This is a really long and drawn out story about recent trip to the ER, and you are not required to read:
1st I want to say, I hate shift change time at hospitals. Hate 'em! New nurses and new doctors that have no idea who the heck you are and to be honest they don't seem to really care.
For the last few weeks, our family has had a little bit of a medical meltdown.To start, our youngest daughter Savanna had been very sick the whole week before Easter. Now I'm not a worry wort parent by any means, but her fevers were high, she wouldn't drink, and couldn't sleep. A few 2:00am trips to the Urgent Care and a week of not sleeping meant that I had no sleep as well. Literally about 10 hours spread out over 5 days.
I am one of those people that needs sleep. If I don't sleep, I WILL get sick. Not usually, ALWAYS!
If I were a betting gal I could make some easy money because it happens EVERYTIME.....
Soooooo, Easter Sunday we do a scavenger hunt for the baskets (super fun!), I make a big fatty breakfast (Super Yum!), and I get a little light headed so I decide to take a nap. Now when I woke up from this nap, I felt like I had been hit by a semi-truck. It proceeds to be a major pain in my left ear leading down to my throat on the left side and a fever. Now when I say fever, I mean FEVER. To put it into context for you, when the fever started to get much better, it was temped at 102.6.Yes, I was hating life. Everything got so bad I ended up "loosin' my lunch" and missin' an Easter dinner.
The following day my kids were taken to a sitter and I had another horrible day. So the moment my wonderful husband gets home we head to the Urgent Care. This urgent care was recommended and I liked this doctor. The waiting room sucked beyond comprehension with it's very hard plastic booth like seats, but the doc was great. I had a fever of 102.8 and that was AFTER taking 200mg of Ibuprofen. He looked me over, gave a strep culture (which was negative), and found that my left ear was just filled with puss. Ewww. Now this doc was awesome and he gave me the best antibiotic, Augmentin. I love me some of this drug! I have taken it many times and it's so kick butt that usually after just 1 pill, I feel oh so much better. He tells me to, "go home and take IB and Tylenol together for the fever and pain for a couple days to let the meds kick in and all should be well." Then he cautions "If the fever is still there after 48 hours, I need to come back right away."
So 1 day passes
Then 2
Then 3...
On the night of this 3rd day after taking 3.5 days of Augmentin, And being on 600 mg IB and 1000 mg of Tylenol I can't get my temp under 100.2 and I am in major pain in now both sides of my... well everything above my neck. So I force myself to face paint at an event (needed the money due to increasing medical costs) and the we rush off to a different Urgent Care since the one I liked was closed.
They see that I still have a fever and they do a strep culture. Doc walks in looks me over. "You coughing?" he asks. "Nope" I say. He looks into my mouth and it is COVERED is white puss and white nodules.
"They did a strep test at the last doctor's office right?"
"Yep. Negative."
"Negative?!" He asks very confused.
"Yes negative" I repeat.
"Well my dear, I can see you have a VERY bad case of strep throat and our culture came back positive."
"No, But I was told it was just an ear infection"
"Nope, ears are good. But you have been on Augmentin for 4 days. No matter what it is, it should be gone by now. I'm going to my own culture and see."
So he does one and leaves. When he returns he has another doctor with him.
"Oddly, this last test said negative! So here's the situation... you have massive infected nodules on the back of your throat and I believe you might actually have a ___insert long technical term___ abscess. I wish I could send you on you way home with a scip, but you are already on the strongest antibiotic we can give here. You need to get to the ER immediately where they will either A) give you a super antibiotic that can only be administered by an IV in a hospital or B) manually drain and remove the abscess.. But you need to go now."
So to double check he has the other doctor look me over as well and he is just as baffled and he agrees that something needs to be done now due to the fact that I haven't been able to really eat or drink for days and I've lost 5lbs. So we trek across the street and head into the ER with our referral.
At first we were treated like "ok whatever, you have a sore throat" but then the ER doc came over and took a look. It was basically spelled out to us that yes it was very bad, drugs may work, I need a CT scan and they will take me into the operating room to remove an abscess or the tonsils.
Great... surgery.
I'm scared now. What will we do? Scott can't miss work! Our kids are at home with a babysitter!
So in-laws are called and my super awesome father in law drives 45 minutes out to our house and sleeps on the couch to watch our girls. Super cool! And everything in the ER goes super fast from that point. Urine test... check. Blood test.... check. IV hooked up... check. Given steroids... check. CT scan... check. After the CT scan I'm told it will be about 30-45 minutes to get the ball rolling and get results. It was fastest things have been done for me in an ER!
But then something strange happens...
NOTHING.
It's 3:45 am, I'm in major pain, 3 hours have gone by and we hear nothing from anyone!
I'm getting all stressed about surgery or some crazy new super drug. Scott is stressing about what to tell work because his job is on the line if he misses a day.
And yet, nothing.
4:00 am a new doctor comes into my little assigned area and says... "You're hear for a sore throat?"
The inner me was saying in a very sarcastic tone "uh yeah. I have a sore throat. That's the whole reason I have been waiting in this evil ER, spending waaaay too much money for a damned CTscan, and getting poked and injected, and bracing for surgery. Because of a little sore throat"
But what actually came out was something like, "uuuuuuhhhhhh. Well not just a sore throat" And I proceed to tell him the whole friggin' story you are reading now. And I might add that I have had to go over things with like 6 people already. You would think they would read a chart before they walk in!
"Hmm." He says. And he leaves.
He returns now with paperwork and also a very condescending, and patronizing manner about him and (with his hand on my thigh![I should mention it was in a weird way]) he proceeds to tell me he doesn't think anything needs to be done. Every looks fine... Everything points to virus. No need for meds. Heck, I don't even need the meds I was on before!
He can tell I'm pissed.
And here's the kicker... He then says that "if it would make me feel better (emotionally)", he will still give me the super antibiotic. Even though in his medical opinion it's totally not needed, he will give it to me if it's what I want and will make me happy.
"Why would I?! You said it wouldn't work. I had 4 doctors tell me one thing, and you tell me something totally different"
He just repeats what he said before, just in different order.
"No! Just let me go home then."
And that was it! I like roller coasters... I do. But tonight was like one loooong, sloooow pull up a big hill (Anxiety flowing... I'm nervous, scared, excited (because I get this ailment all the time and to have tonsils removed I wouldn't have to deal with it any more) only to have the roller coaster ride end right after the top!
It sucked.
I'm pissed.
I'm very tired.
Still in pain.
Scott's tired and has to work!!!
This is why I hate doctors.....
