Venting after an extremely LONG day....

Sometimes I need to vent! Do you ever feel like that?  Is it just me?  Days like today, I get to the end and think oh I will turn in early and have a good rest.....but I can't sleep.  It is Friday so my hubby is out working at the Center and I honestly like to wait up and hear how everything went, plus I worry a bit about him.  Tonight, however,  I really need to sleep, but can't and it is frustrating!

My little princess got home this morning at 5:30 am.  I am so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing husband (daddy to my 3 darlings) who does anything and everything for his family.  I don't know what I have done to deserve such an incredible man----thank you LORD!! He drove home early from his work last night because she was not breathing right. Do you know how scary it is when your child is struggling to breathe?  He got home and I had her ready to go right away with him.  Fortunately they got in right away---probably because her oxygen levels were low and she is only 3.  Then the waiting game begins.  They couldn't keep her at Urgent Care, so they transferred her by ambulance to the Children's Hospital.  John also could not ride with her and had to follow the ambulance as she was still on oxygen.  I stayed at home with the boys and tried to get some sleep (yeah like how do you sleep when your child is in the hospital) as we don't really have anyone to contact in case of emergencies such as these. 

So first she has pneumonia, then it isn't.  Then she has a viral infection that has symptoms like Pneumonia.  They finally discharge her and they get home very early this morning after zero sleep.  My poor hubby! They also send a prescription home with 3 separate things scribbled on it, an inhaler with a chamber and some antibiotics.  However, they never told us what to do with any of it.  There was nothing on the bottle of antibiotics telling us how much to give her and how frequent we should give it to her.  So I call the hospital.  I get transferred, then I wait, and wait some more.  The nurse was really good about it, I just was getting tired of waiting and still had a very active 1 year old to chase after.  As it turns out, the bottle of antibiotics was sent with her from Urgent Care and they never should have sent it without the dosage and frequency information (so he was telling me that it was a big no, no).  So I say, fine, I will just toss the antibiotics out and use the prescription that the hospital wrote me.  The nurse says, I can't do that because she needs the antibiotics.  I inquire as to what she needs it for.  He then tells me that they are treating Gigi for two symptoms, first the pneumonia and second asthma.  I then tell him that they told us last night that she did not have pneumonia, to which he responds and says yes she does as we have her blood tests back and her white blood cell count is very high indicating that there is an infection.  I am quite upset by this time as they never told us any of this at the hospital---like nothing! Plus they tell me that I need to go back to Urgent Care and get them to tell me how much of the antibiotic she needs.  Erghh!

I also discovered last night that our furnace is not working....so i make a few calls, pack up Jude, put Gigi back to bed (as by this time she is convinced that she is all better) and head to Urgent Care.  Jude falls asleep (great timing) and then I have to wait for over a half hour as they sort everything out.  They call the hospital have her records sent over, can't understand what the doctor wrote on her chart, call back to confirm, but it is busy for a while, and then they finally get through.  So I finally get everything sorted and get home.  I am asking myself what the heck just happened?  This is our medical system?  This is the health of my baby girl and it was the most frustrating process I have ever been through.  I feel like we are just numbers on an assembly line! I was so angry.  They also prescribed her three different types of 'steroids'.  I am thinking, good grief she is 3 years old and they are pumping her full of steroids?  Why?  They didn't even take the time to explain her diagnosis, what was going on!  Am I the only one who wants to know this stuff?  Would you not want to know what the doctors diagnosed your child with?

I also called our Homeopath and emailed our practitioner who we usually see.  She got back to me right away----and gave me some options.  Here's the clincher, we have no benefits right now, and so these prescriptions are pricey, and we are also not covered for Homeopathic medicine either (it's the consults that add up, the remedies are very cheap).  So what do we do?  Which route do we take?  I know which one I would prefer. 

You see one of the first questions they ask you is whether or not she is up to date with her vaccinations.  We don't vaccinate our kids through the health system, we do homeoprophylaxis, which is a homeopathic vaccination.  So she has all of the protection that she would get through the 'vaccination' schedule.  It is not illegal to do this, but the way you are treated it is like it is.  Suddenly, it is our fault that she is sick because we didn't chose to do 'their' vaccinations.  Even though the girl who is vaccinated is still getting pneumonia and being treated for the same symptoms.  That doesn't matter though.  They spent more time asking about her vaccinations than they did about what her symptoms were.  What is wrong with our medical system?  I feel like nobody wants to get to the root cause, they just want the quick band-aid (you know the quick fix) and let's move her on down the line so we can get to the next number, I mean patient. 

So frustrating, so, so frustrating.

That is my vent for the night.....I will try and get some sleep now that I have got it off my chest! :o)