I’m often amazed how the things we fear and dread often turn
out so much better than we think they will. Last Wednesday, we had a busy
morning scheduled for Alex. After searching on the Internet and making several
phone calls, I was finally able to find a group of family doctors who would
accept Alex as a new patient. As I described in a previous blog entry “Is There a Doctor in the House?“ our current family doctor could no longer see Alex
after he qualified for Medicaid this summer based on his disability. This led
me to Internet searches for a new doctor, starting with a list of doctors
who supposedly took Medicaid patients and then looking for those who were
taking new patients. However, I discovered when I called their offices, they
were not taking new patients with Medicaid, which was frustrating. Fortunately,
when I called a local group of three family physicians who operate a clinic
known as HealthLinc, I found their office to be welcoming and helpful, setting
up an appointment for Alex and apologizing that they couldn’t see him sooner. I
was just delighted that we had found a new family doctor for Alex.
In addition to establishing Alex as a new patient, I wanted
to have his mouth checked because we have been fighting a yeast infection of
the mouth, thrush, all summer with antifungals. In June, we took him to the
Saint Anthony ER in Chesterton (as I described in the blog entry “An ‘Aha!’ Moment“) on a Saturday morning with
blood in his mouth and dark urine. Fortunately, our experience there was excellent,
as the kind and efficient staff quickly diagnosed his issue as yeast-related
and gave us a prescription for the antifungal pill Diflucan. A few weeks later,
he continued to show signs of yeast overgrowth, so I made an appointment with
our family doctor, but when his receptionist discovered Alex had qualified for
Medicaid, she bluntly told us we would have to find another doctor. This led us
to Saint Anthony Express Care in town, where a sympathetic doctor concurred
that Alex had thrush, and she gave us another prescription for Diflucan. In
between these visits, Alex’s nurse practitioner who oversees his psychiatric
medications called in Diflucan refills, knowing that Alex becomes agitated when
the yeast flares. One of my concerns was that Alex was only receiving weekly
doses of the antifungal, and I thought he might need daily doses instead. When
he was younger and had dealt with a similar yeast overgrowth, his doctor had
treated him with daily doses of medication for a month, which successfully
cured the problem.
Since I was taking the morning off from work for Alex’s
doctor’s appointment, I decided that we would also take him for blood tests
that his psychiatric nurse practitioner had ordered. She wants to monitor his
drug levels, as well as check his general wellness while he is on the various
medications, every few months, and he was due for this lab testing ahead of his
appointment with her this coming Thursday. While she had told me he would need
to fast ahead of the tests, I wasn’t sure if he could take his medications
beforehand, so I called her nurse, who told me he would have to be off his
medications for at least ten hours before the tests. Although Alex is usually excellent about
having blood draws, we were uncertain how he would be without his anti-anxiety
medication. Therefore, we made the decision to take him to the lab as soon as
he rolled out of bed that morning so that he wouldn’t have much time to think
about being hungry or nervous before the test. I took a juice box and his pills
with us so that he could take them immediately after the tests and prayed that
we wouldn’t have to wait long and that he would remain calm, even without his
medications.
After having such a good experience with St. Anthony ER in
Chesterton, we opted to take him there for his blood tests, as they do
outpatient tests, as well. Once again, we were impressed with how pleasant
every staff member there treated us and how quickly and efficiently they moved.
As soon as we walked in the door, the registration clerk took our information
right away, and we didn’t wait but a few minutes when the lab technician came
to get Alex for the tests. She was very gentle with him, and he didn’t even
flinch when the needle went in his arm. Even though he needed to have five
vials taken for the various tests, this procedure took only a few minutes, and
we were done. We took him back to the waiting area to give him some juice and
his medications, and we were on our way home, thankful that he had done so well
for the testing and that everything had gone smoothly, thanks to their
excellent staff.
Next we went home for about an hour before leaving for his
doctor’s appointment. When we arrived at the doctor’s office, the friendly
receptionist had me fill out several forms for Alex, and after I was done with
that, a nurse came to take us back so that she could take Alex’s vitals. Once
again, he was cooperative and seemed to enjoy having his pulse, blood pressure,
temperature, height, and weight measured. Then she led us back to an examining
room to wait for the nurse practitioner who would see him. After having been
calm all morning, Alex suddenly became agitated about having to wait, even
though it was a brief time, and decided he wanted to leave. As we tried to reassure him that we wouldn’t
have to wait much longer, he started ranting about high gas prices and video
games that take too long to play, a behavior he resorts to when he is stressed.
Thankfully, we were able to calm him down just before the nurse practitioner
came to see him. We were impressed with her warm personality and how well she
interacted with Alex. As she examined him thoroughly, she would tell him
beforehand what she was going to do so that he was prepared. Also, she asked Ed
and I many questions and listened to us with a genuinely caring manner.
After she had carefully examined Alex, she agreed that he
needed daily doses of Diflucan to address the thrush, and she increased the
dosage he’d been receiving from 150 mg. to 200 mg. She prescribed two weeks of
the antifungal and indicated that he may need to do another two weeks of
medication. Also, she suggested that we replace his toothbrush after a few days
on the medication in case he was re-infecting himself, which seemed like a very
good idea. If he continued to show signs of yeast overgrowth, she thought he
may need to see an ear-nose-throat specialist to determine what was causing the
yeast infection, and she told us that their office could provide us with a
referral. Walking into this new situation, we were uncertain as to how things
would go, but we were very pleased with our experience because we felt the
nurse practitioner was not only quite competent but also very compassionate. At
the end of the appointment, she complimented Ed and me, telling us that we were
doing a good job as Alex’s parents of keeping him healthy, which made us feel
good.
Even though we had faced the busy Wednesday morning with
some trepidation, not knowing quite what to expect with Alex’s blood tests and
doctor’s appointment, we were pleasantly surprised how well everything went.
Not only did Alex handle the new situations relatively well, but we were also
pleased by how kindly everyone treated us. In times like that, I see the hand
of God, placing people in our lives who can help us and making the crooked paths
straight. Now we pray that God will heal Alex’s infection and restore his
health so that he can be the best he can be.
“I will lead blind Israel down a new path, guiding them
along an unfamiliar way. I will brighten the darkness before them and smooth
out the road ahead of them. Yes, I will indeed do these things; I will not
forsake them” Isaiah 42:16
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