Tis the Season

My 5 year old has seasonal allergies. For whatever reason his allergies are worse this year than usual. His regular allergy medicine doesn't seem to be working as well. He goes to the school nurse almost every day. His teacher sends me notes home letting me know. I hear him coughing. I give him medicine. I know. But what else can I do? I already worry that I'm overdosing him.

After a week of his coughing getting worse, not better, yesterday I made a call and took him to the pediatrician. The pediatrician checked his ears. All clear. He checked his nose. All clear. He checked his throat. Not all clear. He decided to a strept test (which came back negative).

The pediatrician moved on to my son's chest. He listened for a while and finally decided that he heard some wheezing and prescribed an inhaler. And since the strept test came back negative, my son had no fever, and no one else in my house was sick, my son was given a clean bill of health.

My 5 year old used the inhaler at 1pm. At 8pm he suddenly had a fever of 101.4. I called the office hoping to speak with the doctor on call. A nurse called me back. She reviewed his age, weight etc. Then reviewed his symptoms, the allergies, coughing, the medication, new inhaler, the doctor's specific request not to give him any additional medications. After all of that do you know what she said? She said, "Give him some honey and a warm shower."

I wanted to reach the phone and strangle her.

Honey and a warm shower???

I'm calling to find out #1 if it is possible if my son is having a reaction to this new inhaler and #2 if I should even continue using this new inhaler and #3 what else I can give to help his fever and you suggest "Honey and warm shower?"

I wanted to tell her what she can with that honey and her warm shower.

But I didn't. I re-asked questions 1-3.

Luckily my son is much better today. No thanks to the worthless nurse. Oh, and I didn't try her honey or warm shower suggestion. Go figure.

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!