Urgent Care

Alex has been sick since Monday. He has been sick a few times before in his life where he was all stuffed up and congested, but this time he had a really loose cough to go along with it. The only other time he had a cough in his life was when he was 4 months old and we flew out to San Diego for Christmas. He ended up with bronchitis. Needless to say ever since he started coughing on Monday I have been worried. Up until yesterday it had just been a loose cough, but then yesterday it sounded like it was settling into his chest and he was running a small fever. I immediately called his doctor. They had no appointments left for the day. WHAT???!! How can a pediatricians office with 6-7 doctors not have ANY appointments left for sick children?? I was then transferred to the nurse triage line where I had to explain what was going on again. She told me I could A)wait it out a couple of days to see how he was feeling, B) take him to urgent care or C) I could wait until Saturday morning at 8am and call the other office to try to get him in on Saturday. So when my Mom got off work we took him to Urgent Care. Luckily we were 4th in line when the opened at 4 so we didn't have to wait TOO long.

Now Alex DESPISES the doctors office. But what little one wouldn't? All they know is doctors=shots. He started screaming and crying the second we walked back to the room. He got himself so upset he almost puked a few times. I brought everything I could think of to comfort him, but nothing helped. Not his binky, nor his stuffed doggy "Spot", nor his blanket. The doctor looked him over and said that it was not settling into his chest and his lungs and breathing sounded great. They tested his oxygen level and said that was great as well. Then she checked his ears. He has the beginning of an ear infection. I am so glad I followed my instinct that it wasn't just a cold and took him in. If I would have waited all weekend the doctor even said he would have been in a lot of pain from the ear infection getting worse. So now we are on a round of antibiotics to get rid of the infection. Hopefully he starts feeling better soon.