Wanted: Bedside Manner

We went to Winston today for a check up on Olivia's hands. Dr. Koman once again said that he doesn't see how surgery would be helpful at all, and could possibly cause more damage. That's fine with us. The thought of risky finger surgery just turns my stomach. Olivia has such good function, despite her stiff fingers. So, just as she has always adapted, we know she will continue to make the best of them.

Last time, Dr. Koman took a little time to talk with us. Today, it was just me and Olivia, and he barely said anything to me. Within a minute, he began dictating a letter to Dr. Frick and then dictated his notes, all with big words (that would require me to spend a great deal of time using Google to define them...). He mentioned something about possible surgery on her feet to "release them" (what??!! did I hear that right??), said that her legs were braceable (yes, we know), and that he wanted to see us back in a year. I could only think of a few questions to interject between audio tapings.

Are we on the right track? Yes.
Are you concerned about the ulnar deviation on the left hand? No, it doesn't affect anything.
What about the thumb webbing on the left hand? Come back in six months and we'll talk about fixing that with surgery.

Here's your paperwork. Bye-bye. I just sat there for a minute, wondering if the appointment was really over. Then his student (I guess) finally said, "He's just doing some things on the computer now. We're done. You don't need to stay."

Wow. Hindsight tells me that I should have said, "Turn off the tape recorder. Be quiet for a minute. And get comfortable, because mama here has some questions."

But I didn't. And I'm mad at myself for not being more assertive.
Mama wants some good bedside manner to go with the smart doctors...