My one year old hurt his wrist, and the first thing I thought of before taking him to the emergency room was \u201cI hope this isn\u2019t enough to get DHS involved.\u201d (Department of Human Services\u2026social workers)<\/p>\n
He fell off my bed this morning before Mass. No big deal, just misjudged where the edge was and plopped right off onto his back. He cried, I held him. He was fine. Then he started whimpering during Mass. When we got home, he tried to crawl and his arm gave way from the pain. His wrist was swollen and red. He just laid there and sobbed.<\/p>\n
Should I take him to the ER? Should I call our family doctor? Was I overreacting? I have a history of that, you know. But it was the ER that scared me. I one took #4 to the ER, only to decide once I was in the waiting area, that I had completely overreacted and I was going home. No dice. The doctor told me that if I walked out the door he would call Child Protective Services and they would meet me at my front door to take her away, and that I would probably lose my other children as well. He admitted us to the local children\u2019s hospital on a 72 hour watch, they did a spinal tap, and put her on an IV. None of which was needed it turned out, because at the end of our enforced 3 days in the hospital, the doctor told me \u201cI think you were right. You just overreacted.\u201d<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t go to the ER for just anything anymore. They have to have a limb hanging by a thread, or be on fire, or something even more serious before I admit these people to take a peek inside my family. It makes me nervous. I could lose my children over something as simple as a sprained wrist on a one year old and a doctor who doesn\u2019t like big families, or thinks I\u2019m rude, or is having a bad day. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sad day in America when you have to consider whether or not you will lose your children when assessing how much help they need. Is he in enough pain for me to risk it? When the pain of your child has to be weighed against the risk to your family, I think medicine has failed us.<\/p>\n
This is the problem with the nanny state which is popping up around us. When adults are no longer considered to be capable of making decisions, parents are the enemy, and children belong to the \u201cvillage which is raising them\u201d, when we are all considered to be incapable of thinking for ourselves, that is past the point at which a system has become abusive and needs to be reformed. Doctors and nurses are not social workers and should not be put into the position of constant suspicion. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s my rant for today. My child\u2019s pain should be bigger than someone else\u2019s political agenda. It\u2019s not. Therefore, I called our general practitioner who told me to wrap it and bring him in first thing in the morning. He said, \u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019s fine, but we\u2019ll check it in the office tomorrow. My big concern is that an injured wrist in a one year old would set off child abuse alarms in the minds of the people who would look at him. If it seems worse, call me and I\u2019ll meet you at the ER.\u201d It\u2019s nice to know I\u2019m not a paranoid lunatic, and that we have a very nice doctor.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My one year old hurt his wrist, and the first thing I thought of before taking him to the emergency room was \u201cI hope this isn\u2019t enough to get DHS involved.\u201d (Department of Human Services\u2026social workers) He fell off my bed this morning before Mass. No big deal, just misjudged where the edge was and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n