Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Home for now.

Sam and I arrived back home early this morning.  We started IV antibiotics at the hospital and will continue them at home and closely monitor his site.  I am trying to remain hopeful that we will be able to save his line, but with our past history I would be lying if I said I wasn't very nervous.

Having a child who visits the ER regularly and has frequent inpatient stays is a different experience than going to the ER with a broken arm.  Almost everyone at our local hospital knows Sam.  This normally makes it very easy to get the treatment that he needs.  We normally speed through the ER and the ER doctor almost always pages the peds specialist for us as soon as we get there.  They are the people that know Sam the best and have cared for him the most locally.

So when a certain doctor walked into our exam room last night I was less than pleased.  I have dealt with guy before and knew right then and there that I was in for a long night.  He does not feel the need to contact Peds. He doesn't want to hear our ideas on how Sam should be treated. He couldn't even be bothered to look at Sam's site to see what it looked like.  He refuses to consult with Boston or Milwaukee.  I doesn't feel that a central line site infection is an emergency and we should have just waited to be treated in clinic in the morning.  He really just doesn't care.  Why would you become a doctor if this is how you feel?

Many parents with medically fragile children deal with this attitude on a regular basis.  We never experience this locally and that is the reason that we try to stay here whenever we can and only move to a "bigger" hospital when things get beyond what they are comfortable dealing with.  The next time Sam needs to go to the ER, I will be calling first to see who the ER doctor is before heading to the ER.  A 2 hour drive to Milwaukee is better than ever having to deal with that doctor again.

We will be headed into the clinic this afternoon for a check on Sam's site.  He is still asleep so I haven't been able to take a look at it yet, but hopefully it is looking the same or better than last night.

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