Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Children's Resort and Spa

Jaden and I recently had the pleasure of an overnight stay at Children's Hospital (aka resort and spa). How can I possibly express to you the hatred I feel for that place. Some long-time readers of Kiddyland may recall our last visit to the resort and spa was less than ideal. You can read about it here.

This time it was the exact opposite. We went to the Emergency room at 10:00 am on Thursday because Jaden had a headached that he ranked an 8 out of 10 on the pain scale since the evening before. The only other time this had happened, it was a shunt malfunction. So, we took him in. They did the obligatory tests: another CT Scan (didn't a study just come out linking lots of CT scans to kidney cancer???), a series of xrays and a needle into the head to test for shunt flow. Everything looked fine. However, they wanted to run one more test and they wanted him to stay overnight for observation. At that point, I appreciated the cautiousness they were taking.

When we got to our room, I was so pleased to see that Jaden was the only patient in his room. Until 4 am. That's when they brought Damon in. Not pronounced (DAY-men) but pronounced (day-MON...like on). He was climbing a tree around midnight when he fell out and they thought he broke his neck. Luckily, no broken bones, but unfortunately, they found a growth in his rectum when they did the full-body MRI. How do I know this??? Well, because he was scoped right on his bed, right next to me at 4:30 in the morning. Actually, I felt quite bad for this family and ended up really liking them. But, not so much when they first came in.

The next morning, I learned the other test was called a shuntogram. My first thought was that a clown was going to come out, do a little dance, or recite a naughty poem and give Jaden some chocolates or flowers or something. Actually, he was going to get another needle in the head, get filled up with radioactive stuff and then get xrays taken. Since Jaden had been acting fine since about 4pm the previous evening, I wanted to talk to the Dr about not doing the test and going home. While I enjoy the thought of using Jaden for an alternative energy source once this whole "oil" thing runs out. I do try to avoid that radioactive stuff when I can. I asked at 8am, I got to speak to the Dr at 2. THis was only after I went into "winning friends and influencing people" mode. It's not pretty. Although I did keep a respectful tone to my voice which I think is pretty commendable.

In the end, after a consult from ENT, it turns out that Jaden simply had an inner ear infection...thus the headache, sore neck (lymph nodes) and dizziness. UNBELIEVABLY, the ENT wanted to order another CT Scan to get a more conclusive picture AND he wanted to keep him another night. I'm serious. But, thanks to Dale Carnegie I was able to make my escape.

It seriously took them from 10 am to 4 pm the mext day to diagnose an ear infection people. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

1 comment:

Mindy Richmond said...

Oh, you have insurance, don't you? That may explain the feet dragging.