Five Hours and $35 I Will Never Get Back

I promised an update on Jack's appointment yesterday, so here it is: The title sums it up, but if you would like to know more, read on. I dropped the babies off at Trisha's at 1pm; Jack and I met Travis at Children's Hospital around 2pm for our 2:15 appointment. That's right, Travis took off work! We figured if the pediatrician was sending us to Children's Hospital it must be important. We filled out all of the necessary paper work then began our wait. We were only waiting in the jam packed waiting room for about 1o minutes when we here the nurse call "Jackson". Both Travis and I looked around assuming it must be a different Jackson, but it was us. Come to find out, they were only admitting Jack to the hospital, and then they sent us back to the waiting room. We noticed during the next TWO HOURS in the waiting room that we were wrong to think there might be more than one Jackson. Multiple people stood up when the nurse called names like Juan, Jose and Angel. Finally, they took us back to the room where I spent more time reading a book about space travel that was published in 1985 to Jack. As you can imagine, it wasn't really relevant and I was teaching him the difference between American astronauts and Russian Cosmonauts, but at least it was passing the time. The nurse practioner walked in just as Travis was yelling, "Is this a free clinic?” He looked at Jack for about 2 minutes and said, "well, I don't think the doctor will do anything for him, kids outgrow this". Travis was feeling a little bit punchy by this time so he stood up to prove to the doctor that not all kids outgrow it. When the doctor came in he explained that they don't do anything for this until the kids are 8 or 9 years old. He pretty much blew us off and said he will most likely out grow it by then, thanks for coming. We got back on the road home at 4:30pm, just in time for rush hour. Boy, that is a beating! I don't think I could do that everyday. We didn't get home until 6pm. The next time the pediatrician refers us to a specialist I am going to make sure he isn't just patronizing me. If I ask a question, it is just that, a question, not a request for a second opinion. Jack has an appointment with an ENT next week...let's hope this doesn't happen again.