We have a great Doctor

[Jennifer761]

   I'm so glad our regular pediatrician is familiar with croup & took care of us. Of course by the time we got there -he was @ the tail end of it....but I am reassured by her professionalism (she is responsible) that we will be ok should we need medical care for this in the future.

I mean really! The Er staff gave me a list of reasons to go to the ER & not to go to the ER. We are NOT new to croup! We are way beyond the ...scary cough sound provoking panick & unreasonable -ness. We know when a child needs urgent care & when he doesn't. Even though I went for the very reasons listed to go -on the ER's own papers; they still looked at me as though I were speaking a foreign language and refused to help. Absolutely ridiculous! I realize that not long ago it was common for most doctors to send away croupy kids -because there wasn't much to do about it. But nowadays they do have steroids & for that doctor to suggest a problem with side effects or problems with repetitive usage was just outrageous. J has only had it (oral steroids to open his airway) twice with no side effects & he is not going to have such issues from prolonged use -because that is simply not his case!!! (2 or 3 times is not prolonged use).

Reasons to go; -no air is going in or out of the child's mouth, lungs, lips, body (he stopped breathing.)

                             - he is gasping and drawing in hard & long for breath....he is having great trouble getting air into his lungs.     (This is not the same as a croupy cough then drawing air in after ward.....I mean all by itself, just gasping for breath.)

 

 

 

NO ONE GOES TO THE ER FOR A SIMPLE CROUP COUGH UNLESS ITS THE FIRST TIME THEY EVER HEARD ONE; people know better. It is a scary sound.....but most moms come to know the difference between a child having a croupy cough and a child not breathing or struggling to breathe.

 

One Er doctor we came across wanted me to time it...& even after I timed it & it met her time requirement (the amount of time that he could not breathe)....she still did not believe me because of the nature of croup.

I've tried to figure if its the old ideas doctors have of not treating croup (for reasons I may not know well enough; maybe kids don't usually ever die from it, maybe because it usually gets better, maybe because they've been taught not to treat it, maybe because they are used to people panicking over the sound of the cough and gasping for breath just after the cough alone, maybe because of the nature of croup there is just a level of disbelief -i don't know....) But really all I could really fathom that had happened is; they simply did not believe me. Because J was not so bad off to need to be hospitalized, he only needs a med (oral steroids to open his airway) to get over the first 2 - 3 days & he can get through. (& no, he has not been so bad every time, see because we are quite capable of identifying the difference between a need for urgent medical care & not needing it....we know how to tell if he is breathing....breathing was & is always the key here, not coughing, not any of the croupy sounds....breathing....we know when breathing is an issue & when it is not.) But because of the nature of croup, J would start breathing again once out in the night air & upright (cold air & upright)...then he would start playing. All the ER doctors would see is a very healthy looking child. lately hes barely (breifly) even had the classic croup sound, but we know the inability to breathe well.

    I remember when B was little & we did not know he had autism. Nothing is as irritating as a doctor looking at a parent with disbelief, misunderstanding & an inability to comprehend....but spewing out what they believe to be educational information. The parent wonders if the doctor is even in the same room with her -really, maybe in her mind she is standing before a class room of ignorant pupils in the school of life. Who really needs to hear mindless facts such as "adults get croup too its just not as noticeable" from a doctor who has decided many trips to the ER are better than one and not to treat the child...I realize she was listening to his chest...I realize she was listening for stridor....I realize he sounded well when upright....awake...after a long cold trip.....But I was saying he stops breathing at night -altogether. Even if pausing in breathing is all that ever happens; in my mind it deserves a much more educated answer at the very least than these goofy random mindless facts about croup....and certainly, it needs treatment. If, it does not need treatment then I should have been given an educated reason contingent to the symptoms I described....instead of seeing all this disbelief, constant query (asking me to describe the same symptoms over and over)....

 

And in the end, I am so glad we have such a great pediatrician who works in the genre...who is familiar with croup....who knows when to treat kids & when not to, in spite of how well they seem during th day. (Who also read parents quite well & is respectful of the symptoms they describe, had she told me we did not need to seek treatment I am assured she would have given a much more educated reason. I must admit though, that even at timing the amount of time he could not breathe I whince a bit....but I could do that if necessary.) 

[Leelee914]

Dec. 3, 2008 at 9:14 PM

Last year my daughter croup, she was 18months and she would stop breathing in her sleep. I took her to the ER in the middle of the night. Doctors told me that they couldn't do anything about it and just to prop her up while she is sleeping and open a window. I told them that their answer was unacceptable and I'm not leaving until something is done to help my daughter breathe while she is asleep. They made a big deal about giving my daughter steroids, but ended up giving it to her. My pediatrician(at the time) was no better than the doctors in the ER, because she told me there wasn't a need to go to the ER.