I am sure you're expecting me to tell you that I am highly disappointed in how you treated me, my concerns for my son's accident, and what I believed his injury sustained was...but in reality I'm writing this letter to tell you thank you.
When you called me "one of those moms," you meant it in a demeaning fashion...yes, I know I am not the easiest parent to handle because I'm educated enough medically to get myself in trouble...and yes, I know I was insistent about something you felt was silly and unnecessary on a busy night in the ER for you and your coworkers...but honestly, you did nothing to hurt my feelings. In fact you only proved that my mother's intuition, and that the third of my life I dedicated to emergency medical services wasn't wasted.
See, what you didn't find out, because you were busy and not able to follow-up with us is that x-ray I demanded be done didn't show a break in my son's rib at all, it didn't match the amount of pain he was in, but it did in fact show something was wrong...there was a growth in the spot where I felt something wrong on his rib...the spot he was complaining of pain in it.
Because of your attitude in describing my own to the physician on that night, we caught something before it could become anything bigger, or more severe...and for that I thank you. We have spent the last five weeks going through additional testing, evaluations, and imaging to figure out what this growth is...and that little hand you see there...we just had a biopsy done to confirm or deny the possible diagnoses involved. I'm writing to you not only as a medical provider, but as a mother...a mother that was prepared for anything thrown my way in the medical field, until seeing him post-surgery with an oral airway still in place...and in that moment I held onto his hand, and his piggie...bawling my eyes out waiting for him to wake-up, and knowing that while we were pretty certain this wasn't something too serious...it would still be at least a week before we'd know for sure.
Without me being demanding, without me saying we needed to have an x-ray done to confirm whether or not his rib was actually broken (which the CT Scan we had done showed it actually had been broken as well), we'd have never know something was growing on his rib in the first place. I want you to know that while I may have been irritated with the way you spoke to me that night, in this moment of waiting for him to wake up...my only thoughts were to thank you.
You might have thought of me as crazy...but with all this kiddo and I have been through together with his other diagnoses, I have to be his advocate...because not everyone will listen when I say something wrong or just doesn't add up, but even through your judgment of my opinion, you did listen. I know your job isn't easy, and quite honestly I don't know how you do it every day, but I want you to know that "one of those moms" believes that you're making a difference, you do matter, and that without you patients may not receive the right care they need, when they need it...you're one of the first people patients and families meet when they step foot into the ER and your instincts, knowledge, and skills play such an important role in their medical care.
Please keep listening, even in those irritating moments...you very well could and probably have already saved someone's life just by doing that.
When you called me "one of those moms," you meant it in a demeaning fashion...yes, I know I am not the easiest parent to handle because I'm educated enough medically to get myself in trouble...and yes, I know I was insistent about something you felt was silly and unnecessary on a busy night in the ER for you and your coworkers...but honestly, you did nothing to hurt my feelings. In fact you only proved that my mother's intuition, and that the third of my life I dedicated to emergency medical services wasn't wasted.
See, what you didn't find out, because you were busy and not able to follow-up with us is that x-ray I demanded be done didn't show a break in my son's rib at all, it didn't match the amount of pain he was in, but it did in fact show something was wrong...there was a growth in the spot where I felt something wrong on his rib...the spot he was complaining of pain in it.
Because of your attitude in describing my own to the physician on that night, we caught something before it could become anything bigger, or more severe...and for that I thank you. We have spent the last five weeks going through additional testing, evaluations, and imaging to figure out what this growth is...and that little hand you see there...we just had a biopsy done to confirm or deny the possible diagnoses involved. I'm writing to you not only as a medical provider, but as a mother...a mother that was prepared for anything thrown my way in the medical field, until seeing him post-surgery with an oral airway still in place...and in that moment I held onto his hand, and his piggie...bawling my eyes out waiting for him to wake-up, and knowing that while we were pretty certain this wasn't something too serious...it would still be at least a week before we'd know for sure.
Without me being demanding, without me saying we needed to have an x-ray done to confirm whether or not his rib was actually broken (which the CT Scan we had done showed it actually had been broken as well), we'd have never know something was growing on his rib in the first place. I want you to know that while I may have been irritated with the way you spoke to me that night, in this moment of waiting for him to wake up...my only thoughts were to thank you.
You might have thought of me as crazy...but with all this kiddo and I have been through together with his other diagnoses, I have to be his advocate...because not everyone will listen when I say something wrong or just doesn't add up, but even through your judgment of my opinion, you did listen. I know your job isn't easy, and quite honestly I don't know how you do it every day, but I want you to know that "one of those moms" believes that you're making a difference, you do matter, and that without you patients may not receive the right care they need, when they need it...you're one of the first people patients and families meet when they step foot into the ER and your instincts, knowledge, and skills play such an important role in their medical care.
Please keep listening, even in those irritating moments...you very well could and probably have already saved someone's life just by doing that.
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