Doctors are amazing…the medical kind, that is. You may have a doctorate in English or mathematics, but that doesn’t do much for me, now does it?
My wife and I recently had to bring our 11-month-old daughter to the Children’s Hospital in Calgary, and after her not being herself for some time, we left the hospital finally having identified what was wrong with her…she had a bladder infection that had spread to her kidneys.
We were grateful that the doctor had ordered a urine sample to get done, but having said that, our experience during that five-and-a-half-hour overnight visit to the hospital was not the most enjoyable we have ever had.
I’ll repeat…doctors are amazing, but if there’s one thing many of these well-educated medical professionals are not taught during their decade in school is how to deal with people.
Whether public relations is an important trait in a doctor is debatable, but when a pair of new parents have their sick child in emergency at midnight, a little understanding would go a long way.
Here is my We arrived at the Children’s Hospital around midnight on a Thursday night. Prior to arrival, my daughter had been ill for a few days – in addition to having a virus for nearly a month, she was running a fever, vomiting, was pale, shaking, lethargic and couldn’t hold down anything, including water.
Before going to the hospital, we called Alberta Health Link and spoke with a nurse, who advised us to bring our daughter to the emergency room sometime in the next 24 hours.
So we did.
Fast forward to just after 2 a.m.: Still waiting to see a doctor, I asked a nurse when we were going to see a doctor. Admittedly, I was tired and cranky, and my exact wording was, “Is there a doctor anywhere in our foreseeable future?”
The nurse proceeded to tell us that they were extremely busy because there were a lot of parents who brought in their child when they shouldn’t have, just because they have a sniffle.
In many cases, I’m sure this is true.
Around 2:45 a.m. the doctor came to see us.
Undoubtedly, the nurse told the doctor that I was a jerk.
She proceeded to examine our daughter and told us that there was nothing seriously wrong with her, and that we didn’t need to bring her into emergency ‘every time she had a fever.’
Again, this is true, however, she had much more than a fever wrong with her and we were told by Alberta Health Link to bring her to the hospital within 24 hours.
“Oh, they always say that,” the doctor said, a comment I still have trouble wrapping my head around.
After some more sarcastic comments (most notably pointing out that our daughter had dry skin on her scalp and that we could just comb those out), the doctor recommended a urine sample be done on our daughter to rule out a bladder infection, but told us that she doubted this was the case.
Sure enough, that was exactly the case.
The bladder infection had spread to her kidneys and they had to do a blood test to make sure it hadn’t also spread to her blood.
After having a catheter put in to get the urine sample, have an IV inserted into her hand (which took three tries to finally get in) and get her first dose of antibiotics, we left the hospital at 5:30 a.m., only to have to come back for 9 a.m. for a second dose, one that we were informed when we returned she did not need until the next day.
The doctors we saw in the infectious disease unit the next day and again Saturday and Sunday were amazing. They explained everything to us in a friendly manner, one that did not make us feel like we were over-reactive parents who were burdening the hospital by bringing our daughter in to be treated.
The moral of this story is that it’s a damn good thing we brought our daughter to the hospital. The next time she is vomiting, running a fever, shaking and lethargic and we’re told by a medical professional to bring her to the hospital, you’ll see us again.
So, to those in the medical profession: You are amazing. You do so much for people each and every day, and now that I’m a father I fully appreciate this fact. But, remember, most of us are not medical professionals.
We just want those we love to be healthy and safe.
