No More Doctors!!!

It's Christmas Eve, and while it seems that everyone is feeling pretty well, we still have two different antibiotics in the refrigerator--one for each child. If you add up all the co-pays for visits to the pediatrician and ER (yes, ER--more on that later) and for prescriptions this last month, we've spent close to $300. But it's all worth it to have two (relatively) healthy girls.

Here's the rundown: First, Presley had an unidentified bacterial infection (high white count, but no visible ear troubles or UTI). That accounted for two doctor visits. But because there was a little bacteria in her urine, we had to have a catheter put in to get a "clean" sample. Fortunately, she had a well visit scheduled, but that still brings us to three doctor visits.

Next--and this is the biggie--we took Reagan to the doc last Friday morning because she was throwing up and lethargic with fever. She had a cough and runny nose as well, but I wasn't that concerned until the fever showed up. She was pretty pitiful, and I wasn't surprise that her white count was 28,000. However, what threw us for a loop was her glucose at 250! The pediatrician was so concerned that he sent us immediately to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital with a tentative diagnosis of the onset of type 1 diabetes. We were terrified, thinking our lives were all about to change. I'll spare you the non-essential details and skip ahead to the good part. Once the ER docs saw her, they were more encouraging. They pumped her with IV fluids, and she started perking up. Her glucose went down to 127 (almost normal), her fever lowered, and they felt diabetes was not an issue. After a second check, her glucose was normal. By the end of a long day in the ER, Reagan was actually playing and asking for something to eat! A return visit to our pediatrician on Saturday, with a glucose of only 84, confirmed that she does not have diabetes and simply had a severe stress reaction to a bacterial respiratory infection. She's doing fine and at the end of a round of antibiotics. (We're up to five office visits plus and ER visit.)

We've been watching Presley closely, as she developed a cough very similar to Reagan's. Until late Friday night, she had seemed fine. But Friday evening after returning from a family Christmas celebration, Scott and I were up ALL NIGHT, taking turns consoling her. (This is our child who sleeps ten straight hours without a peep in between!) By morning, her fever was apparent. We headed, once again, to the Saturday clinic at our pediatrician's office. Sure enough, baby girl has ear infections in BOTH ears! (No wonder she was so grumpy!) After a day of antibiotics, she's almost back to normal.

So, the grand total is 6 office visits, 1 ER visit, and 3 prescriptions--whew! Needless to say, we're really sick of going to the doctor! So far, Scott and I have managed to stay pretty well--or at least keep trudging through the pain. That's what parents do. We're all looking forward to a healthier 2007.