Time for a new pediatrican...

Our twins' pediatrician isn't the warmest friendliest woman; however, I have insisted that we keep her as our twins' doctor because she is the doctor that has seen them since their time in the NICU, and because I was grateful for all the information and resources she provided me with after Makayla's was diagnosed with Nystagmus. I felt that, since the kids are so young, sugary-sweet isn't that important, right now...at least she's thorough. Well, that was before this last week.

Last weekend I noticed that my very busy little boy was a little lethargic. This kid is always going, going, going; so, when he just laid down and watched me play with Makayla, I knew something was wrong, and by Wednesday it was clear that he had caught Makayla's recent bug.

He had a nasty cough and was really congested, so we weren't surprised that he was not interested in eating or drinking, and was having trouble breathing, so we took him in to see his pediatrician, to see what we should do for him. She took a quick listen and said he had asthma and sent us home with several prescriptions to use with a nebulizer and said his appetite will return as he starts breathing better.

Getting an Albuterol breathing treatment in the ped's office 24 hours before going to the ER

The breathing treatments did help for very short periods of time, but we were told to only give it to him every six hours, so I laid with him on the couch all night, sitting upright to help him breathe, listening to him pant as his tired little body tried to sleep. His breathing scared me, but the doctor said that there was nothing more we could do but give the treatments time to work.

By morning, he still wasn't eating or drinking and he still had a dry diaper.  It seemed like his breathing had gotten worse. I called the doctors office and a nurse said that their regular pediatrician was out that day, but to come in right away. Within seconds of entering the office, they had Austin on oxygen and Albuterol, and had called 911.

Every nurse and doctor was in the office with us and before long the whole fire department and the paramedics were there too. In the middle of all the madness I tried to call my husband at work to let him know what was going on, but over the loud machines and all the people, I think all he heard was "hospital" and "ambulance" and then he hung up and text me that he was leaving work ASAP.

My sick baby in his hospital room after transferring from the ER

Once at the hospital, we learned that Austin had pneumonia and his oxygen levels were very low and his heart rate very high, and that we probably should have taken him to the ER the day before. At first I blamed myself, and I am still kicking myself for not trusting my gut the night before when I listen to him pant and cry, but I feel so let down that his pediatrician didn't spend more time listening to him. The ER doctor was immediately concerned that there was pneumonia because they could hear the crackling in his lungs...why didn't his doctor notice that? Not knowing anything about pneumonia myself, I swear I could hear that crackling that night that I laid with him on the couch.

That's ok, maybe she couldn't hear the crackling because it wasn't as bad 24 hours earlier when she saw him, or maybe he wasn't breathing deep enough for her to notice...There must be come explanation, she's normally so through...

Austin responded really well to the treatments he received in the hospital and after two long days, they sent us home just in time for the in-laws to arrive and for my dad's birthday.  With the family in town, we went out to the store to pick up some easy dinner fixes, and I bumped into our pediatrician.  She saw me first and said hello, and waved at the kids, and then went about her shopping.  I can certainly respect that no one wants to talk about work outside of work, but it seemed so cold to me that she didn't even say that she hopes he's doing better.  Admittedly, she wasn't there the day that the paramedics came, but I have a hunch that the paramedics and fire department doesn't get called all that often, so I would assume she would have heard about it the next day, especially since it was her patient....but, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt (again), even if she didn't know about it, we had just been in to see her a few days before, why wouldn't she at least say that she hoped he was doing better, or that he looked better?  Even my OB was checking in on Austin while we were at the hospital!

So that's that.  I don't think we'll be seeing that pediatrician again.  For Austin's follow up visit, we went in to see another doctor at the practice who was there the day that he left in an ambulance.  We have seen her a handful of times before and my husband and I both liked her very much.  She is very sweet and friendly, and always asks about Makayla's Nystagmus when we see her and wants to know what her other specialty doctors think.  That's the kind of doctor I want for my children.

Austin is doing much better now (although, he did have a low grade fever again this morning).  The new pediatrician has us keeping an eye on his breathing and new fever and keeping up with the breathing treatments, but she thinks the poor little guy may have caught a new bug. *sigh*