Wednesday 5 August 2009

As Katriona has never been to a GP before, I figured it might be a good time to find a paediatric GP so looked one up in the yellow pages. There was one around the corner, so at 9.05am I called. I explained the situation; I made sure that I let them know that it was pretty urgent and that I had been advised to go to a GP. But the person on the phone said they were booked out and couldn't see us. I asked if they had a free emergency appointment (all doctors have these apparently) but she said they didn't. She didn't offer any more help. I hung up and cried. It was at that point I realised I was REALLY worried about her. I called the GP that is at our local shops (who I haven't been to since they were rude to me the time I slashed my finger open and they wouldn't see me) and they had a 9.30am appointment that day so I took it. I took a picture of Katriona's fontanelle as I was leaving, can you see the bulge on the top? That is what I was worried about.

When I explained to the doctor what my concerns were she dismissed them and told me that as she was otherwise healthy and symptom free that there couldn't be anything wrong with Katriona. I reiterated that her fontanelle wasn't normal and that I would like a further investigation to put my mind at rest.

The doctor begrudgingly phoned to see if the medical imaging centre at the local hospital would do an ultrasound. They said they would. I was offered an appointment for Friday. I asked for something sooner. How about 11am? Sure. The doctor was worried I couldn't get there on time - it was only 9.40am and the hospital is 2 minutes away. Idiot.

We went for the ultrasound and even I could tell - untrained - that there was too much fluid in her head when I looked at the screen. Sure enough, the operator explained that the ventricles of the brain were larger than they should be; a condition called Hydrocephalus.

At 2pm, the doctor called telling me that they had made an appointment for Katriona at a paediatrician for an urgent assessment based on the report from her ultrasound. The appointment was for Friday 7 August. It felt a long way away time wise for urgent, but at the same time the fact that I wasn't being told to get straight into the ED at the children's hospital was a good thing.