Last week , we replayed the family illness story. Someone germ-ridden kid coughs on my kid on a playground. My kid gets sick. I get sick a day later. Then we're all green and lose a week of life. It also involves several trips to the pediatrician for the kid and some urgent care clinic for me. It's a really boring tale and not worth even talking about. Except this bug was particularly nasty. Ian missed a week of school and needed two rounds of antibiotics. I think I need something stronger, too. 

On our second visit to the pediatrician's office on Thursday, the doctor walked into the room and asked what was wrong. I explained that Ian had been sick for five days with a cough and sore throat. I couldn't bring down his fever and the antibiotics that we got on Monday weren't working. She didn't look up from her laptop as she typed in the information. She said, "you weren't here on Monday."

I said, "Um, yes, I was. In fact, we saw you." (It's a group practice.)

"No you weren't. It's not in the computer. You must be confused. You must have thought you were here, but you weren't." 

"You gave us antibiotics. He took them."

"It's not in the computer. You must be wrong." 

I started losing my temper at this point. "Are you crazy? I was here. If it's not in the computer, that's a problem. That's a big problem! But we were here. I bet that you're looking at the wrong [boys' last name]. I bet you're looking at his brother, Jonah. This is Ian."

"Oh, yes. Ooops. You're right." 

 Back when I was cute, I used to pretend to be dumb all the time in order to get things from men, but that was a long time ago. I haven't played that card in a long time. (And no, it wasn't very feminist of me, but it was effective.) In this case, I wasn't doing anything that would indicate that I was cognitively challenged, yet this doctor assumed I was stupid, instead of looking for another explanation for the computer mix-up. The doctor was a woman who was around my age.

Is this a story of medical incompetence or prejudice against mothers?