Jake's Ear Infection

We had been here two and a half weeks and I was feeling a little more adventurous than other days.  It was Friday and I was going to have me an adventure.  I was going to take both kids by myself and go explore a bit.  And then Jacob woke up.  Something was not quite right.  My high energy, must jump from the coffee table to the couch for hours on end little man was not at his peak.  All he wanted was to snuggle on my shoulder and started telling me “Ow my ear this one,” as he pointed to his right side.  Poor guy.  I called Brian and he got the recommended doctor from the ExxonMobil info.  It was 7:30am and they didn’t open until 9:00am.  That gave me way more time than needed to figure out how to get where I needed to go and what bus to take, etc.  The earliest bus left at 11:00am so I called and asked for an appointment anytime after 11:30am.  “How about 11:45?” came the reply.  Seriously?  Okay.  We’re set.  Oh yeah, while I’m there I needed to get my second round of the Hep A&B vaccine.  Not a problem they’d do it at the same time.  It was just that easy!!

 

Getting there was not.  It was a long process for another blog post.  When we got there we told the receptionist we were there and she pointed to a little half sheet of paper for me.  That was it.  Half a sheet for Jacob.  Half a sheet for me.  No Privacy Disclosure Acknowledgement, no three page financial policy, no health history with two pages of check boxes to mark.   Name, address, phone, reason for todays visit.  Done.

 

Then we waited about 10 minutes and the doctor called us back to his office.  We went in and it was normal, but different.  We sat at his office type desk and there was a sink and exam table to our side.  Jake had no fever, but a definite ear infection.  I had forgotten to grab our old medical records.  Bad move on my part.  I mentioned that he had one in Nov, it didn’t clear so we had to step up to a stronger medication.  Yeah, with that fantastic help from mom the doctor went ahead with his own prescription.  When I got home and dug out the records I calculated the equivalent amount of active drugs and realized we were getting one quarter of the dose that didn’t work the first time.  Ugh.  I gave it a shot with not much hope.  In the end, it took two weeks but he says it doesn’t hurt anymore.

 

The doctor told us to wait in the reception area while he wrote up his notes.  Then he took it out to the desk and the receptionist prepared the medications right there and then.  We checked out and were on our way.  Brilliant.  So easy.  So fast.  And no dragging my sick whiny kid to a pharmacy.  Love it.  And the cost was totally reasonable too.