We finally had a doctor visit that wasn't extremely stressful. And it began with these words: "Hi. I'm sorry to tell you this, but your doctor is really sick right now and we're trying to figure out what to do."

In May, we had the worst, most dysfunctional super-sub-specialist visit ever for my son. Any grain of me that didn't have doctor PTSD was overcome in minutes. And because of that, together with some life circumstances, I wasn't ready to see any more pediatric specialists for a long time. But, when your child has six-plus specialists, chances at any given time are that he will have to see one of them pretty soon. So here we were, and apparently the doctor, bless her soul, was throwing up.

This speciality hasn't been my favorite because the doctors we've had in it have been kind of hardcore. I can get out there and be businesslike, but when I have a baby who is not put together right and I'm freaking out a little, some flavors of businesslike coming from other people are difficult for me. On the other hand, I have to say that in the ER I would be totally happy to see the docs I know from this specialty because I know they can stand up under extreme stress. (Though last time he was in the ER, the personnel wouldn't page this specialty even though we had explicit orders to do so with every ER visit, so I didn't get to really find out how great they are. But that's another story.)

After some repeat weighing and measuring and the obligatory interview by a resident, the doctor's replacement came in - a nurse practitioner.

No words can adequately convey my extreme surprise: this person was gentle, respectful, listened to me completely, had a grasp of the medical situation, and asked intelligent clarifying questions. She never accused me of doing anything wrong. She transferred my son to the table herself for the exam and he was content through the whole thing. She handled every detail and question without ever, once, making me feel like a stupid female parent.

Writing about it is actually making me cry a little.

She made a helpful suggestion about my son's cold that he came in with, asked about my recent medical problems, and even grasped a complicated negotiation that I wanted to make regarding emergency medication. A negotiation caused by a situation where 10 months ago, after a confusing emergency, one doctor was upset that I followed two other doctors' instructions and so withdrew the prescription for the emergency medication, believing that I could not be trusted with it any more. I laid the story out for this nurse practitioner and said I would accept what they decided, but that they needed to realize that I was intelligent, responsible, and could follow directions. She said she was willing to argue for the prescription on my behalf, but later when the doctor was not throwing up. I don't know if she will, but I liked the rest of the visit a lot.

Then we left and my son got vanilla ice cream like he always does after seeing a specialist.

I'm thankful, very thankful.

Whew.