Eye Appointment Disaster

This morning i took Marshall to a recommended eye doctor who is

"great with all kids and super great with Autistic children".

This quote did not come from one source,

it came from several,

and even from some whose actual kids have been there...

whose normal kids have been there.

Our experience this morning? A joke.

This is my personal opinion of course,

and i'm not going to name names as that is not what

this blog is about (unless it's in a praise fashion).

I don't get angry often.

I'm just not an angry natured person.

If i was, i would have had an earfull for the

people at the dr.'s office today, but that's not me.

It is fair to say that after this morning i am feeling

frustrated and disappointed.

So here it is.

Marshall's appointment was for 11:55am.

In past experience, i have not had to wait very long to get in to

see the eye doctor... unlike at the physicians office.

Marshall had Next Step at 1pm, so i was

pretty confident that his 20 minute appointment would

not conflict with M's school start time.

Marshall was happy to hold my hand

and to walk into the office, even though it was unknown to him.

Then when we got to the desk we had to wait

for the lady in front of us to finish.

There were 3 receptionists. A recent visit for myself showed

that 2 of the receptionists were helping incoming clients,

and the third dealt with the phone lines.

So i kinda felt ignored when the second lady just

kept staring at her computer.

Waiting is hard for Marshall,

but he is capable of waiting for a short amount of time.

His time was up.

Marshall started screaming... he wanted "up" and did not

understand what we were doing there and why we

had to wait. It's a large area with tile flooring. lol. Echo city.

He was loud. The place wasn't super full, but

people were peeking out of their doorways down the

hall to see who was murdering my son. lol.

The person in front of us finally wraps up whatever it is

she was doing up there,

and then the computer staring lady offered to help me...

just as the first one was becoming available.

Annoying.

So i go over to her area and i'm still holding Marshall,

trying to rock him to keep him calm.

The receptionist looks at me and tells me,

"I have hearing aids so when he yells it's like AHHH!"

and she puts her hands up to her head and shakes

it all crazy like.

Nice.

It's as if people don't think my head is going to blow,

like i can't hear how loud my son is.

I'm sorry that he is upset and that this is inconvenient for you.

Perhaps if you would've helped me sooner when it is

obvious my son is not happy,

you wouldn't be having blown ear drums!

Wait, if she has hearing aids, does that mean that they are already

blown? I have no idea. lol.

Ok, maybe i'm not being totally fair to her.

I possibly took her comment to the dark side. lol.

So she is asking me questions she had to enter into her computer

and Marshall keeps yelling so she can hardly hear

me and i can hardly hear myself.

Then she hands me a form i have to sign and another

piece of paper i need to fill out.

Marshall is reaching for the door and saying "car" but

will NOT let me put him down...

and i don't need him to scream any louder than he is already doing,

so i manage to kinda balance him on the desk while i sign

my name.

Then the receptionist told me i could sit down and fill out the

other paperwork while i waited.

Marshall sat with me and calmed down.

He even got off my lap to play a bit in the little play area.

Ahhhhh, quiet.

I gave back the paperwork to the desk and Marshall

was content to just sit around and play

with my phone, so things were settling down for him

and all was ok our world, for now.

Now, i have learned from past experiences,

that it is not a good idea to come early to

various appointments where waiting is required when it

involves Marshall.

Today, i was right on time.

So i expected Marshall would be seen fairly quickly

as we'd already been in the line for a while.

We waited.

And waited some more.

It was 12:20pm now, and i was starting to worry

that i wouldn't get out of there in time to get

Marshall to NS.

I asked the receptionist how much longer it would

be as i had somewhere else to be at 1pm and

i might have to reschedule this appointment

(this is how i try to sound annoyed without actually saying it!!).

She knew nothing.

So i waited another 5 mintues while she wandered around

and talked to someone, the dr. perhaps, i don't know.

Then she comes back and tells me that the Dr. is

running behind and should be out to see us in

about 5 mintues...

but that maybe we want to reschedule.

Are you kidding me?

I almost wished that Marshall had kept screaming that

whole time. They had to have known that the Dr.

was running a bit behind... a lot behind.

I was unimpressed.

I said that i would wait it out as i didn't want to have to come

back another day.

So i phoned NS to warn them that i would

most likely be late.

Then finally it was Marshall's turn.

It was 12:30pm.

The Dr. apologized for the wait and stated that

she had an emergency before us.

So there was an emergency and the staff wouldn`t have

informed me of that when i got there?

We walk into the Dr's room,

and it looks like a standard optomitrist room.

