Sick kid
D. had a full blown asthma attack (his first) yesterday afternoon and spent the night in the hospital. He’s doing well now, and we hope he’ll be home later today, but I’m obviously not going to have a chance for a while to respond to the very thoughtful posts on Warner’s articles. I will second the recommendation to check out the dicussion at Chez Miscarriage.
One thought before I shower and head back to the hospital. I have a job where I can take leave on short notice, with pay and without risk of losing my job. I have an extremely involved spouse. And I have good health insurance. And this is still really hard. Lots of people are missing at least one of these, and there’s a significant number of parents who don’t have any of them. And poor kids are disproportionately likely to have asthma, probably due to environmental factors.
Update: We’re all home, and D is breathing easily (although with regular nebulizer treatments). We need to meet with his regular pediatrician next week to figure out where we go from here with identifying the trigger and deciding whether he needs ongoing maintenance treatment. But the immediate crisis is over. Thanks for the good wishes.
February 18th, 2005 at 6:21 pm
Elizabeth–
I hope your son is better soon. How scary!
And how very generous of you to be thinking about how a similar situation would affect someone with fewer resources.
February 19th, 2005 at 1:43 pm
I hope your son is healthy soon, and back at home. Best of luck taking care of him and your family and yourself during the crisis. I hope it passes soon.
THIS is the stuff Warner should have written about. Sad question: would she have gotten as much press if she had?
February 19th, 2005 at 11:03 pm
HAIL THE NEBULIZER!!! #1’s lungs get mucked up so easily from cold we are the proud owners of our very own.
You and I are very lucky that we can afford to take our child to the doctor without a second thought to our wallets/rent/groceries/other children. I think about that all the time. No parent should ever have to hesitate to take their child to doctor, sadly, many in this country do.
Glad everyone is better. Now get some rest.
February 20th, 2005 at 1:07 am
Glad all is better with you!
February 20th, 2005 at 12:24 pm
I grew up in a family without health insurance, and I can remember feeling guilty whenever my parents would have to take me to the doctor because I knew they couldn’t really afford it. Kids shouldn’t have to feel guilty about getting health care.
Glad to hear that the immediate crisis is over. I hope he’s feeling much better.
October 13th, 2005 at 5:48 pm
I feel very grief to read about your son. I and you are very lucky to born in those family which can effort the doctor, When i feel not well i immidiatelly go to the doctor .