So over the past week, we have been dealing with a lot of sickness.  Started out last Sunday, when my step son woke up with a low-grade temp.  We gave him some motrin, and that seemed to help, and he just kinda rested for most of the day.  He did a great job not getting in the boys faces and we were very happy that he started to feel better that afternoon.

Monday, when my husband called to talk to his older kids, like he does every night before they go to bed, he found out that his daughter was sick.  Only she wasn’t just sick with a temp, she had a fever and was vomiting.  And by the time the boys went to bed Monday night, Ethan had a low-grade temp.  I gave him some motrin and that seemed to settle him down for the night.  When he got up Tuesday, he still had a temp, so I kept giving him motrin and it seemed to help, but you could tell that he still wasn’t himself.

Well, when Ethan woke up on Wednesday morning, he had soars in his mouth, mostly at the back of his mouth, but a couple on the inside of each of his lips as well.  So I called his doctor, and after finding out we couldn’t get in to see them that day, the nurse I spoke with urged me to take him to the ER. So off we went.  Luckily for me, Jason was home so he could hang out with Nathan while I took Ethan.  We chose to go to the ER closest to us, thinking that it wouldn’t matter which hospital we went to, because we would get answers.  I took him to DECH, which is only about 25 minutes away, instead of driving an hour to MCMH.  Now I wish I had just gone to MCMH instead.

When we got there, we had to wait a few minutes, but the intake nurse came right out to get us.  He was a very nice nurse, but being nice isn’t everything.  He was taking down all of the information I gave him, and when it came time to measure him and weight him, I was blown away, when he didn’t have him stand up straight to get a measurement.  Then he put him on the scale with his thick jacket and sneakers on.  Now, I know I’m just a mom and I have no medical training, but in order to get good measurements and a good weight, wouldn’t you think that you would have the patient stand up straight, maybe even take off the sneakers, and then take off the jacket and sneakers to get a good weight?  Yeah I thought so too.

Then came the awkward conversation about taking his temperature.  He wanted to take Ethan’s temperature in his mouth, which I was absolutely fine with, but I wish he hadn’t gone about it in such a harsh way.  He just shoved the stupid thermometer in Ethan’s mouth, without even looking and almost gagged him.  So I was talking to him, calming him down and I asked if he could just take his temperature under his arm and I was yelled at and told that was not ever an acceptable way to check a temperature.  And I said to him, that was the way that we were taught to take their temperature while they were in the hospital for 108 days when they were born, and he decided to tell me that “they didn’t know what they were doing in the NICU” this is when I should have picked up my son and turned around and walked out the door! But i didn’t I just kept my mouth shut and went on with the exam.  Next came the nice throat swab for what we all thought would be strep throat.

After they did the throat swab, they took us to an exam room, and told me not to let Ethan touch anything.  He was to sit on the bed and behave.  Ok, so this was fun for my almost 3-year-old.  Luckily for me, I had a few toys packed in the diaper bag and I could entertain him.  Within 25 minutes, the doctor on call walked into the room and said his rapid strep test is negative, he just has a “common cold” and walked out of the room.  He NEVER once looked him over, and didn’t even think to ask questions or anything.  I was so mad when I left.  But I took the diagnosis and kept giving him motrin for his temperature, hoping it would break on its own soon!

We saw a little improvement on Thursday, his fever seemed to have broken and he was playing a little bit more.  Well come Friday afternoon, he was saying that his mouth hurt and his fever had come back.  So I called the pediatrician again, and this time they thought we should bring him in on Saturday morning.  Well, within 2 minutes of the exam Saturday morning, the doctor determined that it wasn’t strep throat, this without even doing a test for it, and determined that it was a form of a viral infection.  We got some antibiotics and he should be on the mend soon.  The antibiotics are over 5 days and just twice a day, but just day 2 into the meds, he is already showing signs of improvement.

Because the ER didn’t catch this tho, now we are looking at a possible procedure to drain a lymph node because the infection is in there and it may have turned into an abscess.  Now we need to keep an eye on it, and pray that the antibiotics help him.

I am just saddened to think that had the hospital taken the time to treat my child the way they should have, I feel as though this would not be happening.  We would have been on the antibiotic 3 days earlier and he would be fine.  So please find it in your heart and say a prayer for him, that the antibiotics will fight this and they won’t have to drain the infection out!