Strong-arming Doogie Howser, M.D.

At the beginning of last week, I picked the kids up from the babysitter's house and she met me with, "I think Adrianna has a virus.  She has been fussy & warm and . . . . tugging at her ears."  Well, shit.  I hoped for the best but expected that we would be making another trip to the pediatrician.  I knew this would mean another round of antibiotics, another yeast infection and many more sleepless nights.  We decided to wait and see if she was better on Tuesday.  She was a little better so we thought maybe she was getting over it and we had dodged the ear infection bullet.  By Wednesday her symptoms continued to improve but was still needing Tylenol fairly frequently.  On Thursday afternoon, I had had enough.  She was barely able to keep anything down the entire day and had run a fever as high as 102.

I couldn't get her in to see her pediatrician until Friday at 4pm but as soon as we saw him, he started talking about setting her up with a pediatric ENT to discuss surgery to place tubes in her ears.  He wanted to go ahead and start her on another course of antibiotics though just to help her get over this ear infection.  Since the Rocephin shots worked last time, that was the course we decided to go with again.  After the shot and waiting for nearly 30 minutes to see if the hard & increasingly red spot would go away on it's own.  It did not.  She got Benadryl.  It still didn't go away.  Then she spiked a fever from 100.3 to 103 within 20 minutes.  She got Tylenol.  It didn't go away as fast as the pediatrician would have liked.  Then he declared it an official allergy.  Theeennnnnn, he said that we would have to do another 10-day course of oral antibiotics.  We were scheduled to see the pediatric ENT for Monday at 2:30.

When we arrived at the ENT's office, Adrianna was (of course) in a great mood because she had been on the antibiotics over the whole weekend and she was probably one of the healthiest people in the waiting room.  After we were called back, we waited in the exam room and I could not believe my eyes.  Doogie Houser, M.D. himself walked into the room.  Okay, not exactly Neil Patrick Harris, but still.  He looked like he was about 12 and the look on my mother's face was quite comical.

He visited with me for a few minutes and reviewed all of the symptoms she has been dealing with for over 2 months now and said, "My audiologist is in clinic today.  Would you like to see her?"  Um, yes please!  The audiologist is an important piece to the puzzle because she is the one that can tell how much (if any) fluid is on the ear drum as well as if there is any hearing loss.  Which there was in Adrianna's case.  Fluid on both ears (duh) and nearly 50% hearing loss in both ears which Doogie described as "possibly" reversible.  Then he proceeds to tell me that he thinks we need to wait another month before we consider tubes.  My mama bear instincts immediately kicked in as I felt my face flush.  My first thought was to tell him that I would call him every time she wakes up in the middle of the night because her ears hurt so bad.  And when she is alternating screaming/clamping her mouth shut 3 times/day when I have to force feed her antibiotics that smell like rotten eggs.  And when she's screaming every single time I have to change her diaper because she has a yeast infection from being on antibiotics for nearly 2 months straight and her poor little skin is like raw hamburger.

After I impolitely told him that I understand that he needed to cover his ass from a legal standpoint and I also understood if he didn't want to do the surgery.  I also told him that I would be lying if I said I wasn't at my wit's end with all of the hassle that goes along with a sick baby but I was completely telling the truth when I said I was much more concerned for her sake than mine.  I was not willing to subject my daughter to another month of ear infections and all of the secondary things that have gone along with it and the treatment (yeast infections, sleepless nights, developing antibiotic resistance and allergies, etc.)  Not only that, but she already has a 50% deficit in her hearing and I was not willing to risk that getting worse.  So, if he would not help us that was fine.  But I was going to find somebody that would help her get better.

At this point, I really began to feel bad for Doogie.  He began stammering and stuttering and finally we came to the agreement that if I was insistent (his word, not mine) that she get the surgery, he would check his OR schedule and let me know what he had available.  We took the first available (noon next Wednesday) and he gave me some information to review. 

As we were standing up to leave, I apologized for my aggressive behavior (my words, not his) to which he responded, "Oh, don't worry.  You are just looking out for your kiddo."  And he's right.  I never thought I would be "crazy mom" that insists her children get preferential treatment.  And I still don't feel that way.  However, I do feel that it is my job, as a mother, to be the voice that my children don't yet have.  It is my #1 priority to keep them safe & healthy and to teach them how to (eventually) do it for themselves and for their own children.