2 posts tagged “doctor”

Naomi had booked a time for VV and me to see the doctor for a Hep A injection - the only one suggested for a trip to Thailand.

VV really enjoyed the train ride in and the hustle and bustle of the city.  We met up out the front of the building and took the lift up to the waiting room.  She hadn't had a sleep, so both Naomi and I were a little concerned that she may have a meltdown at some stage.  That wasn't helped by a considerable wait in the waiting room.  At least there was plenty of passing traffic for her to talk with/sing to/dance for.

We finally got to go in.  I had my shot and while the doctor prepared Genevieve's, we discussed her reaction to what we think was peanuts in a chocolate.  She's given us a referral so we'll get her allergy tested at Royal Children's when we can get in*.

So... there was a break in the conversation and Genvieve comes out with "Vievey's turn now???".  It was SO cute.  I had mine in the arm, but she was getting hers in the butt.  She was sitting on Naomi's knee, happy as Larry until *jab*.  The look of disbelief, betrayal and hurt was just SO sad.  She started crying (not screaming).  We had the chocolate at the ready and said "Would you like some chocolate now?"

"No, chocolate, no, no, no, stop Daddy... stop  Daddy.........  CHOCOLATE?"  Crying stopped immediately!

Kinder bueno

Genevieve came home from childcare Monday night with a bit of a cough.  Our friend calls it 'Kennel Cough'.  Anyway, nothing too much to worry about.

Fast-forward to Thursday, and Naomi got a phone call from childcare.  Vievey had a temperature, so I quickly rode home from work (via the chemist) to pick her up.  Her temp was up a little, so I tried some of the no-name paracetamol for kids that I picked up (the last two times we'd given her Panadol for Kids she'd thrown up).  She had a sleep on my lap, and woke up with a normal temp.

The cough and temperature didn't really abate so this afternoon (Sat) we thought we'd better take her to a doctor, just in case it was a chest infection - bronchiolitis most-likely.  Our regular doctor isn't open on weekends, and the Royal Children's Hospital is only 5 mins drive away, so we took her there.

After a short wait, we saw Dr Julian who did all the rudimentary checks.  He was pretty sure she didn't have an infection, but suggested an X-Ray to make sure.  A bit more waiting, then she had the X-Ray.  A bit more waiting and Dr Julian said that there was no infection, however she was a little wheezy.  He asked if we had any family history of asthma.  Naomi had very slight asthma, which only happens on the odd occasion, normally with extreme exercise.  I don't, but my sister does have it (but smokes a lot, and has for a long time).

Hosp3

Anyway, he suggested we try some asthma medication, so that was three doses of ventolin, 20 minutes apart.  So we went to a little alcove and waited for a nurse.  The nurse, Sean, put her up to an oxygen saturation monitor and gave Genevieve the ventolin.  We then waited for 20 minutes, which ended up being 34 minutes, for the second dose.  The second nurse, (Jenny?) brought in this really cool Starlight Foundation multimedia unit.  It had Nintendo, net access and a vast array of kid's programs.

The nurse asked which we preferred, Hi-5 or The Wiggles.  To my knowledge, Genevieve has never been exposed to either of these, (we're big fans of They Might Be Giants's kids stuff).  However, we also believe Hi 5 to be evil incarnate, so we chose to get wiggled.

After one whole dose of Wiggledom and half of a second (I dunno how long - time warps when theres 4 coloured skivvies in front of you), Dr Julian came back and asked how we were going.  We'd only had two of the three required doses, so he said he'd come back again after the third dose. So, more waiting, and then Jenny (?) gave her the third dose.

Shortly after, the second Wiggle-o-rama had finished (at least that had some footage of NYC so we could reminisce) so I jumped on to the keyboard and managed to find some AstroBoy.  Unfortunately, it was the New AstroBoy stuff, not the 60's one, but it was a respite nonetheless.

Also unfortunately, I found AstroBoy too late as there wasn't much of a wait for Dr Julian to come back.  He wasn't comfortable diagnosing asthma from this one, slight, wheezing incident, but he prescribed a course of asthma preventitive (just 3 more doses of an oral medicine, once daily) and also gave us a script for ventolin.  We're gonna go back and see him in six weeks.

Through it all, Genevieve was a little trooper.  She cried and got restless a few times, as she was quite tired.  But she took the ventolin quite well (some kids scream through the lot, she just started to get upset towards the end).  She's such a good kid.  So we'll see what happens over the next few weeks.