Shastya's Misadventures

Yesterday we got up at 6:30 in the morning to get ready for baby Shastya bear's 7:45 a.m. cardiologist(heart doctor) appointment in Anderson, SC. We did not get home from it until 12 or 1 in the afternoon! Everyone at the office was amazing: the doctor, the secretary, the first nurse . . . but then we met a second nurse . . .

At the doctor's office, baby Shastya was so well behaved, just smiling away, and being a very social baby. The first nurse could not believe how good Shastya was, getting all rigged up with 8-9 stickers and wiring all over her. After the EKG, our little sweetheart had to have her blood pressure taken three times because the machine was doing funny. During all this, baby Shastya just enjoyed the toy that the first nurse (the nice nurse) had given her. This very kind lady had been a nurse for 40 years, we discovered after talking. She had grand kids of her own, and she had a great way with kids.

The doctor came in and was very good with children as well. Next, we were sent a couple paces across the hall for another test for baby Shastya. The room was very dark. We were ordered by a second nurse to put the baby on the table. I was trying to get the rest of the EKG stickers off of Shastya, but the mean nurse just said, "here, I can get them," and pulled them off of Shastya. Before I could hardly even take-in what was going on the nurse had stuffed Shastya legs under a white sheet, and pinned Shastya's arms at her sides under some other white sheets. I don't see how the nurse even had enough hands to do all that so fast. She totally freaked Shastya out. Poor little Shastya started rearing her back and going ballistic.

I told the nurse that baby Shastya was scared of the dark. I asked the nurse if I could take Shastya out in the light for a minute to calm her down. The nurse said we had to get on with the test, and asked me to hold baby Shastya down . . . Obviously, that did not go very well. About this time, Anthony returned. I asked him to hold Shastya down. He did. But then the nurse still didn't do the utrasound. She said she couldn't do it with the baby crying. She was telling us we needed to control our baby/ keep her from crying. We said that it was way past the baby's nap time, and that that would probably not be possible. The nurse said we could try to get the baby to sleep a few doors down the hall in an office, and bring her back for the test when she was asleep. We thought we would give that a try . . .

Anthony rocked baby Shastya to sleep, but then she woke up maybe ten minutes later. We were both wondering why the nurse wanted the baby to go to sleep in the first place. Even if the baby was asleep, she would wake up as soon as we laid her on her back. She usually sleeps on her stomach. And, if being on her back did not wake her up, as soon as the nurse put the gel on her and started the test, we knew baby Shastya would start screaming if awoken from sleep in that way . . .

Anthony decided to run to the store for some baby formula since we had been at the cardiologist's office for hours and Shastya was going to get hungry. He also picked up some bagels for me and himself as provisions for our all-day Anderson misadventure. Meanwhile, the mean nurse kept taking other patients for ultrasounds while waiting for baby Shastya to go to sleep.

We decided to go out and wait back in the waiting room where there was more light and lots of toys and distractions for Shastya. Once we did so, Shastya made friends with another child, a parent, and the secretary while we were out there. Shastya was smiling, laughing, and being a little sweetheart. At one point the mean nurse came over and said something to the secretary. Baby Shastya momentarily started, and cried a little before the mean nurse left. I think baby Shastya heard the nurse and that that is why she started crying  . . .

Finally, the mean nurse said she would try to do the test on Shastya again even though baby wasn't asleep. We went back to the dark room. This time the nurse said she could turn the light on for a minute if that would help. Shastya was all happy in the bright room. Then the nurse looked at her sternly and said sharply, "Are you going to behave now?" The nurse's face and words terrified little Shastya, and she burst into tears. Further, the nurse also said something again that she had said earlier, "she's a three year old in a baby's body (referring to Shastya)." At this Shastya got mad, and started crying irately. Baby Shastya is a person. She knows when someone is being mean/ misbehaving. Each time the nurse said her little ditty about Shastya being a 3 year old in a baby's body I thought, "Well, you're a three year old in an adult's body!" But I didn't say anything.

The nice nurse came in at that point and said something to the mean nurse about maybe she (the mean nurse) would still have time to go to lunch after all. At this point, it occurred to me that the mean nurse probably did want to go to lunch, and that maybe she didn't know that it was her fault all this was taking so long.

Trying to be nice, and trying to help the situation, I said to the mean nurse, "I think baby Shastya is scared of you. Maybe if you could just smile at her, she'll know everything is okay." Then the mean nurse started being nice to Shastya, the test went well, and we were done! Unbelievable.

Hardly missing a beat, the mean nurse said: "time for the next victim . . . The next victim is a four year old. A four year old after the three year old(referring to Shastya) . . ."

Anthony ended up missing one of his classes during all this. On the way home I mentioned something to Anthony about the nurse being paid too much to act like that. Anthony and I didn't think she was good with kids at any rate.