Rashes

It was almost 4 pm and I was running 5 patients behind when I heard my phone ring.  I finished with that patient, and checked my voice mail - it was Nanny M.  She never calls me during the day, she always texts, so I was worried before I even heard her voice, "Call me back as soon as you get this message."  Finn had woken up fussy from a nap just as she noticed what she thought was a bug bite.  Almost before her eyes, it went from one spot to a rash all over his body, his ears and face were bright red and he was crying.  I told her to get some benadryl and head towards the pediatrician's office and I called their triage nurse.  The nurse took some information from me, then called Nanny M and talked to her directly before telling her to bring Finn in.  M texted me a short while later, "The doctor says he's going to be fine!" and then the doctor called me herself to tell me that it was definitely an allergic reaction, but they're not sure what it was from.  He'd been asleep for an hour when the rash started, and he'd eaten two hours before it started.  I have to admit, we haven't been very good about waiting 3-4 days in between introducing foods, so it might have been the chicken M fed him while they were out at lunch, it was only his second time having chicken (the first time was when I was out to lunch on Sunday).  Or it might have what the chicken was cooked in, or maybe it was egg in the little piece of bread she let him have.

At any rate, Finn apparently hasn't had enough specialists taking care of him, because now we have to make an appointment with a pediatric allergist.  And, of course, the allergist might not even be helpful, since allergy is a weird field, especially with babies.  With babies, the allergy testing is limited, and a negative test doesn't mean much of anything - but a positive test at least will tell me if there's something that really should be avoided.

My patient schedule is already overbooked for the next 6 weeks (and this week and next they forgot to leave me time to pump in the afternoon - hence me running 5 patients behind), and Finn's January MRI still hasn't been scheduled yet, and I now have to find time to take him to an allergist.  And then to allergy testing.

In the meantime I'm trying to wage war with our EMR (electronic medical records) company.  I sent an email today that ended with, "and it really makes me wonder who it was you had review your program before it went live.  Even a physician who has never prescribed insulin could tell you that not only is it inaccurate, but also an embarrassment to have the choice to dose insulin in teaspoons and tablespoons in your prescription template."

Is it Christmas vacation yet?