27 February 2009

Adventures in Modern Medicine

Flynn's temperature has been steadily creeping up since Wednesday night; 100 degrees, then 101, then topping out at 103 this morning.

She slept fitfully again last night, tossing and turning and she'd developed this raspy breathing that reminded me of her bout with pneumonia last year. So I thought to err on the side of caution today and take her to see the doctor.

This morning after getting Evan and Frank out the door, I showered and took Flynn to Convenient Care. The nurse's aid took Flynn's vitals and since her throat has been hurting and strep is cutting a wide swath through the kindergarten classes, we decided to have a rapid strep test done. Flynn opened her mouth wide, the aid jammed the long swab into her little throat and Flynn promptly barfed all over herself, the aid, and the examining room.

The strep test came back negative.

But Flynn had to wait out the rest of our time there wrapped in adult-sized hospital gowns, stripped of her vomit-soaked jammies & shoes.

The nurse practitioner gave Flynn the once over and then ordered up some blood & urine work (Flynn had just used the bathroom so we brought home the cup for her to pee in. I'll be dropping that off at the lab later on this afternoon). She also gave Flynn a dose of Tylenol to help get the fever under control. Her initial diagnosis? A virus. But we'll see what the lab says.

Speaking of lab work, Flynn was amazing as the phlebotomist drew her blood. Ever the cool customer, my little girl watched rapt with curiosity as the needle punctured her skin and the blood worked its way into the test tubes. No flinching, no tears, no nothing. "She's going to be a doctor when she grows up," said the phlebotomist as he covered the teeny puncture wound with a band-aid. "Animal doctor," Flynn corrected.

I carried her out to the car, hospital gown flapping in the wind ("This is embarrassing," she said) and we drove home. We weren't even out of the parking lot when I glanced in the rear-view mirror to check on Flynn and noticed she was asleep. We live at most 5 minutes from the doctor's office.

At home she woke up and immediately wanted to take a bath. She did then told me she needed "a tray with lots of food on it for me to eat." We loaded up on blueberries, vanilla yogurt, and a Lunchable.

She's now eating from her tray full of food, coloring, and watching WALL-E. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she does, indeed, have only a virus and not something worse requiring antibiotics.

3 comments:

Mommy, Queen Of Everything said...

Poor kid, I hope she gets better soon! Tell her Thomas and I are sending get well wishes her way!

Amy said...

I'm glad to hear it's not Strep. Hopefully it's just a bug that is working it's way out soon.

Poor kid!

Quigs78 said...

Keeping my fingers crossed that it's just a minor bug and that she feels better soon!

And after the January that my kids had, I always err on the side of caution, too.