Ever had to convince a doctor that your child really does have a health problem in fifteen seconds or less?
For the past three weeks, my five-year-old has had an on-again, off-again fever. Two days it would run high, the next day she was perfectly fine. In the middle of this three-week roller-coaster she did manage to get an ear infection and was treated with antibiotics; however, the mystery fever continued. Other than the day she complained of her ear and the doctor found it infected, she had no other symptoms.
I am overall very happy with our medical provider; however, it is a busy office and I’ve found the screening nurses to only listen to the first sentence out of my mouth. (Our provider, fortunately, does take the time to listen and treat us, but how many times do I want to repeat myself?) I wanted everyone to understand that I really did start tracking this for three weeks, that I was certain there were no other symptoms other than the ear infection, how I treated the fevers (tylenol, motrin) and how many days of school had been missed.
To make my point quickly, I created a one-page memo that stated at the top, in one sentence, the problem. Then I made a three-week calendar that listed on each day when she had the fever and when she was symptom-free; I marked the day she was diagnosed with the ear infection and the days she took the antibiotic. A quick scan of the paper illustrated the issue easily for the reader to understand the facts of the matter and that I could speak with certainty as to how long this problem had been occuring.
We often hear the advice that we should write down any questions we have for our medical providers so that we don’t forget to ask anything. However, I think we should go a step further: prepare a short, quick bullet-point handout for intake nurses and providers outlining the issue and noting any unusual symptoms, medications, and treatments for the problems. As the intake nurse asks why you are in the office, you can state your problem while handing them the paper and saying, “I’ve taken notes of the frequency and details here.” I have found that, whenever I have done this, I am taken seriously and the specific problem is quickly addressed, and I rarely have to deal with the extraneous obvious and sometimes irritating questions. (I.e. “Are you sure it has been five whole days?” “How often do you need to take medication?” Etc. They know I am certain of the details.)
It turns out my daughter has walking pneumonia. Our provider reviewed my handout, examined her, returned to the handout, and said, “Reading what you have here doesn’t match that I can’t find anything wrong with her other than she is running a fever right now. We need to do some blood work and a chest xray. Maybe she has walking pneumonia.” Our provider decided on those tests based on the information on my handout. While she didn’t hear anything in my daughter’s chest, fluid showed up on the xray. If I hadn’t shown that I kept a record of her symptoms, and that it had indeed been going on for three whole weeks, I wonder if we wouldn’t have been sent home with the “give her lots of fluids and come back if it doesn’t improve” speech because they didn’t have daily contact with the problem and question if I’m remembering correctly. (Sadly, that’s happened a few times.)
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