Friday, November 14, 2014

Ear Tubes for a Teenager?

Maddie has a busted eardrum. Again. Third time in 3 months!


Just a little frustrating.




She has missed 14 of the 58 school days so far this year.


A couple of months ago, she saw the ENT and we discussed putting in tubes. But with Maddie's immune system and health history, the doctor was concerned about having to do a follow up surgery later to repair the ear. And what if she is allergic to the tubes?




I've never heard of a 14 year old getting tubes in ears. Have you? What is crazy is that as a baby/toddler, Maddie had what seemed like every other respiratory issue, but she never had ear infections. Now as a teenager, she has recurrent ear infections.


I've started googling recurrent ear infections and treatments and such. I would say that by now I know better, but really, I've just become better at sifting through crap articles. 


So I have a few ideas for the doctor. (They love me..)


In the meantime, we have to get Maddie well. And that's hard enough.  Let me take you through getting meds...


Maddie went to the doctor Wednesday afternoon. Remember, Maddie is allergic to a lot of antibiotics... so in order to get her strong enough meds, the doctor prescribed a drug that not many people get.


Our beloved pharmacist at Walgreens called. They didn't have the drug in stock. He could order it for us and we would have it at 10am Thursday or he would call other pharmacies around town and send us to where they had it. Since I really wanted to get a dose in Maddie that night, he did found some at CVS.


I picked up the meds Wednesday evening. The pharmacist and I had a nice discussion about all of Maddie's allergies to meds and red dye #40. We got home, Maddie opened the bottle and looked in to see CORAL RED pills.


I called the pharmacist. She is very sorry. She put me on hold, does some research, comes back on the phone a little panicked. OMG the pills are RED 40... PLEASE DON'T TOUCH THEM.. She then puts me back on hold... comes back and says she can order the prescription from a different manufacturer and it will be yellow. It will be available after 3pm.


Great.


So Thursday afternoon, in the middle of a crazy busy afternoon, I go pick up the new replacement meds and return the unusable meds. The new meds are the same as the old meds. Corporate didn't like the new med choice and CHANGED the order.. so now we have two bottles of RED pills and NO antibiotic that Maddie can take.


The tech apologizes. She says that I can call around and ask other pharmacies in town and see if they have it. I nicely, but I'm sure very frustratedly said that pharmacies don't talk to parents like they talk to other pharmacies and that I didn't even have the prescription!  She said she would call.. but that in the meantime, she could reorder the correct meds and call corporate and explain the allergy.  I said okay, that I didn't really have much of a choice did I. About an hour later, the tech calls. No one in town has the correct medication. We can come by at 2pm on Friday to get the meds.


Great.


I knew I should have stuck with Vince and Kaci at Walgreens.


At best, Maddie is going to have one dose of antibiotic in her before being outside for five plus hours in below freezing weather with a busted eardrum at a football playoff game.


Great.



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