jackalope and eagleye + 1: February 2008

After reluctantly taking Julian to the doctor for his respiratory infection, his sickness worsened. He had a sustained high fever for over 4 days and finally, on the 5th day, the fever spiked up to 105 deg F. After days of lukewarm baths and Motrin/Tylenol cycles, we decided (reluctantly again), to take him into the emergency room. Well, it short, in really sucked. I'll highlight the worst of it:

1. We waited for over an hour while Julian lay in my arms like a limp noodle. I kept a cool, wet rag on his held an rocked him. By the time they called us back (I was just about to leave), his fever was down to 102.7 deg F.

2. When I informed the seemingly indifferent doctor that Julian had been diagnosed with RSV earlier in the week he responded with an eye-roll and a very unsympathetic, "Whatever. I'll be back when the baby is not crying".

3. A really ignorant but know-it-all nurse tells me to, "Step aside mom" and then holds Julian down while the other nurse proceeds to manually and forcibly retract his foreskin.

*** Tangent #1: NEVER MANUALLY RETRACT THE FORESKIN OF AN UNCIRCUMCISED PENIS!!!

From: Care for the Intact Penis

"Much nonsense has been written about the special care required for an intact penis. Care advice can be summarised briefly:

1. Leave it alone.
(2. Leave it alone.)
(3. Leave it alone.)

(Very similar to the special care required by the ears and the eyes, really.)

Babies:
A baby's penis should be washed like any other part of his body, gently. No effort should be made to retract his foreskin and wash inside. In New Zealand, nurses were once instructed to start trying to retract the foreskin from birth and ensure that it was fully retractable by the end of a week. This doubtless caused many problems, resulting in the "need" for circumcisions. This mentality persists in many places, and it may be necessary to make sure that any new person examining the baby (including nurses, nannies and grandparents) is not a "retractor".

[The pediatrician of a friend of mine told her] the only thing she needs to take care of her son's foreskin is a ruler ... to smack anyone's hand who tries to touch it! Not bad for Peoria, Illinois.
Gabrielle RhodesDecember 26, 2007"

Also, from an article in Mothering Magazine, The Case Against Circumcision:

"Parents should be wary of anyone who tries to retract their child's foreskin, and especially wary of anyone who wants to cut it off. "

And, in case I didn't make myself perfectly clear in the previous 2 examples, the following is an excerpt from What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Circumcision:

"Parents should protect their child from doctors who try to retract his foreskin. Many doctors never learned about the normal development and care of the penis and are unaware that the foreskin should never be retracted by anyone, except its owner, and only when the penis has matured enough to make retraction free and easy."

4. It all happened so fast, they held him down, retracted his foreskin, and were about to attempt to shove a large diameter catheter into him. I screamed for them to stop. That got their attention and then I moved back into position next to Julian and told them that the foreskin should NEVER be manually retracted to which the ignorant nurse (who was still holding down a now hysterical Julian) replied with glaring condescension, "Umm honey, you HAVE to retract the foreskin or it gets stuck." I was so shocked all I could muster was, "WHAT???"

5. Ignorant but know-it-all nurse then proceeds to ask me if I plan to have him circumcised to which I reply with an angry, "NO!" What she said next nearly caused my head to explode. She cocked her head to the side and said (again in a very patronizing tone), "If you don't have him circumcised he's going to have problems for the rest of his life." My eyes nearly popped out of my head and there must have been smoke coming from my ears and nostrils because after I looked at her and shouted, "THAT'S RIDICULOUS! Take your hands off my son!", the other nurse excused her and I never saw her again. I felt a whirl of emotions well up inside me, and with 4 nearly sleepless nights under my belt, I started to feel (and probably look) a little unpredictable. Go mama bear!

***Tangent #2: Wow, so glad I had a homebirth!!! Here's a novel idea medical drones, how about treating each case and patient individually instead of treating the illness as described in some little book or pamphlet somewhere. Hmmm....5.5 month old infant, respiratory illness, persistent high fever.....catheters are very painful and probably an unnecessary stress for a baby his age. One would think that a catheter would be a really distant option for diagnosing an infection of and unknown origin - for a person of any age. Want to rule out the possibility of a UTI? How about a urine sample from OUTSIDE the bladder. And since you are going to give him antibiotics anyway, won't they take care of any uterine infection anyway? And if you don't REALLY know what to do with the foreskin or how to deal with an intact penis, how about asking the mom - chances are she knows what to do and more importantly what NOT to do. Just my $0.02.

6. After refusing the catheter, I also refused the IV since his fever was down to 101 deg F. I wanted to try to nurse him before they gave him fluids (which, aside from being really stressful for Julian, probably have lots of nasties in addition to the"fluid"). Well, they gave him one anyway. They also gave him antibiotics in the IV even though I asked them not to. Grrr...

7. I called for backup. Our awesome friend Jodi found a sitter on short notice and came over. I called Brian and told him I wanted him there pronto and offered to call his boss myself if Brian wasn't going to (not the best idea, but I wasn't thinking clearly at that point).

8. "Doctor Whatever" came back and talked about admitting Julian. Ummm...no thanks! His fever was down, he was nursing again (so sad and pathetic to watch him try but not succeed to bend his little arm with the splint thing on because of the stupid IV),. In addition, there was NO WAY I was trusting my son with those folks. They had done enough. Doctor Whatever then proceeded to tell me that a 105 deg F fever was no big deal and that I shouldn't bring him back unless he is having a seizure. Even though I was under the impression that the whole reason for bringing him in with such a high fever was to avoid a seizure, I smiled and thanked him. After a few more condescending exchanges of no real importance, I took Julian home. Dr. Whatever gave us a prescription for antibiotics, told us that Julian had an ear infection, and instructed us not to listen to our pediatrician and to discontinue the treatment he had prescribed earlier in the week. Umm...ok, thanks again Dr. Whatever!

9. We called our pediatrician and he told us not to listen to Dr. Whatever and to hold off on the antibiotics a little longer.

10. Obviously dillusioned at this point with the medical establishment, we followed our hearts and the advice of Angela Harris, master herbalist and owner of Herbally Grounded. Instead of giving him antibiotics, we gave him Infection Fighter orally every hour and put Angel Oil in his ears twice a day. Within 24 hours, his fever was completely gone, and we are assuming with it, his infection.

We will be sending some literature to the ER at Summerlin Hospital to help them educate themselves about what to do with an intact penis - especially nurse know-it-all. It is the least we can do. After informing me that Julian would have problems for the rest of his life because of his intact penis and before being excused, nurse know-it-all asked, "Awww....honey...is this your first?", as if by it is only by some stroke of ignorance or naivete that Julian is not circumsized. Much like any important decision we make concerning Julian's' health and well-being, it was a very well researched and informed choice. Here is a good resource for anyone considering circumcising their little boy: Mothers Against Circ.

I wish, in retrospect, that we had tried to treat the sickness more aggressively with herbs from the get-go, but now we know. Lesson learned!!! Just in time for Julian to be feeling 100%, Brian and I came down with his serious crud. Of course, it was WAY worse for Brian, as only a Man Cold can be. Thankfully, we are all now feeling super and Julain is thriving as ussual.