Wanted: One pediatric otolaryngologist

As I said earlier, Andy has to go see an ear, nose and throat specialist to talk about his persistent ear infections and if he needs to get tubes. The whole thing makes me unhappy, but I've been asking friends and relatives about it. So far, I've gleaned that the procedure itself is very short, like 10-15 minutes, and the results are great for kids who have been suffering. I also got some good recommendations of pediatric otolaryngologists (say that twice fast) to call.

Of course, this is happening just as we're switching from Guardian/OneNet to Aetna for insurance at work. Absurdly, you can't use the Aetna doctor finder feature unless you're a member, but since I'm not a technically member until June 1, things are complicated. I spent probably 30 minutes with Aetna customer support today in a harrowingly frustrating experience. First, the number I got from HR was for the HMO, not the PPO, so after sitting on hold for 15 minutes, they gave me the PPO number. I eventually got some names and phone numbers of doctors and proceeded to call.

I started with the highly recommended Dr. Choi at Children's Hospital. They'd be happy to see me. In August. I then tried Dr. McBride who luckily can see me...in July. Seriously, is this a big deal or not? I called Dr. Staats' office and played a friendly game of telephone where I explained the situation to the nurse, who talked to Dr. Staats and called me back. I wanted to know if two months was too much wait time. Dr. Staats' office called back to say it was too long to wait. I explained I had tried others and July was the soonest I could get without her intervening to try to bump me up the list. The nurse said she'd see what she said and call me back. She still hadn't called when I left this afternoon.

Anyone have a cousin in one of those offices I can sleep with to get an appointment? Geez. This sounds like the Canadian health system.

What stinks is this is all happening just before we have to get on a plane for Dallas this weekend. Fortunately, it's only three hours and direct, but I hate for his ears to be bothering him on the plane. That would stink worse than his usual restlessness on the plane.

The risk of not fixing his ears is delayed learning because he can't hear, but the funny thing is he is almost reading. Well, by reading I mean he can point to the letters on the page and knows them all. And tonight, he even sounded out a few. Granted, he does call pancakes panpakes and band-aids, band-baids. Those are totally adorable, I just wish if I wasn't so paranoid that his hearing was in such jeopardy.

Check out His Adorableness during a nap the other day. I love that he had completely turned himself around and these crashed on the covers.