Frustration

Poor Bean is sick. She has strep throat. She has been in full-on sick mode all week long. Running fevers anywhere from 101 to 103. She can't sleep, she doesn't want to eat or drink. I am almost as tired as I was when she was first born.

I am frustrated over the situation because it took three different doctors on three different visits, along with $140 in co-pays, to determine it was strep.

I told you before that last Friday we took Bean to a local urgent care because she kept saying her mouth hurt and she would hold her throat when she would drink. She had injured her mouth in a "singing accident" by ramming a plastic tube up into the roof of her mouth. She was using the tube as a microphone and she jumped when she shouldn't have and the tube got her. Giggles, my MIL, thought that Bean might have strep after looking in her mouth after the injury. I called the pediatrician but they were closed so we headed off for Urgent Care. After explaining everything to the doctor, and also mentioning the possibility of strep, he looked in her mouth and told us that it was just the injury and it would be all better in 3 to 5 days. We were literally in and out in 5 minutes.

So fine. Fast forward to Tuesday and Bean has just been getting a little more testy and less likely to eat or drink. She started to really feel hot to the touch and her fever spiked up to 103 early Wednesday morning. I called that day and got her an appointment with her pediatrician's office Wednesday afternoon. By the time of the appointment, the fever had not come down. Bean constantly whined and cried all the time, she couldn't rest, and didn't want to eat or drink. She also had a bad dry cough. Giggles and her sister, The Accomplice, took Bean to the doctor's appointment for me. They explained all the symptoms, even mentioned strep, and they were told that she just had a virus and to treat it with Motrin. Granted, Giggles did say that Bean wasn’t very willing to let the doctor look in her mouth or her ears and I know how difficult it can be to wrangle a toddler. That’s no joke. Sometimes I think Bean is a lot stronger than I am. So I know it had to be difficult. But a strep test wasn’t even offered. So all Wednesday night Bean hardly slept and still kept saying her mouth hurt. By this time, her cough had teamed up with a bad runny nose and a still high fever and were doing their best to drive Bean crazy. I felt so bad for her.

It sucks seeing your loved ones suffer and you can’t fix it for them. The fever just would not break and no amount of Motrin or Tylenol was helping. I just knew something else was going on.

But how do you second guess your doctor? They have been there since the beginning. They know her. They have seen her grow. I love my pediatrician’s office but is it okay to call them back and say you think they should look again? I don’t want to be “one of those moms”. I’m sure I already am but I hate to add to my reputation. But you know what you know and you have these gut feelings. Plus, in our case, I had Giggles and The Accomplice telling me that they had the same feelings. They both just knew it was strep.

So I decided to get a second opinion. I asked the doctor next door to my office if he would take a look at her. I told him I could be completely 100% crazy. He said he already knew that but he’d still take a look at Bean if I wanted him to. (He’s a funny guy.)

So I brought Bean into the city. This doctor looked her over and he did say to me that by first glance in her throat, he thought it was viral bronchitis. So a virus, right? Yeah. That’s what the other doc said, Doc. But he did do a strep test. He didn’t think it would come back positive.

It came back positive.

What’s that, Doc? She has strep? The thing I mentioned to the first doctor almost a week ago? Yeah. Strep.

So now we are on antibiotics and Bean got a little bit more sleep last night. She still has a ways to go because the fever seems to really like her and it doesn’t want to leave. But she ate a little more last night than she has in a week.

It just angers me that it took this long to find out what was wrong with her. I know that doctors are humans and humans do make mistakes. Heck, I’ve even been known to make one here and there. But it’s just hard to take a mistake that makes your little baby suffer and feel bad longer than they needed to.