Our Primary Care Physician is the most beautiful caring woman you’ll ever meet. And she has this nurse who is equally as beautiful, kind and patient. The nurse is no nonsense, where our physician will come in blowing bubbles in a kids face – they are the perfect pair and we couldn’t love them more.
This week our physician is on vacation, a well deserved vacation. How do I know this? Because as much as we lover her – so does everyone else! She is impossible to see, you must schedule your illness 3 months in advance. So unless you are critical, you will end up seeing one of her associates.
AND THAT IS WHERE THE PROBLEM BEGAN!
The first associate is a male doctor who is a bit of an old lady. I love him, he worries about everything. You always feel as if he’s just as nervous about whatever it is as you are, but he has the know how to get stuff done. He’s Richard Kind in every bumbling role – he knows just who you should see and talk to even thou he appears somewhat fumbling.
Then there is the Nurse Practitioner – she likes to “wait and see.”
This is where my story begins.
My newly 4 year old Autistic daughter started vomiting every night, just days before her 4th birthday. She has NO OTHER SYMPTOMS. She wakes up some time after 12:30am, vomits almost the complete contents of her stomach, falls back to sleep, only to awake a half hour later to empty her remaining stomach content. Then my little Treasure will fall back to sleep, wake up in the morning fully rested and ready for preschool – LIKE NOTHING EVER HAPPENED! Night after night!
At first I thought it was a change in her schedule, but it just kept getting worse. Earlier that month we thought she’d had a UTI, but that tested negative and now this.
I called the office to be informed that our Primary was on vacation, but we could see either the NP (Nurse Practitioner) OR DR Fumbling. Knowing the NP’s “wait and see” attitude, I chose wisely – Dr Fumbling.
We went in, saw the nurse, saw the doctor, he ordered another urine – it amazes me how a UTI causes babies, toddlers and old folks to move into the crazy zone to such an extreme. The doctor told me “I want to run another urine to make sure it‘s not a UTI, before I put her on medication. If it‘s not a UTI, it‘s probably Acid Reflux.” Ok, we had a plan, fingers crossed, get the pee, get the pee back to the lab, and pray for a better night.
We did not have a better night. We had the absolute worst night ever. My poor little Treasure vomited until she went completely limp. She finally stopped long enough where I felt I could change out of vomit ridden PJ into some kind of acceptable clothing to rush her into the ER.
I left Treasure on the couch, ran into the bed room and by the time I had dug yesterdays bra out from the hamper I could hear her giggling on the couch. It was over. I couldn’t bring her to the ER now, they’d think me nuts!
I walked slowly out to the living room expecting to see nothing short of the Exodus and there sat my little girl playing with her toes. Treasure is autistic so she doesn’t communicate much even thou she talks almost obsessively at home. With a BIG old smile on her face she started singing “If you‘re happy and you know it”
I pulled the second strap over my shoulder, picked up my daughter and brought her back to bed, both of us laughing and giggling, with big hugs and even a good night kiss. I left her in room to play/sleep/giggle (that‘s another story) and I went back to bed. She sang for 3 hours before drifting back off. The next morning up she was just as chipper and energetic as ever.
I brought her to school, dropped the ’sample’ off at the lab, gave them what I felt was an adequate amount of time to look at said sample before calling the office to see if they found anything floating in her pee that would explain what the hell cause the demon possession I witnessed in the wee hours of the morning.
I explained to the ‘other’ nurse, that my daughter’s one symptom had become dramatically worse. Vomiting so violently that she had gone limp, unable to even keep her head up.
The ’other’ nurse spoke with the NP and called me back and I was told this: “the ‘covering’ Doctor who saw Treasure yesterday isn’t in today so the NP doesn’t want to do anything until Treasure sees DR Fumbling tomorrow – if it happens tonight take her to the ER. ” {Oh Yeah? LIKE HELL!}
{sarcasm} The next time I call, I’m going to inform the ‘other’ nurse, that before she relays anything stupid, that I am an Orange Belt and breaking boards with my bare feet is my specialty – imagine what I could do to someone’s ass with my sandals on SMILEYS!! {/sarcasm}
But I digress. I didn’t know if I was going to Cry or Kick something. It wasn’t a matter of IF but WHEN.
I called back and told the ‘other’ nurse that allowing my poor baby to suffer through another night of agony because the NP wasn’t willing to see my daughter was UNACCEPTABLE. I would NOT allow her to suffer through another night after DR Fumbling had already told me that if her urine was clean he was going to put her meds for acid reflux. I was only calling in to see what and how much I should give her.
The ‘other’ nurse felt she had a sound argument when she informed me that “The medication probably wouldn‘t work immediately anyway” To me that sounded like a reason to start pumping them into her sooner than later.
I told the ‘other’ nurse that there is an entire wing of pediatrician on the other end of the build and that they must schedule there patients differently because there is always someone available and low and behold there was!
The Pediatrician we saw was amazing – she set up blood work, scheduled an MRI, and explained the possibilities – many of them are not pleasant. We’re hoping it’s simple reflux, but there is a possibility of seizures. As much as we hate to hear what she has to say, it’s a relief that someone is actually doing something.
It kills me to remove Treasure from our primaries care, but with Treasure’s inability to communicate I need someone who I can see on demand in cases like this one. I can’t gamble that my baby may have to see the “Suffer through it – Wait and See” Nurse Practitioner.
I called to have Treasure transferred and I already feel a great relief, I just hope our Primary will forgive me!