I'm gonna paste the whole story again (rather than retyping it) so I apologize ahead of time if it sounds like I'm talking about a 'recent' incident. :o)
Brook and Matt were sick about 2 weeks ago. They both had fevers; Brooklyn was more severe than Matt. Jim stayed home with them Friday and they were sick ALL weekend. Jim stayed home with them again on Monday just to be sure they were no longer contagious. They both seemed to bounce back wonderfully. Tues- Friday, no symptoms at all. Then all of a sudden, Brooklyn woke up on Saturday with a fever again. She was sick again ALL weekend (last weekend) Jim stayed home again with her on Monday. That was the day that I tried calling the pediatrician office a bazillion times and their phone was disconnected. ?WTF? Right? So I called Jim and said it was up to him to either take her to the office right-away, or take her to Urgent care if she isn't getting better. I came home that Monday and she didn't have a fever anymore so we thought she was done. But she was still so very tired with all that bark like coughing-and all she wanted to do was sit in my lap and watch her SpongeBob. :'o( Once in bed- she had fits all night, tossing and turning and kept us awake- we weren't sure how to help her.
Then Tuesday morning, we checked on her before going to work and she had another FEVER!!! Jim called out of work again and I proceeded to work -advising Jim to SERIOUSLY worry. "The ONLY thing I want you to do today is TAKE HER TO URGENT CARE" (His story will tell you that he WAS worried about her, but men always try to be the tough ones so I saw his laid back attitude as demeaning.)
Every couple of hours, I called Jim, asked how she was doing- she was sleeping, she was playing, she was eating, she was good. Ok- fine, I guess NOW she's over it, right?
Wrong- the minute I get home Jim tells me she has a fever again. I himhaw, worry, fret and complain- then I get on my facebook to update her status, hoping to find advice and all I did was just read ONE post by my friend Dianna about a little girl who went to bed with the flu and didn't wake up the next morning.
That's it- I freaked out, I told Jim that I was taking her to Good-Night Pediatrics (in Avondale) whether he agrees with me or not. I grab the children's Tylenol, children's Triaminic and children's Nyquil because I WANNA KNOW WHAT TO DO FOR HER- and all of those say 'consult a dr for children 2 and under' right? Jim (at first) thought I was a worry wart I bet- but once we got her checked in - the nurse (named Carlos) took her back to do her vitals. There were several others ahead of us so once the vitals were done- we were to go back to the lobby and wait for a room/dr.
The vitals showed: 102 fever, 86 oxygen reading and a mildly low heart beat (don't remember the #) the nurse looked worried and grabbed the blanket off her body and said "that's awfully low- you're not going back to the lobby- let me let a dr know and I’m sure he'll want to see her in a room right-away"
We went back to a room and Brooklyn (my big girl) wanted to go potty. I took her potty. Meanwhile, the dr came in right-away (I know, shocking right?) and talked with Jim about god-knows-what. Dr leaves because he will tend to us when Brooklyn is back in the room.
Doc comes back and checks her- basically says (in a friendly tone) that she has the croup- the start of 2 ear infections and the only reason why her oxygen was low was because of her fever. He gave her an oral steroid to open her air ways- wrote a prescription and sent us out the door. Oh no- not before I asked my bazillions of questions (of course.) Doc rushed to another room and another nurse shifted us outta there so quickly- I scrambled to find the doc as we left the urgent care. Jim too was shuffling me to move faster out the door and something just told me "ASK AGAIN ABOUT HER OXYGEN".
No doctor in sight, so I slowly moved to the car- we head to the nearest 24 hour pharmacy and the entire time I'm wanting to talk to the doctor again. I grabbed Jim's phone and called the phone number to the doctor that was written on the prescription. I told the nurse my worries regarding her oxygen and asked her to double check the paperwork. She (at 1st) claimed that she couldn't give info over the phone due to hipaa laws. Knowing that the paperwork I signed specifically said "ONLY Parents and authorized personnel will be allowed to call for information regarding your child"
I calmly explained to her that "I know what I signed, and I know I’m allowed to ask you this information. If you need proof- the nurse's name was Carlos and the dr is dr hauben." She put me on hold for several minutes as my eyes filled up with tears. I couldn't stop thinking about those parents who lost their daughter to the 'flu' when she stopped breathing one night. :'o(
She gets on the phone and tells me her oxygen was only at 91- low'ish' but normal for a child who is sick with a fever. I told her that I thought there was conflicting info because I specifically heard Carlos say 86 while 'freaking' out and rushing us to a room. To 'calm' me down and make me feel better- she welcomed me to bring her back in to re-do her vitals. But ONLY "if it would make me feel better". She would not admit that there might have been a mistake. (of course- she was practicing CYA.) The part that REALLY bothered me about this lady was she didn't even show EMPATHY or UNDERSTANDING that I was CONCERNED about my daughter!
I hang up the phone; I told Jim, "call me crazy, paranoid or perhaps its motherly instinct but no matter WHAT I tell myself I just can't shake this worry.' (Niagara falls at this time) by this time we're already close to the pharmacy and my insecurity melts away as I basically DEMAND that we find a oxygen monitor (the kind for her finger) at Walgreens. Jim didn't want to- but he bought one to 'make me feel better'.
He found one for $50; we took her home and tested it. Sure enough- all night it bounced from 84-93. (Brooklyn didn't want to take it off because she thought it was making her 'feel better' LoL)
Instead of letting her sleep in her bed in her room, I brought out her sleeping bag/bed in our room and laid her on the floor next to me.
By 3:30am, she was restless- oxygen levels were bouncing from 83-87. We got in the shower and let the steam clear her lungs- but she hated it. We gave her medication, pedialite, got out the humidifier and that finally allowed her to sleep for just 2 more hours.
Then- I had to go to work again... (Wednesday morning.) Jim stayed home and by noon he was calling me to tell me that he was FINALLY REALLY WORRIED about her oxygen levels. He's not sure that monitor was right- but just to be safe, he got her in (FINALLY) with the 'closed' pediatrician's office.
Because of how close they were to my work- this allowed me the opportunity to have Jim pick me up for my lunch break and go with them to see the dr. Him and I both knew that I would have my bazillion questions again. We get there- and it’s about a 20 minute wait. Most kids calm down once mommy picks them up and rocks them, right? Brooklyn too! But not this time. It was 20 mins of non-stop-crying. She was uncomfortable. The nurse brought her in, did her vitals and THIS NURSE grabbed the doc right away. They thought the urgent care doc was WRONG to have done basically nothing and that's when Dr Michael started a breathing treatment on her. He advised us that they were going to have to transport her by ambulance to the hospital. Frightened- yet relieved to have an answer I couldn't stop crying (right-along with Brooklyn as she fought the oxygen mask that they forced us to keep on her face.) We had Matthew with us and just one car, so Jim called his mom to come pick up Matt while I was to take Jim's car back to work. Jim jumped in the ambulance as I Matthew and I waived bye to our poor lil' Brooklyn.
I get to work and I'm over emotional. To see my baby in the back of the ambulance- with an oxygen mask and everything- oh- it broke my heart. The gals at work thought I was crazy for coming back so they gave me permission to leave. I grabbed my things and headed straight to the hospital.
Phew- was that a long enough explanation for ya? It turns out she has pneumonia in her right lung. Doc got the test results back and she has influenza type A ALONG with the 2 ear infections. Great news is- her fever is gone. And she's eating and playing again.
Moral of the story- NEVER ignore a mother's instincts- they can save a child's life!
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