Monday, May 19, 2008

The Pediatrician is MIA

Ah, it's Monday again! The day when my husband goes back to work and my son goes to school and it's just me and the 4 year old home alone. The day when I get my house back in order. I have time to clean and organize or I could end up spending all morning at the pediatrician's office and never actually see a doctor!

My 4 year old got a rash this weekend. Mostly some small red bumps on his forehead and the back of his neck. At first, I only noticed that it was red and I assumed he had a little sunburn. Then I saw the bumps and the more I looked at it, the more my imagination got carried away! Maybe he had measles or chicken pox. Maybe he had bird flu or mad cow. Maybe this was a whole new kind of rash (Yeah, I don't think bird flu or mad cow comes with spots either, but you know, moms just worry anyway).

This morning I called and made an appointment with the pediatrician for 10:20. About 5 minutes later the receptionist calls back and says that doctor is sick today and reschedules me to see someone else at 10:45. No problem. We get there around 10:40. Lots of people come in after us and they get called back. The same people then walk back through the waiting room and leave. We're still waiting. We waited 45 minutes in the waiting room! You think they could have at least been polite and snuck those other people out the back instead of parading them right in front of us! I swear, I heard one mom telling her child to stop taunting us, "Ha Ha! We've already seen the doctor and you're still waiting."

Finally my son gets called back. And I find out that my appointment is with the nurse practitioner. I'm not against NP's, but I haven't been impressed with this particular NP in the past. Don't worry, today was no different.

She thinks the rash may be an allergic reaction to the sunscreen. Or maybe its eczema. Or maybe it's both. At least she could confirm that it's not measles or chicken pox, although she didn't say anything about bird flu or mad cow...

I put some hydrocortisone cream on the bumps and an eczema cream everywhere else. Hopefully it will go away before my in-laws arrive on Saturday!

3 comments:

Jillybean said...

I love it when they say "Maybe it's this, or it could be that."
I feel like saying "Hey, I've been speculating about this all day, I came to you for answers!"

Pediatricians should not be allowed to get sick.

Cookie said...

ROFL! Jill, That is EXACTLY how I feel! You're right, I had been guessing what the redness was all weekend. Even wondering should I take him in or will everyone laugh at the crazy mom who brought her son in because of a little sunburn!

Michelle said...

Lovely... gotta love those experiences.

Personally, I'm still waiting to get one of those fancy illnesses like Fifths Disease, which has gone through both the wee ones' preschools in the past couple months. At least then I'd feel vindicated in going in to the doctor!