And thanks to the fact that there are no doctors available after the morning hours on a Sunday around here other than those who work in the ER (sadly, I do understand the definition of the word "emergency" and this ain't one) it will be tomorrow before he is officially diagnosed and treated. This is one of those times I really, truly wish that I had the ability to prescribe medication. Until then, only hugs, juice, ibuprofen and sleep for the little guy....please think good thoughts for him. :(
When I was a kid, our doctor give my parents an extra prescription as a just-in-case for these types of situations. Would your doctor be willing to do that? I understand the horrors of antibiotics overruse well, but I don't think this would be a violation of medical ethics. Besides, I stock up on antibiotics every time I travel in the countries that don't require prescriptions, and I have quite a stash from The Doctor who brought them home to me on my way off The Island, to make sure I'd be ok until I got medical insurance. So my notions of medications and prescriptions isn't really the suburban American norm ... ;)
ReplyDeleteBack in the day, Thing One used to get eye infections all the time and the doc did give me an extra scrip for the antibiotic--after a while, he figured that I would recognize bacterial pinkeye when I saw it and I had the dosage schedule down cold. The deal with strep is that they want to do a test first, to rule out a viral bug before they start throwing antibiotics at everything. The kids' school has a strep infestation right now and Petunia had it a few weeks ago, so I know it when I see it, but I guess I do appreciate that they are trying to avoid multidrug resistance. I just wish one of them would be available to see a kid on a Sunday afternoon!!! I did seriously contemplate having a friend ask her dad to call me in a scrip this evening.
ReplyDeleteYour ordeal is making The Island sound idyllic (always a doctor on call and usually with some antibiotic or another). ;) And also, Zoomcare in the Portland area is an interesting development.
ReplyDeleteIf we're talking multidrug resistance, we need to talk about people not finishing prescriptions and also antibiotics in agriculture and all the countries in the world where you don't need a prescription. An intelligent, educated parent who has an emergency prescription is not going to bring the world to its superbug knees.
Well, at least it's just one night. Hope he's better soon!!
Believe me, I agree with you. When the parent in question has a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology, you would sure hope that antibiotics will be used responsibly. ;) Oh well. T2 has been in bed for the last fourteen hours straight but seems a bit better for all the sleep, and hopefully we'll get him seen first thing in the morning. And if he doesn't have strep after all, I will have crow to eat!
ReplyDeleteDon't you have an Urgent Care center near you? These places fill the need for the situations where it is not a "go to the ER" emergency, yet you need timely care and prescription that it would be better to start sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteWe do have an urgent care clinic in town, but it closes at 2 on Sundays, which I found hard to believe. That was the first thing I looked at once I realized the kid was possibly need-a-doctor ill. If we were in more of a population center, I'm sure we'd have access to 24-hour urgent care, and I could have driven a ways to get to someplace that was actually open if it had really been an issue, but it became a judgment call as to whether or not I wanted to drive all over the place with a sick kid either. One thing I will say about our pediatrician is that they are very good about getting sick kids in asap on Monday mornings, so I knew he'd be seen quickly today.
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