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Unbelievable trip to ER


JAG10

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Most of my posts are about my older dd12 whose symptoms have been far more severe/significant than my younger ones. Well this post is about my younger dd9. Fortunately, this is not a story about my dd9 going crazy from PANS.

 

After school yesterday, she went to a swim club with her best friend, her mother and 3 other girls. There is an awesome slide where there are a bunch of steps and a platforms to reach the top. Only one person on the platform at a time is the rule. When my dd joined her friend on the platform, the lifeguard promptly blew the whistle at her. As she stepped off the platform onto the steps, she lost her footing and fell down 12 steps.....on her rear end. In the process, she got a cut between her 2nd and 3rd toe. Many of you may be thinking "aww, poor kid" at this point. What followed was UNBELIEVABLE.

 

The foot was bleeding and there happened to be a doctor at the pool club, but he doesn't work there. He looks at her foot and says she will probably need stitches, call an ambulance. Really??? Call an ambulance? The lifeguards call the ambulance, the mother calls me. Nobody wants to be responsible for someone else's child when they get hurt, I try to reassure her. She called me around 5:45 with a calm but serious tone to explain what happened. She tells me they've called an ambulance. My main question is of course...Did she hit her head? Thankfully, no she did not. Once I had the answer to that question I was Mrs. Cucumber. BUT everyone else was not. I understand why four 9 year old girls overreact and cry. I understand why the mom in charge is freaked out, but that is not what I'm talking about. As I'm on the phone with the other mom, the ambulance arrives and the police. I tell the mom I don't want her to go in the ambulance. The police get on the phone with me and try to convince me. I still say NO, I'll be there in 20 minutes. The police are uneasy that in Friday traffic it will take me longer to get there. Okay....25 minutes, who cares?

 

When we get to the pool, my dd is in the ambulance, strapped to a backboard with a neck brace. The little girls are in a circle sobbing by the entrance and the mother is in the ambulance with my dd and the paramedics. I can see my thought of throwing her in the car to go get stitches isn't going to happen. Now, I'll admit, my dd9 can be quite dramatic and her anxiety about injury can be intense, but adults should be able to weed that out. She did stand up and hobble to a chair after the fall on her butt after all. The paramedics tell me the backboard and neck brace are because she said her bottom hurt. Fine, overreaction, but fine. I hop in the ambulance and dh and dd12 follow in our van. The paramedic, who was very good with my dd, missed her calling as a comedian. She was very quick and witty, so I never knew when to take her seriously. She said when we got to the hospital not to get overwhelmed because there would be a lot of people in the room.....

 

We arrive at the hospital and the paramedics wheel her gurney in......my jaw hit the floor. There were literally 20 doctors and nurses standing in a circle waiting for her....the trauma team. This man in a suit comes over to comfort me. I asked him....oh, is this a teaching exercise? No, mom this is the trauma team to which I put my hand over my mouth to hide my shock, then laughing. I can't even see her anymore there are so many people around her as they cut her bikini off her body....not really necessary since it's just strings, but whatever. Man in suit keeps following me around asking me if I'm okay or if I need anything. I keep thinking he's going to try and sell me furniture or something. He's a young CHAPLAIN!!!!

 

I did have that uncomfortable feeling surface when the questions started coming from every specialty about current medications and conditions....okay, here we go. None of them led on they knew what PANS (the condition formally known as PANDAS) was, but they get strep and antibiotics and auto-immune/mild immune deficiency. Well, then they go to draw blood from dd9 (who up until this point was completely charming the pants off everyone she interacted with) and she SCREAMS so loud and so relentlessly as I stand there and look a little embarrassed. Then I turn to the group of doctors and say....you can see she has some anxiety at times and smile meekly. The only trauma in the trauma room was the drama coming from dd9 about the blood draw!

 

Slowly our trauma team fades to a few nurses who transfer us to the regular ER suites. She gets 6 different x-rays, all negative. They do decide she needs two stitches in her foot. They've learned though and give her twilight meds through her IV to avoid the drama. They also give her IV antibiotics just to be safe since she has mild immune deficiencies/PANS, they don't want to take any chances which I appreciated. We left the hospital at midnight exhausted.

 

I can't even imagine what last night cost. I have to follow-up with a plastic surgeon on the foot in 7 days. If I had been at the pool when it happened, I would have thrown her in the car and she would have gotten her couple of stitches, but I doubt all the x-rays, backboards, neck braces, oxygen..... or chaplain. They must have thought I was the most casual, nonchalant parent they had ever met. But all I kept thinking was about all of us......we've been to h*ll and back, dark moments when we've wondered if we would ever get our children back, if the madness would ever end. We've been laughed at, eye rolled at and our own mental health questioned AND we've had to wait months for the privilege. Where was the trauma team of specialists then? Where was the chaplain?? They were all on standby waiting for the girl with the stubbed toe :wacko:

 

I should have felt grateful she received such a thorough examination, but I honestly felt twinges of resentment that something like this was taken so seriously with no regard for cost and we have all had to fight alone, with little support and pay out of pocket for true trauma that will not be healed in 10-14 days. And we get treated like crazy people!

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Oh that is going to cost a bundle! Wow. You got the trauma team! I'm glad her toe space is okay. I am sure the plastic surgeon will make sure that her future pedicures will look picture perfect. But you know what - it is good they did all of those tests. Especially since you weren't there to observe the accident. Now you know she doesn't have a fractured coxic (spelling?) bone or a subdural hematomba. You can check those worries off of your list.

