What Is It With Surgeons??

Seriously! Gabby had to get her g-tube button replaced today by the surgeon who put it in. I am not going to name any names so I will refer to him as Dr. B. I totally was not looking forward to going today because I was afraid he was going to "yell" at me~ again. I guess to be fair I shouldn't say he yelled at me, it's more like he made me feel completely inadequate and laid a huge guilt trip on me. The first incident happened several months ago. I had to take Gabs in to see him because she was having trouble with granulation tissue growing around her button. (Granulation tissue is just skin that starts growing up out of the hole where the button is placed.) This is something that Gabby has dealt with since we put the button in. When he saw the amount of tissue she had, he was very upset. He kept asking me how I was cleaning it and proceeded to tell me that I was doing it all wrong. He then basically preformed a small surgical procedure right there in his office, cutting off all of the tissue, which he said really should be done in an O.R. After he walked out of the office I started crying. I was mad that he had scolded me when I was doing what I thought I was supposed to be doing and horrified that I had to watch him do this procedure to my daughter when I totally wasn't expecting it. So now I'm sure you can understand why I didn't want to go back. Here is a picture of a Bard G-tube. The top part is on the outside of her body, the rest is inside her stomach. I flip the little flap open to insert her feeding tube.
I did get a bit of a guilt trip today for the amount of tissue she has growing. I tried to explain that I try to keep it under control. I have silver nitrate sticks at home that I'm supposed to use on it. Problem is that she hates it. It is very painful and she squirms and bangs her head and screams and cries so needless to say I can do a very good job. I explained this all to him to no avail. He just asked if I was "being aggressive enough with it"...... well obviously not. I'd like to see him try to do it with no nurse there to help him. It's hard when it's your own child that you are knowingly inflicting pain upon. Not an easy thing to do and I'm usually in tears by the time I'm done doing it to her.

The other issue I have noticed with surgeons (and not just Dr. B) is that they aren't very nice to their nurses. Very condescending and rude!!! Today he was talking to her like she was a child~ that had to have been embarrassing for the nurse to have him talk to her like that in front of a patient. After Dr. B left, the nurse told me not to worry about it. She said some kids just have issues with the granulation tissue. She also said that she has gotten used to his "scoldings" and just tries to brush it off. I wonder if all surgeons are like that??

Now Dr. B is a great surgeon and I think his intention is in the right place. He's concerned for his patients, but he could try to be a bit more understanding. I have had some appointments and meetings with him where he is just as nice as can be, but if he thinks you're not doing something right he sure isn't afraid to voice his opinion!!! I just hope that she doesn't need to go back to see him any time soon!!!

*Side note* Big prayers going out to my friend who is having some health problems that I just found out about. I am hoping with all my heart that it's not what we think it could be!