Follow Up On Christine's Surgery

*I'm doing laundry and wrapping and crocheting.
*Christine and I had some lazy hours watching Veronica Mars.
She headed down to the hospital to see Jillian.  Ran into some friends and after their visit went to grab some dinner with them at the mall food court.  She said it was a 'mad house'.  The doctors are hoping to release Jillian tomorrow, but still can't pin down definitely what is triggering the seizures.  Now she can't drive for 6 months.  Good thing Chrissy's 1 year license anniversary is coming up in 2 weeks, so she can drive her around.
*Speaking of things in the new few weeks:  The braces are coming off on January 3rd!  Hip, hip hooray!
* And for a follow up on that:  We did pursue getting our money back from the first orthodontist, and we finally settled on paying for the months he saw her and nothing more.  We got quite a bit back.  That being said, it was a fight to get it.  Meredith's dad--who is a PI attorney--told us it would be because the dental community are very loyal to each other.  They may tell you something in their office, but almost never will testify in court against a fellow dental professional.  Unlike the medical community who will openly stand by their diagnosis.

Worst timing ever.  I had just got off a plane in Phoenix and was waiting for my bags when the call came from Dr. Z.  Is this a good time?  he asked.  No, I had just landed and got in the car with my sister and daughter and grandson for my dad's 80th birthday party weekend.  Would it be a long conversation?  He said No.  Well it ended up being a long, stinky one where he was yelling at me again.  I remained very calm.  He called me and Christine liars.  He kept yelling that he had done n o t h i n g   w r o n g.  He kept emphasising those words. 

I told him I didn't necessarily think he was a bad orthodontist for straightforward orthodontics, but in our situation he should have recognized something wasn't right from her models and after almost 2 years when things weren't working and figured it out.  Clearly he was frustrated with her lack of progress. Perhaps it was a matter of training to look for skeletal issues that cause orthodontia issues. He accused us of not seeing a speech therapist for the bilateral tongue thrust.  I let him know I would contact my bank and get copies of the checks and get the speech therapists records for him to look at.  That in fact it was she who finally said--I think something else is the cause because Christine is doing everything right and it is still not correcting.

He said he had spoken with our new orthodontist and oral surgeon (which I had given him the contact information for and expected him to call them) and claimed they said the surgery was not necessary and we elected to have it.  After a lot of back and forth, I finally I told him I would arrange for a sit down meeting with both of them and us and the speech therapist and him at our expense, and would discuss it.  Would he be willing?  That I would also contact other patients of his that left his care for the very same reasons we did (lack of professionalism and bedside manner) and have them attend the meeting as well.

Then the conversation all changed.  Uh, no.  How about this much $$ back?  I countered.  He countered.  I countered back.  He agreed.  And it was decided.  In the car on the 51 freeway in Arizona.  My sister and Natalie couldn't believe how calm and straightforward I was and how I didn't back down. And what a jerk he was being.  Clearly not professional.  And I couldn't believe that I stuck to my guns when he was so intimidating and that we got our money back.  The last words he said to me were:  I did   n o t h i n g   w r o n g.  And I said, well sir, you did.

Interesting fact:  he isn't even at the practice I orginally took Christine to.  He got out of that after 1 year and went to another place.  When I talked with Maxine--the front office gal who is the nicest person in the world--she kept apologizing for his behavior and was glad we had it finally resolved financially and physically.  The check was sent to that office and we had to go in and sign a document that stated we would not come after Dr. Z. for any other damages.

Glad to have that over with.