So Frustrated with Pediatrician! -Edited Last Time...

If the ER doctor missed something as easy to spot as an EAR INFECTION that you can see just by LOOKING IN THE EARS, which is what a good doctor would do when doing a checkup on a kid, I would throw my money in with your pediatrician and dismiss the ER doctor. You've heard the old saying, "If you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras." Right? You probably got eye rolls because your pediatrician found the real cause of your child's discomfort, was irritated at the ER doctor for missing it, and it's not something that would put a black mark on your kid for the rest of her life if it ended up on her permanent record. Time spent with a patient does not automatically correlate to a better diagnosis. A monkey can stare at a math problem for days, doesn't mean the answer he gets is the correct one.

You may have good insurance NOW but let me tell you, that doesn't always last, and having a "pre-existing condition" on your record can completely screw your child and cause her to be unable to afford health insurance if things stay the way they are now when she's old enough to need her own. It's not going to be a mark on YOUR record so it sounds like your pediatrician was just trying to be a good advocate for your child. Another good mark in her favor.

Clear up the infection first before you go nuts about wanting to leave your doctor or marking your kid's permanent record with a diagnosis that could follow her for life. See how it pans out.

I suffered from allergies growing up. Because of this I was always getting sinus infections, ear infections, bronchitis, you name it. The ear nose and throat doctor was pretty much my regular doctor. I used to be a mega wheezer so I can understand how scary it is. They can sound like death rattles. But don't panic, clear up the infection and have your baby tested for allergies.

I'd like to remark upon your comments about the dr not writing the RAD down to help with insurance premiums. Not many drs think outside of the box, & that's what this dr was doing: insurance companies do base their rates on your dxs. While your husband's employer is paying your premiums, the fewer dxs listed for your family....the cheaper the overall premium for the employer.

My DH works for a small mfg plant. Each & every year, we have to fill in an insurance questionnaire fully disclosing each official dx by the dr....for all family members. Some companies are quite specific in their requests, & we have had paperwk returned due to inadequate info. We have to pay for our family premium....as do many other employees out there. Hope nothing happens to this hard-to-find employee benefit....for your family! If your husband had to change jobs....the odds are having RAD on the medical record would be a disadvantage. :)

Perhaps, in your case, your dr was actually doing you a service. I would not base my child's future on just an emrg room dr's dx. I would want further testing if the symptoms continued. I would also just file it in the back of my mind....should the symptoms disappear & never return. By not writing it in the chart......you are clearing benefitting at this time.

Wait & see what happens! Let the drugs work. Some rounds of illness require more treatment, & some don't. Good Luck!

Good luck finding a new pediatrician.

Suggestions (as an asthmatic & the mother of 2 asthmatic kids): Keep on the steroids; it can take a while for them to really help with breathing issues. They're wonderful -- but they take time to work. Even if no immediate benefit comes of them, don't assume they aren't working.

Other suggestion: even if she's not wheezing, keep using the inhaler for a good week or more (I imagine the dosage was for every 4 to 6 hours as needed?). It's very safe medicine and, once her little airways start to recover, it will help them stay open and functioning. Sometimes, people treat breathing issues in a reactive way. If there's a chance she has RAD or even just a bad chest cold, the inhaler will help forestall any breathing issues. She's not going to develop a tolerance to it or dependency on it so use it regularly for a while to help her get back on top of herself.

Keep in mind that, just because you can't hear her wheeze doesn't mean she's not experiencing some symptoms.

RAD, like asthma, causes swelling of the airways and increased mucus production which then, because the airways are swollen, gets trapped. Once the airways start to open up, it may take a while for the mucus to be expelled.

You'll soon find a new pediatrician, I'm sure. Plus, your little girl will be just fine! Hang in!

I say trust your instincts and find a new ped! We stayed with the same practice till my daughter was about 15 months old and I just couldn't take it anymore...but honestly, I wasn't happy and getting MY needs as a parent met for longer than that - so I wish I would have just listened to myself earlier.

Since then I've found a much better pediatrician who actually spends time with us, educates us, listens, commiserates, and really gets to know my daughter. The first meeting we had with her she sat in our room for a SOLID 45 minutes. I've never had a doctor do that before. Just to really go over her history, address our concerns, and talk through what was coming up next for her in terms of development. It is farther away, but having a partner that you can trust in your child's health is so important for YOU and your child.

Good luck!

