Had the Scare of My Life This Morning

[Iron Past]

Any parent knows, it's easy to overreact to little ones. I've been very good about not doing that--for example I know a baby's fever isn't serious till it goes over 101--even if my wife hasn't been.

Well, earlier this morning (around 2:30), my 2 1/2 year old wakes up screaming. He won't calm down, and when I ge him out of the crib, I find he's having bouts of shaking uncontrolably, and when he does he starts screaming again. Then he wants to run around the entire house turning all the lights on.

I thought maybe it was a bad dream, but he was pretty warm and this went on for a while, so I made the call to go to the emergency room. Like all kids, he gets there and is fine, and the only thing wrong is his ear is red so it's probably bothering him some. Also, insurance for him doesn't kick in till January, so we'll have a nice bill to pay off a little at a time at some point.

Moral is, it was probably a nightmare, but that's better than a possible nuerological disorder remaining undiagnosed for the sake of saving a few bucks. Lost sleep (I won't be going back to bed with class in a couple hours) and a little money is a small price to pay for peace of mind. Still, seeing him shake and scream "Daddy!" as lound as he could... I'll have nightmares of that myself.

[Squidbot]

Whoah, freaky stuff. I am so glad I will never be a parent, that would spin me out. Glad the little un is okay.

[LarsenNET]

I'm pretty sure he is possessed...you know by a demon. Call a priest and begin the Exorcism.

[KamaItachi]

Any parent knows, it's easy to overreact to little ones. I've been very good about not doing that, for example I know a baby's fever isn't serious till it goes over 101, even if my wife hasn't been.

Well, earlier this morning (around 2:30), my 2 1/2 year old wakes up screaming. He won't calm down, and when I ge him out of the crib, I find he's having bouts of shaking uncontrolably, and when he does he starts screaming again. Then he wants to run around the entire house turning all the lights on.

I thought maybe it was a bad dream, but he was pretty warm and this went on for a while, so I made the call to go to the emergency room. Like all kids, he gets there and is fine, and the only thing wrong is his ear is red so it's probably bothering him some. Also, insurance for him doesn't kick in till January, so we'll have a nice bill to pay off a little at a time at some point.

Moral is, it was probably a nightmare, but that's better than a possible nuerological disrder remaining undiagnosed for the sake of saving a few bucks. Lost sleep ( I won't be going back to bed with class in a couple hours) and a little money is a small price to pay for peace of mind. Still, seeing him shake and scream "Daddy!" as lound as he could... I'll have nightmares of that myself.

For a brief period my kid had night terrors and it was awful. Similar thing, waking up in the middle of the night screaming his head off, desperate for either me or his mum to come get him and make sure everything is alright.

I think it took me longer to get over it than he did.

[Iron Past]

Yeah, he's at that age where you know something is definately wrong, but he's not old enough to tell you what. Very scary.

Come to think of it, possesion might explain some of those diapers, though. ;)

[KingGorilla]

One of these days I will get audio of some of the horrors that I and my brother put our parents through. The ultimate may be when I dumped boiling water on mt 19 month old head. The wondors of 1984 science and luck is what kept my pretty face with only 2 scars to show the tale.

[boratika]

I'm pretty sure he is possessed...you know by a demon. Call a priest and begin the Exorcism.

Yeah, kid these days don't get enough exorcise.

[Johan]

I commend you for getting assistance; when you don't know, safe is better than sorry. My wife and I have tortured at times like that, where it's not obvious that medical attention is necessary, and the cost of care is high enough that we just can't afford to go to the doctor/hospital unless we know we really need it. We have had a number of false alarms that have cost us (my son hurt his arm once and whined off and on for a day with no obvious injury; we took him in for x-rays and to a specialist as well. Hundreds of dollars later, we're told he has a "bowing fracture" and just needed a sling...something we could have done for him ourselves. Such is life!).

What frustrates me is that, in America, the cost of basic care is such that people have to choose...even people with insurance...between ignoring things, or biting the bullet of a major medical bill. It's just not right.

Good on you, however. You're a good dad! :)

*I'm tearing up a little here, ya bugger!*

Now, go and BEAT that child! I kid, I kid. Really. I do. (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=1773)

[Crowe]

It would be so crazy having to wait for insurance like that and having to stress about paying money just to make sure you child is safe. Here in Australia you don't have to stress about finding a lump sum of cash for something as simple as taking your baby to the hospital.

