Okay, the latest chapter in the Sickie Saga goes a little something like this: We woke up Friday morning to Livvi having rattling in her chest for the first time. Wonderful! I watched her and she just kept getting worse and worse :( Her eyes were bloodshot and she just looked miserable. At about noon she started having problems breathing, like Street. I decided to get her in to the Doctor so that if they wanted her on the nebulizer treatments as well, we could get started on them.
Before I continue in the Saga, let me first recap what happened in the previous chapters. And also, let me first just say how difficult this whole taking two sick babies to the dr has been. Livvi started later than Street with her symptoms so she wasn't as bad as him to start out with. The first appt I took both of them, they said Street had bronchiolitis and Livvi just had a cough but there was nothing in her lungs. They wanted Street to come back in two days for a follow up. I asked if I could bring Livvi then if she was sounding bad and kill two birds with one stone. They said I would have to call that morning and see if they could get her in as well but there was no guarantee. The morning of Street's follow up Livvi was doing a little bit worse and I KNEW it was progressing just as Street's had. I called and asked if I could bring her with me. They finally said "Yes" after a guilt trip of "Hmmm, lets see, I don't know if we can work her in. Let me see if I can work something out." I took her with me, Street was even worse but the doctor acted like it was no big deal and that there was nothing we could do about it. Then he looked at Livvi and said she still wasn't bad enough to do anything about it. I tried to tell him that it was JUST like what happened with Street, that I knew eventually it would be as bad as him, and can he please just prescribe me the Albuterol for when she does get that bad because it is SO HARD taking them both out! Nope. Not gonna happen. That night Street was so bad I literally thought he might stop breathing all together and he had a 100.3 degree fever. AH! I was so frustrated! I felt like the doctors weren't taking me seriously and weren't trying to help my babies at all. I called the doctor the next day, told him Street had had a fever and he ordered a chest X-Ray to see if it was pneumonia so I went back in with Street only this time and had the X-Ray done. Doctor calls 30 minutes later. No Pneumonia, he's fine. Grrr! I KNOW this is more serious than they are saying! They don't see what happens to him at night time and they won't listen when I try to explain!
Okay, we are now caught up, continuing on with the latest chapter: Livvi is now really sick, wakes up with rattling. I get her in by herself (this is now day five of going to the doctor with sick babies) and had the WORST experience I have EVER had with a doctor. She first took her oxygen. The monitor said 89. Anything below 95 is bad, anything below 90 is admitted to hospital. Livvi started screaming when the monitor was on her toe and it shot up to 97. "Oh good!" The nurse says, "She's a 97." Wait, what!? When she wasn't screaming she was at an 89. Its not like she is screaming all day long so don't we want to know what her O2 is at when she is not screaming? Totally didn't get that. I made a mental note to ask the doctor about that. Then, the doctor comes in, listens to her chest. "Yep, she has bronchiolitis." Big surprise there. I coulda told you that, just like I told the doctors the three other times I went in that she was starting to get it. She says she wants to do a treatment to see if it helps her and if it did, then she would prescribe it. We do the treatment, the doctor comes back in, Livvi is calm and not screaming this time, O2 is at 85. Ah! Doctor says we need to do it one more time, if it isn't up over 90 then she has to spend the night in the hospital. We do the treatment, Livvi starts screaming when they put the monitor on, 98. "Yay!" says the doctor. Well, she was crying again. How do we know that at rest her O2 wasn't too low? I ask this question, very calmly I might add, and the doctor snaps, "It doesn't matter, we got it in the 90's." Ok, maybe I don't understand how this works. I wish she would explain it to me. Doesn't matter, Livvi is getting what she needs. Then she tells me Livvi needs to be on an oral steroid to clear it up. Perfect! I have been wanting both of them on the steroid so that they could get better but no one would listen. They kept telling me Street wasn't bad enough. HELLO! You haven't seen him at night! He is most definitely bad enough! If Livvi is bad enough, then Street is DEFINITELY bad enough because he is a million times worse. I try to explain this to the doctor and I can see her getting more and more annoyed. She kept saying, "He probably isn't worse than her, its probably just phlem and it isn't in his lungs." I calmly tell her that YES it is in his lungs, it has been since the very first appt! She basically tells me I don't know what the heck I'm talking about. I ask her if I can bring him in to her so that she can listen to him and then she will see how badly he needs