My son has a runny nose and cough. Par for the course at this time of year, really. He has asthma and allergies and we go through this a couple of times a year. It sounds bad but he’s not running a fever and says he feels OK. He certainly acts like he feels fine. So I’m letting it go. We’re giving him Zyrtec and making him use his inhaler and it will probably go away once allergy season goes away. I don’t go to the doctor for every sniffle and sneeze because we’d be in the doctor’s office constantly if we did that. That place is way too germy for us to be there when it’s not necessary! Plus our children currently have state medical insurance (Medicaid for the little ones, CHIP for my oldest) and I don’t want to waste the taxpayer’s money. We feel very fortunate to have these benefits available to us during our time of need and don’t want to abuse that.
This week, though, he came home and said he needed to go to the doctor. I asked him if he felt bad. No. Was he running a fever? No. Why does he think he needs to go to the doctor?
Because his teacher told him to tell us that he did. Um, WHAT?
I missed the part where she had medical credentials. I try to give the benefit of the doubt because I know my son isn’t the best at communicating what exactly was said or what happened. But this is the most recent in a long line of things that have really irritated me with this particular teacher and I’m ready to explode. There was no note home, so I’m trying to assume that it was just something she said in conversation and that she’s not really telling him to tell us when to take him to the doctor.
If you’ve been reading my blog since the beginning, you may remember our bout with pneumonia in both boys in the spring of 2008. It was terrible…we kept going to the doctor and they couldn’t find anything. But I knew something was wrong. They had fevers, felt terrible, and my instincts told me they were really sick even though the doctor’s kept blowing us off. To be fair, several doctors were completely unable to hear the pneumonia through the stethoscope and thought it was just a virus. When they finally ordered a chest x-ray, the pneumonia was pretty bad. Even I could see it clearly and I’m no radiologist. My mom (who was an x-ray tech back in the day) saw the x-rays and was horrified at how bad they were. It was a very scary time in my house and has made me realize I should always trust my instincts when it comes to them.
Right now, I’m trusting my instincts. I don’t think there’s anything seriously wrong and we’ll be keeping an eye on it. If he develops a fever or starts feeling bad, we’ll make an appointment. The only problem is that I’m now doubting myself and I hate that. If you’re a mom, what’s your rule for taking kids to the doctor? Is my plan reasonable or do I need to be more concerned about this?
Kelly
October 31, 2009 at 10:49 pm
I only take my kids to the doctor if they run a high fever, complain about their ears (and not just that they’re itchy), or if I’m worried about dehydration.
However, if they seem to just have some gunk that’s going around, their fever is managable by motrin/tylenol, and they’re eating/drinking/eliminating like normal then there’s no reason to truck them up to the doctor’s office where I’ll pay $25 to be told to keep doing what I’m doing.
I don’t really understand people who run to the doctor all the time. If it’s something BAD, then yes you should go. If it’s just another cold then I think it’s worse to take them in than to just suffer through.
themama
November 1, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Thanks for the reassurance, Kelly! I hate it when I doubt myself, but it seems like a constant theme when it comes to having kids, doesn’t it? I’m with you…I hate going only to be told that it’s a virus and we’re doing what we’re supposed to already.
I guess I’ll keep that plan!