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06/26/2005 Archived Entry: "Friday funday"

Friday was interesting. Our plan was to take Chris to work and then go to Disneyland once we picked him up again. But what actually happened was a bit different. Chris and I both got up sometime in the five o' clock hour. One of us attends to Daisy while the other gets ready and then we switch. While I was feeding the baby, she just suddenly started screaming. I got her calm, switched with Chris and then she started screaming for him as well. We looked at her and her eyes were red and watery and she had a slight runny nose. So we figured she had a cold though we absolutely could not figure out how she had gotten one. I decided to go ahead and take Chris to work and then stop at Henry's to get some Hyland cold tablets. That part of the plan worked, but just as I finished paying, Daisy starts screaming again. I high-tailed it out of there with the girls and went to a more secluded area as quickly as possible. I fed her and she calmed, then screamed, then calmed, repeat. I held her up in front of me and really scrutinized her face and realized that only her left eye was actually red and watering. Her right eye was completely clear and fully open whereas she was only opening her left eye halfway. For whatever reason I was concerned it was pink eye so I called Chris and told him we needed to take her to doctor. I packed up the kids and we went back to get Chris. We were only 10 minutes away which was good because he got us an appt. within an hour. She slept in the car and I ruled out pinkeye because her face was clear while she slept, the tablets seemed to have helped and there wasn't any gunk in her eye. But I was still worried and as Chris and I discussed all her symptoms thought that perhaps something was actually *in* her eye.
Fast forward to the appt, the nurse sees the runny eye and the doctor comes in shortly. He was not Daisy's regular doctor and he made a horrible first impression on me. First thing he did was look at her chart and ask if she's getting her vax elsewhere. When I replied in the negative he then gave me a mini-lecture on how pediatricians highly support vaccinations and blah, blah, blah. Yes, I'm aware what pediatricians think. I'm researching and in the meantime, I don't expose her to anyone with smallpox, okay? I wonder what he'd think if he saw Tabitha's chart? Regardless, since I was there with a concern for my child, I wasn't pleased that he was going on about something that had nothing to do with the problem. In the end, it was determined that there was nothing there that he could see, but that there was probably a small allergen that was merely irritating her eye. He suggested Benedryl and for us to keep a watch on it. This was after he told me it was abnormal for a four and a half month old to ever shed actual tears. Here's a tip, don't call a child abnormal to the mother's face. He's wrong anyway, as it's not abnormal at all, so couple that with the lecture, being wrong about something else and not allaying my worries in any way and I will never take either of my children to this doctor again. The problem was he doesn't know me. I do not take my children to the doctor unless I'm very worried about them. So I felt it was a waste of my time.
However, we did keep a watch on the eye, did not give Benedryl but decided to stick with Hyland's, and it never really reddened again anyway. We gave her one or two more half doses of the tablets during the day, but only because the area was starting to look a touch pink, it never got as bad as the morning in color nor did it water at all. So who the heck knows? I'd say the doctor was right, which is good, at least, he just had a lousy bedside manner which is why I was still worried at the end of the appt. In any case, her eye has been fine ever since.
So, being the nuts that we are, we went to Disneyland that afternoon as previously planned. We met a new character, bringing our total up to 98. We stayed until after dinner and caught the new parade at California Adventure. Let me just say that I have never seen such a high-energy parade. Tabitha loved every single second of it and cannot wait to see it again. I had Daisy in the Baby Bjorn for the parade and was bouncing with her and she had a smile plastered to her face the whole time as well. Or so I'm told by Chris since I can't actually see her face in the front pack, lol.
So that was Friday.