My poor sick baby...
Joey has been sick for almost two weeks now. Last week was particularly bad and stressful because they couldn`t work out what was causing the consistent wheezing and coughing that he was suffering from. It was really hard to watch my robust little man struggling for breath and I took him to the doctor twice a day to get a nebuliser treatment which seemed to ease things for him. In Japan you have to pay for 20% of the costs of treatment (the other 80% is covered by NHI) and as Joey is under the age of 6, I get the money back in a couple of months time. This is a real pain in the butt when you end up having a couple of weeks of constant treatment though, I have spent the best part of 2 man (100 pounds) this week on treatment alone, medication is on top of that.
After waiting a week and seeing no improvement, the doctor prescribed antibiotics on saturday and yesterday Joey was much better. I suspect he has a chest infection but my doctor seems uneasy with giving small children antibiotics and he wanted to check out the other possibilities before prescribing them. I was surprised because I had heard from other friends in Japan that antibiotics tend to be given out willy-nilly and you often have to ask the doctor to consider other possibilities. This week has confirmed my original impression that the doctor I chose was a good choice and even though it is a bit of a mission to go there from our new place (it was 5 mins walk from our old apartment) I will continue to go there. I was thinking about getting a second opinion later this week if Joey was showing no signs of improvment but as he seems alot better, I am hoping he will continue to do well and not get sicker.
I am hoping he doesn`t have a fever today because I really want to take him to daycare so I can go back to bed for an hour as being up several times a night with a wheezy/ crying baby has really taken its toll on me and I am totally exhausted and haven`t been able to get over whatever lurgy it was that I had last week.
I can hear him stirring so I have to go. Send "no fever" vibes our way please!!!
After waiting a week and seeing no improvement, the doctor prescribed antibiotics on saturday and yesterday Joey was much better. I suspect he has a chest infection but my doctor seems uneasy with giving small children antibiotics and he wanted to check out the other possibilities before prescribing them. I was surprised because I had heard from other friends in Japan that antibiotics tend to be given out willy-nilly and you often have to ask the doctor to consider other possibilities. This week has confirmed my original impression that the doctor I chose was a good choice and even though it is a bit of a mission to go there from our new place (it was 5 mins walk from our old apartment) I will continue to go there. I was thinking about getting a second opinion later this week if Joey was showing no signs of improvment but as he seems alot better, I am hoping he will continue to do well and not get sicker.
I am hoping he doesn`t have a fever today because I really want to take him to daycare so I can go back to bed for an hour as being up several times a night with a wheezy/ crying baby has really taken its toll on me and I am totally exhausted and haven`t been able to get over whatever lurgy it was that I had last week.
I can hear him stirring so I have to go. Send "no fever" vibes our way please!!!
