RSV.. bad judgement.. stupid doctors...
By katsmeow1213
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
United States
July 5, 2010 5:37pm CST
This is certainly not RSV season, but a recent discussion reminded me of these 2 stories I'm going to share.. one involves bad judgement, the other involves stupid doctors.. hence the title, lol.
For those who don't know, RSV is a respiratory infection in infants and can be very dangerous if not treated.
My first experience with RSV was with my little sister, who is 14 years younger than me. She got RSV when she was about a month old, but my mother assumed it was just a cold so did not bring her to the doctor straight away. It wasn't until my mother brought my sister to the babysitter, and the sitter noticed the baby was turning blue and gasping for breath that she finally went to see a doctor. By then her RSV had turned into viral and bacterial pneumonia and she was hospitalized and put on a ventilator for over a month. It's actually a miracle that she survived this, but somehow, and quite suddenly, she did pull through.
My second experience with RSV came with my own daughter, who caught it when she was 6 weeks old. She woke up one day very congested. I called her doctor's office first thing that morning, and spoke to a nurse. I told the nurse that my daughter was having so much trouble breathing, that she'd have to stop feeding so she could catch her breath, because she could not breath through her nose. The nurse asked if she had a fever, and I said no, so she said "Well there's nothing we can do about it". I certainly was not satisfied with that because I could see how much my daughter was struggling, but there wasn't much else I could do. As the day wore on I got more and more concerned about my daughter, I'm not sure if she got worse or if I just got worrying too much, either way I made a second call to the doctor's office and got a different nurse this time. She asked different questions that the first nurse did not ask. One of those questions was "Is she pulling her chest in when she breaths in?" She was. So the nurse says to me "Don't panic, hang up the phone, and call 911." Uh, okay.. but don't panic?? We got her to the ER and found that she had RSV pretty bad, but it had not become pneumonia thankfully. Though she still had to be hospitalized for 3 days until her breathing was better.
Her twin, and my 4 year old also had RSV as infants, but neither had it so bad that they needed hospitalization. The twin just shared some of my daughter's nebulizer treatments until he was better, and the 4 year old got a shot of steroids to make his better.
The oldest and youngest were lucky enough never to have RSV.
Have any of your children had RSV? Did they need hospitalization for it?
Has a doctor or nurse ever told you something was no big deal when in fact it was?
Do you know a parent who had bad judgement that caused the child more trouble than it needed?
2 people like this
7 responses
@sudiptacallingu (10879)
• India
6 Jul 10
Sorry to sound like stupid but what is RSV? From you post I can make out that its some form of cold with lung infection, a pre-pneumonia type maybe? What is its common name?
BTW, no I’ve never had such an ailment myself (not that I remember, or mom ever told me)…my son had lung congestion when he was just about 7 months (I fed him ice-cream…OK go ahead and scream at me, actually I has hogging a big tub all by myself and he was sitting there, staring so longingly)… I still believe he got the congestion only coz it was early Feb and quite cold…otherwise he would have been OK
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
6 Jul 10
RSV is a virus that babies get, it's a lung infection. It is common only in babies under a year old.
@pastigger (612)
• United States
6 Jul 10
My daughter actually got RSV boosters. She was bon 11 weeks early and it is a very scary thing for preemies as thir lungs may not be as developed. We had to get the shots every couple of weeks I believe, she is three now, and you had to be on time with the shot. But these shots were also very expensive so they do not recommend them for everyone. I had insurance that paid part and was also able to get $1000 or $1500, again been a while, in private funding and I stilled owed $1000 out of pocket for 4 or 5 shots. I was lucky enough that the hospital actually worked with me and I only ended up paying $100. But if you have a preemie you will most likely hear about RSV. We were very lucky as she never got it. I know that the shots were still pretty new then so hopefully they have come down on the cost by now, I felt hopeless at the time on how to pay and it was horrible. She spent 11 weeks in the NICU and the last thing we wanted was for her to be in the hospital again.
@GardenGerty (169448)
• United States
5 Jul 10
I would possibly have been the person who did not go to the doctor soon enough. My daughter did get pneumonia, never running a fever, but it was when she was about twelve years old. I had an old fashioned doctor who was great with her, but she still took a long time to get better. Luckily it was mostly over Christmas break. She wanted to go back to school immediately after being diagnosed, and he told her if she went she would end up in the hospital. I have been fortunate in having very healthy children generally, and very good doctors.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
5 Jul 10
You're not at fault for that.. kids get sick, and I too will not bring my kids to the doctor for a little cold, not until it starts to appear to be worse than a cold.. but with an infant it's different, especially when they're so congested they can't breath!
When my 4 year old was about 2 he got the flu pretty bad. We didn't go to the doctor at first, but then he started blacking out from his fevers, and that scared the life out of me. He would just go limp for a split second.. that's when I rushed him to his doctor and found out he had the flu, but there was no medicine they could give him (at least none that didn't have serious side effects I wasn't willing to risk). We used over the counter medicine to reduce his fevers and kept a much closer eye on him until he was better... then I got the flu and started blacking out from it.