it. "No, sorry, we don't have anymore appointments today." What!? An 8 week old baby isn't breathing and you don't have any more appointments? By this point I am pretty mad, but still keeping my cool. Then, she says, and this is the climax of the story, "Now, Mom, you need to stop being so stressed. Your babies are feeding off of it and its making them worse." AH! Ok, so now I'm making them sick. First I was just imagining that they were sick, and now I'm the cause of their sickness. Tears started streaming down my face and then she says, "And you really need to be napping when they are napping" and the hidden words that are going through her head are, "because you are a basket case and if you were sleeping you would know that this is no big deal". The clincher is that I had JUST told her that I have a three year old at home, so she should know that I CAN'T sleep when the babies sleep because I have another child to take care of. I can't even respond because I know I will burst into tears. After about 2 minutes of her typing away on her computer and me sitting silently in the corner, crying, and shaking because I'm so mad I say, "I have just seen so many doctors and they are all telling me different things and I'm not getting answers." She gives me an annoyed look and doesn't say anything. I try to bring up Street one more time and she won't hear me. She says, "If you think he is really bad you can try and get him in tomorrow if we have any openings." Then she quickly says, "Ok, I sent your prescription over, have a good day!" and walks out. I leave fuming mad head over to the pharmacy and lo and behold, there is no prescription there. The pharmacy says it probably just hasn't gone through yet and they will call me when it does. Big surprise, never get a call, the stupid doctor didn't even send the prescription over for my struggling-to-breathe baby.
Rick and I took care of the babies for the evening as they struggled to breathe and kept getting fevers. We fed them at 9:30pm and put them down. I crawled into bed at about 10:30pm. Next thing I know, its 4:30am and the babies hadn't gotten up to eat yet. We heard weird noises from the crib, we run over and Livvi is barely breathing. She is making these quick, short gasps. We grab her out of her crib, quickly turn on one of Street's treatments (because we didn't have Livvi's prescription. AH!) and after a few minutes there was no progress. Rick threw her in the car and went straight to the ER. I called Micah to come over (THANK YOU Carly and Micah!) and then threw Street in the car and headed over with him. I don't care if he wasn't as bad as Livvi was in that moment, they were going to see him! By the time Rick pulled in Livvi was doing a little better. I got there about 15 minutes later and we got Street hooked up next to his sister. They both had fevers, they both had chest retractions, their O2 was looking okay (thankfully!), but their lungs sounded awful! The ER doctor was amazing. We should have just gone there the first night and saved us all this headache. They immediately said Street needed an oral steroid, no doubt about it. It was crazy that he wasn't already on it! The took chest XRays of both of them and the doctor came back and said that they both have bad RSV. (Sidenote: I have been asking all the doctors if it was RSV and they wouldn't say it was, they just didn't want to check). They both got sent home with Albuterol treatments and oral steroids. My favorite thing that the doctor said was "Just be vigilant like you have been doing. You know when something is wrong and you feel uncomfortable. If you are worried, bring them in." THANK YOU! VALIDATION! I swear a mother's (or fathers) intuition is far better than a doctor who has never even seen your child. (Another side note: I think most doctors are incredible, listen to their patients, and make great diagnoses. I am in no way saying doctors are dumb, I am just saying that the doctors I saw this week are dumb. Ha!) So, we are home now, babies are still really sick and have fevers and are coughing their heads off, but for the first time this week I feel calm. I feel that they are finally being taken care of the way they need to be. Phew!
Here are some pics from the hospital. Luckily, Rick had his phone, because in my moment of sheer panic, I didn't think to grab my camera ;) Shocking, right? Sorry the quality isn't that great.
.....just got back from the pharmacy, the series of unfortunate events with the latest doctor continues. Ya know how I said that she didn't call in Livvi's medication? Turns out she actually did call it in, only it was for the wrong baby! Ya, she called it in for Street. She saw Livvi, she wouldn't even talk to me about Street, and then she prescribes the medication for Street. Oh, and she told me that Livvi should have a different mist called Zofranax instead of Albuterol. I asked the ER doctor about that and he laughed. He said there is hardly a difference and Zofranax is way more expensive. I find this out when I go to pick it up and it is $150 instead the $8 that Albuterol is. Oh my goodness, my frustration with this doctor is getting worse and worse.
