Last night I was sleepily feeding Micah and reading Natalie her bed time stories. I ran my hand through her hair and felt something weird. I parted her hair and was suddenly very wide awake. Their in my little girl's head was a tick. It was awful. As calmly as I could muster, I instructed her to go to the bathroom and I laid Micah down in his crib. I looked again and this time, I could see it's stupid back legs moving. I was verging on melt down. I think I can handle a lot of things, but something with its teeth in my baby is not one of them. I called our friend Emily who is wonderful and came to my house. I called Chris at his meeting and said he had to come home. (He is amazing because he did). Then I called the pediatrician. Now, we are in process of changing peds because we have not been happy. I wasn't sure which office to call because we had records sent to the new one, but they haven't seen either kid yet. I ended up calling both. Here are my conversations...which peds office would you choose for your baby?
I called the old peds office first. The nurse calls me back.
I explain that Natalie has a tick in the middle of her head. This nurse says, "hmmm, well, I forgot my cheat sheet so I'm not sure what to tell you."
Okay...
"Is it big?"
"Yes, it is."
"OK, well that means it's sucking the blood."
"Ahhh"
"No, it okay, this isn't a big deal."
"What do I do?"
"I'm not sure, do you have google?"
(insert here I'm now cussing in my head thinking of course I have google, but I want to know what a doctor says you crazy fool).
"Yes,"
"Well, I think you are supposed to grab the tick with tweezers and turn it clockwise to pull it out, but I'm not sure, so you could google it."
"Isn't there a danger of the head being stuck?"
"yes, but we can get it out tomorrow in the office, or you could leave the tick there and we could take it out tomorrow."
"No, I'm not leaving this blood sucking thing in my child's head all night. Will someone think I'm crazy if I take her to the ER"
"oh, I wouldn't spend the copay on that."
(Insert, I would pay a million dollars to not have this in her head right now)
"Just google it, I'll be curious what they tell you."
"Well, I'm reading it and it says to pull it straight out."
"Do that then."
So I get off the phone with her now even more dazed. I call for medical advice and I'm told to google it. How does she know I wasn't looking at idiots.com?
So by this point, Emily is with me and we decide to call the new office. The nurse, Betty calls me back. This is how that conversation went.
"My daughter has a tick in her head."
"Okay, this is not a big deal, I know it looks bad, but it's okay...do you have tweezers?"
Yes."
"do you have alcohol?"
"yes."
"Okay, get the tweezers as close to her head as possible and pull very slowly and easily straight back. It's very important not to twist it or pull it fast. If you pull slowly it should all come out in one piece. You have to know it's okay if the head does break off, we have special equipment in our office to remove it tomorrow. But you need to try and get it out tonight. The sooner the better to not risk infection."
"okay, my husband is now home so we can do that."
"then put some alcohol on it, the neosporin. Your going to look for infection. If it gets a red bulls eye around it, then you need to bring her straight in. If she has a fever or rash bring her in too, but most likely, she'll be just fine."
Yeah, which office would you choose?
4 comments:
Umm, yeah. My vote is for the second office...Google it?? What in the world??
lolololol...I love you.
Should have called your entomologist not your medical doctor!
Not the fun part of being a mom!
Hope All is well,
Mindy
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