The Brooks: hallelujah a competent doctor!

Obviously I mean that Bruiser's appointment at the new Hemophilia Center went well. It was about a two hour drive compared to the one and a half at the other place. But figure in babysitter in the form of grandma and we saved time.

We left pretty early and took Monk with us since everyone was working. It took a while to get there but once we arrived we knew right where to go because this place is both professional and organized. They had sent us the paperwork ahead of time along with a couple introductory sheets that what floor, etc to go to.

Check in and registration took all of 2 minutes and they could see us with in five. We met the main nurse who was super sweet and so knowledgeable. A far cry from the flaky nurses up north. Anyway, she told us who we would meet that day and what their purposes were. So we met with the social worker who helps with insurance and government help as far as his health bills will go and explained that process to us. Then we talked to the nurse until the doctor came in. We were never in the room alone which was nice. The nurse had an entire work sheet to go through and gave us a big bag of Hemophilia information and stuff. She was really surprised we didn't get any of that stuff at the other place. What I liked about all the information she went over was that none of it was the stuff you find on google the first couple times you search. It was stuff we needed to know, like how to recognize a bleed, where to look, who to call, etc etc.

Then the Doctor came in and he was awesome! And you can see why-

He seemed genuinely happy to meet us and he spent some time talking to our little two month old trying to get a feel for him. What was cool was that the dr wanted to undress and dress him instead of having us do it and waiting, etc. Then after his physical exam, the dr. swaddled him and held him and tried to make him smile which was really sweet. I really felt like we were his only appointment that day and that he wanted to spend a lot of time with us. (I saw the registration paper so I knew that he had been pretty busy, so it was great.)

Really, I liked the way he talked to us and the way he treated us. For example, he told me that with Bruiser's Hemophilia, most likely, he won't have bleeds unless it's a result of some trauma. Then he defined trauma. They also gave Bruiser his immunizations where they iced his leg before hand and put his pacifier in a thick sugar water to help. We left feeling totally prepared. We were so pleased and the difference between this center and the other center are literally night and day. I didn't feel like I needed to roll my eyes once!

D and I also felt really fortunate. Dr. Kerlin is also an oncology doctor so the other children we saw were all there for chemotherapy and looked pretty sick. We felt so blessed that Hemophilia is all we have to worry about. While I wish that our little boy didn't have to have any struggles with it, I'm grateful that with all the horrible things out there, ours will basically just bruise easily and need an occasional (but crazy expensive) shot. The Lord has truly blessed us.

On another note: Monkey Monk is doing great with the potty training. So great, that we decided to buy pull-ups :)