Sunday, January 01, 2006

Bedside Manner

I came home Friday evening so that the fam could take me out for my birthday. Only things didn't go quite as planned. We got to have Dominoes delivered to my niece's hospital room and we all stood around eating. Not quite the steak dinner I had imagined.

But don't worry, the niece is fine. She has a viral infection that has exacerbated her asthma. Except they won't diagnose her with asthma until she's at least 2. So the doc keeps saying, "she doesn't have asthma" and then in the very next sentence, "when kids have asthma as bad as hers...". Go figure.

Also, she didn't go straight to the hospital but had to hop from doc to doc until she was admitted. Lots of x-rays and breathing treatments and trips in the car to get from doc to doc. At one of the docs office, a nurse was trying to get her pulse ox count, and the niece, not wanting to be poked and prodded was crying in protest. And ever so eloquently the nurse blurted out, "well if you'd quit screaming maybe your lungs would work." Nice bedside manner, eh?

She's better now though and got to come home today. Unfortunately, they have her so doped up on steroids she'll be sitting out this season of baseball. So no one put her on your fantasy team roster or you'll just be throwing your team away.