A Really Long Day

I yahoo-ed too soon. Q woke up this morning with a tiny fever. By lunch time he was up to 103.7. Our regular pediatrician said he'd better see him since the fever had been going on for so long. When we got there, he couldn't find any obvious reason for 5+ days of such high fever, so he ordered a blood test.

I figured he would just say, "Nope. It still looks like a virus!" Wrong! The test came back with crazy high white blood cell count. Something 19,000 when normal is four to nine thousand. He didn't want to prescribe antibiotics willy nilly, so more tests were required. He sent Q over to the hospital with a stool culture and an x-ray order. The list of possible maladies went from alarming to OMGOMGOMFG! Possibilities in order of potential hysteria: pneumonia; gastroenteritis; blood borne infection; bone infection; leukemia(!).

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly we got in at the hospital. We had to go into the emergency room, so I was prepared for the long haul. (Man, there were a bunch of scary people in the waiting room. I haven't been to an ER since college - when I was still a military dependent, which is a totally different experience.) But we were shown right to the radiology department. We had to wait maybe 5 minutes, then the techs were apologizing all over themselves and hustled us right in. The x-rays were over quickly and the only thing Q objected to was being strapped down. The techs email the films over to our doc and Q and I head home.

Unfortunately, when we arrive home our doctor has already called to tell us that there was a possible pneumonia in Q's right lung, but he needed another film to be sure. So back to the hospital we go. This time Q is wise to what is coming and put up a bit more fuss. But even so, it is all over quickly. This time we hang around until the doc calls us at the hospital. The news? Pneumonia. Whew! I know pneumonia is serious, but when I consider the other things it could have been, I must count my blessings.

Dr. C prescribes a powerful antibiotic (Dr. Dad-in-Law says Zithromax will kill bugs, mice, rabbits and small children) to be picked up from the one 24-hour pharmacy here in Small Town. We are to start giving it to Q this very night so as to avoid any future medical procedures. When I get there, the very nice pharmacist explains that the computer is rejecting my insurance card. He says that he knows the cards are good (they are less than a month old!) because he has the same insurance plan, but that Blue Cross/Blue Shield HealthSelect routinely rejects claims made after hours in the hopes that patrons wouldn't bother to come back the next day to get the difference refunded.

The nerve! That makes me more angry than I have words to express. Bilking people who really need the medicine or they wouldn't be at the pharmacy in the middle of the night. Arg! Q's prescription was only $43, but you can bet your sweet patootie that I will be at the pharmacy tomorrow getting the difference refunded.