Joey's had a bit of a cough this week. However, today he started to crash- didn't eat his lunch, kept putting his head down, and finally got a trip to the nurse, but no fever. Then at OT, he complained his ear hurt (and kept putting it against warm things). Ear infection? Imitating someone at the nurse's office? Just a little fluid in the ear from the sniffies? There is only one way for me to find out.
Off to Medic 1. For those of you unfamiliar, Medic 1 is a walk-in "emergency clinic". If I try to call my regular doctor at 5 o'clock on a Thursday night to say my kid might have an ear infection, I might be able to get in next week (my regular doc is off on Fridays). With the Medic 1, I can walk in and see a doctor within two hours. I miss my old country doc who would see you within about twenty minutes as a walk-in (and was NEVER late for an appointment), but this will do in this day and age.
We go to Medic 1 enough that we know most of the evening-shift docs and PAs, so it isn't a huge issue of new-ness for Joey. We sat in the lobby for about an hour, talking about nurses and doctors and what each would do for him. We played duck-duck-goose, and each time I was the goose, I'd grab him and smooch him, which he thought so funny he had the other sick folks in the waiting room giggling.
When the nurse called us back, he got right up on the scale, took his temp orally (!) and did the finger-clip thing. Five minutes later, the nice lady doctor comes in, and Joey looks up and says, "Oh, hi, it's you!" and hops up on the table. She talks to me for a minute about what the problem is and what his symptoms are, that sort of thing, and she asks him a few questions (to which she got various not-very-relevant answers, but he did try) before pulling out the stethoscope. Upon viewing the stethoscope, Joey starts "taking deep breaths" (I have no idea how she heard anything through the noise). Peek in the ears, peek in the throat, peek in the nose, all cool.
Pronouncement: allergy or virus. Have a nice night.
That's right, no push of antibiotics. No lecture for wasting time of the doctor. No fuss, no muss, check him out, tell em straight up, and send us on our way with a recommendation to use adult Robitussin instead of crappy kid stuff.
Now that's the way I like it.
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4 comments:
Hope he feels better soon! Allergies...mold is high this time of year w/the rain and slightly warmer daytime temps. Niksdad and I both are sensitive and I get a slightly tender eustachian tube.
Warm compress helps sometimes, too. Hugs!
We fought a constant battle with Ben, trying to determine if it was a virus or allergies. In preschool, he had to take antihistamines to sleep at night, or he would be coughing all night. We KNOW he was allergic to grass, other than that...
Dang kid never had much of a temp anyhow, ever. Maybe 102 at the extreme three or four times in his young life. The doctor said he had a great immune system.
We just got to the point where we believed him if he told us he was sick, and he stayed home. If he said he was okay, he went to school. He was never one to avoid school, anyhow. (I would fake it to get out of a speech, or any other agonizing item.)
Sounds like a very pleasant doctor's visit, which I feel is kind of rare these days. I'm glad his ears aren't infected. I feel like I am always getting lectures in classes about ear infections!
We got the 'allergy diagnosis too. Dr recommended the claritin dissolve tabs and it seemed to work rather well for Liv, ceptin' she was pretty dopey today, could be the '6 and up' dose (she's 6). Cough is gone, as is the rash...
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