Hospitals Part II

Ian had a brief (3 day) stay at the hospital last weekend, reminding Julie and I of how much we hate, hate, hate them.

Last Friday she noticed that he seemed to have a fever, so she checked his temperature and found that it was above 100.4. She called the pediatrician for confirmation that what he told us earlier still applies - i.e., that with a fever over this temp she should head immediately to the Emergency Room. He confirmed it, so that is what she did. After I arrived, the doctor explained that because children as young as Ian don't really have immune systems yet, they would need to test for a wide range of things. Julie took Jocelyn for a walk while I sat with Ian and watched the nurses draw blood and install an IV, and the doctor administer a spinal tap (they had to rule out meningitis).

Luckily it turned out that he had "just" a urinary tract infection. He was on IV antibiotics for 3 days at the hospital while they figured out which oral antibiotic would be most effective on the bacteria in his system. During that time he had other tests done to make sure there were no mechanical problems with his bladder that could cause the infection to spread to his kidneys or beyond. He was discharged on Monday, and needs to take the antibiotics for 2 weeks. He was already acting like a new little man yesterday - Julie said he seemed more alert than he had in the entire week before he went in.

Overall, the nurses at Newton-Wellesley Hospital were much, much better and more attentive than those that cared for Jocelyn at Childrens'. However, last night we discovered that the syringe given to us by one of the nurses to administer the oral antibiotic had the dosage mislabeled, so we have been giving the wrong dose to Ian for a couple of days now. Luckily the mislabeling caused us to undermedicate rather than overmedicate him - luckily! There were other minor incidents at the hospital that I won't bore you with but which annoyed Julie and I as well. Overall it just affirmed our feelings from the ordeal with Jocelyn: trust and defer to no one charged with providing medical care to your children. Check everything they do, and ask more questions than they can stand to answer. We hope all the parents who read this blog can learn from our experiences.