Not The Favorite
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
It's Getting Hot in Here, So Does This Look Infected?
This weekend should have been super fun for Lauren with all the warm weather and a new pool at Nanny’s but instead she was racked with a fever. We were getting ready to take her to New Maryland days on Sat when Jon noticed she was warm, so we gave her some meds to curb the 101 fever and took her to the fair. It was TONS of fun and all kid-oriented. There was pony rides, fun games, a petting zoo, bouncy castles, cotton candy and sno-cones, live entertainment and the fire department was even letting the kids fire the water hose (with help of course).
She had a ball and was feeling alright until we went to my father-in-law’s for supper. She was like rag-doll and whimpered for most of the hour we were there. So when we got her home to find out her temp was 104, we were a really worried. But the medication brought the fever down and the nice tepid bath helped too. Oddly though, when I checked her temp around midnight, it was down to 96 when it should have been 98.6ish
The next morning, she was on fire with 105 and so hot to the touch. But again, meds brought it down to a more manageable number. I took her to Nanny’s in the afternoon to play in the pool to keep her cool and it worked. She was back to her old self but after a quick play in the sun blowing some bubbles, it shot back up again. And again the meds and one really, really deep tepid bath got it under control.
Monday brought much of the same until about 4pm when Jon called me at work to tell me her fever was 107. Needless to say, he drove her straight to the DECH and I called the Princess to drive me up to meet them. Now here is where I got irritated.
I walk in with this super hot toddler, limp in my arms and she’s barely speaking and no one even looks twice at us. The one intake nurse is busy trying to reason with a suicidal guy in handcuffs with two police officers standing there looking at me holding Lauren. I ended up (on the Princesses excellent advice) grabbing the first LPN I saw and telling them that she needed to look at Lauren. So she took her temp and it had gone down a bit to 102, and she didn’t look the least bit worried. Well, I know my kid and I don’t care what that thermometer said, she was hotter than that. Lauren doesn’t start acting like this until it’s 103 or higher. So what do they do? Give her Tylenol and check us again in a half hour. It went down a few points of a degree and they tell us to go to a clinic because it’s too busy. But they’ve called ahead to have us put on the wait list. Gee, thanks.
By the time we got there, the Tylenol kicked in completely and I was starting to wonder why we were wasting our time since I was sure they’d look at this energetic, talkative kid who was playing jumping peek-a-boo games with the lady at reception and tell me I was over-reacting and send us on our way.
But I’m glad we waited those 2 hours. Because as soon as the doctor looked in her throat, he said “Ohhhh, ok” Her tonsils are infected and the size of small marbles. He wrote her a prescription and we were on our way after less than 5 minutes in his office.
Now, why couldn’t the ER nurse at the DECH have taken two seconds to look in her throat? I know she’s not a doctor but I looked in Lauren’s throat last night and it doesn’t take MD to see those huge red tonsils. We could have been in and out by 5pm.
The next time we have an emergency, we’re going to Oromocto.
She had a ball and was feeling alright until we went to my father-in-law’s for supper. She was like rag-doll and whimpered for most of the hour we were there. So when we got her home to find out her temp was 104, we were a really worried. But the medication brought the fever down and the nice tepid bath helped too. Oddly though, when I checked her temp around midnight, it was down to 96 when it should have been 98.6ish
The next morning, she was on fire with 105 and so hot to the touch. But again, meds brought it down to a more manageable number. I took her to Nanny’s in the afternoon to play in the pool to keep her cool and it worked. She was back to her old self but after a quick play in the sun blowing some bubbles, it shot back up again. And again the meds and one really, really deep tepid bath got it under control.
Monday brought much of the same until about 4pm when Jon called me at work to tell me her fever was 107. Needless to say, he drove her straight to the DECH and I called the Princess to drive me up to meet them. Now here is where I got irritated.
I walk in with this super hot toddler, limp in my arms and she’s barely speaking and no one even looks twice at us. The one intake nurse is busy trying to reason with a suicidal guy in handcuffs with two police officers standing there looking at me holding Lauren. I ended up (on the Princesses excellent advice) grabbing the first LPN I saw and telling them that she needed to look at Lauren. So she took her temp and it had gone down a bit to 102, and she didn’t look the least bit worried. Well, I know my kid and I don’t care what that thermometer said, she was hotter than that. Lauren doesn’t start acting like this until it’s 103 or higher. So what do they do? Give her Tylenol and check us again in a half hour. It went down a few points of a degree and they tell us to go to a clinic because it’s too busy. But they’ve called ahead to have us put on the wait list. Gee, thanks.
By the time we got there, the Tylenol kicked in completely and I was starting to wonder why we were wasting our time since I was sure they’d look at this energetic, talkative kid who was playing jumping peek-a-boo games with the lady at reception and tell me I was over-reacting and send us on our way.
But I’m glad we waited those 2 hours. Because as soon as the doctor looked in her throat, he said “Ohhhh, ok” Her tonsils are infected and the size of small marbles. He wrote her a prescription and we were on our way after less than 5 minutes in his office.
Now, why couldn’t the ER nurse at the DECH have taken two seconds to look in her throat? I know she’s not a doctor but I looked in Lauren’s throat last night and it doesn’t take MD to see those huge red tonsils. We could have been in and out by 5pm.
The next time we have an emergency, we’re going to Oromocto.
posted by LadyLipgloss at 10:38 AM
1 Comments:
Effing ER staff at the DECH sucks ... they're right up there with ambulance chasing lawyers and gouging insurance salespeople. Now, don't get me wrong ... not everyone there sucks ... just most of them. I hope the poor little booger is feeling better today.
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