A Day in Hell (aka...a trip to the Eye Clinic)

So we took Sarah to Westchester Medical center last Friday to see yet another opthamologist. Holy crap...it was THE single worst experience I have ever has as far as doctor visits go. It was an eye clinic. The waiting room was hot as hell, stuffy, and so crowded that only two of us could sit. We waited an entire hour before we were called back. We saw the assistant for about 10 minutes. Sarah screamed and cried and then threw up. We were sent back out to wait for the doctor. In the meantime, there was a lovely little parade of men in orange jumpsuits wearing handcuffs being brought in by corrections' officers. Apparently it was their day to visit the eye clinic too. It was also the day for a whole bunch of severely mentally ill patients to visit as well. I have nothing but empathy for these people, honestly, but one guy let out a blood curdling scream every five minutes and scared the shit out of my kids. We were the only people there with kids by the way. The opth. wasn't even a pediatric one.

So we wait another hour and get called back to see the doc. He was a total asshole and very condescending. I guess he maybe met ONE kid with CdLS in his lifetime, yet questioned me about everything I said as far as Sarah's eye problems...like it was a rarity to see styes, blocked tear ducts, and ptosis in a child with CdLS. So anyway, he puts the drops in to dilate her eyes and we find ourselves back in the waiting room (told it would be about 15 minutes before they called us back again). So we wait almost an entire hour. Here come more prisoners. There goes everyone else who came in waaaay after us. We didn't even see a receptionist at the window anymore.

So, we just got up and walked out. Screw that. He said that he doesn't do ptosis surgery until a child is at least 4 years old unless it is severly affecting their vision. Sarah can still see, she just has to lift her head back to look up. Once again the only advice we were given was warm compresses and clean the lashes with baby shampoo. I've been doing that since July. Sooo frustrating.

Anyway, I'm done with it. We'll take her back to Albany next year for a checkup and see if they want to talk about surgery. I have no reason to see any specialists at Westchester anymore. I have no idea why AMC referred us there in the first place. I guess to keep all her specialists in one place. But now that we are going to Shriners' in MA next week for the orthopaedic issues, we aren't seeing anyone there anyway. Ugh. What a wasted day.