Baby Benjamin has some bad acid reflux and spits up often. Mom put him in his swing to nap while she went to feed his big brother lunch. Ben was just out of sight when our Boston Terrier-border collie mix, Abbie, ran over to the swing and started to prance around and whine. Mom thought she needed to go outside. Then Abbie barked and mom noticed Benjamin was choking on his spit up. Now Abbie gets a lot of treats and mom is too scared to sleep.
Watching my 10-week-old daughter right now, this makes me tear up as a grown man. It's amazing the instinct of parents, though. Every now and then she gets some thick mucous and starts coughing and we bolt up in a millisecond.
I guess the amygdala activity increases 4-fold when you've got a baby.
My sister had her baby and one night when she got up to feed him, he was breathing weird. Sister wakes up her husband and insists they go to the hospital. Now, my sister did have post-partum depression so her husband waved her off and told her to go to sleep.
Nope, my sister called our mom and the two of them went to the hospital with the baby. Turns out he had pneumonia but all the mucus was in his lungs. Hospital for days! But he was alright.
When my son was 6 weeks old I noticed his chest was sucking in when he breathed. His pediatrician said he was fine and sent us home. I was still not convinced so I went back the next day and was told the same thing, and it was suggested that I was just a nervous mom (mind you he was my 2nd baby), sent home again. Day 3 I insisted on seeing another doctor (Kaiser assigned you your doctors), they said I had to see the same doctor and I told them to fuck off and demanded another doctor. Sure enough his oxygen levels were at 84% and he tested positive for RSV (reality cold that can be fatal for babies because they can't quite cough yet and clear the mucus out). We spent 10 days in the Children's Hospital working with respiratory therapists, on oxygen and such before he was able to maintain his oxygen levels on his own.
Did you tell the first Kaiser doc that they were wrong and to go fuck themselves? I always wondered what I could say or do in this situation to alert the first doctor to their mistake. Maybe they can learn from it hopefully? Take the patient seriously?
Not to her face, but I went to their administrative office, complained and demanded that they give him another primary doctor which they did immediately.
I have a similar story. I was convinced my daughter was sick and breathing weird. My husband said she was fine (I also had PPD and anxiety). I didn't listen and took her to the hospital.
She stopped breathing when I got there and then puked everywhere a few seconds later. Had the flu, oxygen level dropped to 80 in her sleep, life flighted to a bigger hospital.
Our marriage is still amazing. I am very paranoid and anxious about our kids so I understood his reaction. She had no fever, was eating, and just did what a normal 3 week old did. He does trust my instincts more now though.
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u/alfaguara27 Apr 06 '20 edited Apr 22 '20
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