Friday I called the cardiologist to try to get HER opinion about whether or not I should ever worry when you get sick like this...that the infection could go to your heart. Now I know from online research that this is always a possibility...but I wanted her professional opinion about this and whether or not I should worry....and if so..or even if not....how I would ever really know what types of infections I should worry about possibly traveling to your heart and causing endocarditis. I figured if she knew you had a fever for 5 days and was sick...she might think a bacterial infection and prescribe you an antibiotic.
NO such luck. Some nurse calls me back instead.....5-6 hours later.....and gives me HER opinion on everything based by your chart information....telling me you are not even required to have antibiotics before dental procedures...etc. I already knew this and still know this....I am asking about and worried about infections you get.....how long do we let it go before antibiotic treatment because of your heart valve issue.....NO commitment to a definite answer on anything. She sort of rudely referred me back to the family doctor and told me there would be NO physicians who would prescribe antibiotics for anyone with just a viral infection. Now I know this is not true as you Noah have been given antibiotics before with a viral infection.
Regardless I called the family doctor back....got a nurse again...who said she would talk to the doctor and call me back. Now we were just there Thursday and this is Friday morning.....he said NO he will not give antibiotic either unless he SAW YOU AGAIN.......like we will drive 30-35 miles away again to see him and probably be sent home again with ZERO meds and no reassurances? NO...I told her at this point if you still were sick by Saturday morning I would take you to the local ER and let them prescribe an antibiotic as they have before...as they have told me while it may not help you if you have only a virus...it also will NOT hurt you to have the antibiotic.
I am fed up with doctors and medical bureaucracy right now. I am tired of no one committing to anything...pushing us off to someone else over and over again.....getting ZERO answers unless we find them ourselves anyway online....and usually little to ZERO treatment. I am tired of some doctors (like our family doctor) who seem to take offense when you have done your own homework and know more about a subject or illness or condition than they do....and are still old school and believe we should accept anything they say with no questions asked. Sorry...I will never do that again. Has anyone been keeping up with the incompetency of the medical world recently??? A doctor only forms his or her OPINION of what they might believe is wrong with you in an office visit....based on your symptoms. Occasionally an actual TEST might be done to confirm something. BUT the usual office visit diagnoses are made solely on OPINIONs.....opinions are a dime a dozen and we live with our kids and know their bodies and how they function, respond, work, react to treatment and to no treatment. For all sorts of illnesses or conditions. It is time we find a doctor who will actually LISTEN to us and respect us like we should know what we are talking about because we DO LIVE it every day.
Yes....I have an attitude problem right now.
If I ever find out that by letting you go 5 PLUS days with a high fever and infection of some sort...whether it be viral or bacterial....has done any more damage to your heart.....I will be suing some of your doctors big time. There is no excuse for that. In fact...I will be sending a letter Monday to your family doctor and the cardiologist...expressing my displeasure as to how they handled the phone conversations with me.....asking a nurse to call me back instead of they themselves addressing my concerns first off....and then the manner itself with how my concerns were just tossed aside like I had no reason to be concerned.
I am going to be requesting our medical records from the family doctor's office as I will find a new doctor right here in town for us. I am done with this crap.
Meanwhile you went to bed again last night with a rising temperature. I hope and pray today you feel a lot better. You sure do sound like you have a lot of mucus in your chest now, but you don't like to cough or try to bring it up.
I don't understand why ..if I KNOW for a fact you need amoxicillin to get over this.....the doctors you normally see will not prescribe it to you so we can AVOID you getting worse like you are now...which last time led to your getting pneumonia and being treated then with what??????? AMOXICILLIN. Yeah...this is stupid.
The ER docs will prescribe it......unless there is some mass stockpiling suddenly for amoxicillin and they are all hoarding it....there is no explanation as to why the other docs will not just go ahead and give it to you so you will get better and not worse and get over it. Instead we drag this out until you get super sick....which we could avoid if you could just get treatment earlier.
AND it is not like you do not ever complete your course of antibiotics which then makes it less effective on this particular virus or bacteria you might have. YOU ALWAYS complete your course of antibiotics.
I am so mad even today I get ticked off typing this.
I will see how you are this morning when you wake up...if no better...we are going to go to the ER.
Love you so much Noah.
Mommy
XOXOX
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6 comments:
I'm so sorry! THis sounds very frustrating! I sure hope Noah is better in the morning!
I hate to give advise, not knowing the whole situation, but have you tried alternating children's tylenol with children's motrin every 3 hours? It works very well at keeping a fever down. I got this info straight from my doctor, so it's safe.
And Mucinex with the expectorant in it works great for that chest congestion and I think they make it for children, too.
Hope he sleeps well tonight...you, too!
I hope Noah is o.k. and was seen by an ER doctor. Please keep us posted on the little fella.
That doctors office sucks! I can't understand for the life of me why they would want to take a chance at Noah getting an infection? Why not just give him the Amox? Better to be safe than sorry. Sometimes those doctors and nurses have their heads so far up their butts it's unreal.
We will be praying for you and Noah, he must feel so bad being sick so many days, is he staying strong?
Betsy...yes I know all about the alternating of Motrin and Tylenol...we have done that whenever Noah has a fever. It does work well!
He won't take the Mucinex...but I keep Vicks on him to keep the stuff loose and increase his liquid intake....that also helps break it down! :)
hey melinda~
i haven't read through the entire post yet, but didn't Noah go to the dentist recently? If he has a fever and has gone I'd get him checked out, if only for piece of mind. Just my two cents.......
danielle
okay melinda, i've read the whole post, how is noah today (monday)? In addition to the vicks on the chest you may want to put it on the bottom of his feet and then put socks on if he will tolerate it. he will stop coughing in 5 minutes and it does wonders for congestion. they do make a child's mucinex, it comes in granules and you can either put it in something like juice or pop or in food. just my two cents again. just trying to help. good for you to change family doctors, if you aren't getting what you want from your health care provider move on.........you have the right to 'interview' doctors. alot of people don't realize that (yes, i'm a nurse but i have compassion for my patients and after having a child with special needs....i feel your pain, i worked mainly with older patients/internal medicine)
i hope some of this helps. keep you all in my thoughts and prayers.
have a good day and update us when you can.
Danielle
yes he did on Monday....that night is when he started to get sick. He had his teeth cleaned Monday at the Children's Medical Center. I called the cardiologist there and asked them if I should be worried or concerned. The nurse called me back acting like it was no big deal....but I don't think she contacted the cardiologist herself.
I am going to send a letter expressing how unhappy I was with the way this was handled and also asking if I should ever be worried in the future about things like this. I would think a fever hanging on that long...should be a concern....especially AFTER a teeth cleaning.
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