Me as Mom

Interesting day today.  My son got his first bee sting and it happened to be in his ear while he was at the babysitters.  If you can’t tell already I am a paranoid momma and extremely protective.  The babysitter, who NEVER calls, calls me and asks if she can give him some Benadryl because it was swelling.  I tell her I am not sure of the dosage so let me call his NEW doctors office and find out.  I call and they say the nurse isn’t answering but they will mark my message as urgent and have her call me right back.  A half hour later, still no return call so I call back.  The person who answered says she will give her another message to call me.  Then 45 minutes later and I am heading to lunch with no return phone call so I called back again but this time the momma bear came out.  

The poor lady who answered the phone got the worst of it especially when she told me the nurse had went to lunch and she would have to ask her to call me when she returned.  I was angry pissed.  I proceeded to tell her that although my son only had a bee sting I wanted to know the amount of medication he could take, if needed.  And how I hope the incompetence of this nurse doesn’t lead to another child not being cared for in time.  The lady on the phone says well that is your doctor’s nurse.  So what I shout.  Then I asked her if she was the only nurse there on staff that I could speak to about medication dosages.  There was more said but you get the point.  For goodness sake, it wasn’t like I was asking for anything too complex.   Of course, after that I was on hold and a different doctor’s nurse was about to pick up.   Finally, I was given the dosage information. 

Between phone calls to the doctor’s office, I asked the babysitter to put a baking soda/water paste on the sting to help with the irritation and get the stinger out which she did.  Shortly thereafter, she said the swelling had actually decreased and he seemed fine so I wasn’t too concerned about the actual dosage but more about not being answered timely.   If this were truly a reaction, or if my son was an infant with a high fever, or a thousand other scenarios, it could have turned out a lot worse.  I only recently switched doctors because I heard great things about this huge, prestigious medical group.  I now wish that I had stayed with my more personal medical group who answered your pediatric questions immediately. 

Have you had a similar experience where you turned into the protective momma bear?  This is my second time and with all my hormones racing from being pregnant I think it may have been way worse.

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