Been a long slog....

It has been a stressful few weeks, Mikey has been throwing up on a pretty regular basis and I got fed up being told by Dr after Dr that he has a virus. At the end of October it was almost a daily occurrence and my poor little boy was losing weight. It was really bad on Tuesday night an we ended up taking him to see the emergency Dr at the hospital (and as per usual, by the time we got there Mikey was full of beans and bouncing off the walls!) We had a bit of a wait to see the Dr, who did apologise for that which was rather unusual for any visit there I've made before, and he determined Mikey was (at midnight) perfectly OK, but there is an underlying problem that needs to be investigated. So Tuesday morning I'm on the phone to our GP and the receptionist made sure we got a morning appointment. Mikey and I arrive to be told...he has a virus. He didn't even weigh him and basically told me I was being a neurotic mother and wasting their time and I was told to take him home as he was tired (well he had been up until about 1am throwing up etc)

For one I did as I was told, but to say I was getting fed up was a considerable understatement. I ended up calling and asking for a 2nd opinion. I was told by the receptionist that they had an appointment in the afternoon, but I would only be told the same as the 1st Dr in the morning. I took M back to the surgery and by now he was bored and annoyed at being woken up and threw a massive tantrum, laying on the floor and screaming until he went purple. Thankfully one of the assistants appeared from the pharmacy with a chupa chups lolly and he stopped screaming and calmed down and ate his lolly. By now I'm falling apart and Kirsty calmed me down too - sometimes a hug is a magical thing, I know I simply don't get enough of them. We saw the second Dr very soon after and he decided that the sticky boy has gastric reflux and there is some medicine that sometimes helps...he eventually decided to prescribe this after yelling at me for a while (I think that is just his mannerism, but I felt even more useless and small) For some reason he prescribed 15ml of the liquid with a 3 times a day dose of 3ml. It didn't take long to run out of the medicine and when we die, the vomiting was back. As anyone who knows me would realise I was rather annoyed. We had been instructed to keep a food diary for 3 weeks, but the medicine lasted less that 2 days and then he was being sick again. I ended up getting to talk to a Dr who expressed his displeasure that I had asked for a 2nd opinion and that the 1st Dr was probably right and it is a virus...I have no idea how I managed to keep calm and not tell him what I thought at that moment, but he is my little boy and I have known him intimately since he was about 18 weeks old - if anyone is going to know when he is ill and has a problem surely his mother will over a Dr who checks his eyes and ears and doesn't even bother to weigh him. I eventually got more medicine prescribed but with no advice on how to manage this or what the net steps might be.

My next stage was to get an appointment with the senior partner...Andy came with me as I wanted some support this time, but all he did was read the notes, look at Mikey's throat as he is still not eating properly and prescribe more medicine...That was it, still no advice on how this is to be managed, Mikey had stopped being sick, but then again he has stopped eating.I feel at my wits end, Mikey looks perfectly happy, but he hasn't put any of the weight he lost back on. I have lost al faith in the surgery Mikey and I are registered with and am now doing my best to get both of us moved somewhere else. I am usually very proud of having the NHS to look after me and my family - they saved the life of both Mikey and I, but if I can't trust my Dr it is time for me to move somewhere else. They have proved me right again this weekend but messing up my repeat prescription which has left me coming off the drugs which control my migraines cold turkey...The Dr I saw for a medication review recently told me I should not do this as it could be dangerous, but I had no choice and was accused of lying when I phoned this morning to complain. I still don't have my medication sorted and there is no way I want to ever speak to the staff or go in there again.I don't trust them to look after my health and certainly not the health of my son...it took a very long time to get him and the pregnancy journey was far from smooth so I'm not willing to take ANY risks over his wellbeing. The emergency Dr at the start of all this says he needs to be referred back to paediatrics and have this problem investigated so I waited for the months they messed around re my headaches, but now I WANT MY SON REFERRED AND A CURE FOUND.

So I guess this is a watch this space type scenario for now...