Poor Alex and hind-sight

Alex has been sick for over 2 weeks now...only, on the whole he's felt really well until the last few days.

He had a low grade temp (99º) a few days in a row, so I kept him home. He had a blast playing games all day long with Andrew. Then his fever went up to 100-101º for 2 nights...but during the day he felt fine. Never complained of any other symptoms. I had talked to my RN sister-in-law and we were thinking he had a virus that would go away on its own. By Saturday he seemed all better.

The following week he didn't have a fever, but first thing in the mornings (when we were trying to get him ready for school) he said he didn't feel well. I thought it was no big deal to let him stay home an extra day or two...Andrew was here (and soon he'll be gone for 2 years and Alex won't get to see him at all) and Alex is only in second grade.

Wednesday I sent him to school and went off to work. I guess after lunch the school nurse called Andrew and had him pick Alex up as his temp was 99º and he said he didn't feel well and she said one of his lungs sounded questionable. He came home...and then acted un-sick.

Thursday I went to work and didn't really worry about it. But he started dragging and Friday morning I took him to the doctor. He had an ear infection in one ear (and when the doctor asked him if the ear hurt he said no) and a "touch of bronchitis" in one lung. He prescribed amoxycillin.

After 5 doses (it's now Saturday afternoon) Alex is feeling great...until a red, itchy rash breaks out on his legs and a bit on his arms. I call the pharmacist. He confirms Alex is allergic. I am to stop giving him the antibiotic and give him a dose of benadryl. He says Alex can wait to get a new prescription from the doctor on Monday.

Monday morning comes and Alex is dragging again. I go to work and call the doctor. He's not in yet and they ask me to call later. I call at 10:40 during a break inbetween classes. Yes, the doctor will send in a new prescription, which pharmacy do I use? I tell them.

I go to the pharmacy at 3:15 and the prescription had not been called in yet. It takes 10 minutes for the pharmacist to get around to calling the doctor's office. He gets their answering machine and leaves a message. I wait and wait. Finally, around 4:10 I go back to the counter and the lady apologizes to me and says a message had come in, but she can't get it...the pharmacist has to do it. After a few minutes she finally gets the pharmacist to check the machine and JOY it's Alex's new prescription.

They start working on it while I'm standing there. Turns out they don't have the exact strength of the medicine they want to use, but that's OK. I wait and wait. I finally go and stand in the line for the cashier. Bump into a neighbor there picking up her medicines. She says they used to use Walgreens but had such problems there that they switched over to Longs. However, Longs is now switching things around and currently Long's pharmacy isn't running too smoothly, either.

I wait. Finally one girl checks on things and finds my prescription half-taken care of. So they say to another girl (there are 5 women coming and going behind the counter) that I was waiting. To which she replied she hadn't been told. However, I heard someone earlier explain that 2 people (me and my neighbor) were waiting for these prescriptions...so she had been told.

I finally leave with the medicine just shy of being there 1 1/2 hours. I wanted to scream.

So, I'm thinking we'll let Alex sleep in this morning. Before I go to work, I tell Andrew if Alex is feeling well, he can take Alex to school. Turns out Alex had a fever of almost 101º today...but now he says he's feeling fine. Ugh.

I just hope this new medicine works and that by this time tomorrow Alex will truly be feeling well again with no relapses.

Poor guy. I should have just take him in to the doctor in the beginning (but he didn't really seem sick!). Sigh.