The First Trip to the ER

The last place you want to be as a parent is the ER, but that's where Melissa and I found ourselves last week. Let's back up a little...

Dominic started daycare back in July and since those places are Petri dish of bacteria it was only a matter of time before he got sick. And that time was about two weeks. It started out as a little cold and eventually became an ear infection.

We took him to the doctor for the ear problem and they prescribed him amoxicillin. He really liked it. I think it's because it was really sweet. So everything was coming up roses…

…Until the last day of his of the medication and he got a really bad rash. After turning to my old friend google we decided to head to the ER at 10 PM.

 The ER is... um... interesting. It was a lot of different sets of parents and kids. There were obviously caring ones, and then there was the parents who told their 3 year old to quote "sit your ass down."

When we finally got into the doctor he seemed more interested in Dominic's AC/DC onesie than his rash. He also had no explanation for the rash even though it seemed fairly obvious that he was having an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin. Adding to the ambiance of the ER was the person in the curtained off area across from us throwing up. Not the "I ate something bad" puking but the "there's a chance my kidney is coming out on this one" retching.

After being told to give Dominic an incorrect dosage of Benadryl (don't worry we figured out that the doctor told us 3x's too much before we gave it to him) it was time to discharge. There we had the opportunity to stand in line behind a gang-banger who was clearly faking his arm injury to get some pain meds. How do I know this? My first clue was the flipping out when he realized the doctor didn't prescribe him any.

Also in line before us was a woman (I think?) who in her baritone voice told Melissa what a terrible doctor visit she had. If she wasn't a man then she used to be.

So at the end of our visit what did we learn? We learned that Dominic is allergic to amoxicillin. We learned that ER doctors are dangerously bad at math. And we learned that the ER is great people watching.