That's right. We've been sick again. Why can't we just stay healthy and enjoy this summer? Abi started running a fever last Tuesday afternoon. That night she threw up and the next morning she was hotter than before. I decided to call in to work and take her to the doctor, because I didn't want it to be another ear infection because the last one was so scary.
I called the doctor's office and asked if her pediatrician was taking appointments that day. The receptionist told me no and that it was his day off. She had to get sick on the
only day of the week that he's not there. Just a side note about her doctor: he's awesome. I think that we are really lucky to have him as her pediatrician in the hospital when she was born. I was a naive mother (it was my first baby, cut me a little slack) and I didn't know you were supposed to find a pediatrician
before your baby was born. I thought he seemed okay, so we stuck with him, and I'm sure glad.
Anyway, he wasn't so the receptionist asked if I wanted to make another appointment for that same day with another doctor. I said, "yes" mostly because I figured some doctor was better than no doctor, but I'm not so sure about that now. So, I give her some medicine so she's not so miserable and head out to the doctors office. She fell asleep on the way, which I fully expected. When we got into the exam room, she was still asleep, until the nurse had to weight her, then she woke up not knowing where she was, so she was not a happy baby.
I told the nurse that she was running a fever and had an ear infection not too long ago, so I wanted to make sure it wasn't another one. She took Abi's temperature, and she said, "well, it's only 99 degrees right now." What I wanted to say was, "Well, why do you thing that is? Couldn't be because I gave her medicine right before we came, could it?" Instead I told her politely, without the sarcasm. After she left to get the doctor, we found a book to read to get her calmed back down.
The doctor came in and listened to her heart and lungs, checked her glands and said, "let's take a look in her ears and throat," since I had also let him know that she had an ear infection not too long ago. Another note about Abi's normal doctor: when he looks in her ears and throat, I hold her, so she cries, but it's not so bad because Mommy or Daddy is still holding her. I thought that this was normal for doctors when dealing with small children. I was wrong. Again.
He had me lay her down on the exam table and when she started crying, he said, "I've got to go get someone else to hold." Uh, excuse me? Hold? What exactly are you planning? Sounds like you're planning on doing something the hard way. Anyway, he comes back in with the same nurse that we saw earlier and she says, "oh, is someone not cooperating?" Yeah, the
doctor. Whatever lady, I don't like you much anyway.
The doctor takes one look at Abi laying on the table and says, "actually, I'll need her head facing the
other direction." So I pick her up to turn her and the nurse snatches her from me and turns her herself. Abi starts screaming because she thinks someone's going to take her away from me. I felt awful and was thinking, "please, let's just get this over with." The nurse had Abi's arms pinned above her head and I held her legs. This doctor is old, so naturally it took him forever to check her ears and throat. When he finally left to run the strep test, I try to calm Abi down with another book. She stops crying for a second then he comes back in. She buries her face in my chest and starts screaming again. Can someone say "traumatized?"
The results were that she didn't have strep, nor did she have an ear infection, just a throat infection caused by a virus. The only thing I could do is give her fever reducers and let it run it's course, which is sort of awful considering the next day her fever got so high she was delirious. It also didn't help that same day I started to run a fever as well.
Abi's feeling much better now and doesn't have a fever anymore. I still have a little bit of a fever and just got a sore throat this morning. It's nothing a little Advil won't help, though. Kevin seems fine, but he's been working a lot and not been around the sickos too much, thankfully. We'll get through, but next time Abi's doctor isn't in, I think we'll wait until he is.
