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Thursday, August 9, 2007
So we went to the doctor July 27th because Megan and Olivia were not feeling well.
While there Megan tested positive for strep throat and so the doctor put them both on amoxicilian. Did not test Olivia because she was not cooperating. So Saturday night (1 day of being on amox) we headed to the ER with Olivia. She woke up from a nap with tons of fluid in her ears and started convulsing and her eyes were matted shut with boggies. It scared the crap out of me. We get her there and she settles down and the ER took her temp and it skyrocketed to 104. They ended up giving us eye drops cause her eyes were crusted shut pretty bad. So we continued to give her the amoxicilian and her ears continued to drain nasty fluid. She stopped with the fever on Sunday and was fine all week long except for the fluid draining. Monday morning I took her back to the ped cause her ears were disgusting and her fever was back and high. He barely looked in her ears cause they were so gross and said she has a double ear infection. I told him the amoxicilian never worked before and we should probably put her on something else. He asked if I could remember what she was on and I said I am not sure but maybe it was Augmentum. So he wrote a script and I went to the pharmacy. I asked while I Was there if she had ever been on Augmentum before and they said no, so I asked beside Amox what other anti has she been prescribed and it was Zithromax. (she had blood in her stools from omnicef)So the doc never checked her chart and just wrote a script for something I wasn't sure about? Do most doc's do this?
So we have been on Augmentum since Monday and the ears are still draining and her fever is still up and down. (eyes popping out of my head)
Olivia, Joe and myself have not slept since Sunday and she is not getting any better.
So I call the ped again this morning and end up taking Olivia into the ENT at Temple Children's for an Emergency visit.
We get there and the ENT asks if the ped took a culture of her ear and I said no.
He asked how long this has been going on so I told him it has been draining like this since last Monday....he straps her to a board (a papoose)and drains all the fluid and ends up having to pull out her tubes. He takes a culture and tells me he believes she has a bacterial infection.....
CAN I TELL YOU HOW MAD I AM RIGHT NOW AT MY PED~
I am mad at myself and mad at him for not taking this serious enough. I have had so many prescriptions filled and have paid so many co-pays and for what....our Ped has no idea what he is doing?
The ENT kept asking why the PEd didn't do a culture...I don't know why, I hadn't a clue he was suppose to but I still feel guilty for not pushing him to do more for her.
So ENT has put Olivia on Tylenol w/ codein since she is in so much pain and has not slept since Sunday. On Monday we find out what bacteria she has and we go from there. Inevitably we are looking at surgery to replace the tubes but we may have to treat her in patient for a few days to make sure her body kills off the bacteria....
I am so sad right now. Has anyone else dealt with this?
Please share your stories with me.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think I've ever heard of anyone doing a culture from ear fluid before. Hopefully, besides identifying the bacteria, they'll also check out the antibiotic sensitivity so they can prescribe the most effective antibiotic.

I hope Olivia feels better soon!

Kristin said...

Poor Olivia! I'm sorry this happened to you guys...grrrr....doctors!!!!! How would you have ever known you needed a culture? That doc has some explaining to do!

Melissa @ Banana Migraine said...

I don't have any experiences to share - but poor Olivia! That sounds awful :( I hope she starts feeling better soon!

Amy Flege said...

poor olivia. my oldest had cronic ear infections were the fluid would not drain and it would become and infection. We took him to the chiropractor and since then he has never had an ear infection. we ended up NOT doing tubes as well....

L. Noelle said...

Wow. I just got done reading this and I'm so sad to hear all of this. First off I am so sad for Olivia, secondly I am sad that you have a pediatrician who is doing his job half hazardly without any real concern. I highly suggest you try to find a Holistic Dr. who can start working with you to get Olivia's immune system built up to prevent these things from happening.

What typical Dr's don't understand at all, is that children with Down Syndrome have very different metabolisms, therefor they don't handle infections and illnesses the same way most "typical" children do.

Please e-mail me privately because I have tons of information to give you. Tylenol is actually one of the worst things to give our kids because their liver enzymes don't break it down well, and it actually causes more problems. Secondly, her digestive tract is at the root of this, because 75% of our immune system is located there.

The thing to remember is that our Dr's know very little about "health" unfortunately, they are often just writing prescriptions and never getting to the root of the problem. If Olivia has a bacterial infection, you really want to get to the root of it and prevent it from happening again. She should be on a really good Probiotic to restore the healthy bacteria in the gut. This is the only way her body will have a chance to truly heal. The antibiotics destroy the bad bacteria, but also the good, leaving her healthy for maybe a few days, until all the bad bacteria returns. The only way to break the cycle is to balance out the "eco system" in the digestive tract. That is what probiotics do, i.e. acidophilous. Also, most if not all of our children are gluten intolerant, causing further problems if their not on a gluten free diet.

Email me, I'll pass on more info to you. noellequero@gmail.com

Alyssa said...

awww Steph that sucks! I would have never known that the doctor should have done a culture, never heard of it. Poor Olivia, I hope she gets better soon!