Under the Weather

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I was taking Clare to the doctor's because she was sick. She has had a bad cough for a few days now. Jamie had the same cough about a week ago, and it lasted a week. He had no other symptoms and is now cough-free. Then Clare developed the cough. She seemed to be on the mend, but then woke up yesterday morning with a high temperature as well. She was extremely unhappy. Wanted to cling to me, but at the same time, did not really want to be touched. It felt like her heart was racing. She refused to eat and would drink only a little water. All she wanted to do was sleep. We are always more worried when Clare is sick for obvious reasons, so I brought her into the pediatrician's.

I am not fond of going to the pediatrician's office on the weekends. I love Clare's pediatrician and there are many other good pediatricians at our clinic, but occasionally, we get a doctor who seems rushed or brushes us off as being overly concerned parents. And on the weekends, we're at the mercy of whoever is on call. Clare's medical chart states her as being "medically fragile." I would think that alone (never mind her medical history) would make a doctor give us a little more credit when we bring our sick child in. And, for the record, we have never brought Clare in to the doctor's and it turned out to be nothing. Anyway... the doctor was a new one, and he was terrific. He agreed that Clare's heart rate was very high, her oxygen sats were low, and she obviously had the bad cough plus an irritated throat. Although her lungs sounded clear, he ordered a chest x-ray just to rule out pneumonia. Putting a baby through a chest x-ray is not fun. Shawn is usually on x-ray duty when we bring Clare in for her cardiology appointments and she has her heart x-rayed, so this was my first experience with "the tube." I had heard Shawn speak negatively about the tube to the point where he refuses to allow them to put Clare in the tube. Unfortunately, I did not make that connection when the radiologist brought out this antiquated-looking contraption to hold Clare still while she x-rayed her lungs. (I was thinking lungs at this visit, not heart, so it didn't click with me until afterwards when Clare was crying and hating every minute of it.) It's literally this plastic tube on top of a small bicycle-seat. Clare straddles the seat, her legs dangling out the bottom, then the tube is sealed around her (keeping her completely upright) and I have to hold her arms over her head. Then the x-ray film is placed in front of her. All I could see over the film was Clare's eyes. She just looked at me and cried, while I held her arms over her head. I felt so cruel. I know it is for Clare's benefit, but it still tears me up inside. It's much easier to allow the doctors and techs to be the bad guys. But, since it was a weekend, there was no one else around to hold Clare's arms but me.

It wasn't the greatest x-ray, but I refused to allow Clare to be x-rayed again after that agony. Thankfully, the pediatrician was pretty sure he could rule out pneumonia. He also stated that Clare was not in congestive heart failure. Which scared the heck out of me because that had never even crossed my mind! His stating that, though, just made me realize that no matter how small something may seem be, when we feel there is something wrong with Clare, we take it seriously. I would rather be safe and feel like an idiot with the doctor than be sorry. The pediatrician also explained, that although he does not know much about Williams syndrome specifically, it is common that children with these syndromes have abnormally formed sinus structures and, therefore, are more prone to sinus infections. Given her high temperature, he thought that Clare may have a bacterial sinus infection, so he prescribed antibiotics. He also stated the fever would increase her heart rate, but just to keep an eye on it.

Clare is still not feeling great, but she has only been on the antibiotics for less than 24 hours. She has slept most of the day, and when she is awake, is fussy and doesn't want to eat. Hopefully, it is just a sinus infection and the antibiotics will start clearing it up soon. If not, we'll be back at the doctor's in a few days!