Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I hate Doctors, sorry Doc Rocket.

My little boy has been sick for about a week now, low fever diarrhea and a small appetite. Yesterday the fever started getting worse so we took him to our family doc, who had someone filling in for her. Waited 1.5 hrs after our appointment before we got in and they did the typical exam and said probably just a little bug, he'll be fine.

At 1:30 this morning he is screaming and has a fever of 104.7, can't get the Tylenol in and I decide we need to go to the ER something is wrong. the doc walks in places a stethoscope to his lower back and say I can hear fluid, a chest x-ray later we confirm pneumonia, not bad yet, but a problem.
Now why couldn't the doc earlier in the day have found this. It's like most docs around here don't care, and just want your money, quantity of care VS. quality i guess.

Hope your son gets well quickly!
...and don't worry, the big O is gonna fix our medical system.

X2 on everything.

Poor guy

Docs are like everyone. They get so used to horses that when they hear hooves they don't always think of Zebras.

Hope the little guy is better.

o-care is gonna make this worse - - - promise. More patients/less time/less Docs.

Prayers for a quick recovery.

Good luck with your son.

Took 4 doctors and 6 months for them to diagnose my bad gallbladder. I was actually the one insisting it was my gallbladder and begged for the test!(*&^%$#

When i walked into the ER at 3:30 in the am,they asked what was the matter.

I told them that i had pneumonia and my right lung was about half full of fluid.

They did the iv and had x-ray come take a picture and the vampire's came and an ekg was done also.

Before the x-ray was done the doc came and said he noticed a heart malfunction and they might sent me to Lubbock in the helo.

I told him in not so nice words that my heart was fine and that i had pneumonia.

Well after a bit he came back and darned if i was right,it was indeed my right lung that was half full.

After having had it once before i knew what was the matter.

Spent 21/2 days in the hospital and it took me about 2 weeks to get my energy back.

Good news was i lost about 15 pounds during those weeks.

Hope your son get well soon.

Hoping and praying the no good docs will figure out how how treat and save the child and he doesn't end up with any significant, permanent lung damage.

I'm not a doctor fan either. Not by a long shot, and for similar reasons. Hope he has a rapid recovery.

Prayers on the way for the little man.

It is possible the symptoms progressed enough to become more serious in the time you had your outpatient visit until you took him to the ER. You said yourself the ER doc said it is mild and they are catching it early. Standard of practice is NOT to admit kids for the standard viral infection, even with high fevers. Until a pneumonia starts, there's no need for anything other than supportive care at home even though it seems bad; there's nothing else to do and the kid will get better. Unless there is more to the story, I'd cut the doc a little more slack.

Waiting in line for 1.5hrs is certainly annoying, I'm not going to vouch for that.

Regardless,I wish your boy a speedy recovery. Get him home and happy soon!

On the flip side, every doc that I and my family have ever used has been super and dead center on diagnosis. Luck of the draw, I guess.

Scares me when I look at what's happening to the profession with the schitttty changes coming down the tubes at us. So many docs are cashing in and checking out. Sad, it is.

Do you remember if the family doc gave a GOOD listen to all lung fields, front and back of the chest? If not, that may tell you why he missed the diagnosis.

I find it hard to believe that your kid could have a fever spike from pneumonia that high, later that same day, and all the lung fields sound clear.

Like lawyers, just as many graduate from the bottom of their class as do the top.

A couple of tips:

Stay away from the "Doc in a box" walk-in type clinics. Never know what kind of doc you're getting. Many of these guys have had past professional issues and no longer belong to a practice, kinda like nursing home docs. Also, you may end up with a nurse practioner or P.A. Both are adequate, but don't have the training of an M.D. or D.O.

Scary stuff, like your boys fever, always go to the ED. These guys are the best. They are the quick thinkers. They need to know everything. I'd take a guy with 20 years experience in the ED over any specialty. If he doesn't know the answer, he knows where to get it.

Don't be afraid to be persistent. You are your own and your child's best advocate. You know your body best. If the answer doesn't seem right, get another opinion. Some cases are really tough. Medicine is as much art as it is science.

I hope your little guy is feeling better soon. You're a good dad for recognizing what needed to be done. Godspeed.

Sorry your son is ill, and you've had to go through this scary event. It's very frustrating. Quickly leads to anger.

When my son was five, he kept having upper respiratory infections. As long as he was on antibiotics he improved, but as soon as the antibiotics were finished the fevers returned. Several times I filled the bathtub with tepid water(not warm, not cold) and climbed into the tub with him,
splashing water over his body to bring the fevers down.

Finally on the fourth visit to the Doctor, he said he had pnuenmonia and had to be hospitalized. Two weeks of every day blood test, high fevers, fear of the unknown. Doc says there something else going on here. Need to take him to the OR and do a biopsy.

The biopsy showed Histoplasmois. A fungal disease of the lung. A disease that in those days the treatment was almost worse than the disease. God stepped in and my son began to get better before the IV treatment was begun.

We took him home much relived. The fevers didn't come back but he remained pale and weak for many months.

During this time we moved to another state. I told my new Doctor my sons medical history and how my sons weakness, lack of energy continued. He reached into his medicine cabinet and gave me a big bottle(quart) of orange liquid medicine and told me to give my son a tablespoon full every day until the medicine was gone. By the time the medicine was gone my sons color had much improved, his energy returned. After a year and a half, my son was well.

With Gods help and some old fashioned medicine my sons health was returned.

Sending prayers for a complete and speedy recovery for your son

"Doc in a box" walk-in type clinics



now that was funny


Hope your youngun is on the mend WyoCowboy!

Prayers Sent.

Everybody "misses" a diagnosis sometimes. Sometimes it's something you overlooked, but more often it's that the disease process has not yet declared itself. This is especially true with kids. A kid can grumble along as your son did for 4 days with a low-grade fever, mild respiratory symptoms consistent with viral infection, then suddenly over a period of an hour or two tip into florid pneumonia (a bacterial disease). A kid's chest can sound clear as a bell at 10 in the morning and be cruddy as hell at 1 in the afternoon. And dead before supper if untreated.

This is why we always tell parents to be vigilant with their kids' illnesses, and bring them back in if anything turns for the worse. Which is what you did, kudos to you.

I've seen this sort of case hundreds of times in my career... a few cases of my own, many more of colleagues' that I've looked over in peer review. Appendicitis and pneumonia are the most common culprits.

I had a kiddo in my ER just before last Christmas who had seen her pediatrician one day earlier, diagnosed with viral infection and asthma. Pediatrician (a really, really solid doc) had done a CBC and chest xray, which were normal. But 26 hours later she was in my ER with a 106 degree fever and her chest xray was a "whiteout"... i.e., bilateral pneumonia. I had to intubate her to save her life and flight her to San Antonio, where she was in ICU for several days. She recovered completely, BTW.

But go ahead and hate docs all you need to right now. It's probably therapeutic for you.

Don't feel bad. It took 3 doctors a total of 11 months to figure out my azz hurt because I had internal hemmorhoids. Stupid bastards.