Sorry to rant and rave. This experience has been very frustrating! Also, I wanted to document how their illnesses progressed for future reference. I'm sure not many of you are still reading :)
Before I continue in the Saga, let me first recap what happened in the previous chapters. And also, let me first just say how difficult this whole taking two sick babies to the dr has been. Livvi started later than Street with her symptoms so she wasn't as bad as him to start out with. The first appt I took both of them, they said Street had bronchiolitis and Livvi just had a cough but there was nothing in her lungs. They wanted Street to come back in two days for a follow up. I asked if I could bring Livvi then if she was sounding bad and kill two birds with one stone. They said I would have to call that morning and see if they could get her in as well but there was no guarantee. The morning of Street's follow up Livvi was doing a little bit worse and I KNEW it was progressing just as Street's had. I called and asked if I could bring her with me. They finally said "Yes" after a guilt trip of "Hmmm, lets see, I don't know if we can work her in. Let me see if I can work something out." I took her with me, Street was even worse but the doctor acted like it was no big deal and that there was nothing we could do about it. Then he looked at Livvi and said she still wasn't bad enough to do anything about it. I tried to tell him that it was JUST like what happened with Street, that I knew eventually it would be as bad as him, and can he please just prescribe me the Albuterol for when she does get that bad because it is SO HARD taking them both out! Nope. Not gonna happen. That night Street was so bad I literally thought he might stop breathing all together and he had a 100.3 degree fever. AH! I was so frustrated! I felt like the doctors weren't taking me seriously and weren't trying to help my babies at all. I called the doctor the next day, told him Street had had a fever and he ordered a chest X-Ray to see if it was pneumonia so I went back in with Street only this time and had the X-Ray done. Doctor calls 30 minutes later. No Pneumonia, he's fine. Grrr! I KNOW this is more serious than they are saying! They don't see what happens to him at night time and they won't listen when I try to explain!
Okay, we are now caught up, continuing on with the latest chapter: Livvi is now really sick, wakes up with rattling. I get her in by herself (this is now day five of going to the doctor with sick babies) and had the WORST experience I have EVER had with a doctor. She first took her oxygen. The monitor said 89. Anything below 95 is bad, anything below 90 is admitted to hospital. Livvi started screaming when the monitor was on her toe and it shot up to 97. "Oh good!" The nurse says, "She's a 97." Wait, what!? When she wasn't screaming she was at an 89. Its not like she is screaming all day long so don't we want to know what her O2 is at when she is not screaming? Totally didn't get that. I made a mental note to ask the doctor about that. Then, the doctor comes in, listens to her chest. "Yep, she has bronchiolitis." Big surprise there. I coulda told you that, just like I told the doctors the three other times I went in that she was starting to get it. She says she wants to do a treatment to see if it helps her and if it did, then she would prescribe it. We do the treatment, the doctor comes back in, Livvi is calm and not screaming this time, O2 is at 85. Ah! Doctor says we need to do it one more time, if it isn't up over 90 then she has to spend the night in the hospital. We do the treatment, Livvi starts screaming when they put the monitor on, 98. "Yay!" says the doctor. Well, she was crying again. How do we know that at rest her O2 wasn't too low? I ask this question, very calmly I might add, and the doctor snaps, "It doesn't matter, we got it in the 90's." Ok, maybe I don't understand how this works. I wish she would explain it to me. Doesn't matter, Livvi is getting what she needs. Then she tells me Livvi needs to be on an oral steroid to clear it up. Perfect! I have been wanting both of them on the steroid so that they could get better but no one would listen. They kept telling me Street wasn't bad enough. HELLO! You haven't seen him at night! He is most definitely bad enough! If Livvi is bad enough, then Street is DEFINITELY bad enough because he is a million times worse. I try to explain this to the doctor and I can see her getting more and more annoyed. She kept saying, "He probably isn't worse than her, its probably just phlem and it isn't in his lungs." I calmly tell her that YES it is in his lungs, it has been since the very first appt! She basically tells me I don't know what the heck I'm talking about. I ask her if I can bring him in to her so that she can listen to him and then she will see how badly he needs it. "No, sorry, we don't have anymore appointments today." What!? An 8 week old baby isn't breathing and you don't have any more appointments? By this point I am pretty mad, but still keeping my cool. Then, she says, and this is