Don't freak me OUT!

I had a huge scare today, and honestly it didn't really have to be. This is more for documentation purposes, but I think you might like to read it.

Have you ever gone to the Dr. and came out feeling like a horrible mother/person well...Brade has had a bad cough for awhile and in the last couple days a few other symptoms and when he was younger he had asthma so I thought I had better go get him checked out. I made him an appointment for the next day and that same night he had a pretty bad asthma attack. Soooo I took him to the specialist that originally diagnosed him.

I can't even think of the right way to explain how I was treated.

The Dr. was asking specifics, ie..."how long has he had the cough", and I say "a couple months" and he says rudely "is that 2 months, 1 month, 3 months" Like I'm an idiot for not knowing how many days, hours, and minutes he has had the cough. Then he listens to Braden's chest and just grimaces and looks at me and tells me how horrible he sounds. It wasn't what he said at this point, but more of how he looked at me, and always seemed disgusted.

He leaves, sends in the nurse to do a breathing test. We wait and wait and when he comes back the first thing he says is "He should be dead!" I start laughing thinking it's a joke. What professional really would say that in front of a seven year old and his 4 year old brother. Then I stop laughing because, The Dr is just sitting there with a straight face. I ask if he is serious and he says that Braden should be dead right now. EXCUSE ME! Braden looks at me terrified.

I'm just trying to hold it together and the Dr then explains how Braden is only able to use 40% of his lung capacity and that he is not getting enough oxygen. Scary! Then he goes on like an idiot about how asthma is the #5 killer of children in America, and if Braden were looking any worse he would have to admit him to the hospital.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand that the Dr wanted me to understand the levity of the situation, but in front of the kids??? HORRIBLE BEDSIDE MANNER. It didn't make sense to me. He then starts to prescribe steroids, inhalers, nebulizers, and antibiotics. I was worried about the side effects of all these medications on this little boy so I had the audacity to ask what the side effects were. He looked at me disgusted and said loudly ( again with Braden right there), "HE COULD DIE". Um yeah, I am not an idiot. I told him that I understand that, it's not that I don't want him to take the medications I just wanted to know what to watch for. He then goes into a long list of side effects that I didn't love, but I guess that doesn't matter cause yep...my son could die any minute right?

Then he says he wants to see us in 2 weeks and he never sees people back that soon, but he really needs to make sure that Brade is improving. He rambles off a huge list of instructions, tells me that if Braden stops breathing in the middle of the night to go to the emergency room immediately and to watch for anything out of the ordinary.Um so am I supposed to stay up all night to make sure that he's breathing? At this point I'm holding back tears, not so much out of fear for my sons life, but more like does anyone deserve to be treated like this?

When we get to the car, I break down on the phone with my mom, then Braden starts to lose it in the back seat and Camden keeps asking if Braden is going to die.

I spent a long time explaining to Brade (and Cam) that everything is going to be fine and that I'm crying because I don't like how the Dr. talked to us, not because I was afraid that he was not going to make it.

The very very best part of the story however happened later when I was picking up the massive amounts of prescriptions ( I need to mention that I also had to take Cam to the pediatrician for double ear infections right before I took Braden in, so I was getting him RX's too).

Anyways, Braden told me that he had asked Stu to give him a fathers blessing the night before for his cough. Which Stu did, like the great father that he is. I didn't even know. Then Braden went on to tell me that he knows that the blessing is what made it so he didn't die, and that everything would be okay. Now the tears came for a different reason!

PS...Do you think I should go back or get a 2nd opinion?