24 February 2011

note to kate: LOOK IT UP!

We went to the doctors yesterday. I was rx'd an antibiotic and Lexi was rx'd an anti-virual medication. When I asked why our SAME illness was being treated so differently, I was told it was because of our ages. Lexi was given her med to boost her immune system. My older lungs were suspected of harboring other infections.

It didn't really make sense, but we. are. so. sick. that I accepted it and figured we try. (Hmm...the peach oil incident didn't spring to mind then but it does now.)

I started our treatments yesterday. Today, I got online and looked up what they'd given me for Lexi--and what I'd given her. (I ignored all my rx-es except the antibiotic. Russian doctors like to make recovering from an illness a full-time occupation. I don't. But, for Lexi, I took everything home they rx'd.)

She has nose drops (yuck) to clear her sinuses. Fine.

She has a medicine that I was told was for her cough. Turns out, it's actually meant to increase mucous production, thereby allowing the mucous to clear the body of infection on its own. This sounds great, all natural and wonderful...until you hear the horrible cough she already has. I think this is meant to be an expectorant. BUT, since her cough is dry and unproductive and her lungs are clear, she needs a cough suppressant and not an expectorant. So, we've gone back to Robitussin.

And then there's the one that makes me a little sick to think about. It's a suppository (okay, bad enough...but that's not why) that is an anti-virual, meant to increase her white blood cell count. But when I look it up, it's all about human recombinant interferon. When I look that up (because it sounds horrible, but what do I know?) there's not a lot of information.

And then it starts talking about invitro testing for compatibility and cloning.

I admit I read no further.

Because inside my head I'd started screaming,
WHAT HAVE I JUST PUT INSIDE MY LITTLE GIRL? YOU IDIOT!!! WHY DIDN'T YOU LOOK IT UP BEFORE YOU GAVE IT TO HER? HOW COULD YOU HAVE GIVEN HER SOMETHING WHEN YOU DIDN'T KNOW WHAT IT WAS? HOW COULD YOU HAVE TRUSTED THE DOCTOR? WHO DID THIS STUFF COME FROM? I'M SO SORRY!!

We've stopped that one, needless to say.

(I calmly called the pediatrician and told her we had some problems with the suppositories and asked if we could take something different. She said it was fine to stop it. We just have to come in next week for an updated white blood cell count.)

I still can't believe I did this.

6 comments:

Dawn said...

It will be ok. Don't beat yourself up about it. She will be ok and you learned a lesson. Every mom has things she does because she thinks they are good and then changes after getting new information. Just take a deep breath, give her a hug, and cuddle up to try to get better.

Dawn said...

Forgot to add ((((((((((())))))))))

Rachael said...

Hope you are both feeling better quickly!! If you want any insider doctorly feed-back or reassurance, feel free to email me and I'll help if I can.

votemom said...

i haven't checked here in too long.... i used to get alerts that you had updated, but haven't all month. hmmm.

anyway.

sorry for the sickness.
and for the never-ending-winter.

*hug*

Marshwiggles said...

I'm totally on board with Dawn. Deep breath, remember that she will be fine. It was one time. And don't beat yourself up. You're sick and feeling lousy, too, and God is really big and amazingly gracious. We're allowed to make mom mistakes. And this one feels big now, but there are much bigger mistakes to make! Hope you both feel better soon.

Lindsay said...

Hope you are both recovered now. I have the same fear here sometimes over prescriptions: they really like to prescribe!

"Russian doctors like to make recovering from an illness a full-time occupation." - lol. Know exactly what you mean. Wonderfully expressed!