Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Yesterday afternoon/early evening, Grant started screaming...SCREAMING. Not just crying, not just mad - but SCREAMING. He was sticking his hand into his mouth while doing so. I started to wonder if maybe he had an ear infection? A sore throat? He hasn't been nursing well the last couple weeks - so I thought maybe that would add up if his ears hurt...who knows, but the inconsolable screaming paired with my sinus/cold thing, mixed with a complete and total lack of effecient sleep had me near breakdown. Of course it was now 4:30 or so....and where are you going to get a Dr. appointment at that hour. So I asked Bailey to watch Lauren while I bundled up the boy to take him to walk-in clinic. We arrived just before 5 p.m.....to be told that walk-in hours don't begin until 6 p.m. (just imagine what happened next......scroll down)...



You got it. I cried. Now he's crying AND I'm crying. Can't someone - ANYONE just take a peek into his ears? Give me the darn ear-looky instrument and I'll see. But noooooo...and of course, since he's a healthy mere 4-month-old...he's never been to a walk-in clinic before...which means he's a NEW PATIENT...and isn't that so much fun. Here's your 1/2-inch thick stack of paper...now fill it out and come back in an hour. (At this point I'm pretty sure I'll need to be seen too...for a script of some sort of anti-depressant).

So I bundled him up again - walked back outside in the BELOW friggin' ZERO temperatures and started driving. I didn't want to go home, unload him, change him just to have to turn right around and come back...so I drove. And thank goodness...he finally fell asleep. He stayed asleep for the duration of my 1.5 hour wait...that's ONE AND A HALF HOURS of waiting...even though I was the absolute FIRST walk-in patient in the waiting room.

So we are finally seen - they make me strip him naked to weigh him (is that really necessary....he doesn't FEEL WELL!)...now he's really ticked off...and hungry now....and I'm very near a breakdown.

We are finally seen by a nurse or a physician's assistant - heck I don't know - but at least she has the ear-looky thing and a perscription pad...good 'nuff. She looks in both ears and says the left one seems kinda pink. Now - thankfully my kids haven't battled ear infections very much - but when they have - it has always been - WOW - that's really red...or....really infected...or fluid in there...something more than "kinda pink." So now I'm pretty sure his problem isn't ears (which is good AND bad)...but she writes a perscription anyway under the theory that it has been going on awhile - and if she's wrong - one course of antibiotics isn't going to make him resistant.

So now I don't know....do I give him the antibiotic? Do I make another appointment with his REAL doctor? Do I assume it is teething and proceed with seeing someone for an antidepressant for myself?

What a miserable evening.

3 comments:

Andrea said...

Sorry to hear about all the crud you had to go through!! Sometimes, I think the walk-clinics just medicate you and send you off so they don't have to do the research and figure out what is really wrong. I would maybe take him to his ped. if he is still miserable. Good luck. I know it breaks your heart to have little ones unhappy!

Anonymous said...

UGH! BEEN THERE!!!

Muscle test a.k.a. http://www.kinesiology.net/kinesiology.asp

Muscle testing is 100% accurate, 100% of the time, and you can do it right now to find out. There are 3 ways to muscle test if you are alone (more than that if someone else is doing it to you). First test if the antibiotic is "safe", then test if it is "tollerable" then test if it will be "effective". If you get 3 yes's give it to him!

Here are some videos to show you how http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=muscle+testing&sitesearch=

Tracy DeLuca said...

Poor baby! You ANF Grant! I know what thats like. I hope he is feeling better by now. My take would be that it is probably teething. But I would be interested in hearing if you took him in to his regular doctor and found out anything else?