I love my family doc

I take my family to see a family practice doctor because I've found that whatever I get, they get too and vice versa, so why not just get it over in one visit for those times when we MUST see someone. I found someone that wouldn't give me grief about my decision not to continue to vaccinate my kids or myself that actually listened to my reasons why, an alarming reaction in my youngest for one of many, that also treated me like someone capable of critical thought, understanding what is going on with my body, and as a partner in health.

The other doc in her practice shouldn't be allowed to treat a goldfish. We saw him for a sick visit when my older daughter had a strange rash on her face and had been acting cranky for over a week with no other symptoms. Instead of using common sense and just telling me it was something relatively benign (Fifth's Disease which wasn't even his dx because she didn't have a fever) he starts lecturing me about how I needed to be sure my kids were vaccinated and that chicken pox could kill my (otherwise healthy) children and was quite adamant at all but shouting me down about it.

So I spent about a month and a half stewing about this jerk. Should I call? Should I write? Should I just find someone else to take my family to? Well, I was in the middle of looking for someone else to take everyone to. The DO down the street was not accepting new patients and was so booked that existing patients had a 2 month wait for routine visits. I was unhappy with the responses I got from the other practices I called to inquire about as they were either so big and busy that I was on hold forever just to ask if they were accepting new patients, they had a strict vax policy, explicitly didn't support VBACs even when attended by an OB, or didn't see children. Then I had this mystery headache. I went from feeling great to clutching my head and bawling. So, when my doc called me back, I told her about how my daughter and I were treated the last time we were seen. Including that I did more in depth research into why certain cases resulted in death since when I had the pox as a kid it was no big deal.

This is why I love my doc. She not only reassured me about my mystery headache and had a course of action if it comes back based on my family history, but agreed with me about chicken pox being a benign self limiting illness and that the vax was not necessary for otherwise healthy children such as mine, that she had the chicken pox too as a kid too, and was confident that if my kids did get pox that I wouldn't be doing anything to put them in one of the risk categories for death. She apologized for the treatment we got and told me that I could specifically request her anytime we had a sick call, but that we might have to wait a while if she was not on for sick visit appointments that day.

I just wish that some of the specialists she refers to were of the same mind in how they treat their patients. One told me that all newborns should be fed hydrolyzed formula over breastmilk to avoid common food allergies as I sat there breastfeeding my cranky eczema covered 14 month old, another didn't have time to finish the procedure I came in for "because I have other patients", but the third, for my foot has been great (but the last one was my suggestion)!

Dr. W, you're tops!