Tessa Tuesday
February 3rd, 2009
Today is all about Tessa. Why? Because I have some cute photos of her to show off and because she had a doctor appointment yesterday. And the doctor had a med student (or resident? or intern? I don’t know – they left him alone with us so he had achieved some level of trust) shadowing him – that’s often good for a chuckle.
The med student wasn’t horrible…he just needed to work on his social skills. Really work. His grasp of the English language was better than many native speakers but his accent was a little rough. The nurses hate him. Our regular nurse rolled her eyes at me behind his back no fewer than 4 times. We painfully plodded through the well check questions.
Med Student: Do you give her fluoride regularly?
Me: Ummm…no.
MS: So you give her bottled water?
Me: Huh?
*Awkward Silence as I try to puzzle out what he is talking about.*
Me: Oh you mean do we use tap water with fluoride when we make formula bottles? Yes.
Med Student: Do you have a nickname for her?
Me: Tessa or Tess is about it. (I wasn’t about to go into the odd and silly things we call her at home.)
MS: I like to call my patients Sweet Pea or Honey Pie.
*Awkward pause while I try to formulate a response to such a weird declaration.*
Me: Have at it. She is only 6 months old so she’ll answer to anything.
Med Student: It says here that your other child (pointing at Sabrina) is adopted. Does he/she have any communicable diseases?
*Dumbfounded silence. Does he not see my child sitting right there? She is 2 and very aware.*
Me: No.
Med Student: Are all of Tessa’s shots current?
Me: I assume so. This office is in charge of that though – perhaps you want to check the file?
MS: Oh. Yes.
Med Student during his nervous examination of Tessa’s soft spot on her head (I think he was afraid of her – or maybe me): Hmmm…very flat.
Med Student scribbles something in his notes but says nothing more.
Me with some anxiety: Is that a bad thing?
MS: Huh? Oh. No. Flat is good. Bumpy is bad.
He continues his examine making all sorts of worrisome sounding noises. If I was an nervous mother, I would have been climbing the walls by the time the real doctor came in the room. Med Student also looked like he wanted to floor to open up and swallow him when asking about breast feeding. Thankfully, our regular doc joined us.
New was that Tessa has gained over a pound in the past month but has fallen %tile wise. She was in the 9th and 8th %tiles for weight and height last month. Now she is in the 5th for both. He reassured me that since she has remained proportional he thinks she is just going to be a “late bloomer”. He wants us to keep shoving food into her as often as she’ll eat but otherwise he said to not be too worried. We are going back in 6 weeks for another weight check to keep an eye on things. Hopefully Med Student will be back in school by then.
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:21 pm
This post had me rolling on the floor laughing. I swear every time I go to the doctor with Lexi I’m looking around for Ashton Kutcher because they must be doing punked on normal people now. And always, no Ashton. WHAT GIVES???
Last time the doctor said something to me about if I’d noticed a problem with her hearing. Which of course had me in a panic of questions: should I have noticed something? is something wrong? how do I assess something like that? do I have to do more beeping in my house? is there a left ear and a right ear test?
Or she asked me what I thought about feeding Lexi. That was the question “Any thoughts on feeding Lexi?” and my response was “I’m going to need a hint or to phone a friend because I don’t know what you mean. I like feeding her. She seems to enjoy living so feeding her seems like the logical thing to do.”
I might be overtired because I just re-read your post and laughed louder. Tessa aka Sweet Pea is adorable.
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:29 pm
wow…that post really got me thinking… I wonder if the mothers of the children I checked last year felt the same thing…. I better go back to my reading…:s ha!
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:30 pm
BTW! the pictures are super cute! (see! u really got me thinking!)
February 4th, 2009 at 6:55 am
Ahh the joys of a small child – yup just keep shoving food in whenever you can.
Gosh what a visit to the doctor. I’m glad you seem to have such good spirits about it, I think it would have annoyed me. Tessa is SO cute. I hope you keep up the Tessa Tuesdays – and you could be really cute and have Sabrina Sundays
February 4th, 2009 at 7:26 am
I probably would have been all panicked…. .geeeesh.
Thanks for the dose of CUTENESS!!! I’m loving those pink Steelers jammies.
February 4th, 2009 at 9:19 am
honey pie? was he serious?
this was a much needed laugh break, thanks!
February 4th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Oh wow. “communicable diseases” — really??
Cute pics!
February 4th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
very very stinking funny. Gotta love a good MS story. Communicable diseases and sweet peas! LOL!
February 4th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Wow that sounds like a super awkward encounter!!! Hopefully he will be gone next time! I love the picture of Tessa with the hat on!!! Too cute!
February 4th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Oh wow. Funny, yet very disturbing!
February 4th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Ok, that was hysterical. But please tell me you made up the part when he asked if Sabrina had any communicable diseases…Oy vey…
PS: Adorable Tessa pics!
February 5th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Tessa is so freakin’ cute. Especially when wearing Steelers gear.
I have a terrible hatred for students, and positively refuse to let them treat Alexis. It started when she was two months and in the hospital after a bad reaction to shots. Dumbass student came in to check her out, proclaimed, “She has a heart murmer,” and LEFT. No explanation, no nothing. It turned out to be not a big deal, but for a solid three hours we were sitting there thinking something might be REALLY wrong, but with no one to ask. Urgh.
February 5th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Tessa, you are just going to be a peanut!! An adorable one, at that. I like the picture of the two of you.
February 5th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Tessa, you are just going to be a peanut!! An adorable one, at that. I like the picture of the two of you.
February 6th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
It says here that your other child (pointing at Sabrina) is adopted. Does he/she have any communicable diseases?
i’d have wanted to say, “why yes she does….active unmedicated tuberculosis….*cough*…why?”
lol. so dumb.
February 7th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
This could have been a Seinfeld episode.