalmology exams, as well as speech therapy.  Mick's appt was at 3:45, but we weren't called back to a room until 5:00!!  The waiting room was crowded, and while there were plenty of toys to play with, some of the toys were pretty grimy.  You know I am not a clean freak by a long shot, but being they are for kids to play with in a Dr's waiting room, it would be good to know they've been cleaned and disinfected from time to time!  Luckily, Mick was exceptionally patient and well behaved the entire hour and 1/2, but by the time we met the Dr, he was getting hungry, and was not much in the mood to be poked and prodded by a stranger.  I asked the Dr to check his ears since he's been grinding his teeth a lot lately, which he does when he's tired, or stressed, or is trying to relieve fluid build-up in his ears.  I imagine he has some fluid build-up with all of the swimming he's been doing, and the last time he saw his doctor in Lejeune, he said one of his tubes was getting ready to fall out.  This doctor briefly attempted to look in Mick's ears, and all he said was that he had a lot of wax buildup, so he couldn't see much.  I doubt he saw anything, because I don't think he even got the scope far enough into either ear.  It usually takes a special scope to see Mick's ear canals.  And a little patience.  I am sure this doctor is a nice enough man, but he is definitely nothing special.  And, I don't even mind waiting past my appt time if I feel like the doctor is taking extra time with his patients.  That definitely wasn't the case here.  This doctor barely made eye contact with me, and didn't seem all that comfortable with Mick.  He was vague about the referrals I had requested (although I made sure the receptionist plugged them into the system)  Maybe he had just had a long day (the receptionist said they had double and triple appt bookings all day because they are trying to merge the old computer system with a new one).  I don't know.  In any case, I have physical appts for Katie, Molly, Jack, Shane and Megan set up with him.  Once these are done, if I don't have a better feel for him, I think I'll start looking for another pediatrician.  We were definitely spoiled in Camp Lejeune.  Of course, with as frequently as I went to the pediatric clinic with any number of kids in the past five years, the staff knew us pretty well.  I remember thinking before we moved that we'd have to break in a whole new town : new church, new schools, new teachers, new bus drivers, new neighbors, new dentist, new doctors.  It has begun......