Scariest Thing

Scariest Thing

I am quickly learning, one of the scariest things about motherhood is not whether you can do it, being without a partner, being away from your child, and it’s honestly not even the lack of sleep (or maybe I’ve just adjusted to being always tired)… But the scariest thing is the unexplainable health stuff.

I am no amateur when it comes to health scares because over the course of my life I have had some weird and unexplainable health events happen. But never have I felt so helpless or worried until it happened to my daughter. This past weekend, I observed my daughter struggling to walk and watched her legs give out each time she would attempt to stand. She had a full on meltdown because she wasn’t able to physically do what she was used to do which was follow me around the house.

Naturally I called her pediatricians office and even decided to take her to the ER. But worse than being worried about my daughter, I felt the doctor dismissed my legit concerns. This doctor made me feel as if I was overreacting, which I now recognized caused me to shut down. I wish I would have spoken up more, asked more questions or insisted on running scans and doing x-rays. And while I’m grateful it doesn’t seem to be anything serious and my baby girl is back to getting into everything, things could have been different based on the care we received.

As a social worker I always tell parents, I’m no more an expert than you are, especially when it comes to your child. So we can partner together to bring the knowledge we have and help your child be more successful. I feel like if more doctors took this approach, people would be more comfortable with the healthcare system, feel empowered and not be as intimidated.