Our two year old experienced a seizure earlier today and scared us all to death. It wasn't until we were riding in the ambulance and half a mile from the ED that he started coming around.
I have never been more happy to hear Ben cry!
There were a lot more details that I could share about the experience of seeing him seize... but I choose not to (right now) because otherwise I would be a blubbering heap of snot. I will say this. I am so happy that my little guy is okay now.
The doc came in and told us he suspected a febrile seizure and had ordered blood draws, a chest xray, and a urine collection. Ben's temperature was 100.4 before he got his first dose of Tylenol.
After a few hours it was determined that Ben had a minor ear infection but the doc was not confident that was the source of infection. Chest xray and urine came back negative. But his WBCs were slightly elevated.
A Rocephin drip, a script for Omnicef, and we were on our way home.
It is one thing to read about febrile seizures out of a textbook. It is something entirely different when you are experiencing one for the first time... and its your own two year old.
My thanks goes out to the paramedics, nurses, and docs at MTMC ED.
Now I am off to bed!!!
Update:
The following Monday we took Ben to the pediatrician but could only get him in during the 'sick clinic' they hold every morning from 8 to 9am.
The doc who saw him was the same that the ER doc consulted via phone (not his regular doc but same practice).
Doc came in... slammed the chart on the table... regurgitated the past weekend events (as if I hadn't been there... duh?!)... looked in his mouth and states:
"Your son has viral pharyngitis and not an ear infection."
"Are you going to swab his throat?"
"No need. I've seen lots of these. He'll be over it in three days."
Update-Update:
Today we took Ben to his regular doc (who we have NO complaints about) and THIS TIME he was actually assessed (throat swabbed).
Results: S-T-R-E-P!
What the hell good is holding a 'sick clinic' when the only thing anyone gets out of it is a doctor who gets a copay for misdiagnosing/undertreating... while we have to return multiple times to get the same instance of illness TREATED?!!?
This is the same practice that misdiagnosed our son's pink eye.
The count for this office: 3 in a row misdiagnoses or undertreatments
This IS the final straw. We love our regular pediatrician but because we cannot always see her we continue to get shoddy care from her cohorts.
I am calling a Family Practice physician tomorrow to see if he is accepting patients.
The Deal About Nothing
6 years ago
Posts
Wow! I hope everything turns out ok! Glad you got him to ER! You are all in my thoughts!
ReplyDeleteIt's always worse when it's close to home.
ReplyDeleteI hope every is OK with your little one.
W. :)
Hugs for your big boy (plus you and your wife). My kid did the same thing and the cause was a not very bad ear infection. His temp was 106 and he was on antibiotics. Just not the right ones. 24 hours later, he was right as rain. Glad he's feeling better.
ReplyDeleteI cant imagine how scary that was.
ReplyDeleteSometimes you just want to smack Dr's when they do stuff like that.
How long would it have taken to do a throat culture??
Happy doctor shopping.
I hope the little guy is feeling better real soon.
Amy
Very scary!
ReplyDeleteYou are so smart to double check your kid's health. It took too long and too many serious doctor's mistakes for us to realize that sometimes your kid is being seen by a big ego and not someone who values your kid.
Since this was Feb. 17th or so when posted, I can tell you this without scaring you, as I figure your little guy is feeling better.....
ReplyDeleteA child about an hour away from us died from strep throat. Well, meningitis that started as strep. It was diagnosed as "viral" and the kid got sicker and sicker... and died.
That really pissed me off because all I could think was "It's not that damn hard to swap someone's throat"...
I hope your little guy is better, and I can't imagine the fright of seeing your own child have a seizure.
I am so glad that Ben is okay and got the correct diagnosis finally!
ReplyDeleteIt is so darn frustrating! Nothing hurts more than seeing your kid hurt!
I also have a Ben, but he is 23 yrs old and at college.. he got bad appendix type symptoms.. he was really hurting. It TOOK 2 ER VISITS + 2 ULTRA SCANS + 1 CAT SCAN AND 2 Primary care visits at a total AFTER insurance of over $1400 for this episode, where my son was in pain so bad he couldn't function.. and I was 1000 miles away.. Very hard on a parent.
They sent him home after each ER visit in pain and with no plan. This is at Stanford Medical Center, so honestly, I expected more.
It took all that overkill to finally rule out appy and to finally figure out he had a virus in a groin gland.
All that waste of money, time, and efforts. If one MD or ANRP or RN, would have taken more than 10-15 min to think about it, they would not have put us through this.
My positive intention for the future, is to help educate my MDs, since I had a recent very bad PC visit myself. From now on, I will send them via email (and i won't see a MD that isn't even tech enough to get attachments or URLs) valid information for a differential and then have a strong commitment to using the accurate tests (like blood, STREP etc.) and following best practice guidelines.. I am now printing them out and bringing them and leaving them in my MDs chart.. a thought from a crazy mom..
Thanks for listening to my rant.
I hope Ben is up and active soon!
JR
I'm also a nursing student, and I also have kids - 3 girls. I know how frustrating it is for people like us - I wonder if my GP's practice hates hearing me on the phone. Today I have to go in to get my throat swabbed because I have strep; they won't just call in a scrip even though 2 of my daughters had it last week - oh no, they want their $15 co-pay in hand.
ReplyDeleteBeen there, done that with my son at about that age. Nothing scarier in parenting, let me tell you!
ReplyDeleteDid you find a new MD? I hope so.