just listen to me...i'm the mama...

Today was a very long day my friends...a very long day. I am used to unusual days but today pushed some serious annoyance buttons on this Mama.

Miss Courtney has been fighting some sort of upper respiratory thing combined with a summer cold. Last night she had a third nose bleed in as many days and a fever. The nose bleeds are a new thing and they concerned me. All these things put together are a HUGE indication that something bad is going on and we need to see the Doc.

So this morning I called her primary care Doc and there were no appointments available. NONE! I thought about heading to the E.R. but the last time I did that she ended up catching something worse than an ear infection and we were hospitalized again.

So no E.R.

So one to plan B. Head over to the Urgent Care Center and see what was going on with her. I was told the wait would be about 15 minutes. So I filled out the pre-requisite 50 million pages of paperwork and found a spot in the corner to sit with my girl.

Miss Courtney proceed to sing at the top of her lungs for the next 90 MINUTES!! She was NOT happy and neither were the other patients who had to listen to her. Yep, an hour and a half later the doctor took us back.

Then the Doctor proceeded to have a little freak out. She started asking twenty-one million questions all about Courtney's seizures.

only my daughter can smile in the E.R....

I answered patiently and tried to re-direct her to checking out Courtney' s ears, nose, throat, chest, etc. Yes, she was having more seizures than usual but that's to be expected when she's not well. I was here for the ears.

This doctor would not let it go. I told her I thought she had a sinus infection and possibly an ear infection. I wasn't here about the seizures, I just wanted to see if she needed antibiotics. Her answer..."I just want to make sure we can treat her in this office."

Huh? Um she probably has an ear infection...how hard is that to diagnose...what's the issue? 

So, thirty minutes later she was all wound up saying she thought she heard "rumbling" in her right lung and wanted her to get a chest X-Ray at the hospital and some blood work.

So off to the E.R. we went. As I was driving there I kept thinking about how I considered heading straight to the E.R. in the first place. Should have followed my first instinct. From now on...I would not question myself.

I forget that Miss Courtney tends to intimidate medical professionals who do not know her.

SO, we got there, got registered, informed them of what the Doc had said, were assigned a room and then we waited...

...and waited...

...and waited...

Then the needle pricking and tests commenced.

finally going home...

Have a seizure disorder? The E.R. is here for you. Let's take enough blood to qualify for a donation to the Red Cross.

Have possible pneumonia? Hey, roll that portable X-ray right over here and take some pretty little pictures.

Have a possible UTI? Nurse Shirley is here, so let's cath up baby.

Have a possible blood disorder? Let's take more blood and culture it.

All these tests can back negative I kept asking the Doc to check her ears and sinuses. He kept ordering a different test. "Can't take any chances with a patient like Courtney."

Sweet Mama I was getting a little hot under the collar.

Finally, I help up my hand and said enough. Just check her ears!!

Have an ear or sinus infection? Watch and wait as we take THREE HOURS to do every other test in the book, finally come in, check her ears and nasal cavity and write a prescription for Augmenten.

The moral of the story...be aggressive and demand they listen to you! Don't wait three hours for answers. Ask for the head charge nurse and get the ball rolling. The hardest part of this was the E.R. was very slow. There was no reason for the delays. I know you have to wait for test results but having the Doc ignore my simple requests...totally frustrating to this Mama.

This saga started at 9 a.m. and we walked in the door at 3 p.m. Seriously? SO not cool.

How is she now? Sleeping, soundly. She has had her first round of antibiotics, yummy food and snuggle time on the sofa with her newly returned Papa.

As for me...there is ice cream!