Saturday, April 25, 2009

An Uninformative Visit to the E.R.

My son has been vomiting and had diarrhea for a week now. Naturally, I've been in constant communication with his pediatrician, who I'm sure now officially thinks I'm the most neurotic Jewish mother ever.

Anyhow, his symptoms have essentially remained the same. Until last night, when he actually coughed so much that he woke himself up at 4am to vomit.

Needless to say I was concerned. His sickness has been going on for over a week now, and if we count the previous colds that he has had its actually been a total of three weeks.

So I put another call into the pediatrician's on call line. She told me to bring my son to the Emergency Room. So my parents, myself and my son hit the road and headed to the hospital.



We were seen almost immediately by a resident doctor. He asked me what was happening with my son and I relayed the list of symptoms. I also brought a sample of the diarrhea, which my pediatrician suggested that I do.

The resident looked at the sample and snidely told me 

"Ma'am that's not diarrhea. Diarrhea is pure water"

I was speechless. I didn't want to get into a semantics argument with this doctor about what was or was not diarrhea. 

Anyway, after he asked me a million questions he concluded that there was absolutely nothing wrong with my son.

"Okay, so why is he waking up in the middle of the night to vomit?" I asked him.

"I'm sorry ma'am you'll have to ask your pediatrician about that."

I tried asking him more questions, but his response was the same to each question I asked. So we left with no new information. 

So I returned home only to further harass my son's pediatrician's office for answers. Hopefully they will provide some soon. There is only so much frustration I can take before I explode.

3 comments:

  1. Hmm.. I don't find this little story too reassuring. It's not like you rush to the ER with your baby in the middle of the night, just for the fun of it. And let's face it, the ER is NO fun, and one would only go there out of real concern. I really think you should demand some proper answers from your pediatrician, there might be some tests they can run to figure out why he doesn't get quite well.

    Oh, I hate it some much when they make you feel like an idiot for calling them. Never mind that, you are a super duper mommy, and you're just doing your best to keep your son healthy..

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  2. My mom's theory was that we woke that doctor out of a deep sleep and he was resentful of us for it.

    Therefore, he provided shoddy service.

    But yes. Absolutely. You rush your child to the hospital when you feel it is an urgent matter. And it is extremely upsetting when the doctor patronizes you and makes you feel like an moron.

    However, you are also right that I was doing what I thought was best for my son. Despite the attitude of the hospital staff.

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  3. You would think that someone who wanted to work with children would be a kind helpful person. Not the case at all.

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