Saturday, July 18, 2009

Dr. Visits Galore

This week was all about things medical. It began Sunday evening with Jonathon needing a trip to the Emergency Room for a technical problem - He couldn't pee. He was able to drip some out, but that was it. Since I don't like 3 of the 4 urologists at the local band aid station- I mean, hospital, I decided to take him up to Dartmouth where there is a pediatric urology team. You might think I'm just picky, and maybe I am, but of the ones I don't like, one seems gay, one is REALLY cocky, and the other has no appreciation for the patient wanting to maintain modesty during an office visit. I've never met #4, but it seemed pretty risky to go and expect to get them.

Anyway, I'm glad I drove an hour and a half to the other place so I could get in with the pediatric team anyway. They are so much more sensitive to the overall needs of the child. Both the medical side and the emotional side. They did a great job of trying to make Jonathon comfortable and happy as well as take care of the actual problem.

So, yes, I spent the hours of 10:30pm to 4:30am in the emergency department and then we were transferred to a room in the peds wing. The ER was a little frustrating because the drs there weren't very sensitive at all to the emotional side of things with Jonathon. They just wanted to jab, poke, and everybody take a look. At one point I decided that if someone else wanted to "take a peek" then they were going to have to come up with a pretty good reason why they too needed to see the problem. It's not the same as some cut on your arm- really! And I wish that people in the ER would recognize that and be a little more sensitive that it is a very private area of the body and Jonathon likes to keep it that way.

They also tried to insert a catheter at one point- which is a nightmare for a little boy on a good day, but he was stopped up, so to do that REALLY hurt and bled and kind of freaked him out. To top it off, when it wouldn't go in, they wrote on his chart that he did fine with trying to have it inserted, so later a dr. came in wanting to try again soon and wasn't willing to sedate him before doing so. I was really irritated. First off, Jonathon was obedient and did willingly try the first one. He also didn't cry until the end when it was really hurting, but the poor kid didn't know what to expect and was trusting us to be honest with him about what was going to happen. They did give him a couple of drugs to make him a little loopy, but I'm not convinced that they waited long enough for them to actually be very effective. The other thing the nurse made the mistake of doing was she told him that they wouldn't do it that way again. Then the dr. came in and said the exact opposite. I was MAD. Watch mama bear roar! Ok, I didn't roar, but I was pretty ticked and I let them know it. He's 8 for crying out loud, and you want to just go stuffing tubes up his little thing and then expect him to be ok with it- especially after someone just told him that they wouldn't do it. Hmph!

I knew he was hurting more than he let on because after the attempt failed to get the catheter in, Jonathon went to the bathroom and cried his little heart out. "Please can I just die and be in heaven right now?", he said. "I just want to be in heaven now." I almost melted in to a little puddle right there on the floor. After I finished explaining that he couldn't go to heaven right then, we went back into the room and waited for EVER to be transferred upstairs to a room. Jonathon mercifully went to sleep. I mercifully paced the hall most of the time. They had a very lovely rocking chair/glider thing in the room, but I'm convinced no one had ever bothered to sit in it before it was purchased because it's obvious why no one sits in it now. Note to self: to keep furniture looking nice, pick things that no one would want to sit on. If they would rather stand, it won't get dirty! I've never come across a straight back rocking chair, but that's what it was. Straight up and down from tailbone to the top of my head. I attempted to sit there and rock Renna- who was just along for the ride...well...and the food. I tried a number of slouchy positions and in the end determined that all my efforts were just adding to my chiropractor bill and doing nothing for me in the restful department. I was SO glad when we got moved.

Up to floor 5 they wheeled us. Jonathon in his bed asleep, Renna also on his bed asleep and I just walked along beside anticipating what wonderful chair was waiting for me in the next room. I was pleasantly surprised. When we walked into his room, he climbed into bed and I did too. There was a fold out bed already made up for me to lay down. Renna and I took that spot and we all crashed for about an hour before people came poking and prodding.

