Before I even start, let me say, I know that I’m probably tired and cranky myself after dealing with a tired and cranky toddler for 3 days now. I’m terribly frustrated none-the-less, so here comes the venting!!
Saturday evening, I picked Chloe Mae up from my mom’s house, after DaddyMort and I spent Friday night and all day Saturday removing wallpaper from BabyD’s room. I was exhausted and sore, DaddyMort was exhausted and Chloe Mae followed suit. She didn’t eat much dinner and we put her to bed early, because she had the shortest fuse I’ve seen in a long time – a sure sign that she’s a tired girl. I didn’t think too much of it though, because she’d spent 24 hours playing with Nanna, Dudad and her cousin. She had reason to be tired.
When she woke up cranky on Sunday morning, I chalked it up to residual tiredness. Then she didn’t eat lunch, asked to go ‘night-night,’ but didn’t nap well. She was obviously still tired, or sick – but she told us nothing hurt, so we decided to try a trip to the park, hoping that a change of scenery and fresh air might do us all some good. She only made it about a half hour before we hit melt-down mode and came home. Then we spent the next 3 hours with an inconsolable girl, who – again – didn’t eat dinner. At this point she had a fever, but I didn’t know if it was a true fever or if it was just because she’d been so upset. She went to bed even earlier and DaddyMort and I crossed our fingers that she’d wake up feeling refreshed.
It didn’t work. When she woke up this morning, it was obvious something still wasn’t right. She drank some smoothie for breakfast, but wouldn’t touch her toast or banana. Then we headed off to Grandma’s for the day. A day getting spoiled by Grandma has to be good for anyone!! But she had another rough day and didn’t want to get out of bed after her nap. DaddyMort brought her home, with many tears in the car, and we evaluated when we all got home. She had a fever of 102+ and was so sad, tired and all around pathetic.
I called FirstNurse. They recommended that Chloe be seen, since she’s been sick for 3 days, with a fever. The nurse transferred me to Pediatrics, who said they’d have to have their nurse call me back, but (and I quote) ‘not to worry, because they had several appointments left open tonight.’ When the Peds nurse called me back 45 minutes later, she said that since Chloe had only been (confirmed) sick for 60 hours instead of a full 72, that we didn’t need to be seen. When I pushed her a little, (because I know when something’s isn’t right with my child,) she went on to say that if I was concerned (obviously, or I wouldn’t be calling!!), I could take her to the ER, but they didn’t have any appointments left open in Peds. I was frustrated and made my feelings known. When I said I’d be filing a complaing with the Clinic (because this is not the first problem we’ve had with them) the nurse informed me that she was the head of the department and said my complaint would go through her anyways. Oh, great…
We spent another few minutes discussing my options for tonight – the ER or Urgent Care. We’ve had horrible luck with Urgent Care, because they say things like, “Well we don’t usually see kids, so I’m not really sure, but…” Not very comforting, so I wasn’t really up for that option. And although Chloe obviously doesn’t feel well, the ER seemed like overkill. The problem was, the nurse was missing my whole point. I was frustrated, because I had previously been told that Chloe should be seen and that there were appointments left open, but because of how their system is set up, we didn’t end up getting seen tonight. And then she threw in: “It’s too bad you didn’t call earlier in the day when we had more staff.” Not only would this have not made a difference, because I’ve had issues getting appointments during the day before, but this is my fault now?!?
Fighting with the nurse over the phone wasn’t doing anything to help my daughter, so I gave it up for the night. I scheduled her an appointment for tomorrow morning, spent the night giving her extra cuddles, pumped her full of Ibuprofen (since her temp was up to 103) and put her to bed early. I’m hoping we’ll be able to cancel her doctor’s appointment in the morning, but at least I’m on the books – which isn’t easy when you’re dealing with McFarland Clinic!!
MamaMort 