the climax of the story, "Now, Mom, you need to stop being so stressed. Your babies are feeding off of it and its making them worse." AH! Ok, so now I'm making them sick. First I was just imagining that they were sick, and now I'm the cause of their sickness. Tears started streaming down my face and then she says, "And you really need to be napping when they are napping" and the hidden words that are going through her head are, "because you are a basket case and if you were sleeping you would know that this is no big deal". The clincher is that I had JUST told her that I have a three year old at home, so she should know that I CAN'T sleep when the babies sleep because I have another child to take care of. I can't even respond because I know I will burst into tears. After about 2 minutes of her typing away on her computer and me sitting silently in the corner, crying, and shaking because I'm so mad I say, "I have just seen so many doctors and they are all telling me different things and I'm not getting answers." She gives me an annoyed look and doesn't say anything. I try to bring up Street one more time and she won't hear me. She says, "If you think he is really bad you can try and get him in tomorrow if we have any openings." Then she quickly says, "Ok, I sent your prescription over, have a good day!" and walks out. I leave fuming mad head over to the pharmacy and lo and behold, there is no prescription there. The pharmacy says it probably just hasn't gone through yet and they will call me when it does. Big surprise, never get a call, the stupid doctor didn't even send the prescription over for my struggling-to-breathe baby.
Rick and I took care of the babies for the evening as they struggled to breathe and kept getting fevers. We fed them at 9:30pm and put them down. I crawled into bed at about 10:30pm. Next thing I know, its 4:30am and the babies hadn't gotten up to eat yet. We heard weird noises from the crib, we run over and Livvi is barely breathing. She is making these quick, short gasps. We grab her out of her crib, quickly turn on one of Street's treatments (because we didn't have Livvi's prescription. AH!) and after a few minutes there was no progress. Rick threw her in the car and went straight to the ER. I called Micah to come over (THANK YOU Carly and Micah!) and then threw Street in the car and headed over with him. I don't care if he wasn't as bad as Livvi was in that moment, they were going to see him! By the time Rick pulled in Livvi was doing a little better. I got there about 15 minutes later and we got Street hooked up next to his sister. They both had fevers, they both had chest retractions, their O2 was looking okay (thankfully!), but their lungs sounded awful! The ER doctor was amazing. We should have just gone there the first night and saved us all this headache. They immediately said Street needed an oral steroid, no doubt about it. It was crazy that he wasn't already on it! The took chest XRays of both of them and the doctor came back and said that they both have bad RSV. (Sidenote: I have been asking all the doctors if it was RSV and they wouldn't say it was, they just didn't want to check). They both got sent home with Albuterol treatments and oral steroids. My favorite thing that the doctor said was "Just be vigilant like you have been doing. You know when something is wrong and you feel uncomfortable. If you are worried, bring them in." THANK YOU! VALIDATION! I swear a mother's (or fathers) intuition is far better than a doctor who has never even seen your child. (Another side note: I think most doctors are incredible, listen to their patients, and make great diagnoses. I am in no way saying doctors are dumb, I am just saying that the doctors I saw this week are dumb. Ha!) So, we are home now, babies are still really sick and have fevers and are coughing their heads off, but for the first time this week I feel calm. I feel that they are finally being taken care of the way they need to be. Phew!
Here are some pics from the hospital. Luckily, Rick had his phone, because in my moment of sheer panic, I didn't think to grab my camera ;) Shocking, right? Sorry the quality isn't that great.
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| When I walked into the room, I saw this. How sad is that!? A little tiny baby on a big hospital bed. |
.....just got back from the pharmacy, the series of unfortunate events with the latest doctor continues. Ya know how I said that she didn't call in Livvi's medication? Turns out she actually did call it in, only it was for the wrong baby! Ya, she called it in for Street. She saw Livvi, she wouldn't even talk to me about Street, and then she prescribes the medication for Street. Oh, and she told me that Livvi should have a different mist called Zofranax instead of Albuterol. I asked the ER doctor about that and he laughed. He said there is hardly a difference and Zofranax is way more expensive. I find this out when I go to pick it up and it is $150 instead the $8 that Albuterol is. Oh my goodness, my frustration with this doctor is getting worse and worse.
