On a more serious note

Emma complained of chest pain today. I called and made an appointment with our doctor, and was told we had to bring her in 2 hours later because" it's statistically unlikely that she is having a heart attack". Harumphhhhh.

I wondered to myself if I remembered how to do child CPR... "follow the rib cage uo , place 2 fingers on the tip of the sternum, then place the heel of one hand after those fingers...", and pictured myself trying to keep it together while doing compressions with one hand and talking to 911 with the other.

then I asked her if she wanted some medicine for her chest while we waited and she said, "No, I want to see the doctor NOW."

Um, dudes? When your 3 year old asks to see a doctor? Scary stuff. I called John and told him to forget the doctor, to pick us up to bring us to the ER. Being the responsible adult that I am I called the doctor's office back and explained that since Emma is now asking to see the doc, I wanted to cancel the appointment, and that we were going to the ER. What does this lady say?

"Ummm, well you can just bring her here, instead of bringing her to the ER..."

Me- "Yes, well, 3 year olds don't normally ASK to see the doctor so I feel more comfortable bringing-"

"But, you could just bring her here, and we could see if the doctor could see her right away..."

Me biting my tongue, cus really receptionist lady? You're going to try to talk me into bringing my kid to a clinic equipped with an EKG versus a fully equipped hospital.... because you want my freaking money? WOW. *clearing my throat angrily*- "Basically I am calling you to TELL YOU that I wont be bringing Emma there, we are going to the ER."

"Well, we can run tests... Oh I guess all we can do is an EKG."

"Exactly."

"OH. OK, good luck then."

I said thank you and hung up before I could utter the words, "Good luck with me not coming down there to kick your @ss."

Then I repented and prayed for my child who was slumped back on the couch, my sweet little 3 year old, whom this idiot wanted so badly to make money off of. Sheesh.

Statistics, schmatitistics. Lets say 100 out of 20,000 kids ever experience cardiac problems at Emma's age... For the 100 kids, and the parents of those 100 kids, statistics don't mean a mother blogging thing. Yes, I get it. The chances are rare, but I'm not going to sit idly by while Emma actually goes from saying "Mommy, I don't feel good, my chest hurts" while pointing to her sternum area to "I want to see the doctor NOW." (in lieu of the tasty purple medicine that she begs for for no reason at all).

And frankly, I have been a statistic all my life for one reason or another -my childhood, tubal pregnancy, endometriosis, infertility,emergency c-section with Anna, miscarriage, having a large mass on my thyroid, various allergic reactions... I could go on but you get my point. Sheesh, no wonder I am such a pessimist. I have seen the numbers and the numbers usually include me, so I'm going to do what I need to do to make sure my kids are safe. End of story.

OK, rant over, back to the important stuff like Emma. ;)

My concern is that John has a heart murmur, and at birth we were told Em had one too. Later before we left the hospital after she was born the doc said he could no longer hear it. A year ago when Emma had pneumonia, our doc said he could hear one again, but couldn't hear it with a follow up appointment. He said that there are some kids who will develop a murmur during illness but it will go away...

Also, when Emma was sick last year with pneumonia , we rushed her to the ER because her lips were bluish. Since then, she has had a few episodes where I will notice that her lips are slightly purple, but check her again in a few minutes and she is fine. Of course this never happens while actually at the doctors (why is it that kids are always fine when they get there?), but when the ER doc asked today if that had ever happened I said yes. Apparently he is a little concerned too that Emma is so small that people often mistake her for a 2 year old.

But honestly, today scared me. John has a cousin who's son needed heart surgery at the age of 8, after discovering he had a problem when he was 6 or 7.

Anyway, an xray showed nothing and I was surprised that they didn't do an ekg... but the ER doc wants to see an actual pediatrician instead of a family practice doc to have Emma looked at more closely.

She did better than I expected and was even able to identify her pain level by looking at a facial expression chart, as seen here.
She pointed to #4. When told to hold her breath for the chest xray, she forgot to stay still and covered her mouth with her hand... which all the xray techs thought was adorable. She followed directions very well otherwise and was ooooh'd and ahhhh'd over for being so cute, petite and for her curly hair... basically she was treated like a little princess.

The extra bonus for her was that her nana (the infamous MIL) works at the hospital so she came over to the ER to see her Peanut.

My little princess didn't cry once.

I did, but not my girl. ;)

Hopefully her tests will come out normal (when we get in to see the pediatrician), and her chest pain will have been nothing more than indigestion for the bagel and cream cheese she had for breakfast... but prayers would be appreciated.

I know all I seem to be doing is asking for prayers, but surely you parents and grandparents understand.

Thank you so much, from Emma, John and me. I really appreciate it.