Thursday, May 22, 2008

Dr. Mom, I'm Not

Last night Molly's tonsil holes started bleeding, so we made a midnight run to the emergency room. To put it bluntly, the right side of her throat had a spot that looked like what your gum would if you had just pulled a molar - to me it looked like a bloody abscess, or what the weekend doctor described as a blood clot. She swilled ice water for about 15 minutes (a suggestion we found on the internet), but it still looked gross, so we decided to ask a real-live doctor instead of staring at each other (and her throat), wondering what we should do.

The doctor in the ER took one look and said it looked like what he would expect it to look like ten days after surgery. He said it was a blood clot, but it's supposed to look like that. Dr. Itsokay sent us home with instructions to return if she starts spewing blood all over the walls (or something like that). We left and promptly went in search of a cola Slurpee at 2am.

I was never any good diagnosing my children's illnesses when they were little. First of all, they always got sick after doctor's hours and on weekends after 11pm. Second, I never knew if they were doctor-worthy sick or wait-it-out sick. I always chose wrong. If I waited for the doctor's office to open the next day, their eardrums were blown to bits by the time the doctor saw them. On the other hand, if I rushed them to the emergency room, I was told they had a cough and a virus, and give them a Tylenol (and take a Valium myself).

Oh well, at least I know where to get a 89-cent frozen coke at 2 in the morning.

2 comments:

Kat said...

So the "mom thing" never gets easier to figure out, eh? Oh well... I guess that's why they pay us the big bucks! ;-)

I hope Molly is all healed very soon, and in the meantime, is not getting sick of ice cream and cola slushies. (Is it possible to get sick of ice cream and cola slushies?)

Luanne said...

No, it doesn't get any easier to figure out - who knew that labor would end up being the easiest part of motherhood!!