Strange people

Had a bit of a scare tonight (not the £200 one, a far worse one than that).

The lad woke up struggling to breath. Proper wheezing, erratic, laboured breathing. I didn't wait to see what happened next, we just jumped in the car and went straight to the local hospital.

I carried him in, the man at the reception desk took one look and directed us immediately to the urgent care part. We got there and there were of course a few people waiting.

There was a woman of about 60 supervising what I presume was her son of about 30, who was holding his head as though he had a headache, then started playing happily with his phone.

There was also a family unit, mum, dad and teenage daughter. The daughter was bleeding slightly from one of her manicured painted fingers.

Then there was us, carrying a 4 year old child who very audibly was struggling to breath.

As soon as the older woman (the one looking after her 30ish son) saw us, she went straight to the desk to ask, and I quote, "are we still next?". The reply came, "yes, because the nurse can see you, this child needs to see the doctor".

Reception girl wasted no time, and vanished out the back. 2 seconds later the doctor appeared, clearly hurrying, and we were taken straight through.

While we were still in the waiting area, hastily striding after the doctor, wife heard the older woman complaining to reception that they were supposed to be next. I wonder what sort of person fails to comprehend the urgency of the matter when a young child is having difficulty breathing.

Anyway, the good news is the doctor has seen him, said his chest is clear and that the lad has a spot of croup, bad enough to sound very alarming, but not dangerously bad. That is of course a relief, but I don't expect I'll be sleeping well tonight.

 

Oh my goodness!
I'm so glad he is alright. That must have been terrifying for you.

 

Sorry to hear about your son Clueless, I hope he is better soon. They do give us some scares at times don't they?

Not a good day for you what with the Paypal issue as well, you'll probably be glad when tomorrow comes.

 

Witnessing croup can be as distressing as suffering a bout of it! I know he's not "alright" but, I do know that croup attacks are manageable and that you did the right thing in taking him to hospital. Don't envy you spending a night in a hot, steamy bathroom (should that still be the 'advice' offered?)

As for the mature woman with her adult son; well, perhaps his 'needs' were of a different kind, but, as a parent, to *her* his needs were her priority: sad, but true. The "likeness" being: you were both parents with a concern for welfare for your offspring. The "difference" is, despite your own traumatic situation, you were perceptive of others around you; in her case, she was still single minded and ... oblivious to the needs of others!!

Classic case of: "Man can't put in what God left out"

So relieved for you that the Mini-man isn't in any immediate danger and I hope this bout of croup will be quickly relieved

 

Not that much of a priority it seems. Wife heard her threaten to cancel their 'appointment' in protest.

 

Or, put another way, she thinks herself so *much* of a priority powerhouse, that she can't see that she is shooting herself in the foot with her "protest"

A.k.a the word I was, tactfully, avoiding in my first description of her: s.e.l.f.i.s.h. and self-centred

 

Blimey Clue...hope you all had a settled night....poor little Clue Jnr...he must have been petrifiedand i'm sure it was upsetting for you and Mrs C to see him stuggleing....

Wishing you a better day

 

Glad your wee 1 is ok. My brother used to suffer very badly with what we called "wheeezy turns" when he was little. Very frightening to witness. Brother grew out of them so hopefully your son will too. Re the woman, perhaps the hospital should have rapidly accepted her "offer" to cancel and given her appointment to someone else! Interesting programme about A&Es groaning under strain on TV last night. Appears A&Es are now used willy nilly by all and sundry while they are and always were meant for what the name suggests accidents and emergencies and I don't consider the likes of a splinter in your finger in that catagory!!

 

Thanks all. I did panic a bit, partly because it is, as I'm sure you are all aware, terrifying when a young kid suddenly starts struggling to breath. Especially when he seemed to be having to put more and more effort in as each minute passed between bringing him downstairs and getting him to the hospital. But also because as a child, I had a form of asthma which I seem to remember was called 'bronchial asthma' (not sure how that differs, if at all, from regular asthma). I know it can be hereditary, and indeed my dad was known for chest problems as a kid, and once nearly died of pneumonia. My son has never been tested for asthma, despite us asking many times, so I worried he might have been having an asthma attack. His symptoms were exactly the same as I remember mine being when I was a kid, ie sudden onset of wheezing and laboured breathing, face and ears go bright red, body starts to go mushy etc. The difference is when I was a kid it wasn't taken seriously. It was 'just one of those things' (my parents took it seriously obviously, but nobody else did). Nowadays of course it is recognised as a potentially life threatening emergency.

Thankfully the doctor said he was showing no signs of any form of asthma, and that it was just a 'touch of croup', terrifying but not dangerous. He can't have been too far wrong, because although the lad is still not 100%, he's managed to put the telly on and find his favourite program, 'You've been framed' (pronounced 'Moo been framed' for some reason).

 

Glad it all turned out well Clueless - but certainly scary for you and Mrs C.

Having experienced more than a few trips to A & E myself over the last couple of years I sympathise with your plight - at ours (Lewisham) children have their own bit of A & E which I think is a better option than waiting around with drunks/junkies adults who are there as a result of fights/falls. (Still hanging in the balance here whether it closes or not I think)

S

 

That's what they said I had, spent most of my childhood in bed with it, saw loads of different Doctors, had xrays, tests the lot.

All because no one in the NHS at the time even considered I might be allergic to Cats??

Glad Jamesy's on the mend, keep an eye out for anything that might have set it off, feathers, pets etc.

 

I suffered most of my asthma attacks in winter, and they went away almost completely when Redcar became a 'smokeless zone' (ie it became illegal to burn untreated coal here). It still came back occassionally, often after we'd been for a day out somewhere were untreated coal had not yet been outlawed. By the time I reached 20 years old, in a routine medical which included a spirometry test, there was no sign of asthma, but by pure coincidence, by then nobody was allowed to burn untreated coal in their fires, in fact few people even still had coal fires.

Its all coincidence of course. Airborne particulates and sulphuric acid have no affect at all on the respiratory tract.

Oh, I did once nearly die once when we kept a pet rabbit in the house overnight until we could give it to its intended keeper the next day. The worst asthma attack of my life started when the rabbit arrived, and didn't stop until the rabbit left. Nobody made the connection until afterwards.

 

You might have a point there. There are several reasons I can think of why last year's lack of sunshine could be having a negative impact on health this year. Perhaps most obviously is the fact that we need sunshine on our skin to manufacture certain vitamins. I believe it also 'activates' certain other minerals to help us build antibodies against ailments. Funny really, when you think of it like that, we're not that different from plants, we do actually do some photosynthesis

Perhaps less obvious reasons could be the psychological effect. Its been known for a long time now that your mental state has an impact on physiology. Then of course there's the lack of fresh air and exercise. If the weather's rubbish, as it was last year, I expect less time on average was spent outdoors. There's another point, if you're not outdoors, you're indoors, and that means cooped up. If you're indoors on your own, then I guess not much is going to happen, but if, say, the weather means you're in the pub in your leisure time rather than out on the moors or in the garden, then lots of people are all mixed up together in one great melting pot of germs.