Bitter Medicine

We went to the dermatologist yesterday. My daughter, Blaine, has some weird, dry, leathery patches on her knuckles that we wanted the doc to look at.

At the office, Doc told us that "knuckle pads" were quite common and usually nothing to worry about. He said that sometimes they are an indicator of diabetes, and he wanted to get glocose levels just to rule it out.

We proceeded to the lab for testing, all smiles and giggles....
We were joking that she had knuckle pads because she was was part monkey...Everything was fine UNTIL...

When they called her name, the tech commented....."You aren't SCARED, are you?! What a thing to say! Suddenly, she had something to worry about....

Now consumed by worry, she sat in the chair and proceeded to get more and more frantic...tears streaming down her face....she refused to put out her arm.

The tech then made another smart assed remark about doing it "the easy way or the hard way".....yeah, like that will help....

Blaine's refusal, at this point, is adamant. Shes not doing it. The tech reached out, took her wrist and gave a slight tug....Blaine screamed bloody murder and recoiled to a fetal position, frightening two small children, making them cry... the whole lab now, shrieking in terror.

A blood draw is now COMPLETELY out of the question...

We ended up having her pee in a "hat" and dipping urine to test glucose...lets hope its negative, so that we don't have to draw blood for a retest. I might have to give her a Valium if that happens.

All of this drama is a result of a HORRIBLE emergency room visit four years ago (Blaine was hit in the face with a baseball bat swung by a teenager who didn't see her) The ER doc had the WORST bedside manner and treated her terribly. He did not tell her what he was doing or that it might hurt, did nothing to calm her, and then berated her for flinching....

It absolutely breaks my heart that my child now has an unreasonable fear of everything medical, just because so called medical professionals couldn't be just that.