And I thought she was a doctor!

[pstone]

So here I am at home on Sunday, DW working non stop now that her anesthesia months are over for the whole intern year and our little boy has croup....

So when I do see her I ask questions like, "does he sound okay?" and "Do I need to take him to the Doctor" and who knew that all she answers is "I am not a pediatrician."

Arg!

oh yeah. we get lots of that here. when i was pregnant it was "i'm not an OB", with the kids it's "i'm not a pediatrician".

that said, when he does bother to answer and his answer is different than what I'm thinking, i usually say to myself "what does he know, he's a pathologist!" and call the pediatrician anyway.

[PrincessFiona]

We go through this too...I've sometimes jokingly said "what good are you then...I married a doctor and I can't even get him to look at our children". He also pretty much won't prescribe for me either...unless it's some sort of antibiotic...and I have to be on death's doorstep for that because as he says "It's probably a virus".

Our pediatrician is especially vulnerable to him too...if I do bring the kids in for something (earache etc) she will say "If you weren't Tom's wife, I'd give you an antibiotic, but...." So it's pretty pointless usually to go to the pediatrician. Last time when Alex had yet another sinus infection she said that and I said "You know, 'TOM' had his change at diagnosing and not-treating our child and he told me to take him to YOU' so if you think you would give him an antibiotic, then do it..." and so she did.

kris

My problem is that I never trust that my DH knows what he's talking about. My son has a tear duct that has not opened yet so his right eye is sometimes watery and goopy. I asked my husband what was wrong with his eye and he explained that it was just a tear duct that hadn't yet opened. I didn't trust him, thinking it was some kind of infection, and proceeded to ask our pediatrician for her opinion. She, of course, came up with the same diagnosis. My poor husband...I guess he does know something about medicine after all.....

Peter, I hope your little boy is feeling better soon.

[Sheherezade]

Uggg. Croup. Have you been spending a lot of nights on the bathroom floor? I remember doing that whole steamy shower thing and drifting offon the damp tiles with baby in arms. Good times.

My DH is good for a home strep test at least. It's the only thing I hit him up for. I can't stand taking the kids in for every scratchy throat - but I'm not crazy about rheumatic fever either. I wish they made a home kit for strep testing. We can't get much of anything done medically in this house either. Even if I turned up with endometrial cancer (his specialty) he'd probably refer me because of the conflict of interest. Of course he should - but if they can't treat you outside the specialty or inside it, what good is a doctor in the house? At least I'd know the best doctors.

And no more professional courtesy in our experience either. (We used to get "comped" as doctor's kids growing up.) My Mom has a hard time believing that's gone. Does anyone get comped anymore?

[Phoebe]

Sorry your baby boy isn't feeling well! I hope he gets better soon. I always hit DH up since he is a pediatrician, although not practicing, when the kids are sick. He is never concerned about something and I breakdown to take them to the ped and they tell me the same thing he did. Waste of a co-pay. However, I can finagle antibiotics for our little ones when needed. It usually happens when we are out-of-town that someone gets an ear infection. DH showed me how to spot an ear infection so I do the work now. Overall, DH's response is normally, "I am not their pediatrician" or "I am not an OB."

Hope the little guy gets better soon!

Jennifer

[Cumberland]

We get comp'ed here for everything. DH's insurance is based on prof courtesy- we pay no copays as long as it is a physician within his medical center. I went to see one out of network and mentioned that DH is a dr and she comp'd my visit.

[mommax3]

We got our co-pay comped when we took the boys for check-ups right before school. It was unexpected, but nice!

Sally

[DCJenn]

Peter-

my husband IS a pediatrician and we get, "I'm not his doctor" as a general response. Nikolai had a rash, I said, "come look at his rash", my husband said, "if you're that concerned about it, take him to the doctor." Ok, so it's sooooo easy to 1) make an appointment with the peds clinic at Walter Reed 2) if I drive- there is NO parking so I end up having to walk 3) if I Metro, I have to plan to leave an hour ahead go give me time to walk to the hospital

OR I could get advice from my spouse.

I ended up taking him and the ped told me to continue with the cortisone cream that I'd started- without consulting the doctor in the house.

Annoying, aren't they?

Jenn

[houseelf]

Yup, you have to be on life support in this household to get so much as a glance...

However, I wanted to give Peter a cyber becasue croup sucks, sucks, sucks. YUCK!

Hope you all feel better soon.

Kelly