Sorry to rant and rave. This experience has been very frustrating! Also, I wanted to document how their illnesses progressed for future reference. I'm sure not many of you are still reading :)
15 comments:
Kori, I am just feeling so frustrated for you after reading these "chapters." Is there a way you can find another doctor for the kiddos? Oh my gracious - I would have been livid! I am so glad that you were blessed with a good ER doctor that helped you understand all this. Keeping this all in my prayers, sweetie!
I am so frustrated that this doctor treated you this way!! Make sure I never take my kids to this doctor! I am so sorry you have had to go through all of this. And with two of them! I am glad the ER doctor listened and is helping now. I hope the sweet babies get better fast. The oral steroid is a miracle. Jackson has had to have it during big asthma attacks. You are an amazing mom. I would love to take Daci soon so you can get some sleep!
Oh Kori! Bless your heart! That sucks SO bad! There is nothing worse than having sick kids, you feel so helpless! I hope you can get a new doctor! That is NOT okay!! I am so frustrated reading your story. Thank goodness for a good ER doctor though! I hope and pray they get better real soon!
Wow,I'm sooo incredibly frustrated for you!!! I can't believe how awful those doctors were.im so sorry you and your sweet babies had to go through that! I hope they get better soon. And you should definitely switch doctors if possible!
No doctor should treat you that way. YOU are the mom, you know your babies. If your doc won't listen to you, change. Period. I'm sorry it took a visit to the ER, but I'm glad the babies are getting the care they need and will get better soon! And I agree with Jami -- you are an AMAZING mom. Juggling Daci and the twins has got to be hard, and you are doing it like a champ. Keep up the good work, but be sure to take care of you, too!
Oh my gosh... I am sooo mad at those doctors!! You are a better person than me! I can't believe they would treat you the way they did! But I am so glad you went to the ER and had a better doctor that knew what he was doing! I hope those cute babies get better fast now that they are on meds! I could not imagine going through that! So scary! You seriously are my idol! You are super mom!!
It is so hard being here and you being there. I wish I could just genie blink myself there to help. No, actually I wish I could just genie blink you guys HERE forever. :)
I'm so glad the babies are doing better on their medicine. Please promise me that if they ever schedule an appointment with that doctor in your practice again that you will insist on seeing someone else.
Love you all!
Oh my gosh kori, I would have been freaking out!! What a retarded dr. that is ridiculous!!! I feel so bad for you, I am so sorry you had to go through that!!!! I hope you can find a better dr for your kids!!! I can't even imagine how you feel! hang in there, you are doing great, and are such a good mom!
Kori - if you want me to take Daci this week, I'd be happy to. I'm so sorry your babies are sick. If I were you, I'd print this post out and take it to your doctor's office to present to the practice owner. This is not medicine. I'm so sorry!!
holy moly! you need a new dr. you poor thing, that is so frustrating and scary! good call on going to the ER, I hope they feel better soon!
I am so sorry you have been going through all of this! It is so hard when you know something is wrong with your child and the Dr doesn't listen. I have had this happen as well. Addy was 3 months old and she DID have RSV. It is so scary when they can't breath! I am so glad you went to the ER! Hope things look up from here. You are doing an amazing job and are a fabulous mother! You will have to tell me what practice you go to. I wondered if it was the same as our family.
Oh Kori I was just frustrated reading your post!! I am so sorry you are having a struggle with those doctors but I am glad that the ER doctor seriously came to the rescue! I hope your babes are getting better and that somehow inbetween all this mess you and Rick are getting some sleep!
ah! i seriously wanted to scream reading this post! i'm so sorry! i would have gone mama bear on that doc and opened a can of whoop a the doc! lol i'm glad yougot some answers! sorry it took so long! ah just typing this is frustrating me! love you!
OH MY GOODNESS!!!! First off, I read every word. I was so angry reading this post. I HATE when doctors treat their patients like that. I mean I totally agree with you. There are lots of wonderful and caring doctors. But unfortunately there are a lot of crappy ones too. I'm so sorry they treated you and your babies so poorly. Not to mention they were completely incompetent. I really think you should file a formal complaint or something because that is seriously not right.
Anyway, I am happy you finally got the right diagnosis for them. I hope the kiddies are on the mend and that you are taking care of yourself too. You're such a trooper!
Please tell me you're getting a new doctor!!!!!!!!!!
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