[Crowe]

Our family would have been so much worse off had we been living in the U.S. There is no way we could have afforded private health insurance, and with the amount of time my dad has spent in hospital, we would have been royally fucked. Thank god for Australia : ).

[Gorvi]

Man, I probably would have done the same thing. Ironically, both of my kids (21 and 5 months) woke up at 2:30 this morning too. Thankfully, my wife took the younger one, I just had to read 10 Apples Up On Top about 3 times to our oldest for him to go back to bed. I swear, having them share a room now is tough.

[QueQueg]

Night terrors are very common. I have them, even now, although I've learned to control them. My son has them occasionally as well.

However, I commend you on taking the hit, both in terms of time and money, to take your tot to the emergency room. Better safe than sorry.

You qualify for a good-parent cookie.

[Slack3r78]

I commend you for getting assistance; when you don't know, safe is better than sorry. My wife and I have tortured at times like that, where it's not obvious that medical attention is necessary, and the cost of care is high enough that we just can't afford to go to the doctor/hospital unless we know we really need it. We have had a number of false alarms that have cost us (my son hurt his arm once and whined off and on for a day with no obvious injury; we took him in for x-rays and to a specialist as well. Hundreds of dollars later, we're told he has a "bowing fracture" and just needed a sling...something we could have done for him ourselves. Such is life!).

What frustrates me is that, in America, the cost of basic care is such that people have to choose...even people with insurance...between ignoring things, or biting the bullet of a major medical bill. It's just not right.

Good on you, however. You're a good dad! :)
Which is why even if we can't get everyone to agree on universal healthcare, at least getting some level of guaranteed coverage in place for kids is really important in my book. I just plain cannot justify parents having to agonize over that decision or a kid not getting care because their parents are afraid of the bill. :(

[boratika]

It would be so crazy having to wait for insurance like that and having to stress about paying money just to make sure you child is safe. Here in Australia you don't have to stress about finding a lump sum of cash for something as simple as taking your baby to the hospital.

I can't imagine how much it would suck to not have free emergency. It's bad enough paying to see a GP (though the ones I go to bulk bill*)

I've only had my licence for about 3 years, but I've not enough fingers (and perhaps toes) to count the number of times I've had to drive people out to emergency in the middle of the night.

That's skewed a bit by the fact a friend had a bit of a problematic pregnancy. It all went fine in the end, but it did threaten to go really south at times. The small mercy is that triage meant she didn't have to wait. "Might miscarry at any moment without attention" (even though the chance is very small) is pretty good at putting you at the head of the queue.

So in short: Not having to pay to go to the emergency = awesome!

*for foreign types, this means I don't pay anything.

[Iron Past]

Aw, thanks for the kind words. I should add that one of the doctor's just told us to go ahead and leave and the bill would catch up with us some time later, so that was nice. Also, for those that don't know, as long as you pay (I believe) a minimum of $5 a month on the hospital bill, they can't turn you in to a collection agency, nor does it have any effect to your credit (or any ill effect, for that matter). Long term care is another animal, however.

[TheKeck]

Sorry to hear it! I know how scary it can be for stuff to happen to your kid/baby.

[Johan]

(21 and 5 months)

Took quite a long break between them, eh? Like...20 years and seven months or so?

I know, I know...both are months. :)

I swear, having them share a room now is tough.

That does change the dynamics, doesn't it? My wife and I have been truly blessed/fortunate in that our kids generally sleep very well. We have three in one room, two in another, and the newborn in ours. Eventually, it'll be four in one, two in the other. We keep a guest room and also a pullout sofa, for visiting family and the like. There's also the unheated garage, for family we don't like! ;)

[Generation ABXY]

Which is why even if we can't get everyone to agree on universal healthcare, at least getting some level of guaranteed coverage in place for kids is really important in my book. I just plain cannot justify parents having to agonize over that decision or a kid not getting care because their parents are afraid of the bill. :(

I'm not sure if you're talking about universal health insurance in that statement or not (the word coverage leads me to believe, yes, you are), but when it comes to healthcare, I would suggest we find a way to address its ballooning costs first. The price of insurance is as much a symptom of that as it is greed, but I digress.

To the OP: Glad to hear your kid seems fine; hopefully it is just a one-off sort of thing.

[Slack3r78]

I'm not sure if you're talking about universal health insurance in that statement or not (the word coverage leads me to believe, yes, you are), but when it comes to healthcare, I would suggest we find a way to address its ballooning costs first. The price of insurance is as much a symptom of that as it is greed, but I digress.

