First (and Hopefully Last) Hospital Stay
On Friday night, The Heir Apparent was a bit hot. He'd got a fever so Princess Prettygood rang a medical helpline. They said if it gets worse during the night take the baby to the emergency reception.
He didn't get worse or better in the night so we took him to a popular children's clinic near our home on Saturday morning. The doctor listened with his stethoscope and looked down his throat.
"Ah, it's difficult to say," he said. "You should wait two or three days and see if his temperature goes down. If it doesn't, go to an emergency section."
We took The Heir home, had lunch and I let Princess P sleep. For a bit. The Heir's temperature managed to race up to 39.4゜C.
We got a taxi to Central Hospital and had The Heir seen. The doctor was almost in a rage.
"This doctor isn't a paediatrician. What on Earth did he tell you to wait for? We need to act quickly and run tests."
Japan doesn't have General Practitioners; we went to an internal medicine specialist who also treats children. To me, if you put down that you practice children's medicine then I'll assume you're experienced enough. I'm so angry words cannot express it.
The poor bairn had a spinal tap to test for meningitis and has a drip in his hand. He's likely to be in for a week. Still, he's in good spirits. I can't visit him for a couple of days because I've caught a cold. Hopefully he'll be out in a couple of days.
Thanks to everyone who sent their regards via Twitter.
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How is the baby? Is he OK now? Once I had the same experience. Thirty some years ago, when my family lived in Saginuma, my son had a high fever. We went to an emergency hospital in Mizonokuchi by taxi. That night the hospital was off duty for paediatrics . But we didn't know where we should go. So I asked the reception of the hospital pleadingly. They accepted us eventually but the doctor of the hospital, possibly he was taking dinner at the time, was so rude and sullen. I never forget his attitude. A nurse injected anti-biotics to my son and he recovered from the fever.
ReplyDeleteTake care! Tom
Thank you ever so much, Tom.
ReplyDeleteThe baby's fever has settled, and while we're still waiting for test results and he's still in hospital, we know he's pretty much out of the woods now.