If it's not one thing...

...it's another. Cooper has RSV. He will not be having his tonsil and adenoidectomy as planned this week. He has had major mucus for a week or so, but he had seen the pedi and it appeared to be nothing more than allergy and perhaps a little cold. Then on Saturday he was not himself. He had a awful cough and began running fever. The only time he has ever had fever was when he had pneumonia. I alternated giving tylenol and motrin, but his fever never came down. On Sunday morning, it was 102.9, so to the ER we went. That was an awful experience. The dr was a joke. He came in and said he had a virus, before even turning to look at him. He continued to say all the antibiotics in the world would do nothing for a virus, so the fact that he had just completed zithromax meant nothing. I knew this, that was the reason that I was concerned about RSV. I told him right away I was concerned about pneumonia and RSV. He told me that RSV is a virus just like any other virus. It only is an issue if they are a premie or have other health issues. I started to explain he did have a complex history, and he told me, while pointing at him and walking out the door, "he's fine now." That's funny, if he's so fine, how come he's on at least 3 meds a day and having upcoming surgery!? He looked in his throat and then sent in nurses to do the tests. He didn't even listen to his chest. They did a chest xray, cbc, strep, influenza, and RSV test. He waltzed in, told me the xray was clean, handed me a stack of lab reports, told me to take them to the pedi, then waltzed right back out, saying "he just has a virus, feed him popsicles." Being the advocate for my child that I am, I read through all of them and then inquired to the nurses. All of them were clearly with in normal range except for one. RSV antigen: positive, normal results: negative. I asked, "what does this mean?" Of course the nurses could not tell me that it meant he had it. They told me, he was carrying the virus, could spread it to others, and had been exposed. Definition: he has it. They encouraged me to take him to the pedi first thing in the morning and advised that the same dr would be there all day and night if he were to get worse. *Hint hint*, go somewhere else. They monitored him until they could get his temp down some (only 1/2 a degree) and until his respirations slowed, then sent us home. I will be making a big fat complaint to the hospital about the dr. Thankfully the nursing staff was terrific. We saw the pedi first thing today, and he made it clear that he does in fact have RSV. He explained it has to run its course, but we will do all we can to prevent him getting worse. He will continue xopenex breathing treatments and an expectorant to break up all the mucus, and continue tylenol and motrin for the fevers. They will see him back on Thursday. We have rescheduled surgery for April 3, baring that nothing else goes wrong and his lungs are clean. I plan to keep him in until then to avoid catching anything else and further delaying surgery.