So my son has been a sick kid. He has had numerous ear infections, a bout with RSV, asthma and febrile seizures. A few weeks ago, he began having diarrhea. And not just any diarrhea, but the most vile, foul smelling green squirts I have ever seen. Now I used to work inpatient, so I knew what it was - pseudomembranous colitis, better known as C. dif diarrhea. Now this would make sense, as my son has been on numerous rounds of antibiotics for all of his various infections.
So I took him in for a sick visit. The doc I saw told me to get a stool sample and take it to the lab. Fine by me. I received a call from the lab a few days later and they told me the toxin test was negative. Awesome. Plus the diarrhea had stopped by then. 10 days later the pediatrician calls and tells me the culture was positive, but no treatment was necessary if the diarrhea had stopped. Two days later, I actually bumped into the doctor while doing some shopping for my wife at Victoria's Secret. Now you want to talk about awkward? Nothing like having a handful of thongs and meeting your kid's doctor. The first words out of my mouth- "I'm not a creeper. You know my wife." Lolz
Anyhoo, I asked her about the diarrhea and the lab results. She told me that if the diarrhea started again, just to call and she would phone in a script for Flagyl. Fast forward to yesterday. I received a frantic call from my wife while at work that the diarrhea was back. I told her to call the office and explain the situation to the doc on call. She called me back in tears and said the doc wouldn't help her. Now this is where it gets good. This doctor asked her what she had tried in terms of OTC items. OTC treatments for C. dif.? Are you fucking serious? So I paged the doctor to my work phone.
First, the doctor didn't seem to remember talking to my wife. Now keep in mind this was all in the span of about 10 minutes. I explained to her 3 times about how she talked to my wife. Finally she came around. I swear to God, she sounded like she was tanked. I then explained the problem (again) and what was her response? I don't even know how to dose [Flagyl] in kids.
I was floored. You're a fucking pediatrician, for Pete's sake. But I kept my cool and told her that she was in luck; I am a pharmacist and the dose is 30 mg/kg/day divided into 4 doses for 10 days. I already had the recipe out for the compounding and would make a 20 mg/ml suspension with a dose of 5 ml four times daily. Her response? "I don't feel comfortable. There are a lot of cases of this going around and I don't know why." Maybe because you don't how to fucking treat it? Did that ever occur to you?
She continued to impress me by telling me that starting it tonight would not make a difference. This is contrary to the literature that states an improvement can be seen in 48 hours, sometimes less than 24. Now if I wait until the next day, call and make an appointment, be seen, wait for the pharmacy to compound the drug, I could easily have had 3 doses in my son if we start tonight. But my pleas fell on deaf ears. Since this was going nowhere, I hung up and told my wife to go to the urgent care. The diagnosis? C. dif. The treatment? Flagyl. The urgent care doctor didn't know the dose either, but what did she do? She called a pharmacist and asked him! It turns out we are good for something besides counting by fives! Who would have thought?
So my son started the Flagyl last night. And today he had 3 stools, all of which were normal. I guess starting the drug last night was beneficial. If anyone wants to know who this super-doctor is, shoot me an email. I wouldn't trust this woman to take care of a houseplant.
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