Stanford we'll miss you...

Today was Jacob's followup appointment at Stanford Children's Hospital.

For all who may not know, like, 10 months ago Jacob's pediatrician recommended we get him to a urologist to be evaluated for an undecended testicle. She recommended this "wonderful" doctor for us to go to, so of course trusting her completely, I made the appointment that day. I knew right when we walked in ,that this office was definitely NOT kid friendly. I paid our co-pay and sat down, seriously like 30 min later we were called back...that may not seem like a long time to wait but when you have a 2yr old and Ash in a less than thrilling atmosphere, it was not fun....so the nurse takes us back in the room and told me to de-dress my son and lay him down on the table and wait for the doctor to come in. OK RIGHT! I'm going to take my kids clothes off in a cold room and make him lay down on a scary table and keep him there for 20 more min?!? It didn't play out like that at all. I don't like to be trouble, but when it comes to my children their best interest always comes first especially to anyone else's convenience.
I wasn't much off in my time estimation...The doc comes in...introduces himself...is obviously annoyed that I am taking so long getting Jacob undressed and on the table (we can wait an hour for him but he has trouble waiting 3 min for me to undress Jacob)...he looks at Jake...tells me yes he needs surgery...If he doesn't get this surgery he might be sterile...this is what he's going to do...the only scary part is anesthesia...he'll have his nurse set it up...have a nice day...WHOA WHOA WHOA...Hold Up!! I was like stunned...he didn't answer any of my questions...I was seriously disturbed...then to top it off, his "nurse" wasn't available to talk too, so I would have to call her later. Here I'm supposed to just accept from this nightmare of an office that this doctor with no bedside manner wants to perform a $20,000 surgery on my son...IN 2 weeks?????
Yeah, not in Kathyland!
I got home and immediately called Jacob's pediatrician and told her of our less than thrilling urology visit and also that I really wanted a 2nd opinion...she was horrified and completely agreed. So she then recommended us to the head of pediatric urology at Standford. If you're going to go big right lol So I called to make an appointment and the only one they had was in Feb...it was December...oh well ...so I took it. In the meantime, the nightmare-ologist's nurse called me to setup Jacob's surgery...Are you joking Lady?...so I politely told her that at this time I was not ready to proceed and that I was getting a second opinion...clearly this irked her so she practically hung up on me...hmmm.I'm thinking I made the right choice already.
Fast forward to February... Jared and I load up the babes and make the drive up to Stanford...it really isn't that far, but the thought of my baby having any chance of having anesthesia makes me nervous and super thankful Jared could take the day off. We get there and the first thing when you get through the doors are these amazing play toys for the kids to play with...I knew right there, this feels so much different and better than the other place. We sign in, pay the co-pay and the kids lay in bean bags and watch Toy Story lol...they call us back and even give the kids glove balloons. lol. Way cool in my book already. So the Doctor comes in (with an intern, it's a teaching hospital) and has the intern do an initial assessment on Jake, then does an intense evaluation explaining what he's seeing to us and showing us what his findings are...oh yeah...In his opinion Jake DOES NOT need surgery and even if he did, he wouldn't be sterile because he would have one good testicle... insert relieved surprised face here. He seriously examined and re-examined to make sure and he said he was 100% sure Jake was fine. He said that he does alot of these surgeries on children and Jacob is not one that he would accept. He also said that if it would make me feel better he would re-examine in 6 months to confirm his diagnosis. I took him up on that.

SIDE NOTE*Who knew that followup would bite me in the rear when it came to switching insurance policies...I found a better plan with more competitive rates for Jare and the kids...turns out we've been paying for maternity for my husband, son and 5 yr old daughter.... LOL... anyway because the first doctor said that Jacob did need surgery and the second said he didn't and there was a followup appointment scheduled, apparently that's considered a pre-existing condition that might require an expensive surgery. Great!

Anyways fast forward to today... Today was the big day...we drove down...in out and we have offically been cast out of the urologists office :) and he said he would put in his evaluation, that none of this should be a reason in the future for any pre-existing conditions and that no surgery has ever been needed. YAY!
My heart feels a little free-er and less stressed. I highly reccommend the hospital and doctor to anyone who would ever need anything. Stanford is Amazing!