Sicky McSickerson

Poor Gaby is sick.

Friday night I noticed she was coughing a bit - Saturday morning I noticed she was coughing a lot more - and had a fever, and by Saturday afternoon she was coughing pretty much constantly, so it was off to the after-hours doctor for us! Because Gaby had symptoms of the flu - ie she had a cough & fever, we both had to wear masks & sit in the 'swine flu' part of the waiting room. We must have all looked rather funny (or scary), sitting there with our masks on.

It was around an hour before we got taken in by the nurse for the first assesment (to make sure we really needed to see the doctor), and Gaby was very good - let her take her temperature & check her heart-rate... I think Gaby actually enjoyed it, because at the end of the assesment she got given a lollypop. Probably made her day! She confirmed we did infact need to see the doctor, so back to the waiting room it was for us!

While we were waiting, Gaby crashed a bit more, she got very sleepy and quiet (which is strange for her!), and I noticed her breathing got a bit worse - I was tossing up whether or not to inform the nurse at reception about this, when the doctor finally called us (over an hour after we saw the nurse). He listened to her chest, looked at her ears & throat, and decided that it was possible she had viral pneumonia, or early onset asthma - he then sent us (well, Gaby) for a session on the nebuliser & a chest x-ray.

The nebuliser was horrible, Gaby screamed the whole time. I guess the combination of the noise, the funny thing on her face & the actual medication didn't make her very happy. I'm not sure how much she eventually got in her, but the doctor didn't notice much change. The chest x-ray went a bit better... we had to wait in the radiology waiting room for about 15 minutes, but were then taken in and it was all over in about 3 minutes... the radiologists that were in there made Gaby feel at ease - and me, which was really good. After the chest x-ray it was back out to the radiology waiting room, to wait for our doctor... who eventually came, took us back to his exam room, and told me that Gaby's chest x-ray hadn't displayed any signs of viral-pneumonia (yay), but her chest looked 'kind of asthma-like'. He prescribed her some antibiotics, some liquid asthma meds & sent us on our merry way.

Last time I took her to after-hours it cost us $10.00. So I went in, armed with $20.00, figuring that'd be more than enough to cover the doctor fee, and any prescription fee. But no. $35.00 for the examination, I was obviously short, so the receptionist told me she'd just send me out an account so I could pay for the prescriptions. We went across the hall to the emergency pharmacy (it is great they have doctor, radiology & pharmacy all in the one building) - handed over the script. 20 minutes later our prescription is read - I presumed it'd be $2.00 - because Gaby's prescriptions are always $1.00 at our pharmacy - so you can imagine how much I choked when the prescription fee was $21.50!!!! She explained that the medication for the asthma wasn't subsidised, hence the price. I told them I only had $20.00 & the pharmacist told me to just bring the rest in when I was over that way (ha! not bloody likely)....

We get home - 3 1/2 hours after going to the after-hours, I give Gaby her first dose of her medications, she gets all cozied up on the couch & falls asleep. The doctor then rings me. Of course I'm freaking out, thinking they must have picked something up on the chest x-ray after all, but no - he is ringing to tell me not to give her the liquid asthma meds, becuase it isn't the one he prescribed - that the pharmacy didn't have any of what he prescribed in stock, so the pharmacist swapped it for a similar medication.... I was so pissed. The $21.00 medication was USELESS! He then told me he'd written a prescription for an inhaler & asked if I could go in & pick it up, I explained Gaby was asleep, but I would try and see if someone would go and get it for me. In the end Stu went and got it - he had asked if there was anything he could do to help, and well - that was a big help. Of course when he brought it over he acted as though he was some knight in shining armour, that he'd saved my life & that I owed him something....

Fast forward to Monday morning... Took Gaby to our regular GP to be reassesed. She said that she is cautious about saying Gaby has asthma, seeing as it is her first episode like this, and said she may just be a 'wheezy child'. She checked her heartrate & oxygen levels - her O2 levels were borderline, so she gave us a prescription for some steroids, to help her lungs get better a bit faster... but other than that, she seemed to have improved a lot...

Sooooooooooooo... that's our sick weekend.. It scared the hell out of me when I realised how much Gaby was struggling with her breathing, and I'm so glad I decided to go to after-hours, because I think that if I hadn't, we would have ended up at A&E in the early hours of Sunday morning....