We didn't get to see our usual pediatrician but saw some other guy instead (which was totally fine with us). So it turns out, Shane had an infection in his left ear. No biggie. But it was his first infection in his life. So yea, I guess I would call it a "first 'mile'-stone" (if you got my point). Within the same day, the virus spread, and he caught a cold. Stuffy nose and a phlegmy throat. We were prescribed with the antibiotics amoxicillin clavulanate and was on it for 10 days. The 10 days ended on 30 Jan (Friday).
AND I thought that was it! Woo hoo, baby should be fine. But his vomiting episodes did not stop and his poop was still no where close to normal. After the course of antibiotics ended, his fever came back. He stopped eating his meals. All his favorite foods were thrown onto the floor, stomped on. Wet diapers were few and far between. Something was definitely up. We called the doctor, and the nurse asked us to feed him with pedialyte. Within 5 mins, I was back on the phone with the nurse because he just would NOT take pedialyte. SO she referred us to the ER saying the ER could do something about it and they couldn't do much.
I packed Shane into the stroller and off we went to the ER at the Children's Hospital of Penn. Surprisingly, we saw a doctor within 2 mins (there was just no one at the ER, and NOT because his case was urgent). They asked about all his symptoms, took his temperature (rectal temperature of 102.7 deg F… so yes that's a fever). After asking a series of questions, they decided he had the virus and just asked us to give him pedialyte. Are you serious? No other checks. They didn't do anything with him. The only time they (a nurse) tried to listen to his chest was at the front counter, before we went into the room.
We were brought some anti vomit medicine and a cup of pedialyte for Shane to rehydrate himself on. Haha. if only the boy didn't learn to spit. Clearly spat everything out. Even the coloring laced strawberry flavored pedialyte. (Do you know all flavored pedialyte has food coloring? Why in the world would you put food coloring in a kids 'medicine'?!). I tried injecting 5ml of pedialyte every 5 minutes for an hour as the nurse said we couldn't go until he finished it. (that's a painfully long time). He fought so hard every 5 minutes that he just fell asleep after that. Looking at the half filled cup of pedialyte, I was wondering what time I would actually go home. The nurse came in and asked if he took it (or not), I said "no, but the floor enjoyed some though" and pointed to the wet floor.
Passed out from all the crying
THEN… the revelation came!
The nurse saw him passed out, and I said he slept while breastfeeding. And she simply said "oh, then he doesn't need Pedialyte". Seriously, did I hear something wrong, or was all the doctors and nurses not doing their job. That's the least they could do - to check if the baby was breast feeding ok or not! Within the next 30 mins, we saw the doctor, and we were told to go home then follow up with our regular pediatrician in about 3-5 days.
The next 2 days after ER were still terrible. Shane was still extremely lethargic and edgy, vomitted his food out, lingering fever, bad cold, etc. We couldn't wait 3-5 days, and went to the pediatrician for a walk in visit. So apparently this case would take longer, and they then refused his walk in visit, and we had to make an appointment and return 2 hours later.
This time, the doctor we saw (who was still not really our regular pediatrician, but I like her) did quite a bit of checks. She listened to his lungs, pressed a few areas, and then concluded he had bronchiolitis. Apparently you just have to ride it out on your own. And, she also discovered that Shane's ear infection did not go away (or maybe it did, and came back), and it was spread to the right ear too. She mentioned that since amoxicillin did not work on us, so she prescribed a stronger one. She called it Augmentin. Unlike in Singapore where medicine is dispensed at the doc's office, they sent the prescription to the pharmacy and it had to be picked up. Z picked up the antibiotics on the way home… but one look at the bottle, I knew deep down it was not the right one, because it read amoxicillin clavulanate.
Next, got onto the phone with the owner of practice (who happened to be the doctor on call). I said I think I got the wrong medicine, and he insisted it should have been amoxicillin clavulanate and when i explained to him why i thought it was wrong (because Shane just finished amoxicillin clavulanate like a few days back), he said to just feed Shane the amoxicillin clavulanate (aka wrong medicine), and he will phone me back when he got into the clinic at 9am the next morning) because they were closed.
Clearly 9am came and went. The clinic was closed on saturdays. So I only got my phone call in the afternoon. He clarified that I indeed had the wrong one and sent another script to the pharmacy for me to pick up.
OK, I don't know if you (reading this) would be mad, but I was hopping. This is so not cool. It's not just the co-pays for the medicine, but it was the fact that I fed my kid the wrong stuff. Maybe if you're a doctor and reading this, you think "oh, it happens all the time". But sorry, I'm no doctor. I'm a parent. You don't just go "oops" at someone's life.
Fast forward… The little boy is now a lot more cheerful and bright over the last few days after we started the other antibiotics. He's back to his usual cheeky self, and running around the house like a little monkey. I cannot decide if I like or dislike the healthcare system here in the USA. I think it sucks big time (like the quality you get for all the money you're paying for insurance). But we chose to be in this country, so just gotta suck it up and hope shit doesn't happen to us.
A skinny little boy who lost his tummy and 1lb
