When I was a child, if I had so much as a "growing pain" it was the end of the world. I would complain profusely about the agonizing, horrendous, and mortifying pain I was in. My dad would offer to cut off my finger or which ever arm/leg was hurting or punch me in the gut to help me forget about the other pain. Of course I declined and proceeded to my bedroom to cry about my limb which was surely going to fall off. So when I accidently found out that my oldest Step-son had a pain in his ear which started about 2 days ago and he already put some alcohol in it himself I was shocked.
I guess when you are so used to taking care of yourself and your brother without supervision of an adult or atleast someone resembling an adult you learn to just cope with pain and do what you can to fix it yourself. This is an unfortunate burden for children to bear and sadly its going to take a lot of work to kick this habit he has. There is no reason for him to take things into his own hands. He isn't with his mother anymore. We are the Adults.
My emotions flashed quickly over the span of about 15 seconds from anger (that he put alcohol in his ear without asking) to dissapointment (that he didnt tell us) to fear (hopefully his ear isn't damaged and there isnt seriously something wrong now) and at last to urgency (we need to have him seen immediately). Of course this was a Friday night at 9:30 so a clinic was out of the question.
We did what we had to do... Off to the ER we went.
Posted wait time was 5 minutes. We arrived to a vacant waiting room of course and the initial paperwork was filled out. After that I would have to say we waited approx 10-15 minutes until being called into the "check-in" room where his weight was taken and his pain scale was evaluated. All 5 of use then trekked down the hall as we were escorted to a curtained room and a few more tests (blood pressure, temperature, etc) were taken. Ok, so that was quicker then expected right?
Its almost like an advertising gimick. You know those ones that say FREE in huge letters next to that beautiful diamond necklace you want, then when you get in and ask politely for your FREE diamond necklace you are informed that you first need to purchase 3.5 million dollars worth of jewelry. Yea, it was like that.
About 45 minutes later the "PA" came in. She spent all of 5 minutes looking into his ears and listening to his lungs or heart, then advised us it was merely "swimmers ear" and she would be back in about 15 minutes with a prescription. 45 minutes later I paid our co-pay of $200.00 and then about 20 minutes after that we were given a prescription for some ear drops and asked to show ourselves out.
I think I might have heard a "don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out suckers" but I can't be to sure. I walked out of there with more mixed emotions. Frustrated that it cost SO much for so little and knowing we COULD have taken him on Wednesday when the pain started for only a $30 co-pay, relieved to find out that the problem was minimal and easily treated, and concerned that this could have been worse had we not found out by accident that night.
So after all was said and done 2 hours of waiting and 5 minutes with the "PA" we left, starving and tired. Grabbed some food, the prescription, and headed home. I hope he understands after tonight that if something hurts he NEEDS to tell us immediately, I don't care if its growing pains. Its our responsibility to make sure they are both properly cared for but unless we ask him every 5 minutes we will never know.
What an adventure... I love them both. :)
Wonderful! I enjoyed the visit.
ReplyDeleteLove is priceless!!