Sick

Yesterday afternoon I got the dreaded call from daycare: "Quinn is unwell. His temperature is 39.2." That's 102.5F. And that's not good. This was the third time since he started daycare 7 weeks ago that he's had to come home sick. Lucky for us, the doctor's office is conveniently located just around the corner from the day care. It's becoming a well-trodden path.


I phoned the doctor's office and asked if they could squeeze us in. I almost said, "It's us again!" since we were just there the week before. The receptionist said someone could see me shortly, so I grabbed Quinn's well child book (a record of all his healthcare since birth) and went to retrieve my poor sick boy.

It was great to pull up to the doctor's office and see that they were no longer working out of a trailer. Their building had been damaged in the February earthquake so they were temporarily working out of a trailer parked out back. Yesterday we were able to go into the actual reception area, which is much nicer than a trailer.

One of the great things about having a baby in New Zealand is that all his health care is FREE. If I go to the doctor, I have to pay a fee of about $30, but because Quinn is under 6, it's all free. Free doctor's visits, free immunisations, free prescriptions. It's a great way to do things, because money should never be a reason not to get your sick child to the doctor.

We were seen quickly by a nurse who took Quinn's temperature again (still 39.2) and then stripped him down and gave him some paracetamol and ibuprofen. The daycare had noticed a faint rash on his chest so the nurse checked that out too. The concern was meningitis - not a word any mum wants to hear. I'm not even sure what meningitis involves, but it just sounds really bad. The doctor came in to have a look and check him out. She said his ears looked pink but not infected. She closely examined the rash, then called in another doctor to have a look at the rash with her. The consensus seemed to be that this was a mere viral rash, not a meningitis rash. I was reassured.

But they wanted to get a urine sample anyway. Do you know how hard it is to get a urine sample from a baby?! It's damn near impossible. Especially when that baby is feeling unwell and won't stop wiggling or whining. We were shown into a private room and handed a small plastic cup, and basically left to our own devices.

For the next half hour, I held a naked baby to my breast and let him nurse while I held a cup under his penis. It felt more than a little silly. And of course, he refused to pee.

I started to get really irritated with the situation. I started to think, I want my mommy! My mom had 4 kids and would surely know what to do with a rashy whiny one. It was one of those times when I wished I didn't live so far away. I guess that's one of the drawbacks of moving to the other side of the world: lack of access to mommy during moments of childish neediness.

When the nurse came back in to check on us, I was pacing with my crying baby and crying a little myself. The nurse (bless her) put her arm around me and told me I was doing everything right. Quinn's temperature had gone down to normal. The doctor said to just keep an eye on him tonight, take him to After-hours care if I have any concerns at all. She gave us a referral form.

When we got home, suddenly Quinn was a ray of sunshine. Smiles and giggles all over the place. We were so relieved! He was cured!

Alas, our relief was short-lived. We had a horrible unsettled night with our sick baby. If you have kids, you know. If you don't have kids, you don't want to know. Ugh.

This morning we got up to find that Quinn had become rather rashy indeed. What had been faint red spots on his chest and tummy yesterday were now darker red spots spreading up his neck and onto his face. To after-hours!

We were a little unsure what to expect from after-hours care in New Zealand. We had been to Urgent Care places in America, where we waited for ages and paid $75 for the privilege (on top of insurance premiums, of course). Thankfully we hadn't needed any urgent medical care since getting here nearly 2 years ago.

We walked up to a receptionist and explained Quinn's symptoms. She typed them into her computer and then directed us to a waiting area. Within about 90 seconds, a nurse came out to greet us, and went over the symptoms with us. She then directed us into another waiting area.

Another nurse came out about 2 minutes later and took us into an examination room. She went over the list of symptoms again. She then took Quinn's vitals. We learned that Quinn really, REALLY does not like to have his heart rate taken. Many screams later, the nurse walked us out of the room back to the waiting area. On this walk, we ran into a doctor who stopped the nurse and asked where she could help out. The nurse said, "you can take this one - " motioning to us. We went with the doctor to another examination room.

This was all moving thankfully quickly - I can't even imagine how we would have coped in the waiting room with our sick baby for extended periods if we had had to wait.

The doctor we ran into who was assigned to see us was FANTASTIC. She was patient and interested and kind. She listened carefully to everything we said and asked thoughtful questions. When I asked if I could nurse Quinn to calm him down she gushed "of course!" and went on to say nice things to make me feel like a good mum for breastfeeding. Warm fuzzies.

She peeked in his ears and declared "Ear infection." A nasty one, apparently. It must have gotten much worse overnight as it was undetected the day before. This would be his third ear infection in 6 weeks. If this continues we may need to see a specialist. We discussed the pros and cons of anti-biotics, she wrote us prescriptions, and we were on our way.

One thing that's different about health care here - apart from being affordable - is that we don't see a specialist right away. I seem to remember that when I was sick as a kid I saw a pediatrician. Here, you see your general practitioner/family doctor in the first instance. Part of me (the mother part) wants the very best care out there and thinks that every runny nose Quinn has requires no less than the expertise of a Gregory House MD. But most of me realises that this would be a huge waste of resources. A GP can handle an ear infection. It makes sense to see the GP and save the pediatrician's time for the really seriously sick kids.

In our case, if the GP thinks Quinn needs further attention for his recurring ear infections, she'll refer us to an ENT. We may look into getting tubes in his ears. Hopefully we won't need to do that.

Anyway, we're very happy with the health care we're getting down here. We rate our first experience at Christchurch's after-hours care an A+.