READ THE CHART!

February 21, 2014

Its been 6 months...

Today we returned to see Dr. Zaidman for a regular follow up.  I wasn't too concerned because we had just been to see Dr. Kane a month ago and everything was, for lack of a better word, stable.  Her eye pressure was 15 or 16 and Dr. Zaidman usually never checks it because his main concern is the cornea.  If we hadn't seen Kane recently then he would check it, but I didn't expect it this time.  And I certainly didn't expect for some random woman who I've never seen before to basically insist that she check it!

Let me back up a second...

Westchester Medical Center is a teaching hospital...so residents have often seen Emily and gone over basic history before we see Dr. Zaidman on any given day.  In the past we have had some good and some not so good residents.  I don't mean that the not so good ones were horrible doctors, just that they have probably not had much experience with young children with eye diseases.  Some would talk very easily with Emily and ask her what her favorite tv shows or characters are, others have talked to or treated her like she was an adult...hello she is 6...try understanding that your patient doesn't understand what you are talking about...and she doesn't know who the hell you are.  Residents are taught that they need to know some of the patients medical history before they go into the exam room...its why the charts are on the outside of the door and not inside on the desk.  It's a basic medical principal.

Ok, so based on all of our past experiences over the more than 6 years we have been seeing Dr. Zaidman, never in my life have I been so down right disgusted by how someone in his office has treated me or my daughter.  We were called into a room and this plain clothes woman walked in with Emily's chart.  She sat down and said hello to me, not even acknowledging Emily who was sitting in the exam chair.  I had never seen her before. She never introduced herself and was wearing office attire clothing, no white coat to designate her as a resident or doctor.  She opened Emily's chart and without looking very long, started asking about what medications she was on.  I told her, and she corrected me.  I said no...she hasn't been on that medication for a long time.  It was just the two I mentioned.  She said, oh, that's what it says here in the chart.  (For reference, Emily's chart is about 4 inches in thickness and probably should be transferred to a binder.  just like her, that folder has been through hell and needs some TLC), So chances are the page she flipped it open to was from months or even years ago.  She didn't ask me any other questions and then started to do the eye exam.  She asked about the transplant in the right eye...and then proceeded to have Emily cover her right eye and asked her to follow her pen light.  Are you SERIOUS??? At this point my blood pressure was starting to reach a boiling point.  SHE IS BLIND IN THAT EYE!  I told her she can't see anything out of that eye, her retina detached almost 2 years ago and she had a clear prosthetic conformer shell in at the time.  She said "oh, can she see any color or light?"...NO SHE IS BLIND! I then proceeded to ask her if she was a resident.  She said "No, I'm Dr. Zaidman's technician".  In my mind I said to myself - What the HELL does that mean?!?

She continued with the exam, turning the light off and asking her to read the eye chart (set for normal 20/20 vision) that was being displayed on the wall across the room.  I immediately said she can't see that, she only has functional vision in one eye and usually Dr. Zaidman uses a handheld eye chart so it can be close to her face.  She said "oh". Let me go see what I can find.  She turns the light on and fumbles for a photo chart...not the one with letters.  I said "Emily can't see well enough to pick out small black and white photos, she needs the one with the various sized letters".  Her response was "oh, ok. Um, let me go find something I can use".  At this point I was ready to just get up, grab the chart and walk out.  This woman knows NOTHING about my daughter and obviously didn't read the chart at all!

When she came back in the room with a letter chart, she held it about 5 feet away from her.  She couldn't see anything.  I had to intervene again and tell her she needs to hold it up close, like less than 1 foot away from her face.  "Oh, ooooooookay" she replies with a condescending tone.  She allows Emily to read off a couple letters before just giving up and moving on.  Next, was the issue of eye pressure.  She told me she, once again, had to leave the room to get the new tonal pen.  I said No, that's ok, I was just at her glaucoma doctor a few weeks ago and her pressure was fine and that Dr. Zaidman doesn't always check her pressure.  She insisted she get a reading.  I again said No and reiterated the fact that I was just at Dr. Kane's office and her pressure was fine.  She again insisted, saying that the new device they had was super easy to use. I described the one Dr. Kane uses and she said its slightly different.  I agreed to "See" it, just to appease her, but had no intentions of actually allowing her to do it.  She left the room, for the 3rd time, and came back with the new "device",  As soon as I saw it I said, "OH NO, I DO NOT WANT YOU USING THAT ON MY DAUGHTER". This device looked like a C Clamp on a handle with a needle on one end of it.  That was the last straw.  I was NOT going to let this ill prepared, uneducated excuse of a medical professional (if she really is one) put that thing anywhere near my daughters only seeing eye!  I was LIVID!  It took all the energy I had to not seriously roll this woman under the bus the second Dr. Zaidman came in.  He obviously had talked to her because he asked me what the pressure was when we saw Dr. Kane the second he walked in.  I happily replied 15-16, and that was good enough for him, end of story.

He brought the woman into the room for a few minutes while we discussed the 21 - YES WOMAN...TWENTY ONE surgeries that she had been through and what my concerns were.  Dr. Z and I had some friendly banter and he spoke to me as if I were a colleague, not just the parent of a patient.  It was probably enough to make her feel like a fool for not knowing anything about Emily.  Maybe after hearing how delicate this case is, and what Emily (and her parents) have gone through, she understood why I was so adamant about her not laying a finger on her.  I decided her self humiliation was probably enough punishment for the day and never said anything to the doctor about how I really felt.

Seriously, the girl is Blind and no she can't see your damn light!

During his exam he found that the cataract was unchanged but the cornea was slightly more cloudy than it was 6 months ago, a sign that it is beginning to deteriorate.  He hinted at another transplant being a possibility down the road, but it wasn't something we needed to immediately consider.  Hearing that wasn't easy.  No change in eye drops, maintain status quo and come back in another 6 months.  After hearing the word transplant being tossed out there, 6 months definitely seemed too long.  Now I was scared...

I silently cried most of the way home.