I'm sorry - but I don't see how the pediatrician is so awful? It's actually quite nice of her not to diagnose your child with RAD because it will follow your daughter throughout her life. Seriously - you may not worry about insurance premiums today, but in a year or ten you might care. And if the pediatrician isn't convinced that she has RAD (and really - it's not something that should be diagnosed in one visit), then she's doing the right thing by treating the symptoms.

Bronchiolitis is very similar to the RAD. The wheezing comes when they are sick and not usually at any other time. If our boy gets bronchitis I know it will quickly become bronchiolitis.

Bronchiolitis is the way way better diagnosis. He can out grow it, he only wheezes when he has chest congestion, he does not have to have doc orders to attend school and have a med plan on file that has to be updated every 6 months by having a team meeting at the elementary school, etc...it is not as serious as a permanent disability illness like RAD would be, it would follow him forever. If he does have a lifelong lung issue that would be something that could be diagnosed but an ER doc is not really qualified to determine that. A lung doc would be who you would want to go to for a full workup and diagnosis.

This tells a lot about the bronchiolitis. It is common and is not a life long illness. It is treated like RAD and Bronchitis but goes away as the child ages.
http://coldflu.about.com/b/2011/02/22/bronchitis-or-bronc...

I guess what I am trying to say is that with Bronchiolitis you have a better diagnosis that will be treated exactly the same as RAD except there will not be daily meds for the rest of his life. He will do steroids, breathing treatments, etc...the same way except only when he is wheezing.

Many years ago my daughter (now 23) used to get RAD. It was a constant thing for her from about November to April every year. Sometimes it was a nightmare.

It was diagnosed and written down and then later, when we had to change insurance, she was not covered for anything that involved her upper respiratory system because of her pre-existing condition. I wish our doctor had not written it down! We spent a lot of money on steroids, inhalers, x-rays, medications -- all out-of-pocket.

I do think your doctor wasn't very attentive and maybe you should be looking for another one. And make sure you have allergy testing done. Our daughter ended up being allergic to a lot of things, which caused her breathing problems, which led to RAD.

Oh goodness, you DO need a new ped! Reactive Airway Disease is nothing to mess around with. It is often, though not always, a precurser to asthma.

I would shop for a ped who deals with asthma patients. How about calling a pediatric asthma specialist (ped pulmonary doc?) and ask what pediatricians he or she works with (kind of working backwards, if that makes sense)? If you are lucky, the RAD won't turn that ugly corner. But by having a doctor who understands this "dance" with RAD, you'll be covered.

Good luck, and good for you for not putting up with this!
Dawn

ugh i would be mad!!! time to find a new dr. my daughter has asthma and i dont mess around either. im lucky to have a dr that was just as concerned as i am about her breathing issues. sounds like shes an illness induced asthmatic. she needs a nebulizer (inhalers didnt work well with my daughter whos 5). some drs will only look at whats going on when your there. when i go to the er i always see my daughters dr afterwards in the same week. in one case i was glad i did when my poor baby girl got hand foot mouth and the er dr dissmissed it at 5th disease even though she clearly had sores on her feet.

I don't know if you already did this, but I just typed in "pediatrician murrieta" here, on Mamapedia, and saw a few doctors' names to choose from, Dr. Kathleen Hurwitz being the most popular, it would seem.
I would not visit that doctor again, if it were me, and some of these people who respond here on this site are just looking to be mean/ cutting/ rude. I don't understand it, but I see it all the time on here! I posted how distraught I was, one time and had some wicked woman tell me I was a bad person. Ridiculous! (Although, I quit crying long enough to write her back because I was so pissed at her. LOL!)
Good luck with your daughter and you sound like you're a very good mother! Hope you're able to find a pediatrician you really like.

Some Dr's aren't warm and fuzzy.

Sounds like this is the only time you have ever seen her outside of the hospital??? Personally, I'd give her another chance while hunting down names of pediatricians. Most Dr's will not prescribe ear infection meds unless there is pain. That is the norm now a days.

I have 3 kids, they have their own set of baggage-and trust me, If you can get away without having anything "important" on medical records, that is a good thing. Obviously, health care is changing, and if the health care reforms all go through it wont make a difference. But, right now, if your husband changed jobs, and your daughter had a RAD diagnosis you would be screwed.

I'd be thankful the Dr was concerned. She rubbed you the wrong way, she didn't hear what you told her. SO ANNOYING! I get that. But, she is a DR, they are all scientific, and need proof. keep that in mind.