Awful, Awful, Awful! In an earlier post, I mentioned that both of the girls had colds and that they were getting better. Well, Aaryn got better. Cadence's cough came back and refused to go away. So after almost two weeks of a persistent cough, I called the doctor's office to make an appointment. They told me to have her there by 5:00 and she could see the doctor. Perfect. So I got off work at 4:00 and headed to the daycare to get the girls. When I get there, Cadence's teacher tells me that she's been complaining about not feeling well and that she had a temperature of 99.6. I inform her that she has a doctor's appointment at 5:00, so hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this.
We get to the doctor's office around 4:40. I know that it is packed because there are no parking spaces. I see someone leaving, so I park in their spot, unload the girls and head in. I was right. It is slam packed! We sign in and sit and wait, and wait, and wait. Cadence is getting hungry and Aaryn is sleepy and becoming very fussy at this point. We finally get to see the doctor. He runs down a list of questions about her symptoms, which I patiently answer. He then examines her and tell me that she has pneumonia on her right side. My heart dropped. I felt so terrible that I had let it get that bad. He also said that since it had been going on for so long, as a precaution, he wanted me to take her to the hospital to get a chest x-ray to make sure it hadn't gotten down further in her chest. Why didn't I just take her to the doctor when she first started coughing or even after it lasted for a week? Why!? He expressed to me that it didn't sound too bad, but just wanted to be sure then faxed a perscription for antibiotics to the pharmacy.
It was 6:15, we were hungry, and I was tired (I hadn't even been home yet), but decided to head on to the hospital right then instead of putting it off until the morning. We were all getting very hungry at this point so we went through McDonald's drive-thru, then headed to the hospital. I manage to scarf my food down on the way while Cadence worked on her fries.
When we get to the hospital, we have to check-in through the emergency room because Outpatient Services closed at 5. Cadence starts on her chicken nuggets and I hand Aaryn a bottle while I'm filling out all of the forms. We get checked in and the x-ray technician (who was AWESOME) comes to do her x-rays. Cadence does great with following directions when getting her x-rays so we're in and out.
By now it is 7:00, so I figure that the perscription should be filled by now, so we head to the pharmacy. I find out that they never received the fax from the doctor's office. Disappointed, I call the office, but guess what....THEY'RE CLOSED. Ugghhhhh! We go home without her medicine and she's still coughing. After all of that, I still felt like nothing was accomplished. Yes, I know what the problem is now, but what good is knowing when I don't have the medicine she needs to get better?
To summarize today, Cadence stayed with my mother while I came on to work and John went to school. I called the doctor's office as soon as they opened and told them that I needed them to resend the prescription to the pharmacy. After
several back and forth phone calls, my mother was finally able to get the medicine.
I learned a few valuable lessons from this experience.
1.) NEVER wait over a week for a cough to go away. A persistent cough could be the sign of a more serious condition, which it clearly says on the back of every bottle of cough syrup out there.
2.) Just because your kid is jumping around and acting like their normal selves almost 100% of the time doesn't mean that they're not sick and they don't just say that they're sick to get attention..well not all of the time.
3.) Always ask for a hard copy of the perscription especially if it's closing time for the doctor's office. Fax machines aren't always reliable.
4.) Grandparents are Godsends. I'm convinced God made grandparents so that the parents don't lose their minds. NEVER take them for granted. Thank you mama for all you do. I love you!!
My sweet Flounder
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