In the end, the first attempt to catheter opened things up enough for him to pee on his own and the dr. left him like that to observe if it would continue. So we stayed at the hospital for an ultra sound and couple of urine tests and watched a Sponge Bob marathon, played the Wii, ate peanut butter and fluff sandwich for lunch, and generally had some good mother son bonding time. Jonathon and I have never played the Wii before and I've decided that my coordination skills are severely flawed. Some Mario Brothers game had you using two controls at once and that was more than either of us could handle. So, he jumped and I moved around. We were a great team. In fact in 1 hour we managed to catch all three bunnies. (I think this was just one of those bonus areas in a world, but oh well...we were good!) I got home on Monday at 6pm and was ready to collapse.

Tuesday I spent on the phone making calls about all things dr. related. I also threw in some family vacation planning phone calls too since phone calls were the theme of the day. I tried to make every single phone call I could think of. Get em all out of my system in one fell swoop. Then later that day I took Joseph to his scheduled dermatologist apt. He has an excema problem on his hands and feet and has had it since birth. Recently it's been getting bad enough that it needs some more attention and I was starting to thing he might have some serious allergy or something. We did find out he's allergic to dust, but I don't really think that's why he has the trouble he does. And besides, DUST??? Do you really think I can, as a mother of 6 young dirty rascals really keep a dust free house! HAHA! Get real...and spin the wheel again. Pick a different allergy! Seriously though, the symptoms don't seem to coincide with that allergy very well. We did encase his mattress in plastic and his pillow too. He cried when we took his other pillow away and gave him a new one. The new one is too poofy. And I don't blame him, I would think it was too poofy too. So, we saw the dr. and he gave us some antifungal cream to use and some extra thick grease to moisturize with and an oral steroid. It always takes me a while to remember that oral steroids make my family VERY cranky. I remembered yesterday after Joseph had been taking it for three days and I was ready to kill (figuratively) the kid! We'll see how he goes for the next couple of weeks.

Wednesday we had no dr. appointments, but Jeff managed to add a medical thing in there anyway by bashing his head open on the tractor. Based on the story Rachel told, Jeff was either standing on the tractor and fell and hit his head on the steering wheel, or he was standing on the steering wheel and fell and hit his head on the tractor. Based on the nature of the person, I am tempted to guess the later story. Whatever it was, there was blood everywhere, and he now has a little larger than an inch slit in his head just behind his right ear- which he doesn't have. My daddy raise me well, however and I was able to pull out all my first aid knowledge and determine that I was pretty sure he didn't pass out, his eyes were the same size and not dialated, and he had a nice goose egg, so probably no concussion inside. And once I shaved the hair away from the wound, washed it, iced it and got it to stop pouring blood everywhere, I determined that I could just close it with a couple of butterfly band aids and avoid taking him to the hospital for stitches. So, that's what we did. I love those little butterfly things. They have helped us avoid stitches a number of times. Later that night we got to clean him up again because he picked at it and the blood faucet went full swing again, but thankfully the band aids were still intact. Later someone suggested to me that I could just put a knit hat on him to help him leave it alone. So, I'll tuck that one away for the next head wound I deal with.

Then Thursday I went to the chiropractor where she made me feel like a new woman. One place in my bad was so tight that for the first time, and adjustment REALLY hurt. She said it was aggravated by slouchy nursing and would I please only do 5 things while I fed the baby instead of 8. I thought that was pretty realistic advice, so I took it. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I have nursed and cooked before. I have nursed, cooked and talked on the phone before. I have nursed, cooked, talked on the phone, and zipped up the toddlers pants before. And one time I remember nursing, cooking, taking someone to the bathroom, talking on the phone and answering the door bell pretty much all at once. So, bottom line, it was good advice to cut three tasks out somewhere. I also took Jonathon to his follow up visit with the urologist that day. We discovered that things were going along ok. He has a good stream right now and doesn't need immediate surgery. So we'll go back in a month and see where things stand then.

Friday was vacation day from the doctors. No visits, no ER, no head wounds. Just clean up around the house, gardening, laundry, and good times listening to cute country music songs with my husband that evening. Whew! What a week.

This next week is going to be all about school prep. We are planning to start on August 4th and the week before that it a little family vacation time, so, this is the week to prepare for the school year! Here we go again.