We were back at the pediatricians at 10:15a Monday morning for a follow up to the previous days ER visit. We ended up in a different office than our regular one which is actually closer to our house. It was much quieter and we were seen right away. The way this doctor operates is that the nurse starts the visit off and asks you all the questions and everything is typed into a computer. I am starting to realize how annoying this is though. We have been to the doctors 6 times in the last 3 weeks. How many times is it really necessary to answer the question, “And is he on any medication?”. Like, yeah, it’s in his file you are staring at. The one that contains the list of medications. That YOU prescribe for him! No, no new rogue medications have been started since last freaking Friday when we saw you last! Ugh. Anyway, I didn’t connect with this particular nurse so all of her questions were slightly abrasive. “And what seems to be the problem today?” Um, again…the same problem when I called one hour ago, ER visit follow up. What is the point of being an “electronic office” if everything still runs the same?
Moving on to the doctor, or rather, nurse practitioner. We are starting to know all the medical staff at yet another pediatric practice. This NP had seen us last when the potential swine flu/whooping cough had just been starting. I went through the story with her and shared my concerns that whatever caused the dehydration had to have been more than, Ben took 3oz less than usual the prior day. She agreed and went to look at his labs from the ER visit. Guess what? There were no labs from the ER visit. Gee thanks community hospital. And you wonder why it pains to me to go to you rather than a large city hospital that WOULD HAVE TAKEN LABS. Add another thing to my check list of things to worry about when rushed to the ER. #27 Make sure they actually take labs.
We got sent back to the community hospital for an actual set of labs, although considering Ben was back to bouncing off walls, both NP and I agreed that most likely, nothing would be learned from the day late set of labs. NP had the front office call over to the community hospital though to make sure the one person on staff who was able to take blood from children would be there…otherwise we would have to go to Boston. I am beginning to see a theme…anything slightly out of the ordinary and we might as well just pack the car and head on down to Boston. This pretty much sealed the deal for Ben and I ever living more than 50 miles away from a major city. Burlington, VT…to think of what could have been… Luckily, our one trusty phlebotomist was working so we only were in for a 5 minute drive.
Upon arriving, we were passed off twice before SUPER phlebotomist came into the room. She actually removed the finger of her glove while showing me she swabbed her finger twice with alcohol. She told me that this was VERY against the rules but for Ben’s sake (and the sake of actually being sure she had found a vein) she would be going gloveless. Gloveless finger did the trick and we got blood from Ben! Whooo Hooo. Oh, this was also after amongst they openly discussed how doing a heel prick on a 13-month-old (which is what they did in the ER to get Ben’s glucose level) is a huge no-no. ER checklist rule #28: Do not allow heel pricks. Sigh. I didn’t even bother to ask why on that one.
Later in the day NP called with results. Turns out Ben has a high calcium level in his blood. This could cause lethargy. BUT, high calcium levels can be caused by dehydration. So, its kind of chicken and egg. We are going to test the levels once again in two weeks to see what the level is then. I will do my best to hold in the excitement I feel for Ben having to have blood drawn once again. Never a dull moment.
The monkey in his hospital gown, drinking his apple juice!