Daughter with severe GERD--should we switch practices?

[Anonymous]

My 12-week old daughter has been struggling with GERD since she was 4 or 5 weeks old. She has days in which she will refuse to eat by any method, and she is not gaining weight well (one doctor has diagnosed her as failure to thrive). We made appointments with two different pediatric gastrointerologists--Dr. Peter Lee at INOVA and Dr. Khan at one of the CNMC offices--and got on the waiting lists. The intent was to see the first available doctor and cancel the other appointments. We got in with Dr. Lee on a cancellation last Tuesday, and he seemed attentive and nice. He put her on Prilosec, since it's the only med that worked for me, and told us to follow up in two months. I know we have to give the medicine a chance to work, but two months seems like a long time to wait to follow up on a failure to thrive case. I was unable to set up the follow up appointment at the time because the computers at the office were down, and I wanted to try to get in at the Fairfax office instead as it is much more convenient. When I called the scheduling number, I was told that the doctor had nothing for that week--2 months out--at the Fairfax office but that he could see at the Manassas office again. This was the second head-scratcher for me: would it always be this difficult to get an appointment as an established patient? There are two other things about this practice that aren't sitting well: Dr. Lee's nurse never answers voice mail or e-mail questions (I had to call the scheduling number and have someone physically track her down and get her to the phone), and the nurse/tech who weighed her at the office visit read the scale wrong (she converted 3.5 kg to pounds when the scale read out said 3.65 kg). When I told that the baby had weighed half a pound more at the pediatrician three hours earlier, she just said "all scales are going to be a little different." Really? 9 ounces different?

I have not yet cancelled the appointment with Dr. Khan. I don't want to drag the treatment process out even further by risking another medication change, but as we already have the appointment, should I keep it just to see if we will feel more at ease with the CNMC practice? Is it worth the drawback of bringing in yet another voice?

[Anonymous]

I would get a second opinion but not cancel with this practice till you are stable in another one. You have enough reasons to switch and if you are posting here with concern, its for good reason. Our GI always called us back within a few days if not same day (depending on if we said it was serious or not) and was very responsive over the phone. Sometimes it would take a month to get an appointment but she always got us by till we could get in.