there’s a nurse chewing on my ear

and it’s NOT fun.

Okay lets’ see if we can all agree on something.  When a doctor says “give this medication every 4 to 6 hours AS NEEDED for wheezing”  that means what?

Well to me it means listen to my child.  IF she is wheezing and it has been at least four hours since the last treatment…I can give her another treatment.

But I know that different people say things in different ways so I asked for clarification.

“so you are saying we are NOT supposed to just give it her unless she needs it, right?”

The answer:  Yes.  That’s correct.  Only when she is actually wheezing.

Alrighty.  Got it.

So that’s what we’ve been doing.  All weekend.  Listen to the baby breathe.  Pray not to hear any more wheezing, but when it does come, we check the clock and give her more of the medication.  We are good parents, we are following doctor’s orders.

um…….turns out NOT.

I called today to get more of the albuterol, the medication for the wheezing and I mentioned that she had not used up all of what we were given but that she probably would by tomorrow.  The Nurse on the phone said, wait, why hasn’t she used it ALL?

um….because we were only doing it as needed.

This is where the nurse chewing on my ear things starts….

WHAT !!!!  You are supposed to do it every four to six hours like clockwork.  YOU can’t HEAR the wheezing with the “naked ear” you have to have a stethescope to hear it, so you have to give it to her all the time what on earth kind of parent are you? (ok she didn’t actually say that last part, but dang that’s how I FELT!)

So after about 15 minutes of her telling me over and over that I’d been administering this medication improperly all weekend (despite the fact that I had been on the phone both Friday night and Saturday night with the on-call nurses staff and doctor who NEVER ONCE had a problem with my “as needed” instructions) I now feel about a foot tall and worthless.

This is the first time Ginny has ever been sick and she is doing well.  She’s a real trooper.  Takes her meds just fine, hardly cries at all.  Martin and I are holding up well.  I got a very encouraging call from a friend in Houston whose first born son also went through this at about the same age and he survived.   The family has come together to pitch in and help and even Ginny’s godparents have pitched in by offering to pick up the prescription re-fill today while Martin and I  are at work.

But despite all this, I feel HORRIBLE.

Maybe it’s the teeth marks from that nurse chewing on my ear.