I Was Right

More pictures of the cutie pie. The "I was right" part is further down.





Clara woke up this morning still sick with fever, runny nose and cough. The doctor yesterday actually wrote a prescription for an antibiotic since she's been sick for so long and said I could start it in a day or two if she wasn't better. I don't like giving an antibiotic when no infection is present but I just couldn't see how this wasn't an infection by now, so I had planned on filling it tonight if she wasn't better.

Well, when nap time came, she started complaining of a stomach ache. I figured it was just from all the drainage and just wrote it off. She started crying more and more and then was screaming that it hurt. I couldn't get her to stop screaming, so I called Chris and he immediately left work to come home.

I called the dr. office and they wanted to see her right away so I got her dressed, woke Robert and changed him and Chris got home and we left right away. She had calmed down a bit before he got home but then started up again and was screaming when he came in. He wanted to take her to the ER, so we went to the one that he visited back in the summer when he had chest pains. He's raved about the place since then, so we headed there instead of the hospital's ER. He was right; this place rocks.

She was doing ok in the car and when we got there. There was no one in the waiting room and we were taken right in. They did a chest x-ray and everything looked fine. When the doctor examined her, he said she had a severe upper respiratory infection and bronchitis and was dehydrated. The stomach stuff was just gas or cramps or something. Nothing to worry about.

I was thinking about it and she's never really had any stomach aches or intestinal complaints of any kind. No diarrhea or constipation or anything, so it makes sense that at a time when she's really sick and has this new pain she's never felt before that she would just go completely nuts. I'm just slightly kicking myself for taking my child to the ER for gas although I'm so glad to have an answer.

I asked the doctor how likely it was that the infection just cropped up overnight since 24 hours earlier I was told her lungs were all clear. He squirmed a bit and I could tell he didn't want to answer my question. He said, "All I know is you have one very sick little girl". So yeah, Chris has been wanting to switch pediatricians and this kinda sealed the deal. This would be the second infection she's had that has been missed. She had a sinus infection a year ago that the doctor didn't catch. We only discovered it because I asked if she would do a swab since it didn't seem normal to me to have a coughing fit every single night for 3 months straight.

Part of me thinks maybe it's not such a big deal, I mean she did prescribe an antibiotic, right? My problem is she sent me on my way telling me there wasn't an infection present but gave me meds for an infection. I just really don't think this went from all clear to severe in 24 hours and if she didn't believe it was an infection, I don't think she should be prescribing antibiotics. But maybe that's just me.

She's on round the clock Motrin and Tylenol and also an antibiotic, expectorant and antihistamine. She's completely miserable tonight so I hope she's able to get some rest. The antihistamine causes drowsiness so hopefully that kicks in soon.