Back in Childrens ER again
It has been close to 8 months since our last visit to Childrens Hospital ER so I think Teaspoon was missing it.
Last night around 5pm Teaspoon started crying. Not a “hey I wanna eat” or temper tantrum but pretty close to a regular teething breakdown. (Have I mentioned he has like 10-12 teeth already? he’s a NOM NOM machine!) This went on for awhile so we gave him Tylenol. That didn’t work so we tried Ora-gel. No luck. We called our Ped’s office and the nurse said that crying for teething can last up to 4 hours (think about that next time you wanna get your groove on single people!). It was pushing 9 so along with being tired he was still cranky. The nurse could hear him and said that sounds more like something else was wrong. She then said the words we didn’t want to hear… “Send him to Children’s. I’m calling the ER to tell them you’re coming now!”
We get everything loaded up and not 2 minutes into the trip he stopped crying. Do we turn around? Do we just drive around? We continue on what would be an hour drive. Not only does night time construction suck but when Lawrenceville is single lane all hell breaks loose. The drive from Cranberry was not a pleasant one.
We get to the ER and it’s about 1/2 full. We get irritated when we find out most of the people are there because they use the ER as a personal doctor’s office and not for emergencies. We get checked in and wait…
An hour later we’re taken back and Teaspoon’s blood pressure is taken. Male nurse says that it should be any minute and to wait in the waiting room again.
Another hour later we’re brought back to a room and told “a nurse will be right over to see why he’s crying”
60 minutes pass and in that time we don’t see one nurse, tech or in fact anyone besides cleaning people. Lushie went to the nurses’ station and there is a guy in the window hard at work shopping for things online. “Oh yeah I’ll send someone over”. 30 more minutes without even a cleaning person and we’re past the point of pissed. Teaspoon has been sleeping and seems to be fine now so we debate leaving. That’s when the nurse shows up and says “well his belly isn’t hard and he’s just sleeping so why don’t we get an x-ray and get you moving.
An hour later (it’s now 3:30am) the doc shows up, gets Teaspoon confused with 2 other kids and then says “He’s a little his constipated and that’s pushing on his belly. Go home and if hurts him again bring him back.” That’s it. “Go home and come back.”
Now to be fair I understand that someone called off and there were some kids that really needed attention. I’m perfectly cool with that and appreciate these kids can get care but to put us in a closed room for 90 minutes with NO communication was bullshit. The fact that we couldn’t find anyone to talk to besides a cleaning person and the one medical person there was busy shopping online was pushing all levels of irritation and finally the doc seeming stunned that Teaspoon was irritable at 3:30am and constantly confusing us for other patients, well yeah we were steamed and ready to leave. The staff we did interact with was very nice and knowledgeable; the process though was severely broken last night.
Final arrival time home: 4:30am. Seven hours after everything started
Overheard in the waiting room “I can only imagine what the wait will be like when everyone has health care.”
I hope we don’t have to find out for a long time!