 

I gotta go. I have bags under my eyes and a bit of sagging. I am calling the ambulance for the trauma team. Maybe I'll get some plastic surgery thrown in under the diagnostic code of PTSD.

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WOW! That's quite a story! You make some very interesting and accurate observations. I agree with everything you said. It is all true.

 

I've got one... When dd was 7, her abrupt onset happened 35 minutes from home. I had my two other kids with me. I stayed cool because I had been through ###### and back with ds already. BUT, I could NOT drive. Dd was so out of control, and in addition to that, she was trying to escape the van (still parked) and run into traffic. I called 911 and requested an ambulance. She needed transport and a shot of Ativan. Guess what we got? THREE patrol cars--yep, 6 officers walking around unsure of what to do as a 7 year-old screamed, "Shoot me!" They would not transfer her because she would not stay in a seat belt (EXACTLY!) But, they would not call an ambulance for us either--something about it being a psych issue???

 

In the end, my ds's OT saw the commotion as she left work. She used fun whistles, lollipops, and ice pops to get dd to calm her breathing. She even followed us home in case we had to pull off with dd melting again.

 

So, a toe got an ambulance and a trauma team. A dangerous PANDAS episode got us 6 clueless officers. Dd was so unsafe that just two days later she was admitted for 2 weeks to a child psych unit!

 

Something has to change. We are still living in the dark ages when it comes to mental illness (which, BTW, I feel is a misnomer.)

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Am an ER veteran. Have been there at least 50 times in the last five years or so. Very interesting what excites them and what doesn't. My DD had a seizure and dropped straight down on a concrete driveway and was unconscious for ten minutes. She couldn't speak or walk for hours and they were very blase about everything once it was established there was no bleeding into the brain. They offered no advice on what happened or on follow up care. (ERs are terrible places to actually get good information or ask the right questions in the abbreviated time you ae given to talk to medical people.) But a 103 fever with seizures another time got instant action even though it all took place on a gurney in the hallway as the ER was so packed.

 

Also interesting what excites third parties on the scene. A garden variety seizure and they call an ambulance (definitely not necessary for someone with seizure disorder). Also, poison control will almost always tell you to go to the ER even when it's not really necessary and they really force the issue by asking which ER you are going to. Then they call the ER to expect you. If you say you're not sure the person in question is willing to go to the ER, they will ask if they can call the ambulance for you. At this point, you of course feel obliged to go. I never go to the ER without a big stack of reading and crossword/sudoku--sounds cold but believe me you can be there for hours and there is a paucity of magazines.

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I gotta go. I have bags under my eyes and a bit of sagging. I am calling the ambulance for the trauma team. Maybe I'll get some plastic surgery thrown in under the diagnostic code of PTSD.

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Well, I reckon we might as well have some "wrinkly" to go along with Jill's tale of "irony." :P

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Wow...

 

I think healthcare is so messed up. This is a perfect example!

 

Right up there with PANDAS kids getting CT scans and spinal taps, before docs will consider doing a simple throat swab.

 

Right up there with my friend's 14-year-old (with fatigue, pain, brain fog, camping/tick history) whose docs ordered HIV/pregnancy/illict drug testing months before they would agree to run a Lyme test.

 

And a plastic surgeon for 2 stitches on a foot? Impressive!

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Oh, for the days when being out at midnight meant we were in a bar with cute guys and good friends! Guess I know where that HCSA money is going now... Really glad DD wasn't seriously injured and the hoopla became a funny story instead of a nightmare. Just when you thought the girls were good and life was becoming boring... :P

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I gotta go. I have bags under my eyes and a bit of sagging. I am calling the ambulance for the trauma team. Maybe I'll get some plastic surgery thrown in under the diagnostic code of PTSD.

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Well, I reckon we might as well have some "wrinkly" to go along with Jill's tale of "irony." :P

 

 

I love you guys.....wrinkle...iron; teehee!!!!

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It is shameful, IMO. Some people I've talked to have said....well at least you've got insurance to pay for that. True that I'm grateful for the Benjamin co-pay, but what should have been a $2000 ER visit will likely be....IDK, $20,000??? That's sickening. How many of you really need that $18K in treatment for your kids that would make a meaningful difference in their lives??? What is wrong with people? If it's not bleeding or broken bone, if it cannot be objectively measured than it's not an emergency? And if subjectively we can determine everything looks ok, but we can objectively measure it than darn it measuring is what we are going to do whether you want it or not!?!?!

 

Kiss of death phrase...."clinical diagnosis."

 

The mother came by this afternoon and told me the police and paramedics were going on and on about how I was going against medical advice while they were waiting for me to get there. Unfortunate for them, they didn't know I've been through pandas and that doesn't bother me in the least.....in fact, that's usually a good sign.

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OMG. I just had to laugh. What a pain in the a**, but a great story for us mom's in the trenches. It is funny how so little scares us anymore. If there is not blood or a bone sticking out, just suck it up till we get to the doctor. Maybe it is tha fact that I have seen my child morph into Damien from the Omen, that nothing much scares me, either!

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The mother came by this afternoon and told me the police and paramedics were going on and on about how I was going against medical advice while they were waiting for me to get there. Unfortunate for them, they didn't know I've been through pandas and that doesn't bother me in the least.....in fact, that's usually a good sign.

 

Yup! Going against medical advice can definitely be a good thing!

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