The doctor

Being a parent is hard work.  Choosing a pediatrician is hard work, especially since you need to find one BEFORE your baby is born, you have no real idea what they are like, and you have no idea what you are doing as a parent.  Before Charly was born, we chose a pediatrician based on a profile from the clinic’s website.  We could have gone to meet said pediatrician, but we never did.  We just put the name down on our hospital registration (because it was required), and would meet the doctor after the baby was born. 

After Charly was delivered, the doctor we chose was not available for a visit to the hospital to give her her pre-discharge check-up.  So they sent Dr. Delahunty (Dr. D).  We immediately fell in love with her before she was even done checking Charly out.  Dr D. was one of the doctors based primarily out of the Hudson, WI clinic, but we didn’t care.  We would be seeing her for all our healthcare needs.  We drove to Hudson for all our check-ups.

Over the past 3 years, we have seen her for all well-checks for both kids, and several times for illnesses.  We have had to see other docs at times for quick visits, though, because Dr. D. was always booked.  We have yet to find a doctor that treats our kids the way she does.  We don’t even want to leave after the visit is over.  We would like to just stay there and “visit” with her!

After every doctor appointment, Charly talks about Dr. D for days.  She even has a doctor kit and calls herself Dr. Charly.  She remembers everything that Dr. D says to her and repeats it while giving one of us our very own check-up.  Do you have bunnies in your ears?  Let me check for bunnies!

And we will never forget the day that MN legislature voted to legalize same-sex marriage.  We had one of the kids in for a visit that day with Dr. D for some reason.  After the check-up was done, Dr. D asked if we were going to celebrate at the capitol that night.  I said no, I had labs scheduled at school that night that I couldn’t miss.  Dr. D said “Oh – I’m going.  There’s going to be dancing and bands and it’s going to be so much fun!  Do you need me to write you a note to get out of school?”  Seriously.  I love her.

So you can imagine our disappointment when we received the news (yesterday) that she is leaving the clinic to spend time at home with her family. 

Maybe it’s not always the best idea to have two women in a relationship – because who takes care of who when we are both crying?  Yeah.  It happened.  And I just read this post to Amy and she’s crying again.

We heart you Dr. D.  And we wish you well.  (But we're going to need to do make house calls after you leave the clinic... )