Hayden Gets Sick

Hayden Gets Sick.
So- I skipped a week of writing. Sorry about that. I wasn’t ready to write yet- It’s been really hard lately and life is finally getting back to normal. I want to give you the “abbreviated” version of a novel of things that have happened over the last three weeks.
Hayden’s not usually sick. I’ve been pretty lucky in the fact that she wasn’t the kid with the runny nose, she never had a hacking cough, and she’s never puked or had a really high fever. Three weeks ago she came down with Coxsackie. I believe I wrote about my horrible experience with my Pediatric group a couple weeks ago. When Hayden broke out in blisters, I was relieved that the worst was behind us. (for those of you not educated in annoying toddler viruses… and for the record, I had never heard of these viruses… Coxsackie is a common toddler virus that causes high fevers and then the kid breaks out in blisters all over their hands, feet, mouth… it’s not pretty)- She seemed better, but she couldn’t kick her fever. I quickly learned that the minute I skipped a dose of Motrin, she would become incredibly lethargic and spike a 104 fever. She would wake up with this fever too. It didn’t seem to bother her so much after the blisters, but it just wouldn’t break on its own. I gave it some time and didn’t miss a dose of Motrin.
I woke up on day seven of her 104 fever and called our pediatric group looking for guidance. I did not get a call back. This time, I hung up and called the administrative area of the practice and promptly fired them and requested all of Hayden’s records. I was told it would take up to two weeks. No exceptions. I filled out all the paperwork and began to call another pediatric group that had come highly recommended to me. They told me that they would not see a sick child without reviewing their entire medical records and they would need three days to do that once they received the paperwork. I hung up frustrated but not too concerned because Hayden looked okay, just couldn’t shake the fever.
That night I went to pick her up from my Mom’s house (she watches Hayden full time while I work)- and my Mom looked concerned. She hadn’t eaten and was acting very lethargic. We were out of Motrin. I quickly left to run and get some (well, the generic kind… you guys know what I mean). When I came home she has half passed out on my Mom’s lap. I took her temp. 104.8. She had a glazed expression and I was scared. So were my Mom and Dad. Great, I thought. I fired my pediatrician today. I called my cousin and asked her about this place called Firefly in Stamford. It’s a pediatric after hours emergency center. It was my only choice and I was happy to have a place to take her. After two hours waiting, we saw the doctor. I explained to him that we were currently in between pediatricians… At this point she was on day eight of over 104 fever- She had Coxsackie and all the blisters were healing and I didn’t know what to do anymore. She had gone through one and a half bottles of Motrin and one bottle of Tylenol in the last eight days. He examined her, tested her for strep (negative) and finally said that he needed to order blood work. We were sent on our way with a laundry list of things the blood work would test for.
The next morning was the worst morning of my life. She woke up screaming. Soaking wet in sweat. I couldn’t calm her down. She wouldn’t let me hold her. She kept throwing herself on the ground, banging her head, screaming. Her fever was sky high and I didn’t know what to do. I tried to console her- nothing work. After an hour of this, she finally passed out. I grabbed the phone, called my Mom and told her I needed her right away (Thank God for my Mom. Really.) Next call, the new pediatrician again. This time I begged the lady on the phone for someone to see my baby. Finally, she said to me, that it was not office policy, they would not see her and that the worst thing I could have done for my child was to leave a practice during a serious illness. That’s all I needed to hear. I burst into tears… on the phone with this stranger. She changed her tone to a nicer one but stood her ground. I just hung up. I knew I would never bring Hayden there. I sat on the floor and cried. I think it was the pent up anxiety I had been dealing with all week. I had a very sick little girl, had fired my incompetent, non-caring pediatric group and had no one to turn to except a doctor at an ER center who kept talking about his love of hockey. Screw it, I thought. He’s all I have. My Mom showed up during my break down and ordered me to go wash my face, put on some make up and get ready. We had to go get blood work for the baby. And I listened. That’s all I needed to get myself back on track. We loaded her up in the car and headed to the Tully Center in Stamford for her blood work. While we were waiting, Realtor Anna came alive. (Realtor Anna is my no-nonsense business persona who doesn’t take no for an answer and gets the job done quickly and correctly). This time, I called my old pediatric office and asked to speak to the office manager. She again told me that paperwork would not be ready for 8-14 days. This time I told her that she would have them ready, my daughter was sick and I was going to show up and get them. I could either a. make copies of the file myself or b. show up at the office with my attorney. Their choice. This time she told me she would release the vaccinations and most recent well check up. Deal I said. Then I promptly sent my husband to go pick them up. I wasn’t going to show my face there after that!
Finally, it was Hayden’s turn at the Tully Center- She was too dehydrated and they couldn’t get any blood. She was screaming bloody murder. They sent us to Stamford Hospital so they could try there to get the blood. On the drive over I took a call from my Aunt. She told me that I should go where I went growing up. Stamford Pediatric. She named her favorite doctor and out of sheer desperation, I called. Miraculously, they would happily take her first thing the next day. The doctor I requested wasn’t available but a female doctor was. I took it. Stamford Hospital was able to draw the blood- Thank God.
Paul and I took her in and immediately liked how warm the staff was. The nurse was sweet and the doctor was great. She spent the time to listen to our story. She asked a lot of questions about Hayden and her background. Even Hayden liked her- and Hayden is known not to like doctors (Remember? She was called a “wild child” at her old practice)- She immediately said we needed to insert a catheter to get a clean urine reading. It was horrible and Hayden wasn’t happy, but we were able to rule out a UTI on the spot. She sent us to Advanced Radiation Center and performed chest x-rays. Within two hours, we knew her chest was clear. She ordered more blood work and luckily they could do the tests with the blood they had already drawn. She called me later that night to check on Hayden (and me, I think). She told me that the blood work looked okay so far. She would call me in a day or two when the rest of results were in. The next morning, Hayden was in a much better mood but her whole body was covered in a funky rash. Roseola. The kid had back to back viruses. I took pictures to show the doctor and when she called, I enthusiastically told her that her fever had finally broken and that she had gotten the rash. She confirmed Roseola. Then she paused. One more thing- some bad news… Hayden had Lyme disease. What?! I was upset but relieved that there was a reason to all of this sickness and madness. We started her right away on antibiotics, twice a day. She hated it. We kept forcing it into her and she was doing much better. On Monday, the phone rang again. It was our new doctor. Oops. It was a false positive, Hayden did not have Lyme disease and we needed to immediately discontinue her antibiotics. Double WHAT?! The last two days have been back to normal. She’s eating like a champ. No fevers. And no real explanation of what happened to our kid. I’m just relieved to have my normally cranky diva back. I guess this wasn’t so abbreviated, was it?
Oh, and now her toes and fingers are peeling. Doctor says not related, but you can bet a million bucks I have Googled and WebMD’ed everything I could. Sigh. Blah.