Monday, February 23, 2009

Sick (again!)

Since I went back to work, Pk has been sick repeatedly. Between her going to daycare (where they seem to trade germs back and forth on a daily basis) and the fact that dh and I are both elementary teachers, this poor kid has lost the health lottery, that's for sure. I just hate how little control I have over it. I feel so ineffectual - there is so little I can do and I worry that if I take her to the doctor/hospital/walk-in, I am wasting time and money but if I don't, I am being a negligent mother.

This weekend, we have gone through it yet again. Last week, she got sniffly, seemed like she had a fever and had a runny nose. Her eye teeth look like they are on their way through so I didn't worry too much. Then, Saturday morning, the cough started. It sounds HORRIBLE. It's a heavy bark and she cries after every cough. She was flushed and warm so I started her on Advil. It just got worse and worse. By Saturday night, I was wondering whether it might be croup. She was miserable and wouldn't sleep (such a surprise LOL) and felt like she was burning up. At around midnight, I threw her in the car and we went for a drive with the windows down (the cold air seemed to be helping). I debated whether to go to the hospital and finally decided after an hour of driving and a drive by the hospital, decided to wait.

Yesterday morning, it was bad again. I agonized over what to do. My doctor has asked that we not go to walk-in clinics (she hasn't forbade it but has "asked" us not to - we are registered patients which means that we get wonderful access to her by email and we don't pay for things like notes but she get charged a large fee whenever we use walk-in). I was worried because mum is watching Pk for me this week and I didn't want her worrying about something awful. I didn't really want to take her to emergency because I didn't want to waste time. I HATE these kinds of decisions (I know, I know, I am blowing it all totally out of proportion).

The wheezing got worse all morning and I finally decided to call the walk-in clinic and see what they would suggest. Given Pk's age, they wanted us to go to the hospital. Once dh got back from Home Hardware (a subject for another day - why is that so important that it must be done BEFORE taking a sick child to the hospital????), we went into Uxbridge to the cottage hospital (someone at the hardware store told dh to go there). After two hours of waiting, we saw a very nice doctor for all of 5 minutes. I gather that yes, she does have a fever, yes, her upper chest is very tight, yes, she is wheezing terribly and yes, she does have a "croup-like" cough but no, we don't have anything to help (what I suspected anyway). It's back to the old standbys - the humidifier, running the shower, propping up the head of her bed and basically just wait it out.

On the plus side, I don't have to be worried about pneumonia, I don't have to worry that I am not doing something that I should and I can leave her with mum in good conscience. It just wasn't the best way to spend Sunday afternoon.

Bring on spring and cleaner outdoor air. PLEASE!

2 comments:

  1. Sorry, to hear she is sick again. It's so hard when they are sick. It's hard on them and yet it's hard on us because we contemplate and over think all our decisions on what we should do. I'm with you and am ready for some spring air!

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  2. We have literally had one week of the last four without a day off sick. Really. An EVIL stomach bug followed by strep throat and then a one-night attack of croup. Nice. Of course, we've had croup before enough times that it is second nature to me to just throw a duvet around her and head to the front porch until she can breathe again, then set up the humidifier and so on. I pretty much only go to the doctor now if it is something I think they can really do anything about other than rest and tylenol - strep yes, other stuff, generally no. So much of it you just have to ride out, which sucks, but it does generally get better as they get older. By the time she starts school, she'll be in fine form for not getting much anymore, I'd think!

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