01/10/13 - No Clearance, and no Compassion Either

Our doctor called yesterday to move Ellie's scheduled appointment forward. I was looking forward to it - I thought she seemed quite well and I figured we would get the all clear and hopefully be able to head back to Hobart within the next two weeks. If we can't do it in that time frame it has to wait until mid-November, just because we have a few other things coming up that we'd planned for "after surgery" that we don't want to cancel. Mainly Sophie's special trip to Melbourne to see Peppa Pig live!

When we pulled up at the doctors office Sophie was sleeping, so Drew stayed in the car with her while I took Ellie in. As it turns out, that was a good thing. There were quite a few people in the waiting room, and Ellie and I were sitting across from a young lady of around 20 years old. She looked ridiculous sitting there taking selfies of herself, and I was laughing to myself about how great she no doubt thought she looked.

Out of no where she looked up, and asked me if my daughter has Down's syndrome. I was shocked. I replied quite harshly with "no she bloody doesn't, mind your own business" only to have her say "oh, because her face looks a little weird"... What the?! What gives her the right to say my child looks weird? What gives her the right to open her mouth and say whatever she thinks, when the rest of us sit quietly and ignore her own ridiculousness?! I'm glad Drew wasn't with us.

I was mad, but I managed to refrain from saying anything else and just walked out of the room. I was surprised actually that I wasn't as upset by that as I have been by other hurtful comments, so I guess I am growing a thicker skin. I was still fuming though.

Not long after Doctor Naiker came out to take us through. I calmed down and got ready to get good news. I explained everything that had been happening in the lead up to the surgery, and he did an examination of all of Ellie's vital bits and pieces. He decided that although her lungs are now clear, her ears and throat are still inflamed. It's not bad enough to warrant a course of antibiotics, but it is enough to put of surgery for a little bit longer. Ellie's surgery isn't urgent, so there's no need to rush and risk going in before her body is ready. We'd all rather be overly cautious than take risks with our beautiful little girl.

Doctor Naiker wants to see us again next week to take another look, and after that I headed back to the car. I was still cranky and a little bit hurt by that woman's comments, but I played it down for Drew's sake. Not much of the day went the way I wanted it to, but when I got home and posted to Facebook about what had happened the support and disbelief of our friends certainly made me feel better about the world. 

The way I see it, there will always be idiots in the world. Whether Ellie had this condition or not, someone, somewhere would find something dumb to say. But hopefully by educating people a little bit and bringing more awareness to the condition, I can spare another child the pain of these sorts of comments one day.