All the machines are within arms reach.

I guess i was out to lunch...

I thought that since this Dr. specialized in children,

that it would be a larger room with

techniques she could use to engage the children

in order to check their vision.

I never asked anyone, i suppose i should have.

The Dr. asked me to put Marshall on my lap

and to sit on the large chair.

Just like that.

Straight to 'work'.

The Dr. didn't talk to Marshall and barely even

acknowledged him.

I sat M on my lap and sat in the chair.

He was not happy.

He was reaching out to touch all of the equipment

and the Dr. says,

"Mommy needs to make sure there's no touching".

Seriously?

So now i am trying to kind of restrain M and he

is getting even more pissed off.

Then the Dr. asks when M was diagnosed

and asks if i have any concerns with M's

vision, which i do not, but that we thought we should

bring him in as his sister who is 2 years older

has been wearing glasses since age 2.

Marshall is still yelling and trying to get down during

this brief conversation.

Then, rather than trying to talk with Marshall or

engage with him in any way,

she puts on a slide show of pictures on the wall

and gives Marshall the remote to flick through

them.

Marshall is interested... for like 5 seconds,

at the images on the wall.

The Dr. asks me where his language is at

and i tell her that he's at a 1 year old level.

Then she sees the picture on the wall is

one of 101 Dalmations and she asks Marshall,

"Can you count the puppies?"

I said, "He can't count"...

which is mostly true. He can count to three

but would only do it if he could touch

the puppies and i guided him through it.

The Dr. replies,

"I know he can't, i was just trying to get

his attention to look at the photo."

What?

You were trying to "get his attention"

by asking him to do something he is incapable of doing?

Good efforts lady.

And what little boy wants to look at Snow White and some

super old school animals?

Marshall is often about figuring out how things work,

more than he is interested in actually playing with things.

This is an Autistic quality apparently...

although Daddy is a Millwright and is the same way :)

He was flicking the remote the Dr. gave him

repeatedly and quickly.

He didn't care about the photos, he was looking

behind him at the machine which was making noise

as it went through the pictures...

trying to figure it all out.

The Dr. says to me,

"Try to get him to slow down so he goes through the

slide show slowly."

Umm yeah.

Have you not noticed that he doesn't give a crap about

looking at your lame-ass pictures?

As Marshall is pushing the button as fast as he can

and looking all around the room,

the Dr. is flashing lights in his eyes and putting squeaky

toys in his face to get him to look at her.

Really?

It was so annoying... I was annoyed and ready to start

swatting all of it away.

Marshall was still trying to get down and yelling

during all of this.

Then the Dr. tried the yapping dog on the wall and

again, gave Marshall the controls!

HELLO~!!!!!!

Then the Dr. was asking me to show M how to turn it off

which i didn't even know how to,

Marshall was just so mad and screaming and you know what?

It was justified.

Scream away son, it won't work for Mommy

to start screaming, so you scream for both of us!!

Then the Dr. says to me after

our 4 mintues of maddness with her,

"He must be hungry and he looks tired,

we'll have to reschedule this appointment."

NO COMMENT.

The Dr. said that there were no concerns about M's vision

from what she could see and that we should try again in 6 months.

Unbelievable.

The whole experience was so disappointing.

Marshall has been doing so awesome

in every aspect lately.

Yes he was upset and overwhelmed when we

walked into the office that day,

but he calmed down... and stayed calm

for half an hour while we waited.

The Dr. didn't even try as far as i'm concerned.

Marshall is so receptive to any kind of attention

or interest in him...

Marshall cannot be blamed for what happened today.

His behaviour was off the charts, this is true.

But what else can i expect from him at this time

when the Dr. was being completely unrelatable to him?

It was SO chaotic in that small space

and the Dr. continued to grab her squeeky toys like M

was some kind of baby, or dog. lol.

It's not actually funny, but what can you do but laugh

in these kinds of situations?

The Dr. put everything away and M and i got off the chair.

Marshall stopped freaking out.

He didn't run down the halls yelling, he looked at me

calmly and said, "hand" as he held his out :)

I took it and we walked out of there in peace.

It was quite the night-and-day experience.

The appointment was so short that we still had time to drive

thru McD's for Marshall's favourite - cheeseburger and pop

before we went to Next Step.

Marshall had a great day at school!!

Miranda commented that Marshall really likes to figure out how

things work, and that he learns so quickly!

She said she just loves working with him.

:D Happy face.

What a stressful hour in my otherwise pleasant day!! Sheesh!