IME, Susan, it's the nurses' job to say that.

In my head, I know that. Unfortunately, that's not enough to keep me from wishing I could curl up into a little ball and cry right now, and I don't know how the hell I'm supposed to do ANYTHING at work today...

NOW I'm freaking out...

Don't freak! You just had half a dozen buffistas say they had a tendency to space out as a kid. There are so many possible explanations and the nurse just wants to rule out the concerning one.

wishing I could curl up into a little ball and cry right now, and I don't know how the hell I'm supposed to do ANYTHING at work today...

Susan, you went from calm and moderate to (I apologize if this is harsh) overreacting in the span of a few minutes.

The nurse's choice of words is completely neutral. I think what you wanted was for her to say, "WHAT?!? That's not epilepsy, and anyone who would say so is in serious need of some education! You have nothing to worry about; I'm sure of it, even though I'm not currently in the same room as your daughter."

I understand that; it would be WAY better if the nurse could, over the phone, immediately diagnose and dismiss your worries. But, short of determining that no, your daughter doesn't have testicular cancer, the nurse (and the doctor) can't diagnose anything without Annabel in front of them. Legally, it would be career suicide for them to do so.

Also, like Jess said, the nurse will tell you to come in 99% of the time. (The other 1% being when you have an implausible worry, like testicular cancer in your daughter.) They *have* to. That's just how phone triage works in medical offices.

The nurse was in no way even *implying* that Annabel has epilepsy; she would say the same thing if you called describing symptoms of the flu, a stomach bug, or an earache -- she would tell you to come in.

If you call, they tell you to come in. It just works that way. The nurse was responding to the fact that you called, NOT the content of the call.

It's really going to be fine. Annabel has 2 very cerebral parents, and understandably gets lost in her own busy brain from time to time. The medical establishment just engages in a lot of CYA.

"different" folks

I have to say, I do have a little quibble with parents who use this vocabulary with the kids without elaboration.

To clarify - I don't use the word different with her, I put in quotes to signify a shortcut word I was using here. With Em, I try very hard not to use different because it can take on the wrong meaning.

What Steph said, Susan. Breathe, woman! She's still the same daughter she was ten minutes ago!!! And even if the nurse had said "Yep! That's totally epilepsy!" she would...still be the same daughter. And it doesn't sound like it's anything too major either--a few seconds of spaciness, even if it WERE epilepsy (which, again, probably not), may not even be to the level that they would want to TEST to see if it IS, much less like, medicate or anything.

From today's Lunchtime Blog Reading, an amusing photo followed by some cow puns.

OK, I'm calmer now. DH got out of his a.m. meeting, saw my email, and called to tell me to stop worrying because this is yet another area where Annabel is just like him. He wants me to sit down with his mom sometime and talk to her about all the things she went through with him in the first 5-6 years of his life when he was evaluated for a dizzying variety of possible issues, including epilepsy, though other than needing some speech therapy in elementary school and eventually being diagnosed with ADHD, nothing ever came of any of it. He's going to be the one who takes her to the doctor next Friday so he can tell her in detail about his history.

So, I'm feeling better now. It's possible the nurse didn't realize I'm the type who would've brought in Annabel just as readily if she'd calmly said, "It's probably not that, but let's bring her in just to be on the safe side," and so she went the "scare the parent/patient into compliance" route. Which I hate. And which is one of the reason I've stuck with the same nurse practitioner for my own care for so long, following her to three different practices, because she doesn't do that crap to me.

Dear incompetent contractor:

As my e-mail to the person who hired you last summer should indicate, I would not recommend hiring you for much of anything. The work you did was inaccurate and, as I told them, it would have been easier and probably faster for me to have done everything myself from scratch.

Also, using my e-mail to the person who might have been a little more competent than you are (and is no longer employed here for that, among other, reasons) to reply to me, thus including my complaints about the "work" you did, merely confirms my estimate of your lack of intelligence.

In other word, phrased to suit your understanding, NO.

no love,

me

Yay MM for the job offer!

Curse you people and the guacamole talk. I have a very yummy healthy lunch packed for today, which I am now compelled to augment with guacamole and chips from the Mexican food stand in the cafeteria. I BLAME ALL OF YOU.

Did I neglect to congratulate MM on the job? Well, I do! perhaps it was thinking of him that inspired my little rant above. yes, the stupid, it burns!