I'm writing this from a hospital waiting room. Or at least I started to.
My youngest, Harley, is waiting to have her hips and leg X-rayed…but maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.
Saturday morning, Harley woke complaining of a pain in her leg. We wrote it off at first, thinking she'd either slept on it wrong or was simply going through some growing pains. After all, there was no obvious trauma. No bruises. No broken skin. Not the slightest blemish.
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But later that morning, as we made our first stop during the typical weekend running around, it became painfully obvious she was favoring her right leg, limping noticeably. Then she started to run away from me, and her leg simply gave out on her, dropping her to the ground. As I lifted her up, I couldn't help but notice how warm she was. Her cheeks were flushed, as well.
That was enough for my wife and I. She called the pediatrician, and we rushed over. Half a Saturday later, we were only slightly closer to a diagnosis, but ultimately sent home. The doctor, nice as she was, decided a wait-and-see approach was best — much to my wife's chagrin. All we knew was that it might be a bone or joint infection.
The limp got progressively worse over the weekend, and despite religious ibuprofen doses, the low-grade fever persisted.
So naturally, Monday found us back at the pediatrician's, listening to the doctor advise more careful observation.
Needless to say, my wife insisted on more. The doctor relented, ordering blood work and X-rays.
Which is how I found myself here.
We've already got an appointment with a specialist tomorrow to go over the test results, but that's only because (again) my wife pressed for urgency.
We talk a lot about consumers taking more responsibility for their own health care decisions. It's a trend Republicans in particular push as public policy. Brokers and carriers alike have been arguing the case for years, touting the benefits (so to speak) of wellness programs, health risk assessments and the entire suite of consumer-driven products. And employers are clearly on board, pushing these initiatives while handing out checks and shipping their workers to private exchanges.
But I swear it seems the providers still haven't gotten the memo. Pricing is only marginally more transparent than it was a decade ago while the doctor-patient dialogue remains a largely one-sided conversation.
At this point, we're still unclear why the doctors aren't taking this more seriously. Is it cost? An overabundance of malpractice caution? Or simple doubt? We have no idea.
Hey, I get it. If we ever rein in health care costs, the providers stand to lose more than anyone. But maybe I'm just being overly cynical. Or overprotective. But pardon me for fighting for every chance I can get to make this confused 3-year-old feel better.
Because if I have to hear Harley ask her mother for a Band-Aid for her leg one more time, I think someone else is going to be hurting.
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