Common Sense

Owen has had a fever for five days now.  He is a little tired and not too hungry, and not quite himself.  But he still plays and reads and laughs so I haven’t been too worried about him.  He does not complain of any pain (unless I ask him to bring his toys upstairs…)

Whenever I call the nurse-line for our pediatrician's office, they always remind me to check the website for the clinic.  The website has a “pediatric advisor” which has a large database of information on medical topics for kids.  You find your topic and it gives you an overview of how you should treat the symptoms that your monkey has, and whether or not you should see a doctor.

So, when Owen’s fever didn’t disappear quickly, like it usually does, I went to the pediatric advisor.  For fever, it suggests that you bring in a child who has had a fever for longer than 3 days.  As Owen’s fever had been going down on the third and forth day, I thought he would be fine, so I waited.  But, when he still had a fever today, I felt a little nervous and made an appointment for him.

At the office, Owen saw a doctor that we had never met before.  He asked what my concerns were and I got a vibe that he thought I was wasting his time.  I explained Owen’s fever pattern.  I said that I was wondering if Owen was contagious and…  “Yes.”  he stated, and stared at me with a smile.  “Well,” I stammered, “I checked the website and it suggested that we see a doctor for a fever that lasts longer than three days.  So, the fever has been there five days so I just…” His smile did not wane as he stated (something to the effect of ), “The site says ‘three days’ to cover very rare chances of something much more serious, but common sense tells you that this kind of case is not that.  Next time you don’t need to come in for something like this.”  He went on to explain much more about fevers, but I can’t say that I heard much of it.

This is the kind of thing that makes me hope that the doctors say something is wrong with me (or my kids) when I go in for a visit.  It is a terrible thing to hope – it is not that I wish sickness on us, or that taking medicine makes me feel better -  I just hate to feel like such an idiot.  

I want to say something really mean to that doctor about common sense, but I can’t think of anything really good to say.  And I don’t plan to have an appointment with him again anyway.  So there!