Milking the Brain Surgery

Jude is no dummy. He is a master manipulator and often gets what he wants from me by wearing me down by asking so many times or appealing or negotiating. I feel like I’m raising an attorney, but I want him to be a neurosurgeon instead.  He is also homeschooled and we only ask him to do 2 hours of schoolwork a day. I spoke with him today and he had failed to convince Andy to let him skip his morning 1 hour school time. So, he appealed to me for help by saying, “But, I just had brain surgery.” His sad little appeal worked and I agreed he could skip his morning time and tack it onto his afternoon time, which he agreed to, but apparently never did.

On another front, we still have not gotten the results of the spinal tap. This is starting to trouble me since the doctor promised me preliminary results by the end of yesterday. I have even put in a call to Children’s to ask about the results.

On yet another front, I had lodged a patient complaint about how the paramedics did not respond properly to Jude’s seizure and did not listen to me when I said he was having a seizure and needed oxygen. I heard back from their supervisor who said the crew was shocked to learn from me that Jude indeed had a seizure and that that was not the way they are accustomed to seeing seizures. He said that the crew has been educated about the ways various seizures will manifest themselves and that they will be able to respond better in the future. Next time, hopefully, they will listen to patient’s loved one. I know I will be more forceful and confident that I am the expert next time and that they need to listen to me.  I will not leave Jude’s side until I know they are responding properly.