We are exhausted.
Tuesday afternoon, when I went to pick Shelby up after her nap, I noticed she was super warm. Warmer than usual after someone has been sleeping. So I took her temperature. 102.2. I gave her some Tylenol and hoped the fever would go down. It didn't. It just kept going up and up, til it peaked at 104.5. Finally, at 4 am, after a blessing, lots of crying and restlessness, we decided to take Shelby to the ER. That is where we met the meanest doctor on the face of the planet.
After waiting a ridiculous amount of time (considering we were the only people in the ER), the doctor finally came in to see us. This doctor apparently never heard the Primary song "Smiles", because he had a permanent scowl on his face. He said he was going to check Shelby out and lunged at her. Yes, he really did lunge. Shelby jumped back to me and started whimpering. I calmly started to explain to her that the doctor was going to look in her ears, and that it would be ok, when Mean Doctor cut me off and told me to hold her arms. "No", I replied. "If you just explain to her what you are doing she will let you do it". "Ma'am", he said in his foreign accent, "let me do my job. Hold her arms." And so began the kicking and screaming.
Mean Doctor said Shelby's ears and lungs were ok, and her throat was a bit red. He simply sent us home with an antibiotic.
The next day, Shelby's fever broke around noon. "Hooray!", I thought. I could not go through another night of that. Well, I jinxed myself. Sure enough, around 5 PM, her temperature started rising. Again, Jeremy gave her a blessing, she cried, we gave her a bath, etc. Her fever finally spiked at 104.9.
So I took her to her pediatrician today. She calmly showed Shelby the otoscope and, without Shelby moving one muscle or uttering one whimper, checked Shelby's ears, nose, and throat. Then she listened to her breathe. She said she wanted to order a chest x-ray and urine sample. (Getting a urine sample from a baby is fun stuff, let me tell you. She was so dehydrated that after an hour of waiting, checking the urine bag, and waiting some more, I finally stuck her hand in warm water and that did the trick.) After everything came back, we got the diagnosis: pneumonia and a possible bladder infection (sample is going to the lab for further test).
Hey Mean Doctor, maybe I don't have an M.D., but I know my own daughter. I know that she hates to be held down, and that if you try to hold her down, she will scream so loudly it will pierce your eardrums. Maybe that is why you couldn't hear the crackling in her chest and accurately diagnose her. So maybe next time, Mean Doctor, you could come down off your high horse and listen to what the mother is trying to tell you.
Hopefully the new antibiotics will help. So far she is sleeping and her fever is down, so that is much better than the past two nights. We are going back for a follow-up on Tuesday to make sure it will be ok for us to fly out to Utah that night. I sure don't want to take a sick child to be around 13 cousins, all of whom are 7 and under.
8 comments:
Poor Shelby. Hope she begins to feel better, and hope you two get some sleep.
Oh my goodness, poor Shelby!! I'm so glad you finally know what's wrong. I know how exhausting it can be, that's for sure. And mean doctors are soooo frustrating! We dealt with one who was the radiologist who did Tyler's ultrasound last month and he was so not kid-friendly, it was sick. And just like you said, I know my child but he wouldn't listen to me and just grabbed Tyler (who had been not sleeping or eating for like 24 hours and was soooo not himself!) and practically threw him on the table and lifted up his shirt and started working away. Tyler was FREAKING out and I wanted to slug the guy. I was so irritated for days after. Frustrating how much we pay these guys sometimes who have no bedside manner. Well, I hope Shelby gets feeling better and that you guys can go to Utah. Poor little girl, I feel so sad for her!
Here's a question: why would you go into medicine if you don't like people?!It completely boggles me how some doctors act like that- like you're bothering them for making them do their job that they studied and worked for to do! Would it be so hard to just listen for a few minutes and try it your way? It would have gotten the same result he was looking for only faster and without all of the tears and wiggling. I am so sorry Shelby is so sick. I said a little prayer for her at breakfast this morning after I read your post. I hope she is feeling better soon. This is the only thing I hate about this time of year- Peyton is basically sick from here until it warms up again because of all of the germs floating around and because his immune system can't handle all of the different strains. I know it will make him a healthier adult since it's making his immune system stronger but for now it's hard to watch him struggle to breathe. Hang in there. We'll keep Shelby in our thoughts!
Thanks, everyone! I took Shelby back today and the doctor comtemplated putting her in the hospital. She gave her one more shot of antibiotics to see if it would help. Fingers (and toes, and eyes) are crossed!
Lexi- I promise every inch of Shelby's room is going to be sanitized so Troy won't bring home any cooties! :)
I'm not worried about Troy- if you and Jeremy aren't sick then I'm not worried Troy is going to get it. Peyton and I will both be sick and Troy'll just skate on by as healthy as ever. I hope the antibiotics do the trick for Shelby. Poor little thing!
I can't tell you how many horrible experiences we have had with Bozo's like "mean Dr.". Same things happens to Ethan, if you explain things, it goes SOOOOO much more better.
That poor little southern bell. :-)
I am sorry that your ER doc was such a jerk...no fun at all. At least it sounds like you have an excellent pediatric doctor. I think something must be going around because it seems like everyone is sick out of the blue. Poor Shelby and poor you because it is sooooo exhausting when you have sick children that cry, and cry, and don't sleep. I hope everything checks out okay and you are able to fly to Utah to visit your family...looking forward to an update...what hospital was your ER doc at? I don't want to end up there!
Gosh, I'm so sorry. I agree with Lexi. Why go into medicine if you don't like people? That makes me so mad!
I hope Utah went well. Lots of love to you guys.
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