Another Round of Drinks!: Double Whammy

Important: If you get nothing else from the following story, know this: Patient First sucks. They are a horrible establishment and getting medical treatment from a homeless man with a folding table is preferable to having to put up with this place. Enough said.

Emily has been battling a cold for a couple of days. She's very congested and I've been using the snot sucker and saline drops to loosen up the mucus packed in her little nose (Timmy always tells her "Blow it out Emily!" but much to his chagrin, she just stares back). Yesterday (Tues) the congestion turned into full blown coughing fits. Daycare said that she would sleep for ten minutes, cough, wake up, get cranky (lack of sleep), get upset, get stuffy again, etc. It was a vicious cycle. Tim and I thought we could wait it out (not much you can do about a cold but treat the symptoms) with a vaporizer and some Vick's Rapo-Rub. But as the evening progressed, she got more and more uncomfortable. I could hear the rattle of congestion in her head, her eyes were red and watery, and she wasn't interested in eating.

Last night's bath. This girl is usually a ball of fire with fantastic splashing ability. Not last night. Around 8 PM, I called Chris to come get the kids so that Timmy and I could take Emily to an urgent care place. The one in KG closes at 8 PM. Ditto for the Nextcare place I love over in White Oak. Only option other than the emergency room? Patient First.

We get there at 8:35 PM. We're checked in immediately. I'm starting to think "Oh, we'll only be here a little while." Ummmmm......wrong. As soon as we get in a room, two nurses come in to take Emily's vitals and write down all the details of what's going on. They are there for approx. 4 minutes, then leave without so much as a clue of what course of action we will be taking (rsv test? flu test?). She's running a low fever, she can't breathe, and she's miserable. Tim and I continue to hold her, pass her back and forth, for the next....wait for it....THREE HOURS. Because that is how long I was expected to hold my baby in a cubicle while four nurses gathered at the computer screen outside my curtain and TALKED ABOUT THEIR WEEKEND PLANS. Total number of times a nurse glanced at me fuming in the doorway and said "It will just a little bit more, honey. Be there soon": SEVEN. Luckily, Emily fell asleep around Hour Two and sleeping upright on my chest helped her congestion so that she could actually get some rest. The "doctor" (I feel the need to use the term loosely after the care my baby received) showed up...at 12:03 AM...and spent 2.7 seconds looking at my baby before finding out she has a double ear infection. Wow, good thing we weren't checked at 8:42 PM since that exam was SO INVOLVED AND TOOK UP SO MUCH OF HER TIME.
The kicker? There is no triage system here. We are literally the last patients in the building because someone decided to treat the girl with diarrhea and the lady with the twisted knee before stopping by to see the infant who can't breathe. We get a prescription for Amoxicillin which they can't fill at the Patient First because they don't have it in stock. We head to the 24-hr. CVS....one hour wait. With a feverish baby and a husband who will now get 2 hours of sleep before work? No thank you. I told the "technician" to kiss my syringe and I would be back the next day.