Tuesday, May 27, 2014

This Time We Didn't Wait

She started coughing on Friday. I wondered if maybe it was just a residual cough, left over from the ear infection/cold she’d had a month ago.

Saturday, she said her arms and shoulders ached. I gave her some ibuprofen and cough medicine and hoped for the best.

Sunday, Tom brought her to me at 9am, saying she wanted to lay down with me. I pulled her into bed and realized how warm she felt.

A half hour later, Olivia and I were on our way to Urgent Care, one day short of a month from when we were last there.

Last time, I tried to wait the cold out, to give her body time to fight it. I kept telling myself that it takes ten days for a person to get over a cold.

This time we didn’t wait those ten days and I’m so, so glad we didn’t.

The wait at Urgent Care was insane. She wanted to sit on me and have me keep her warm.

Once we were finally called back, the nurse took her temperature and Olivia had a fever of 103.1. Yikes.

The nurse gave her a dose of Tylenol (probably $10 for that single dose) and the doctor finally came in to look at my girl.

She looked in O’s waxy ears, declared them clear (yay), looked at O’s throat, declared it also clear and then went about listening to Olivia breathe.

Olivia took deep breath after deep breath.

The doctor sat back and did not declare Olivia’s lungs clear. Instead, she stated, “Pneumonia.”

Not yay.

We left with a prescription for another antibiotic and instructions for Olivia to drink as much water and other clear liquids as possible. We were also instructed to take her to the ER if her temperature went above 104.

We headed to the Walmart (because, duh, where else does one go for anything at all?) pharmacy where we saw all the new friends we’d made in the Urgent Care waiting room and waited for O’s medicine to be ready. The lady who took the prescription paper from me mentioned that Olivia didn’t look like she felt well and when I mentioned the pneumonia she said she’d had it several times and it wasn’t fun. She also said she’d put Olivia’s order in as critical so I could get my girl home. People can be so kind.

There was still going to be a wait, so we bought some powdered donuts and cranberry/apple juice for Olivia to eat/drink while we waited. Never fear, we paid for these things before she consumed them. We’re not THOSE people who hand the cashier an empty wrapper at the end of our shopping trip.

When we were finally called to the pharmacy counter for a consultation with the pharmacist, he explained the dosage and then mentioned that this particular antibiotic will make her sensitive to the sun. He then glanced down at my bare arms (never fear, I wasn’t wearing anything as scandalous as a tank top, just a short sleeved shirt) and said, “Well, you’re both already pretty pale. Stay out of direct sunlight.)

Ha! Hahaha. Yes. Okay, we’ll do that. Thanks.

But seriously, this means Olivia needs to stay inside for recess this week at school, when she finally returns to school, which wasn’t be today, since she had a 101.3 fever just last night.

Finally, we got home and got Olivia settled in for a Frozen marathon. She watched it many, many times, often asking to watch it in either French or Spanish with the subtitles on as well. She’s funny like that.

But at least she’s on the mend now. And can I say again how glad I am that this time we didn’t take the whole wait-and-see route with O’s health. Yikes. But since we didn’t wait, she’s on the mend, often asking why there is “ammonia” in her lungs. I’ve tried to explain that it’s just a germ that’s making her sick and that the medicine, which she’s declared is yucky, will make the pneumonia go away. She usually just shrugs at me and goes on to ask if there is ammonia in her bones too. Seven year olds are funny, even when they’re sick.

No comments: