The Anatomy of a Doctor's Visit....

***I love my children's pediatrician office, my doctor and all emergency services available to my family. We receive our care at a nationally recognized teaching hospital. With this comes many positives, but there are negatives as well. I will say this again, I love my pediatrician's office. It is worth it, except when it isn't.***

Yesterday Lilly was sick. 103 degree fever sick for over twenty-four hours. This is frightening, but not ER, $5000 deductible frightening. So I waited until this morning to take her into Urgent Care. Now, let me explain Urgent Care at our pediatrician's office on a Monday morning . It involves about twenty-two children all with snot running every which way, coughing to rival any earthquake and caregivers exhausted from the constant whining of said young ones.

We had no appointment, but miraculously, we only wait an hour and half. I'll be honest, the way things looked in the "sick" waiting room, I didn't think we would emerge until Saturday. Lilly's temperature was down, of course, and she seemed in high spirits, of course. However, her throat and head hurt, and her tonsils were swollen and white things were growing on them. Immediately, the nurse put on plastic headgear, we were rushed to the examining room, and a doctor/resident/med student was there within minutes. The "quick" swab was taken and rushed to the lab. It would be mere minutes and a diagnosis would be made. The wheels of medicine were in motion.

Thirty-five minutes later, I couldn't stand it and exited the room with Lilly to find a bathroom. I left the door open and my purse inside. We returned not five minutes later, and my purse was gone. GONE! I found the nurse in charge and told him my purse was stolen. Stolen right there from this waiting room. I thought the poor man was going to have a heart attack. Turns out, we were gone a whole minute and it was assumed we gave up and left and my purse was taken to the front. Crisis avoided, but still no test results.

I should have known when it took forever for the results to come, that the staff no longer felt we were important. We didn't have the deadly strep, or any other bacterial infection that meant antibiotics. I was right. We had a virus. We would have to wait 24 hours for the real culture to come back, but we are "assured" this is nothing. Just a virus. I consider this a failure. If we spend three hours in urgent care, something must be wrong. Nothing major of course, just something that can be cured by two days of Amoxicillian. $40 co-pay and they tell me it is a virus. Are they crazy? I want strep throat. I want an ear infection. Why else in the world would I go to Urgent Care? I am not insane. I have better things to do with my life.

Whew. Ok, I am alright now. I don't want any of these things. I want my kids to be healthy and never have a fever and run willy nilly through life with happy thoughts and visions of Yo Gabba Gabba running through their heads. But when this isn't the case, I want miracle drugs to be given to my kid. A virus? Isn't this 2010 and shouldn't there be a cure for the common cold by now? And once I am done bemoaning my poor little life, I begin to think about Haiti, and now Chile and all the other nations, TO INCLUDE OURS whose children never get vaccines and where there isn't even a nurse or a doctor to look at their poor sickly bodies. I remember this, at least I will try.

And since I haven't posted one of these in a while...


happymommy

PS: Remember the Mt. Eden Basketball Team I encountered? I took the time to email their school and tell them how proud they should be of their students. The response I received back was overwhelming. So, if you ever encounter any group of young people, be sure to follow through with a compliment. It will mean the world to the staff and young people you are praising!