Dr's appointment

The visit to Ajou Hospital is something I hope never to repeat again. I was upset enough to write a letter and not sure who to sent it to. This has become a little pet project.

Here's our situation. We are a non-command sponsored family here at Osan AB and my son turned 1 year old on Feb 24th. I wanted to make sure his immunizations were up to date and had my husband check with the immunization clinic. He was told that my son needed to be seen by a pediatrician before getting his shots. We tried several times to get a Space-A appointment for him on base. We were told by a female Major in the pediatric department that our best opportunity for a well baby check up for my now 13 month old son was to see an off-base provider. Tricare gave us a list of places and we chose Ajou University Hospital because it was closest to Osan. We were able to get an appointment within a week of making a call. The International Health Clinic where I check-in was very helpful and we were seen right away. We saw the pediatrician for about 5 minutes. He listened to my son's chest, looked briefly at his eyes and ordered 4 tests - 2 blood tests to check for iron levels and his metabolism (?), a urine analysis and a chest x-ray. He also recommended an MMR and Varicella vaccination. They wait on Hep A until 18 months. My son was never weighted or measured. I am concerned at the lack of shielding used for the chest x-ray. My son had none and I was told to hold his arms over his head and I wasn't wearing anything either. No one asked me if I was pregnant - which I'm not but even so I would expect this to be a consideration. This seems strange since even when x-rays are taken at the dentist the patient wears a lead apron. When they tested his iron level at 9 months back in the US, they just pricked his finger. At Ajou, they took two vials of blood from his arm. The doctor will give us a call back on Friday with the results. The cost of this visit was 196,00 won. Overall, I wasn't too thrilled about this off-base experience. If off base providers are going to be considered, I would have liked a list of things for the pediatrician to examine. A simple checklist, I could give the Korean pedestrian would helpful so I know to expect. Right now, my best list is from the book What to expect - the Toddler years. An English speaking volunteer accompanied us for all the tests and I asked her if my son would be weighed and measured. She said yes, but obviously that never happened. It took us about 45 minutes to an hour to drive up to Ajou so I'm not excited about the prospect about going up there for his next check-up. In fact, I don't even know when his next check up is due and I still have several questions:How much liquid should he be drinking?His teeth seems slow to come in - should I be concerned?What foods can he eat now? Honey? Peanut butter? What can I expect him to be doing at 15 months? 18 months?Any other safety concerns at age? Perhaps more pertainant to our situation here:How concerned do we need to be about Yellow Dust and the foods from the market, going for a walk, and being on the playground covered by the dust?I heard from another mom that there's no flouride in the water - what should I do for my child?Should my 13 month old take vitamins? Would it be possible to email the Pediatric clinic with our questions? Is there a standard form they send home with each parent after a well baby check? Could we have access to that as well? Obviously, there are several families in our situation - non-command sponsored with young children. I understand this was our choice and I understand that the pediatrician, children ratio is 1:500 however, I would like to hope that we could get a little more support from the Base Hospital when the health and safety of our children are concerned.

Very respectfully,Janette Thode