Ronan's First Doctor Appointment

Ronan was two weeks old exactly for his first doctor's appointment.

Dr. John Taylor is at the end of our block in a little house. They call doctor's offices like that Surgeries. And isn't it nice to be able to walk there! Dr. Taylor has been the neighborhood doctor literally since the neighborhood was built: his dad built the neighborhood and set aside a small plot on the end of the block specifically for his son's future medical practice (Dr. Taylor was in medical school at the time.)

He is open in the mornings, closed for lunch, and reopens in the afternoons. He's also in late on Wednesday nights, from 7-8pm. His office has red carpet, a hand washing sink, incredibly messy wooden desk, papers strewn about on top, and an old-style reclining desk chair that has three missing wheels. He says that he fixed them once and they promptly broke again, so he just left them. My medical file is jammed in with other files in the bottom drawer of his desk, and miraculously he finds it in 15 seconds flat.

Our visit took maybe 15 minutes, and all the while he was checking Ronan, he was cooing, "Oh you're a good little baba...yes you are...you're a good baba." He measured his head and his length, recorded it in his file, still cooing along. He didn't weigh him, didn't talk to me about his percentiles or anything. So you might think he wasn't really paying attention.

But you'd be wrong. Because he did bring up the vaccination question. The first vaccine children get over here is called the BCG--and it's for TB. Dr. Taylor asked if we were going to get it, and did tell us it was controversial. He mentioned it was totally optional, and that it's obsolete back in the States. Apparently, even here in County Cork they stopped giving this vaccine because TB isn't really a public health threat now. He also told us that schools here didn't require it. We didn't come to a conclusion about it, which he seemed fine with him.

I never had a doctor bring up a controversial question before, and proceed to put the decision squarely in our lap. How refreshing!

And of course, Ronan is in perfect health. I know this not because Dr. Taylor declared it to be so, but because he didn't declare anything different.

:)

This one's a little blurry, but I liked the close-up natured of it.