mama knows best

when you are a nurse it is hard to judge when to take your child in to be seen by a doctor. you think to yourself, well it could be this, it could be that... or i could be over reacting. you sit and stew, ask your friends, sit and stew and try to make the best decision for your child.

this was me. carson had been coughing and running temps of around 103. could it be a virus? yes, so i sat and waited until day six to take him in. i had recently dealt with strep throat myself, so i was wondering if that could be his problem also. i worked saturday night, got home sunday and went to bed until about 1 pm. when i woke up he was laying on the couch, coughing and chilling, sitting right at 103.5 degrees. ok, so we are going in. shouldn't be to busy on a sunday early in the day.

wrong!! three and a half hour wait, at least. wow. so i utilize my sources and check to see if our other locations are busy. downtown is not so busy and much closer to where im at, so i load carson back in the car and head there. lets just say downtown is not the same as my lovely little hospital. the place stinks of urine and is filthy. gross. i wanted to load him back up and run, but we had already been triaged.

i waited patiently in the dirty little room with car who was flushed and holding his chest, wincing every time he coughed. the RESIDENT came in to see him (another difference between the downtown location and mine) and did a quick history. he felt it wasn't strep, but even if it was, we didn't need to treat it. "strep will go away on it's own eventually." that is something i had not thought of. maybe we could we treat it just for fun? that is my opinion.
his lungs sound really good, so no need for an xray. ok, i thought he sounded a little coarse and diminished, but who am i to question this fine resident.

then an attending comes in. i recognize him as the brother to a doctor i work with. oh good, he will have some sense. and yes he does, he asks all the right questions, states that he will go talk with another doctor and get right back with me. great!! thank you so much i gush.
45 quick minutes later in comes the nurse with discharge paperwork. but you haven't done anything yet i squeak. she says, the doctor wants you to know that if the fever continues for another 7-10 days you should follow up with your primary. so after 14 days of fever i should get checked?
yep. ok then. its now 5:30pm, i left my house around one and drove all over, waited all day for nothing.

today car woke up 103 again, so i called my primary and nobody was there. not sure why the office would be closed, but this is how my luck is running. well, at noon on a monday my little urgent care should be wide open. i load a crying carson up again and head out.

its packed. on a monday. nobody knows why, just a weird thing. great. so we wait again for two hours. carson hates me now. i begin bribing him with all i know - ice cream, toys, money, you name it. we are friends again.

we are seen, the clever little doctor at my nice sweet hospital takes his history and says "well you should always be seen for a fever after five days." thank you sir, i tried. "based on his history im certain its pneumonia, lets get an xray." i love you, finally.
when he got it back, it was a nice large left sided pneumonia with some patches on the right.

antibiotics. thank you. was that so hard? what if i didn't know any better and listened to the folks at the other location? how many people do that? scary. anyhow, all's well that ends well. we have a diagnosis, we have drugs, so hopefully my little rugged boy will be back in no time.