Sometimes I feel like I've dealt with the...bottom of the barrel when it's come to medical care out here. Don't get me wrong, we have had some excellent doctors, but there was that one nurse that used the adult sized finger stick device on M when she was just 19 months or so, and then tried to cover it up when she noticed her error. Then there is now. For about 6 months (maybe longer) M has been complaining of irregular stomach pains. I hadn't been able to find a rhyme or reason to it. It always happens in the morning with the first food/drink of the day. The first thing she use to have each morning was hot cocoa. Since I'm lactose intolerant I thought it might be milk, so I put her on Lactaid milk, but it made no difference. I posted about it on facebook and a lot of people suggested that maybe having cocoa first thing was upsetting her stomach. So then I started making sure she ate first thing, but it kept happening. I've mostly ignored it, but worried that maybe it did mean something. So finally I called the doctor to see what he thought and he wanted her to come in and be seen. We went in. He was a very good and thorough doctor. Stomach pain is so general though, that finding out the cause (even though he acknowledged they may never know the cause) would take a lot of tests. Great. I half wished I had just kept quite over it because she is growing great and it's just something that comes here and there, and then goes away. Too late for that though. The doctor wanted to order a bunch of blood work, and urinalysis, and an X-ray and ultrasound of her abdomen. I fully expected that the only thing they might find was an allergy to some obscure food. So, after her appointment I went to pick up the Rx's from the front desk. This is where it got all weird and I really should have pushed to get the doctor involved to clear things up. The gave me 3 Rx's: one for an allergy panel (which looked fine to me), a KuB (which the nurse said was the x-ray/ultrasound), and an EKG. I was completely at a loss as to why she needed an EKG because it hadn't been discussed. I asked the nurse and she said she didn't know, but that it had been ordered. I figured the doctor must have forgotten to mention it. That was my first mistake...not pushing further and trusting my instincts. My second was getting the blood work done first. We went in with her urine sample to have her blood drawn. The nurse said there was nothing on her lab work that required her urine, but she took the sample (and I'm sure dumped it as soon as we left). M screamed her head off getting her blood drawn. Everyone in the waiting room gave us sympathetic looks as we left. The next day we went in for the EKG and that was a fiasco. M was still traumatized from the blood work and didn't want any of the stickers on her chest or to be connected to cables She screamed her head off again. The nurse asked me, "Do you think you can get her to lay down and be quiet"? I told her "no." (Which was a really nice response considering all the things I was thinking in my head. M did not lay down and did not be quiet. He read out showed extreme distress. You think?
*Sigh*
After the EKG I was even more frustrated with the fact that I didn't understand why she needed an EKG. I had to go back to the pediatric office again to pick something else up and questioned them again as to why she needed an EKG. They couldn't tell me.
The doctor called last night and one of the first things he asked was, "Now why did [M] have an EKG? Did some other doctor order that?" At that moment I seriously wished I could breath fire or shoot laser beams out of my eyes. Her EKG readout came back showing the distress she was under, but since it was an unnecessary test we won't have to redo it. Her allergy panel came back showing a slight allergy to eggs. That wasn't shocking. I gave her eggs when she was 10 months old and she broke out in hives, but nothing has ever happened since. Eggs happen to be one of her favorite foods. I still don't know what we will do about that. He asked about the rest of the blood work he ordered and I told him I only received the one Rx. Apparently there were a bunch of other tests he wanted done. The nurses never gave me that Rx. That means I have to take poor M in for more blood work. Poor child. Also apparently they wrote the Rx wrong for the ultrasound/X-ray. That is scheduled for Wednesday so hopefully the doctor can get things straightened out between his office and the hospital by then. He is very good though and even gave Mr. N and I his cell phone number so we can get it straightened out.
He also suggested it might be good to take M to a Pediatric Allergist.
Still..life really is good. It's stinking hard sometimes...wait...most of the time...but it's still good. Things like when M and I went grocery shopping and she helped me husk the corn we were going to buy. She was so excited to find corn under all that green stuff. Then she picked out a watermelon and insisted on carrying it all the way to the register (luckily it was the last thing we grabbed.) Then there are the hugs I get from L...she has a way of almost molding herself into you when she hugs...almost like she is trying to become part of you. There are so many wonderful little things that make it all worth it.
*Sigh*
After the EKG I was even more frustrated with the fact that I didn't understand why she needed an EKG. I had to go back to the pediatric office again to pick something else up and questioned them again as to why she needed an EKG. They couldn't tell me.
The doctor called last night and one of the first things he asked was, "Now why did [M] have an EKG? Did some other doctor order that?" At that moment I seriously wished I could breath fire or shoot laser beams out of my eyes. Her EKG readout came back showing the distress she was under, but since it was an unnecessary test we won't have to redo it. Her allergy panel came back showing a slight allergy to eggs. That wasn't shocking. I gave her eggs when she was 10 months old and she broke out in hives, but nothing has ever happened since. Eggs happen to be one of her favorite foods. I still don't know what we will do about that. He asked about the rest of the blood work he ordered and I told him I only received the one Rx. Apparently there were a bunch of other tests he wanted done. The nurses never gave me that Rx. That means I have to take poor M in for more blood work. Poor child. Also apparently they wrote the Rx wrong for the ultrasound/X-ray. That is scheduled for Wednesday so hopefully the doctor can get things straightened out between his office and the hospital by then. He is very good though and even gave Mr. N and I his cell phone number so we can get it straightened out.
He also suggested it might be good to take M to a Pediatric Allergist.
Still..life really is good. It's stinking hard sometimes...wait...most of the time...but it's still good. Things like when M and I went grocery shopping and she helped me husk the corn we were going to buy. She was so excited to find corn under all that green stuff. Then she picked out a watermelon and insisted on carrying it all the way to the register (luckily it was the last thing we grabbed.) Then there are the hugs I get from L...she has a way of almost molding herself into you when she hugs...almost like she is trying to become part of you. There are so many wonderful little things that make it all worth it.
2 comments:
So, I would say he has crap nurses that mix up paper work. Cause some nurses are the daftest people I have ever met. Like the one that told Dave & I we were going to die of Hep A when we were newly weds and all we had was mono. Geeze. They think they're doctors, but they aren't. Anyways, most doctors will remember ordering an EKG for a kid. I hope you find out what's bugging her, though. It's so hard to see little ones deal with tummy pains.
I feel exhausted for you and cute M just reading about all of this. Hopefully you'll get the answers you're looking for quickly, you are such a great mom!
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