If you have kids with medical issues, when do you schedule appointments?

[mamakelly]

You'd think by now I would have figured this out. My 14 year old was born with a cleft palate. It seems like the appointments go in waves. No apps for a few months, then we are drowning in Dr. appointments. Some I can make myself, some are "you get whatever time you get" appointments. I can't figure out what woud work best, appointments in the mornings to get them out of the way but it messes with our school day or appointments in the afternoon that would conflict with sports and extra curriculars. I can't leave the other kids home, they all have to come, since the next oldest is only 11.

[Arcadia]

We take the first slot which can be 8am. That way the possibility of being delayed by earlier patients is minimized. We had 8am appointments and got to see the doctor at 9:30 because he was called away for an urgent case. We just pack a decent amount of school work since there is air con and free wifi.

 

ETA:

Here the morning slots overflow to the afternoon slots with the doctors catching a quick lunch. So a 1pm appointment easily becomes a 3pm or 3:30pm appointment. The last appointment is usually 3pm so that patient could be seen at 5:30pm or worse.

Another reason we take the first slot is because the blood work if needed can be done while the lab is open and results are faster. Shorter line on the lab side too.

My boys are also not morning person so more likely to sit still in the morning and wait half asleep. Afternoons they are "hyper energetic".

[Loowit]

It depends on the doctor.  My preference is early afternoon if I can.  We do school in the morning, then after lunch the appointment, then any activities they may have.  I also bring some schoolwork with them to work on if needed, especially for the oldest.  Now that DD is 12 I can leave her home some of the time if the appointment is local, which is a big help.  Some of our specialist only have specific days they can do appointments or times of day.  My DS's allergist only sees patients in town one day a month right now, so my choices are drive an hour away (one way) or get what she has available on her one day in town.  Towards the end of last year it was getting so frustrating, it seemed like I had at least 4 appointments a week with both boys needing different doctors.

[Ameena]

This is less of an issue with us now that we use Sonlight - we just stick in whatever readers / read alouds we're doing and we're good to go. Normally I try for the 1pm slot - here most have a break in appointments from 11:30 to 1pm, so if they get behind in the morning they are mostly caught up by 1pm and we get in pretty quickly.

 

 On weeks where we have a lot of appointments - it's a freebie week. I use it for catch-up & house cleaning and don't worry about school much that week.

[Ottakee]

We always tried for the 1pm time slot.  We would school in the morning and either eat lunch at home or a quick drive through.  Like someone else said right after lunch they are usually caught up from the morning delays.

 

That said, there were just some doctors that we had to take the 1st available, etc.  Then we would just pack school work with us to do in the car or in the waiting room.  The ACE Paces and CLE Light Units were quite portable and easy to do away from home.

[GoVanGogh]

Medical issue + weekly occupational and physical therapy = crazy

We school year-round, which helps quite a bit. If I know we have a wave of appointments coming up, I will just take the week off.
I try to maximize all appointments - hair cuts, dental, specialists.

Child and I get our hair cut at the same place, different stylists, so book appointments at same time.

We see the same dentist - when child was younger, I booked back-to-back, but now am able to book at the same time.

We see specialists at a large children's hospital and am on same schedule for all follow-up visits, so try to book one in monring and one n afternoon and just take day off school.

Therapy - 2 p.m. slot seems to be the best. We can get school done in morning, but be in and out before after school rush.

Thankfully, we got a break and was able to push (teeth) braces off another year or so. The thought of adding that to the mix was almost too much for me to bear.

[prairiewindmomma]

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[*Lulu*]

Medical issue + weekly occupational and physical therapy = crazy

We school year-round, which helps quite a bit. If I know we have a wave of appointments coming up, I will just take the week off.

I try to maximize all appointments - hair cuts, dental, specialists.

Child and I get our hair cut at the same place, different stylists, so book appointments at same time.

We see the same dentist - when child was younger, I booked back-to-back, but now am able to book at the same time.

We see specialists at a large children's hospital and am on same schedule for all follow-up visits, so try to book one in monring and one n afternoon and just take day off school.

