That's just it. My problem with modern medicine. I except Doc Baker from Little House on the Prairie or maybe even Carter or Dr. Green from ER.
Houlder woke at 3:30am last night off the richter scale of pain. The head the upper school called last night to talk with him but he was rolling around in pain unable to answer the phone. By 7am he was in tears begging me not to make him get out of bed. He was miserable. Worse than when he broke bones. Crummy. As a parent I felt helpless.
I took him to hospital to break this relentless pain.
So many doctors. So little relief. So much passing the buck.
Two highlights. Our friend who is an ER doctor visited us and shared his corny, puny jokes -- he is a good guy. Frazer, who tagged along and did his school work, got to unexpectedly visit a friend in the hospital ER.
Four doctors -- actually five, incorrect histories, different versions about how to take the bevy of medications being prescribed, confusion. One doctor thought his headache had been going on since 2010 and one nurse since 2001. Small easy mistakes I know, but they did not think it was weird that my kid could have a headache for 10 years. One headache.
One doctor says take medication every four hours, one says only take it once a day, one says only take it if the base level of pain is substantially raised. All suggestions were for only one med. We left with three and one that our pediatrician had called in last night.
I learned that the one of the docs we saw said in his notes that he prescribed something -- which he did not -- so we were asked why we did not give med. I must have repeated that story multiple times. I learned that one doc said we could not give a med while another doc said we could right in front of us.
I learned that yet again when the docs don't know what is wrong, psycho-therapy seems like a good idea.
I learned that the docs don't know what is wrong with Houlder.
I brought Houlder in to relieve the pain. He entered with a ten plus -- worst pain ever he said, and left with a 7 and a plan which had been articulate in three different ways by four different doctors.
Head spinning, fighting tears, breathing through anger, we waited to get out of the parking deck. My sweet giant asks what just happened. He asked why the doctors did not give us the same directions. He asked how was I going to know which medicines to give him. He asked if the pediatric neurologist had given us the heave ho because he seemed mad that we had gone to other doctors and gotten other opinions -- "Well, maybe the problem is that you have seen too many doctors and you should only be listening to one -- your pediatrician." Okay, sounds like we have been fired with drugs. Oh the drugs: the drugs that may give him some relief now; the drugs that can bridge the pain between the pain relief this afternoon and the long acting one -- which may or may not work but give it a try. A steroid just in case there is inflammation even though we were told there was nothing wrong.
Yeah, I am feeling like Alice's big sister as Alice trips down the rabbit hole -- telling a story that hopefully my son will rouse as a well young man.
Friends have joked that an herbal remedy exists that has stood the test of time which is clever and amusing but too Grace Slick for me. Lewis Carroll suffered from headaches and treated them himself. I am trying to treat my kid a little better:
 | |
| Houlder's afternoon |
Alice
It would be so nice if something made sense for a change
or
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"
Remember what the dormouse said;
FEED YOUR HEAD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WANNqr-vcx0
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