The ER Visit RANT -part 2

So... after that enormous rant... it was not really over.

See... about a week after the visit Astrid & Gus both started having sniffles and then a cough. No big deal. Then the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving as I was getting everything perfect and the kids were sleeping... Astrid woke up and said she could not breathe. She started throwing up and it was really scary! I tried to keep her calm... she was breathing... just really afraid and I think her throat kind of felt like it was closing up. I got her to go into the bathroom to breathe steam and she threw up some more. Her fever started to climb. And she soon had a high fever over 102. I gave her water and soon she had calmed down and slowly went back to sleep.
She calmed down but I felt uneasy. I had had RSV symptoms drilled down my throat from Gus' stay in the NICU. Plus his lungs were not fully developed when he was born which put him at higher risk. I had heard horror stories of RSV causing young babies to not breathe and weeks and months in Texas Childrens because of it. When we had taken the infant CPR class the instructor had told us that RSV causes a mucus plug to form and that plug in older kids can be coughed up or thrown up but in tiny babies they can not and this is what causes them to stop breathing.

I had this feeling... deep inside. My kids were sick, but it was no ordinary cold or flu.
Sure enough on Thanksgiving day... Astrid's temp climbed to over 103 and Gus just still had a cough and started sounding a little "rattley". I did what is very uncharacteristic of me... I took my kids to the doc. I mean I do take my kids to the doc... but not unless they are really sick and not with a virus. I have a motto... "The less I take them to the doc the less they are sick" and it is true.

When we walked into the docs office I told her about the ER and I told her about my kids symptoms and I told her I thought that it might be RSV. She went ahead and swabbed Gus' nostrels. Astrid's lungs were good, Gus had a rattle. He had RSV.
I said "I knew it" almost in a happy way.... which I guess was weird. But I just was happy that I trusted my instincts and acted on them. I knew my kids were very sick.

Gus was sent home with a breathing treatment (Albuteral) and Astrid was sent home with some ways to make her more comfortable as she got well. She told me what to look for as far as Gus... when not breathing from the virus (normal) becomes not getting enough oxygen and requires emergency care.

He has been fine... it has been just over a week and he hardly needs the breathing treatments. Neither of them ever developed any infections... no bronchitis or pneumonia. We are very lucky and very blessed. I have it now... but it is not a big deal with adults... usually not as bad as the flu. I would call it cold like.

But it could have been much worse. RSV can make children stop breathing or easily hospitalize them... esp very young kids under a year. And all of this from visiting the ER. I know that is where we caught it. The symptoms fit the incubation period perfectly. And even after the diagnoses... the doc said she would still take her kids to Texas Childrens over other hospitals. I ask again... REALLY? This is the best we can do? Am I wrong in thinking it could be/ should be better? What are we really talking about here...

1. That people (all people) should be able to get adequate health care... esp for their kids.
   
2. That an ER should be more about the care of people then checking them in and running them through.
   
3. That kids who are showing signs of communicable disease should not be placed next to kids who are healthy or for that matter sick.
   
4. That people who are attending to the sick as they wait should be courteous, caring, and compassionate... instead of jaded, cold, and bureaucratic.
   
5. That there should never be a back log on a week night that looks like a war zone.
6. That only people with actual emergencies would have to go to emergency rooms... not people who have no other option to care for their kids.
   

Too much to ask? I do not think so! This is the state of our "health care" (even does not do a good job of bringing health or caring for us) system and it will only get worse until it is fixed.
It will effect more and more of us. More and more of the small percentage of people who are isolated from it like me. Until we get tired of it and decided we want something more.