To the OP: Glad to hear your kid seems fine; hopefully it is just a one-off sort of thing.
Whatever the costs, kids aren't the ones that pay it. It's not right for a parent to have to base whether or not they seek medical care for a child on whether or not they'll be able to pay the bills. So yes, I do think there needs to be universal healthcare coverage for children at a bare minimum.

[Generation ABXY]

Whatever the costs, kids aren't the ones that pay it. It's not right for a parent to have to base whether or not they seek medical care for a child on whether or not they'll be able to pay the bills. So yes, I do think there needs to be universal healthcare coverage for children at a bare minimum.

You know, until a few weeks ago, I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you on that point. I was all for giving it to children, just for the reasons you say (it isn't their fault), but then I heard what a spectacular failure Hawaii's attempt was (they apparently had to cancel it after just 7 months), so I'm a little wary about it. Oh, as another point of contention, I absolutely draw the line at providing it for illegal immigrants; that is just asking for a much bigger problem.

[Johan]

Health care for kids is a really tough one. Typically, when the government puts money in something, it gets more of it (for example, pouring money into flood insurance has led to greater investment in expensive, and often re-re-re-re-built, homes on the coasts), and what happened in part in Hawaii was people would drop personal (out of their own pocket) coverage for their kids and use the state's. That makes the state's costs astronomical and unsupportable.

I don't know how to solve that problem. Income cutoff? Employment cutoff, with required employer-sponsored coverage? Turn the kid away from medical care?

Fundamentally, it's wrong that people who are not well off have to weigh cost vs. basic care for kids. That's a shame. There are options, however, including free/cheaper local clinics. We use one for non-emergency care for myself and my wife. We use our family doctor for our kids. Believe it or not, with six kids, I've never had to visit an emergency room with any of them. I've used the local clinic and my family doctor for stitches and one near-fracture (bowing fracture).

:knocks on wood...much wood:

[TheFlyingOrc]

Moral is, it was probably a nightmare, but that's better than a possible nuerological disorder remaining undiagnosed for the sake of saving a few bucks. Lost sleep (I won't be going back to bed with class in a couple hours) and a little money is a small price to pay for peace of mind. Still, seeing him shake and scream "Daddy!" as lound as he could... I'll have nightmares of that myself.
"A few bucks"? Have you been to the emergency room before?

[Zrikz]

This is pretty interesting.. just saw this today. Some Doctors are opting out of insurance matters and making people pay a straight yearly fee to see them.


The physicians at Charter Internal Medicine in Columbia are overhauling the practice, ditching the insurance-dependent model and instead charging a flat yearlyfee in exchange for the promise of 24-hour access to doctors, unhurried appointments, home visits and state-of-the-art annual physicals.

Known as "boutique" medicine or "concierge" care, the national trend appears to be sweeping across Maryland as primary-care doctors feel the financial crush of rising costs and low insurance reimbursement rates. Physicians say the model allows them to trim their patient loads and give patients quality care without worrying whether insurance will cover it.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.doctors26oct26,0,3508066.story?page=1

[Iron Past]

"A few bucks"? Have you been to the emergency room before?

I was being dramatic, glad you caught it. It was meant to provide my perception of what I consider important.

[TheFlyingOrc]

I was being dramatic, glad you caught it. It was meant to provide my perception of what I consider important.

It's cool, I was just wondering if maybe you just hadn't gotten the bill yet.

Emergency rooms are ridiculous.

[Iron Past]

It's cool, I was just wondering if maybe you just hadn't gotten the bill yet.

Emergency rooms are ridiculous.

They are, but considering he wasn't actually treated, it'll be a little less.

That yearly doctor fee is actually something I could get on, I think. $4500 per year comes out to $375 per month for a family, which is much less than insurance, believe me. I'm curious about it now.

[Johan]

They are, but considering he wasn't actually treated, it'll be a little less.

That yearly doctor fee is actually something I could get on, I think. $4500 per year comes out to $375 per month for a family, which is much less than insurance, believe me. I'm curious about it now.

The only potential pitfalls would be the lack of emergency room coverage and the fact that, while you're traveling, your family doctor isn't nearby. Also, come to think of it, there's the cost of pharmaceuticals.

There are a number of gaps in going with that kind of "boutique" coverage, but there are a number of benefits (personalized care, less rush, far less paperwork, the like), as well.