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Dec. 22nd, 2008 05:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaEveryone's read articles about those awful parents who push for antibiotics when their kids probably just have a viral infection. Everyone has rolled their eyes and thought, "Great, we're all going to be killed by superbugs because you place your ignorant anti-scientific opinions over the judgment of your doctor."
Me too. Honest. Except when it gets more complicated.
I am 90% sure that Alex has a sinus infection. Here is my evidence: she had a cold for two-three weeks that didn't seem to bother her much, and then abruptly she became sicker. And miserable. She has a hacking, not-that-productive cough which is bad at night and early morning, and much less bad during the day when she's been up for a few hours. She's yellow-green congested. She complains of a headache and sore throat in the morning. She has awful morning breath. Her complexion is pale and washed out, with dark circles under her eyes. She's low-energy and incredibly pathetic in the mornings and evenings, but perks up reasonably well by around noon. No fever.
To me, this is pretty clearly a sinus infection. I think she feels okay - but not great - when she's been vertical for a while, and then everything goes to hell when she lies down all night and her sinuses drain and drain. She was up coughing from 4 to 5:30 this morning.
I kept her home today and brought her to a nurse practitioner at her pediatrician's office. Her lungs are clear. Her ears and throat look fine. She claimed that it hurt when the NP pressed on her sinuses, but then she also claimed it hurt when she pressed on her shoulder. Not a reliable historian, as we say. Also, the appointment was at her perkiest time of day.
The NP said she couldn't be sure if it was a new viral infection coming right on the heels of the previous one, or a bacterial infection taking advantage of the previous viral infection. Given that Christmas is looming, she wrote Alex a prescription for amoxicillin and suggested that I hold onto it for 24 to 36 hours, to see which way things are going.
Instead, we are going ahead and getting it filled. Because I think that if her appointment had been at 8am instead of 3pm, the diagnosis would've been clearer. Because on Thursday we're going to ask this child to get on a plane and undergo two takeoffs and two landings, and I've done that with a sinus infection before, and I don't want to ask her to do it, and I'm not sure that only 24 hours of antibiotics (if we delay) would clear things up sufficiently. Because I feel like I know my kid, and I know what she's like when she comes down with a fresh cold, and this isn't it.
Because, when it comes right down to it, I guess I'm like those horrible parents in the magazine articles.
Me too. Honest. Except when it gets more complicated.
I am 90% sure that Alex has a sinus infection. Here is my evidence: she had a cold for two-three weeks that didn't seem to bother her much, and then abruptly she became sicker. And miserable. She has a hacking, not-that-productive cough which is bad at night and early morning, and much less bad during the day when she's been up for a few hours. She's yellow-green congested. She complains of a headache and sore throat in the morning. She has awful morning breath. Her complexion is pale and washed out, with dark circles under her eyes. She's low-energy and incredibly pathetic in the mornings and evenings, but perks up reasonably well by around noon. No fever.
To me, this is pretty clearly a sinus infection. I think she feels okay - but not great - when she's been vertical for a while, and then everything goes to hell when she lies down all night and her sinuses drain and drain. She was up coughing from 4 to 5:30 this morning.
I kept her home today and brought her to a nurse practitioner at her pediatrician's office. Her lungs are clear. Her ears and throat look fine. She claimed that it hurt when the NP pressed on her sinuses, but then she also claimed it hurt when she pressed on her shoulder. Not a reliable historian, as we say. Also, the appointment was at her perkiest time of day.
The NP said she couldn't be sure if it was a new viral infection coming right on the heels of the previous one, or a bacterial infection taking advantage of the previous viral infection. Given that Christmas is looming, she wrote Alex a prescription for amoxicillin and suggested that I hold onto it for 24 to 36 hours, to see which way things are going.
Instead, we are going ahead and getting it filled. Because I think that if her appointment had been at 8am instead of 3pm, the diagnosis would've been clearer. Because on Thursday we're going to ask this child to get on a plane and undergo two takeoffs and two landings, and I've done that with a sinus infection before, and I don't want to ask her to do it, and I'm not sure that only 24 hours of antibiotics (if we delay) would clear things up sufficiently. Because I feel like I know my kid, and I know what she's like when she comes down with a fresh cold, and this isn't it.
Because, when it comes right down to it, I guess I'm like those horrible parents in the magazine articles.
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-22 10:58 pm (UTC)There may be articles on horrible parents in magazines, but there are also articles about how parents knew something was wrong even when doctors told them otherwise and it turned out that they were right. While being a parent doesn't give you a medical degree, it does give you pretty good authority to say that you know your kid. Especially when the doctor sees your kid for less than an hour and you live with them all the time.
From what I can tell, you're a tremendously thoughtful, mindful parent who knows her child very well.
I think you're absolutely right to give her the antibiotics, especially given the upcoming plane trip. Also? Even if the antibiotics don't work and it turns out it's something viral, it's not like doing it this *one* time is going to cause the Superbug That Ends the Human Race.
As for those other parents, maybe them screaming for antibiotics for their children isn't the best thing to do, but in the Pantheon of Parental Sins, being a slightly over-zealous advocate for your child's well being is among the least.