Ped GI Problems!

My daughter Paige is 3 & 1/2 months old, and her reflux started to get really bad about a month ago. We had never been to a ped GI, so I asked my family doc for a referral. Apparently the only ped GI in our province is in another city, 2 hours away. While it would be nice if there was one in our city, it’s OK, I’ll definately make the trip. When the ped GI got our referral, I spoke to him briefly over the phone, and he recommended switching to Neocate (she was not doing well on Pregestimil) and starting ranitidine. He said give it a month, then follow up with a phone call to his nurse. He didn’t want me to make the trip to see him if we didn’t need to. So we started the Neocate and ranitidine right away. The Neocate really helped (no more diapers filled with mucus) but the ranitidine didn’t seem to do the trick. Actually her reflux got much worse. She couldn’t eat more than an ounce at a time without screaming and having Sandifer’s, and she wouldn’t sleep more than 20 mins at a time. We were desperate to find our girl some relief, so thanks to your advice here, we had our family doc prescribe Prevacid based on the marci-kids guidlines. Today is day 14 on Prevacid, and for the last few days our girl has been more content and eating and sleeping better!

Now to my problem – the ped GI’s nurse!! I have been talking to her repeatedly over the last 2 weeks to try to make an appointment to get in to see the ped GI. The first time we talked, she just asked about Paige’s symptoms and what meds and formula she was on. She said she would talk to the doctor and he would call me back. I didn’t hear from either of them, so 2 days later I called again. At this point our girl is still very distressed, as we had just started the Prevacid. All I get is her voice mail, so I leave a message while my daughter is screaming hysterically in the background. The nurse calls me back later that day saying “Oh, I guess he didn’t get back to you. I’ll talk to him first thing in the morning”. I wait the entire next day, with no phone call. The following day, I phone again, get voice mail again, and leave another message. The nurse calls the next day, and I am pretty pissed off at this point. She asked about my daughter’s symptoms, and I say that she is starting to show some improvement with the Prevacid, but I still want to make an appointment to see the doc. She gives me the runaround, and basically implies that since Paige is no longer projectile vomiting, not vomiting blood, not FTT, and she is going to outgrow it, what is my problem? I let her have it, saying that we have never had any tests done, we don’t know the full extent of her problems, and I want to see the ped GI! Again she says she will talk to the doctor, and get back to me. That was 4 days ago, and guess what, no phone call!

Is it too much to ask just to get an appointment to see the specialist? Even if my daughter is on the mend, and does great from now on, I still have lots I would like to talk to the doctor about! The worst part is I can’t even get to talk to the doctor – I think the nurse has just decided that our situation isn’t important, so she’s setting up roadblocks for me. I am so frustrated! And it’s not like I can just go see a different ped GI, he’s the only one in our province! I think I might go to our regular pediatrician and tell him what is going on, and see if he can talk to the ped GI to get me in. Arrrgh!!

I just had to vent!!