I was excited to paint the bathroom! It looks fresh and new again. Aly even helped me clean it after I was finished painting last night! She offered. She asked if we could play a game and I had said, "maybe after I finish cleaning the bathroom, " to which she replied, "Oh, can I help?" I'm not going to deny anyone who WANTS to clean the bathroom! I hate doing it! While I was cleaning the sink and scrubbing the floor, she was cleaning the toilet and rinsing out the bathtub. Great teamwork! Once we were done, we joined Kevin for some games. Of course, we also had Hockey Day in Minnesota on the tv in the background. The Gopher game and the Wild game were good! We were a little worried about the Wild, but they kicked it in gear.
Aly also did more cleaning on her day off from school on Friday. She's done this before, and it is always a very nice thing to come home to. She had done the dishes, straightened up things that were laying around, emptied the garbage cans and put her own laundry in the washer. NICE! I don't know where she got that love of cleaning from, but I like it! :)
I'm still going crazy trying to set up appointments. I've called 2 physical therapy clinics, in Maple Grove. One is an offsite clinic for Children's hospital, and they have a waiting list, if you can believe that. The other is affiliated with Gillette's Children's hospital and they are booked solid as well! I was hoping to find a clinic closer to home, but we may need to start traveling back to Children's. I am amazed!
I also took Aly in, to her pediatric clinic, to get a couple of immunizations that she needs for school next year and I wanted to get her a flu shot as well. Like everything else, I've been running behind on maintenance items. We went, after school, on Tuesday. We get to the clinic, get ushered into a room. It was just a nurse's appointment, so we didn't have to wait long. I give the nurse the immunization form I needed filled out and she goes over what Aly needs. She needed a tetanus shot, a Varicella (chicken pox) booster and then the flu shot. She leaves the room to prepare the shots, comes back in, administers the shots and then tells us we should go out to the waiting room and sit for 20 minutes to make sure there are no reactions. We sat for about 5 minutes and the nurse comes back out and asks us to come back in. We are ushered into an exam room and she proceeds to tell us that she gave Aly an MMR (mumps) vaccine instead of the Varicella (pox). As usual, that shock thing just comes over me and I become dumbfounded and can't think of what to do or say. She says, "I talked to one of the providers and there isn't any concern about getting an additional MMR shot." She also says, "you won't be charged for the MMR shot that was given in error, and you won't be charged for your clinic visit either." Well, that was the least of my worries. What the heck? How does something like this happen? The sheet I gave her had the shots, needed, clearly highlighted. She also confirmed it verbally and I agreed! I don't know why I can't yell, or scream at people when I get angry. I shut down and go into shock. What do you do in a situation like this? It is so unreal? I can't believe stuff like this keeps happening! Aly had to have the additional, correct shot, so she endured 4 instead of 3! Once it was done, I went to the front desk and asked for the clinic administrator. I was livid. I have had enough of this type of crap! We waited for about 5 minutes for this person to come. I said to Aly, "I'm sorry, but I need to talk to someone as this is just wrong." Aly's reply, " that is completely understandable and makes sense." She was angry too! We went back into another room. I was near tears as I explained what happened and how Aly has been through enough crap lately, and to have to endure an extra shot was unforgivable. It was unforgivable that a mistake, such as this, was made. What if it was something that Aly had a reaction to? My mind raced to all the possibilities. I wanted to be sure this nurse was disciplined and that this wouldn't happen again. This lady was nice and said everything would be investigated. She, again, repeated that I wouldn't be charged, to which I said," I don't care about that!" I wanted confirmation, from a doctor, that there would be no issues with the extra dose. I was asked to wait to talk to a Dr. I told them to call me. The Dr. called and said there was no issue. She said she has a deficiency in her immune system in regards to the measles, so she's had 7 MMR shots in her lifetime. I also looked on the internet and found several articles about how an additional MMR shot just gives added protection so I was extremely relieved, but still angry. I repeated my concerns with the Dr. and I explained what Aly had been through recently and I made a comment that, "the health care industry is a very scary place." To my shock, she agreed. That makes me feel really safe, NOT! She did say, again, that the incident will be investigated.
I just will never get it, I guess. Do I let this go? I don't know how to pursue it any further. There are so many things, in Aly's healthcare case that I'd like to question, but who do you question? Is there such a thing as an advocate? Without spending $$$$ on time, lawyers, etc.? There are so many what ifs...somedays I just sit and think about what would've happened if things were done differently. If we would've chosen different paths in her care. In something so life threatening as cancer or any other life threatening issue, you should be assigned a third party advocate who knows, who's been through it, who can give you advice when you have someone's life in your hands!
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