Dentists and Doctors

I got up extra early this morning to try to get as much done as possible before spending the rest of the day at the boys' pediatric dentist office. I thought it would take forever, but fortunately I rediscovered why I drive 45 miles to the Snodgrass and King dentist office. They are simply wonderful. The staff have always been very professional and, a big bonus for us, they are equipped to take all four boys back at the same time. They've never complained when we are a little late because someone couldn't find their shoes before loading into the car or when I completely forgot our appointment and had to reschedule all FOUR appointments again. Everyone is so friendly and nice. The entire office is very clean, they have TVs on the ceiling, great treasure box prizes, and tons of fun things to do in the waiting room. Another bonus is that the office is located just a few blocks from Chuck E. Cheese, Chick-Fill-A, and Snip-its (cool hair salon for kids), Borders Bookstore, Laser Tag, Ice Skating, Pass Pets, etc. You name it, if it's fun, it's probably just around the corner.

Another thing I learned today is Dr. Snodgrass not only has experience with newly adopted children from Eastern Europe and the specific dentistry issues they may have, but he just returned from spending a month in Ukraine treating as many kids as possible while he was there. He shared some interesting stories with us today.

This kind of great service and expertise gets harder to find as the size of your family increases. We are currently searching for a new pediatrician because the practice we've gone to since my oldest was born keeps adding more strict rules and silly policies that just are not friendly for large families. For example, they won't schedule well appointments for more than one child at a time unless they are an hour apart. So if I want to take ONE day away from work instead of FIVE and have all our kids' check-ups done at the same time that means we'll be sitting the Dr.'s office for over 5 hours! (These appointments have never taken longer than 10-15 minutes per kid.) They say it isn't fair for waiting patients if one family gets more than appointment at a time. So they'll have to send us back to waiting room and take two other kids in between our appointments. Hello! We are waiting too! What is the difference between us waiting and someone else waiting? Waiting is waiting! I don't get the unfair part.

And I know how important it is to be on time. Really, I do. I try hard not to be late, but more than once we've been turned away because we were 5 minutes too late. Once was because my son was throwing up and I couldn't put him in the car until he stopped. But rules are rules and we had to reschedule his sick appointment for the next day. Ugh! It also really irritates me when they call us to come back to the patient room and then make us wait twice as long. At the least the waiting room had a few toys, the patient rooms have nothing. Last month, I got a letter telling me I failed to show up for an appointment and if it happened again, my children would be disengaged from the practice. Yikes! I had called them from the San Francisco Airport to tell them we couldn't make the appointment.

The reason I haven't found a new pediatrician yet is because I really like two of the Doctors in this practice, that is when we actually do get to see them. They are very popular and it is almost impossible to get appointments with them. In our small town, there just aren't that many other choices. It may be a lost cause, but we're looking anyway.

Back to today; we were in and out of the Dentist so fast, my guys didn't even have time to play all the free video games in the waiting room. They were begging to stay longer, LOL, but they quickly got over that when I told them we had time to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for lunch. We had the newly renovated Chuck E. Cheese's literally all to our selves. I'm not usually a big Chuck E fan, but it was so much nicer without thousands of kiddo's and frantic parents running all around.

When the boys have a good report from the dentist, I like to reward them with something fun. As a result, they have all been cavity free for almost two years and boys 3 & 4 have never had a cavity. Just when I'm starting to think what a great mom I am to make sure my kids' teeth all brushed and flossed to perfection, today one had cavities. Oh well, a mom can dream, right? I was prepared to hear some bad news about that particular son because, as he was getting out of the car to go into the dentist office, he sheepishly asked me if swishing water around in your mouth would clean your teeth. Hmmm, that was my first clue. Then, as he was having x-rays taken, I overheard him explaining to the hygienist that he never flosses "because mom stopped buying floss." Oh yeah, then what is that bag of bubblegum flavored floss sticks in the bathroom drawer? Needless to say, he'll be going back in two weeks to have the cavities filled and they are deep enough that the dentist wants to sedate him. Poor guy, but I told him to look at the bright side -- at least he'll get to play those free video games a little longer.

CHI in the news:

I discovered another adoption related thing today (that has nothing to do with Dentists or Doctors). Imagine my surprise when I was reading the latest updates on the FRUA board today and ran across this news item on our former agency (click on the link below for the video news report). It makes me glad we made the "big change" already.

http://www.ksdk.com/video/default.aspx?aid=62862&bw=