Successful Adulting- AKA How I Avoid Losing My Shit.

If you’ve been watching this space, you probably know that I have one child who has a traumatic brain injury and some mental health issues. ONE of the things that I have to deal with on a regular basis when it comes to her care is that she has trips to the ER, lots of trips to the doctor, and all the things.

Since I’m her legal guardian, I get the distinct displeasure of dealing with doctors, nurses, and medical practitioners on a regular basis. Usually, I’m dealing with people who haven’t read her charts. Or who ASSume I don’t know what I’m talking about.

One such example happened just last week. Kiddo had to go to the ER, because some stuff was going on with her, and because I’ve been dealing with this situation for years at this point, I tend to kind of know what’s going on, and where we are in the pattern or cycle. I told the care team what was going on- that we were at the initial state of a Catatonic/catatonia episode, and that she needed to be given Ativan.

Three days later- I’m talking to the doctor- FINALLY- and they are asking me a ton of questions that tell me they have 0 clue what my daughter’s baseline is. What her normal state is. And they have not actually looked at her chart.

What gave it away? Medical provider asked if we had tried a particular medication that kiddo has been on for YEARS. And that is a current medication.

Then I got questions about- have you considered this? Um. That’s contra-indicated because of another reason. Have you considered this medication? Um- that one is a hard no- because of this side effect it causes. And we went around and around for an hour.

I’ve had to learn that this is going to happen nearly every single time she goes to the hospital. Doctors are so busy, they don’t read the charts, and sometimes they have no idea why the patient is even there. It happens all the time.

So, how do I avoid losing my shit, and going batshit every single time I have to deal with this? I’ve learned that most of the doctors and medical practitioners just do not have time to review charts, and they have too many patients. That means that they are always running from patient to patient, and trying to get everyone healthy, and keep everyone alive.