Left to Wonder

Have you ever had the feeling that you've been forgotten about?

Today I took Barrett to the doctor. He has been crying/fussing since Monday afternoon. Monday morning he went to the doctor for a weight check (he's gained an entire 1.5 ounces in the last 5 weeks) and she said there was a little fluid in his ears and to keep an eye on him. He's been fussy, but not pulling on his ears. His temps had been staying around 99.5 until this afternoon. When he woke up his temp was 102.9, so I decided to call and talk to the nurse. She said that Gretchen wanted to see him and asked if I could be there at 4:00 (it was 3:50 and I was 20 minutes away at work). She said it was ok if I was a few minutes late, so I grabbed my bag and my boy and rushed to the car. I'm not sure why I hurried so fast since we spent 45 minutes in the waiting room!

Once back in the patient room I told the nurse that I wasn't sure it was an ear infection because he didn't act like his ears were bothering him. I mentioned that I hadn't been able to get him to eat much of anything in the past 2 days so she swabbed his throat (that was fun!) to test for strep. She left the room saying the dr would be in shortly.

The doctor's advertised hours are 8:30 am -5:00 pm and, seeing as it was 4:45, I thought she'd be in pretty quick. I looked down at my watch 45 minutes later and began to seriously wonder if they'd forgotten about us! The halls were no longer bustling with noise and I didn't hear any kids crying (probably from getting a shot). Barrett was actually quietly emptying the contents of my diaper bag and I was kind of wishing that he would cry (even though this was one of the first moments of quiet in 2 days) so that someone would hear us and think, "Is there still a patient here?" I actually dropped a few of his toys and banged them around kinda loud (like Brody would've been doing if he was there). There was still light coming under the door, so I knew that they hadn't locked up and left for the day yet. Just as I was about to open the door I heard Gretchen's muffled voice (a full hour after we'd first entered the patient room), "Which room is Barrett in?" Whew! We hadn't been left to spend the night locked in the clinic!

I knew that we'd been a "work-in" and that the waiting room had been full, so I wasn't upset...I was just grateful that she could see Barrett! She looked in his ears and announced that they looked better than they had on Monday. His throat was really red with some white spots and she was surprised that the strep culture was negative. She had the nurse swab and test for flu (also negative). In her professional opinion, she thinks he has strep but that it just didn't show up on the test.

He's now doped up on amoxicillin and Tylenol...and hopefully he'll sleep thru the night.