Therapy - 2 p.m. slot seems to be the best. We can get school done in morning, but be in and out before after school rush.

Thankfully, we got a break and was able to push (teeth) braces off another year or so. The thought of adding that to the mix was almost too much for me to bear.

We try to run things in a similar fashion here as well. I do have to be careful though, because both of my SN kiddos have only so much tolerance for waiting rooms, errand running, and the like. I've learned to err on the side of one errand too few than one too many. :P

 

I like first thing in the morning, except for OT/PT, because the kids are usually more flexible during that time of day.

[happypamama]

I generally prefer afternoon appointments, around 1 or 2, when I can get them, 3 or 4 if they're closer to home (most things are at least 30 minutes from us).  That way, I can get schoolwork, at least some, done in the morning with the kids and have or pack lunch, plus add grocery shopping in after the appointment, and still be home in time to make dinner.

 

That being said, for the past several months, two of our children have had speech therapy, and it's been one morning a week, an hour per child, one right after the other, so we spent two hours in the waiting room.  I just packed schoolwork for the waiting children to do, and then we went grocery shopping and sometimes to the library afterward, in which case I often packed lunch.  That wasn't really ideal, IMO, but it was okay.

[zimom]

Ahh, appointments, the story of our life :)

 

We usually schedule in the morning to get it out of the way but many of our appointments are 2 hours away so really it ends up being a good chunk of our day then. For those we schedule mid morning so we can avoid rush hour into the city and out. We just pack up what we can and my kids school in the car and in the waiting room. We try to avoid afternoons as much as possible as with all the appointments, I do try to keep from missing their swimming, etc. We homeschool year round, homeschool in general partly for the flexibility so they can remain active and not miss out on so many opportunities.

 

In two weeks we will be out of state for a weeklong medical appointment. School will be packed up and go with us. They will complete what they can in between the off and on needs of my youngest daughter's appointments.

[Tap]

When we were going through this, I scheduled our year based on a 4 day schedule. That gave us a day a week for appointments or field trips.  It greatly reduced my stress and made the year much smoother. 

[sheryl]

My 14 yo dd is s.n., but we don't have to go in often.  She has 2 eeg's a year and follow ups for the eeg's - sot that's 2 more, plus "maybe" an extra f/u making it about 5 appts. a year. 

 

Here's an example. 
 

Last December 4 or so was her eeg.  Her f/u was 2 weeks after that.  December is a slower month b/c we are getting ready for Christmas and New Year's.  However, she has school the first 2 weeks and then off until after New Years. 

 

Her eeg's "HAVE" to be scheduled in the morning b/c she's been w/o sleep (for the sleep-deprived eeg). 

 

Just as important as time of day is day of week or "season". 

 

We had a reg. f/u appt. last week. That's summer so no big deal. 

I've learned to be very vocal about scheduling b/c it "does" need to work for us.

 

So, her next eeg will be the Tu/Wed before Thanksgiving.  We'll stay up Tues and go in Wed EARLY for her eeg.  I'll just have to be organized for Thanksgiving BEFORE this T/W cycle.  She will have school that Tuesday as it's not until night she stays awake.  Then she'll have that W, TH, F off anyway b/c of Thanksgiving. 

 

Now, her f/u will be Dec. 16.  She'll be on break. 

She'll have another eeg the first half and last half of next year too.  I'm not sure when her spring eeg will be, but "maybe" spring break OR I'll have to schedule it on a Sun/Mon during a school week. 

 

And so on.....

 

[dbmamaz]

I dont have that many, but I still take comfort in the fact that we homeschool year round, and its ok to miss half a day for appointments. 

[Χά�ων]

We take the day off. Doctor's visits are long and always require lab work to make sure everything is OK. I drive a minimum of an hour each way depending on the specialist and I bought a membership to a near by children's museum. I pack a lunch and make a day of it. OT and PT are at a set time and I plan around them and sometimes take math along. 

