Thursday

Health Note

Hello Ladies,

Here's a little food for thought for all you mothers. I personally know that every one of you is attentive to your children whether they are adolescent or grown, but from my own experience I know that there are times when our work, our health and or other issues render us a little less alert and it's at those times when others can take advantage of us.

That's why I want to share my story about my emergency room experience with my son the other night. Thank the Lord he is fine, but he was complaining two days ago about having chest pain. Now I LOVE this little boy to death, however he can give Denzel a run for his money in the theatrics department, looks too, for that matter, so after a little doubling over and whining, I took him to the urgent care center in my neighborhood.

After the paper work was done, the doctor arrived and asked Theodore questions, like how long have you had this pain (to which Theo answered since yesterday and I had been told today), did you get hit, hurt, are you allergic to anything, and so on. Theodore answered the best he could, then the doctor says well "if there is no known reason why, it could just be .........................".

It was as if he was saying, he's probably fine. At that moment, I felt the need to ask what he thought it could be that we weren't seeing or aware of. He named a few things and said "we could take a chest x-ray and maybe check his blood". So I said "maybe we should" rather than go home not knowing anymore than when we came. He returned to let me know that everything checked out fine.

Then it dawned on me that he hadn't checked Theo's eyes, ears or throat, you know-the basic things doctors do with kids. So I asked if he did those things (for those of you who know me, I did this in as much of a nice and non-threatening way as I could :). He said "yeah I do, I guess I should check them ha?". Right now I'm thinking (?). So he does and then he says "this right eardrum is bulging out, it looks infected, he should be complaining", but Theo had not been and said it wasn't bothering him then.

The doctor prescribed antibiotics (amoxicillin). "Good thing we looked" he said. Again I'm like (?). The nurse came in and handed me the prescription and one pill for Theo to take that night, but for some reason my intuition told me not to give it to me, so I didn't and she made me sign that I was refusing the medicine.

My reasoning was, for one, Theo hasn't taken antibiotics that I know of and I didn't want to run the risk of him possibly having a bad reaction to it and I honestly didn't want to put that in his system if I didn't have to and judging from the doctors lack of common sense, I thought I'd wait and have our regular physician (someone we obvisouly know and trust) check him out. The next day I took Theo to his doctor and explained everything. The doctor examined his ears looking for infection and said Theo's ears were perfectly fine. To satisfy us both he checked again and said nothing was wrong with his ears, and as for the the chest pain it could be a muscular contraction from a little physical activity or growing pains and if it had been anything alarming there would be other systems.............

As I sit here writing this post I am reminded that I should at least make the Urgent Care Center aware of this. Mind you, the doctor will bill me independently of the Center as it's done these days and I will let him know too. I just don't like the idea of feeling like a late night trip to Emergency Room might afford you an examination from a seemingly ER-Temp, making bogus diagnosis'.

So I just want to remind you to ask questions, watch carefully and DO give second thought to what the doctors and nurses say.

Stay Healthy
Love you All

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nina...how aweful! Thank God you persisted and followed up. We went to the ER once to get Hunter stitches on his hand and when we followed up with his pediatrician the next day, he was appalled at the sloppy work they had done and now he has some scarring because of it. What is happening to our health care? I'm all for interns learning as long as they are being supervised by a proffessional! Micky Blythe

the enlightened diva said...

Nina - just want to say hello and blessings to you - and as always 'our intuition' is our most sacred gift ! Happy New Year!

Makeda/ www.jazzmynepr.com

Anonymous said...

Nina...I had a similar experience with Bubba. I had took him to the E.R because to me he looked lethargic, very quiet which we all know that's not Bubba lol..And too they said everything was normal no infection of the ears but he had a lil rash that looked like Chicken Pox. Now the Doc got me thinkin, mind u he has been vaccinated and up to date and here i am thinking..does he really have the chicken pox?...my intuition told me no!! never gave him the meds either..about 2 days later after one of the football practices i decided to head over to Walgreens..I had Trinity in my arms Lani was was in the car exhausted, and Bubba came with me to pick out his favorite "Toy" as we were walking he was having what it looked like a seizure! eyes rolled back shaking..I was already in a panick! As i was making a run for the door to get him back to the E.R his ear popped so bad it was bleeeding and Puss was leaking out!! As im driving back to the Hospital. I Am thinking over all the symptoms that i had went over with the Doc and still it went over his head..I knew it was some kind of ear infection being this is my 3rd child...but instead diagnosed it as chicken pox..go figure!! I agree with Micky they need to be supervised. Glad Theo is ok. And im glad ur back!! And Happy New Year!!
Angie