At this point, if we could live in a bubble, I think I would
Why would I move into a bubble? Oh, well. Ha ha. Glad you asked. Funny story.
Mackenzie had her 18mo check up today. I so looked forward to these checkups with Nathan, excited to see how he was measuring up and learning what to expect for the coming months. Mackenzie, well, she’s a second child. So the novelty isn’t there this time around, furthermore, I’ve spent a disproportionate amount of time at the Kadena clinic lately. Going to appointments for myself (2), appointments for Nathan (more than I can count) and Mackenzie. Picking up various antibiotics, motrin, sinus relief med’s, more antibiotics and then throw on top of all of that our 3 days at the hospital, an ENT dr. appt while at the hospital and two ER visits. Im burned out. So I was really not looking forward to packing everyone up and going back. to. the clinic. for a well-child checkup.
We shlepped ourselves in there where Mackenzie started to melt down in the waiting room, and as soon as we got to the weights/measures room it was full on. They measured her at 34.6″ and Im thinking thats about .6″ off because while thrashing around its hard to be, you know, precise. Her head circumference? Might as well have tried to measure a wild bull, it would have been easier.
I casually mentioned to the dr. that Nathan had been real sick, Mackenzie is sick too (like the rest of us) and her cough is pretty bad so if she could please give an extra listen to those little lungs just to put my mind at ease.
Putting my mind at ease resulted in a chest x-ray. Tell me- have you taken a squirrely 18mo old to be x-rayed? Yeah, they don’t give you any sort of tranq gun or sedative or anything. You are just supposed to
“hold them still.” Well wait, lets back up. Upon arriving in radiology, around 4pm, I hand them my ID and the guy says “so….did you bring someone with you to watch your son?” Uh, no. No I didn’t. No one mentioned that. No one said, make sure you take a nanny or a babysitter or a dog crate or anything to do with the 4yr old. “Yeah….we’re not going to be able to do the x-ray. Its a liability issue. Its order no. 3492.J.I.33.X. Can you call someone and have them come meet you here?” Are you shitting me? Seriously? At 4pm? By the time anyone got here you’d be closed. I asked if Nathan could just sit behind the wall or sit in the waiting room with explicit instructions or ANYTHING? “No…he’d be exposed to radiation, he can’t be back there.” I slugged back to Ped’s passing the pharmacy on the way and seeing someone that I recognized from my old “fighter pilot days.” You know, in the good old days when we used to “run with that crowd.” Had no idea who she was, but I knew I recognized her, and, given my situation was totally willing to look like a complete freak and have her be my plan B. It worked out that one of the office people came and sat with Nathan while I took the half naked gorilla to be x-rayed.
The guy put a little pelt like lead belt on her that was sagging off her hips. Maybe he needed to brush up on his anatomy but Im not sure….well, Mackenzie, if you can’t have kids or have radiated eggs its his fault. I tried. “Now, you’re going to want her to face the board, have her chest centered on this line, and have her pressed up against it and keep her shoulders and arms raised and have her looking forward and hold real still. [rev up the loud machine]“… [shouting from behind the wall]“OK, YOU’RE GOING TO NEED TO HOLD BOTH ARMS WITH ONE HAND AND GET HER A LITTLE MORE CENTERED TO THE LEFT AND SHE NEEDS TO FACE FORWARD, CAN YOU DISTRACT HER AND GET HER TO LOOK FORWARD? HER ARMS NEED TO BE UP, WAIT YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF THE FRAME, CAN YOU HOLD HER ARMS WITH THE ONE HAND AND HOLD HER BUTT WITH YOUR OTHER HAND BUT MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT IN THE FRAME?” Yes. Or maybe you could ask me to solve some of those complex derivatives instead because surely, my likelihood of success would be infinitely higher. Well, after radiating both myself and my daughter with multiple attempts to get 2 clear x-rays we “succeeded.”
Back to the dr. where the result was: amoxicillin or zithromax? Thankfully (thankfully) we avoided any major issues and are not ending up in the ER/ICU.
So, that is the story of why I want to live in a glass bubble. Because right now way too much of my time is spent in the germy clinic. And way too many family members have pneumonia.
Filed under: Is it pneumonia? Yep., Is it strep? Yep.
Subscribe to the 
Leave a
Well, I can see the bubble thing. And having had held both of my kids through multiple chest x-rays, I can empathize. I also can’t believe they didn’t x-ray Nathan the very first time you took him to the ER @ Lester. My experience has always been that they love to do the x-ray if there’s any chance and Wyatt’s pneumonia (at a ripe 10 mos. – remember that one?) was caught that way before he was supersick. I’m glad they caught Mackenzie’s that way, too, so at least you avoided another round in the hospital. Now I hope you can all stay well and that you’ve paid your dues for 2010!
1 Stephanie said this (April 22, 2010 at 3:58 pm)
Steph- I think the reason they didn’t x-ray Nathan was because his only complaint was a belly ache so pneumonia never occurred to them. I think it was even dumb luck that they caught it because the CT scan was more for his lower abdomen rather than his chest.
I was just telling PC that now I feel all confused and unsure about when to take the kids in and when to sit it out. Whenever we’re hit with colds or even the stomach flu I don’t bother going into the dr. just to be told “its a virus. Do you need more motrin?” But obviously there is a tipping point, its just hard to know when that is. Even with Nathan- we took him in maybe a week or 10 days before he went into the hospital letting them know he had a terrible cough and they did an x-ray that was totally clear. I know pneumonia needs the right ‘conditions’ to take hold so sometime in that 10day period it did and he went downhill quickly from there. So, yeah, Im just confused and unsure now at what point to take them in?
2 lisa said this (April 22, 2010 at 9:48 pm)