[Mommyof4ks]

We just packed school with us, but our appointments could last for hours (ds had cancer) if he needed chemo and blood or platelets. We just all piled on the big table in the room and did our read alouds, Bible lessons, science, and memory work. Basically anything that we could just read and discuss came with us, and all written work was done at home. We usually had to show up at 8, but sometimes we could go after lunch. After lunch was generally easier, because the written work was out of the way, and we just enjoyed reading together.

[BrookValley.]

Definitely no one, clear-cut answer...but for us, it depends on the doctor. I like to get in first thing with our specialists, but I wait the least amount of time at our regular ped's office if I get the 1:00 slot. Also, we school year 'round and I'm not averse to doing stuff on the weekends, either. I definite think you have to allow yourself to be flexible with your school schedule.

[marbel]

For us it really depends.  Now my kids are older and the one who doesn't have an appointment can stay home alone. But for a while it was tough. 

 

For some appointments I prefer the spot right after lunch.  Usually no delays then.  But often I find that morning appointments can be easier to get.  If a doctor mostly sees schoolkids, then they are busier from about 2:30 pm on.  The scheduling staff LOVES it when I say we can come anytime.

 

Honestly, sometimes if it's a choice between missing schoolwork and missing extracurriculars, I would miss the schoolwork because it can be done at another time.  It  really depends on the activity, but I'm thinking about when my son was in a robotics club.  If he missed a meeting, it affected the other team members and could have had an effect on readiness for competitions, etc.  Similar deal with a sports team.   But my sick kid isn't doing too many extras right now anyway, so it doesn't really matter too much anymore.

 

I used to do a lot of reading aloud in waiting rooms.  Now the kids bring their own books with them.

[LostSurprise]

Really depends on the family. 

 

We have special diet issues here so I try to schedule things after 10/11 if I can. I can usually get most of a meal and 16oz of water in him during that time. I also have other kids in PS most of the year so I try to keep things before 2 so I can drive back (most are 45m away) in time. 

 

Local appointments tend to be at lunch so dh can help. 

 

What usually happens is I take the best of what they can offer (not before 930, not after 230) and just deal with it. 

[KungFuPanda]

I shoot for midday 10-2ish. I'm in the DC-Baltimore area, so I try to avoid rush hour. If my son has an appt, our school day is a wash. It's just too much. When the kids were younger and there was a conflict with activities, I'd arrange for my daughter to spend time with another family going to the activity. We'd usually catch up before it was over. My son's medical apps can be long and draining for us all. Trying to squeeze in a school day would just upset everyone.

[mamakelly]

Interesting how many people said they try for the 1:00 time slot. I've never thought to try that time! I'm going to have to try and see if that works better for us!

[Sara in AZ]

I schedule school 4-5 weeks on then 1 week off and try to get as many of the Dr. apts. and other important things scheduled on that week off as I can. It doesn't always work out, but I do my best. I've never had much success getting my kids to do school work at the doctors office.

[Guest]

We've been going to a lot of appointments for my dd the last few months, trying to diagnose and treat some issues she's been having. I like the 2/2:30 appointment. Most of these appointments are about an hour away at our big children's hospital, so we get a good chunk of school done in the morning, eat lunch, and then head to our appointment. They've been lasting a few hours and we get home in time to make dinner. If an appointment is in the morning and we get home at 1, we're normally hitting up fast food on the way home and then no one feels like doing anything when we get home. So, for us, afternoon works best.

[swellmomma]

I book the appts for whenever we can get them around the teens online class schedule and then work the rest of school etc around them.  We have some coming up in the city in the next few weeks, and with a 2 hour drive each way the days are pretty much shot.  ENT on Monday for ds14, pain specialist on the 19th of sept for ds9, Urologist on the 16th of sept for ds14, plus finding a new dr for me which means more testing, and a new shrink for ds14, and the list goes on.  We go through periods where it seems we have appts every other day and then we go a few months with none, and then back to a plethora of them.  I don't want them missing their online classes, but the rest is easy to reconfigure even if it means we don't finish by the end of the year, or work on weekends or whatever.  The appts long term are more important than which day we completed a science experiment, math unit, lit discussion etc