Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Doctor Mom

This morning, I had an appointment with a doctor whom I hadn’t seen since she helped me through a complication I developed when Sabrina was on the way. I knew she wouldn’t recognize my face, and I could either gently nudge her with the story or just pretend I was a new patient. Sure enough, she walked in and introduced herself as though we’d never met.

But before we got into specifics, she looked over my medical history form, and I saw a distinct click happen in her brain. “I see you listed a procedure on your kidney in 2008, was that with me?” I nodded, and she immediately knew who I was. Trying to further refresh her memory, she asked what the cause had turned out to be. Well, I told her, it was all due to the baby, and that kid is still giving me trouble every single day. “Hell on wheels, right?”

Absolutely. (I mean that affectionately. Most of the time.)

At this point, she started telling me about her 3 year old, and kept telling me about him as she scuttled around signing forms and such. She left the room for a moment, and came back talking about her kid. Which is totally fine because I love talking kids, but I was kind of in a compromising position, and I was paying for medical information after all. But she seemed to be the ultimate multitasker and did everything she needed while asking me about 3 year old behavior and if hitting is possibly a phase they go through. When I said Sabrina was going through a phase like that, her shoulder relaxed for a second, and I saw the woman behind the medical degree. And then she said that it made her feel so relieved that I’d said that because even though she knew she was doing her best to be a good mother, these kinds of things aren’t really talked about, out of fear of judgment or whatever reason, and it was wonderful to hear another mom going through the same thing.

This from a highly respected, whip smart specialist whom I have never seen as anything but confident in everything she does.

Motherhood is the great leveler, isn’t it? I think we both gave each other a little piece of mind.

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