i know you can hear me but are you listening?

As per a previous blog, I spoke of my daughter who can chronic sleeplessness.
It's been making all of us grumpy, and stressed, and frustrated.

This week she had a ''bit of a cough''.  Becuase she is prone to expanding her reality I was unsure if this was simply a tickle in her throat or the start of something more, so I carefully indulged with backrubs and so on, but tried to make light of it.

Anyway, as Murphy's law so often applies, it turned into a temperature and start of an infection.  She also had what appeared to be a minor asthma attack in the night - scary but managed by a friends inhaler.

I rang the Doctors surgery and was unable to see the regular Doctor but was offered an appointment with another, whom I have seen occasionally but don't know terribly well.  By the time the appointment rolled around she seemed a little better but I figured I would go anyway, and went in with a list of ailments and challenges for him.  I was fully prepared fro the ''there there'' approach as has happened so often before.

Anyway, imagine my amazement, when as I listed off my concerns, I was met with ''yes i can sort that'' for every single one of them.

The Doctor seemed in no hurry to push me out of the surgery, in fact, went far and beyond the 10 minutes usually allotted and beseeched me to return in a month if I was still not happy.

Aside from the $100 on fees and medications (inhaler, antibiotics, a footstrap for a recurring injury, referral to a specialist, pamol, melatonin tablets, some practical suggestions), this was probably the best experience of my week,

A professional who gave me more than the time of day, who really listened to my concerns (and hers) and acted on them.   I felt that this time I had truly been LISTENED to, rather than simply filling air with noise and response.  He engaged with me, he validated our concerns and he ACTED on them.

The reaction of my daughter was incredible.  She too felt relaxed and calm as we left, and as owner of an inhaler and footstrap, also empowered to deal with some of this herself.

What a difference a truly listening ear makes.


p.s. she was asleep in 5 minutes after lights out for the first time in 9 years....