@GardenGerty (169448)
• United States
6 Jul 10
My son had a cold at four or five months, but that was all. I do not remember my kids ever having the flu. They said the reason my daughter got pneumonia was from haemophilus and strep B bacteria, and I took someone's advice and gave her a cough syrup with Dextro Methorphan, so she did not cough the stuff out. I swear by guafensin for my family now as it helps them clear their congestion out.
@ravinskye (8237)
• United States
6 Jul 10
Wow..I would have been hyperventilating if I was told to call 911 lol. Luckily none of our kids got RSV. They actually have remained pretty healthy for the most part. (knock on wood) So far with our nurses and doctors we haven't had any issues. Usually when I call in they are very helpful. I can't even think of any parents with bad judgment that come to mind right now. I tend to hesitate a little bit because of the cost of copays and such, but I usually give in right away because even though my gut is telling me they are fine, I'd rather know for sure.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
6 Jul 10
I am the same way.. but some things I will let go a day or two before taking them, like an ear ache... just because it hurts doesn't mean it's infected so I'll wait a day to see if the pain goes away or gets worse. If it gets worse we go straight in.. normally it goes away though.
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
15 Jul 10
No, thankfully neither of my kids had RSV. However, I as a parent, made a bad judgement before. My 10 year old, who wasn't quite 2 months old at the time, had a bladder infection. He wound up being hospitalized for 5 days. Neither my in-laws or I noticed it, but my husband did. He noticed how hot and lethargic our baby was. Thank goodness he was off from work that day otherwise I believe our son would not be with us today...
I myself have never had such an experience with a doctor or nurse, but my mom and late maternal grandmother did. When I was just a baby they had taken me to the hospital after noticing that I didn't look right (I was purplish in color I think, I couldn't turn my head, and I couldn't cry). The doctor, who apparently didn't know what was wrong with me, gave me some Valium to stop the convulsions I was having and sent us on our way, thinking I'd be okay. Once we got home things only got worse. At one point I even turned white (as white as my mother's china plates, by what my mother told me). My mother and grandmother decided not to listen to the doctor and took me back to the hospital. Fortunately for me another doctor who happened to be walking by (?) knew immediately what I had by just looking at me and took over my case. It turned out to be meningitis. I wound up being hospitalized for a month, maybe even longer.
I had to be put into ICU ward, which happened to be overcrowded with patients, but this doctor made room for me anyway. At one point I fell into a coma. But I somehow pulled through, thanks to my parents and grandmother, and of course the doctor who happened to know what he was doing.
@4ofmyown (1119)
• United States
6 Jul 10
My twin boys had RSV when they were 4 months old. They were August babies so they got right in the middle of RSV season. They both develop cold symptoms bat the same time. By day 2 I noticed one of them coughing, with the heaving chest. We took him right to the ER and he was admitted that evening. By the next morning his brother was in the same room with him. Thankfully they did allow them to be together in the same room so I could be with both of them at the same time. They were in the hospital for 5 days and did breathing treatments for 2 weeks after that. They turn 11 this year. Every year until they were 8 or 9 they would get horrible chest colds during the flu season and be on breathing treatments and steroids. The pulmonary specialist told me that RSV scars some babies lungs and that it could take 5-7 years for them to be completely "normal". The past few years have been alot better but they still get wheezy when it gets really cold.
Unfortunately, I don't think alot of parents are made aware of this illness. Until my boys had it I had never heard of it. When our daughter was born in October everyone in the hose got flu shots and we did not take her to any public places until she was 8 weeks.
It is very scary when they are so young and they get such a serious illness. I think that it should mandatory that every parent be explained illnesses like this to parents before they leave the hospital with their baby.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
6 Jul 10
It is nice that they were both in the same room. I had a heck of a time trying to visit my daughter. My husband could not take the time off work.. he was working for commission so time off meant lost money, and I couldn't bring my other kids with me when I visited her because I'd risk her twin brother to the infection. It was torture on me because I wanted to stay with her so bad, and worried about her constantly when I wasn't with her. By day 3 her oxygen level was close enough to normal that I was the one who demanded she be sent home.. her doctor who hadn't even seen her at all kept saying to keep her. I got on the phone with him, said this is what her pulse ox is.. and he said she's okay to go home with the nebulizer treatments. Not sure I could have handled leaving her there any longer.. especially since by that time she was awake more often than not. The first couple days she slept all day so it wasn't too horrible.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
8 Jul 10
I've been very lucky that I never had to deal with RSV with either of my children. However, shortly after Kathryn turned one year old she had this rash that came up on her body and I took her to the walk-in clinic because our regular doctor's office didn't have any appointments. They simply told me it was a rash of unknown origin. I figured I would watch it for a little bit and it continued to get worse throughout the day and when it did get worse after I was at work, I left and then took her to the ER where I learned that she had scarletina and needed to be put on antibiotics.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
8 Jul 10
I've had doctors misdiagnose me.. a few times actually, all at the same practice so I stopped going there.. but never has one of my children been misdiagnosed once they're seen, thankfully.. otherwise I'd be raising and uproar.
@dawnald (85137)
• Shingle Springs, California
8 Jul 10
None of mine ever had to deal with rsv. I can't really think of being told the wrong thing either. I have taken one or the other of the children in on something that wasn't as bad as I thought it was, but so far not the other way around.
