Yesterday I watched Kat face disappointment again. Some disappointment is a learning experience but some disappointment is simply...disappointment. Just when Kat was hoping to hear that perhaps her epilepsy was magically curing itself as she grew, the neurologist increased her medication. Worse, he was an idiot about it. He may know neurology but he has no clue about teenage girls. Kat calls him the �Neurotic Neurologist.�

He started off wrong from the start. I had gone into the appointment with Kat because she was quite drowsy after the sleep-deprived EEG and she wanted someone who could concentrate. She got me instead. When the doctor entered, Kat jokingly said she could not get up on the table because she was so comfortable lying across his chairs. All he had to do was make some joke and she would have snapped to attention as well as a fourteen year old can at 9:00 a.m. after only four hours sleep. Instead, he growled at her that he had no time to fool around and that if she didn�t comply im-med-i-ate-ly, he would leave and come back when he was good and ready. Right about then, I suspected that he might be ready later but his bedside manner would not be good all day if not for the rest of his life.

After he examined her and the EEG, he explained that increased brain irritability apparently is fairly normal as girls with epilepsy reach 14-16. Kat�s tegretol doesn�t stop the errant brain waves in her temporal lobe but it does stop the chaos from spreading and interfering with consciousness. Given Kat�s blood medication levels, she has room to take a little more and he thought she should. Unfortunately, he spoke to me, not her. Kat is very bright and does not suffer fools gladly. I owe her for not rolling her eyes the one time he addressed her during the discussion. I think he thinks she�s cognitively disabled or only six but I�m not sure which..

He then discussed her compliance with medication. She�s really gotten much, much better about remembering her medication and I said so although perhaps I was catching the idiot virus that was going around because I mentioned that her compliance might have been just a little worse this past week because she was out of routine while on vacation. Instead of applauding her improvement, he launched into a long lecture to her about how she was fourteen now and should be able to remember every single day at breakfast and dinner no matter what. I tried to wind him down by pointing out that even adults occasionally have trouble remembering meds. I figured that if I didn�t slow him down at least Kat might hear my basic approval of her improvement. It�s a good thing I was talking for Kat�s benefit. He didn�t hear a word.

He then wrote out a new prescription so my insurance company doesn�t refuse to give us enough pills. He misspelled Kat�s name and she protested. He told her it doesn�t matter because the pharmacy will fill it anyway. That kid isn�t very fond of her first name but she�s sure fonder of it when it�s spelled correctly. He seems constitutionally incapable of apology. He�s the doctor; of course he�s right�always.

If there were another pediatric neurologist in town who was technically as good, I�d switch doctors in a heartbeat. In the meantime, I hope he�s making enough from Kat�s care to afford a good psychiatrist.

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