Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for April 27, 2011

This is interesting how Holly, the “cool” teenager, is the one freaking out.

@kawenakali - yes, i do have kids, ages 5 and 8, so I remember the baby days clearly and I never took my kids to the emergency room when they were only crying. I did call our pediatrician and talked about whatever was going on with the nurse on call, who always allayed our fears and we dealt with the situation. I’ve also never had to call poison control, even when babysitting. Possibly we’ve been fortunate, but I also made a serious effort to be educated on when to go to the ER and when to remain calm and handle the situation rationally. This why, from my perspective, it is unusual to feel strongly enough to take your baby to the ER, so I think this is a more serious situation. If she has colic, then they are used to it at this point and wouldn’t be rushing Luci to the ER. But I hope I’m wrong, even though it’s a comic and the drama is interesting. Sorry for the long post…

Our two are adults. When our daughter complained about her ear hurting my parents her GP baby set and took her to Minor emergency. They Minor Emergency could not look at their GD until parents us showed up then treatment. Daughter as a toddler had reddness inner ear. Meds Our son when very small ate almost intire bottle of baby prescription vitumns. I called nurse at pediatirc office was told what to do. Did and all came up. Yes bottle was baby proof.

Joan is worried. She’s not a first time mom. This is more than “just crying” I’ve never been to the emergency room but I took full advantage of the 24/7 on call for phone consultation the pediatrician offered with my first. I learned when not to panic. I also learned to respect my mommy (and dad has it too) sense that something is wrong with my kid even if there are no observable symptoms.

I love how Max immediately assumes Holly’s extreme anxiety.

Given that Joan said “urgent care” yesterday, we can probably assume that Andy just got his terms mixed up. Besides, “then why’s it called URGENT care” doesn’t have quite the same punch.

Ha–good point, Winnie. Max goes from elation to despair in just one panel …

The actions of the background characters are one of my favorite parts of this comic.

We have “walk-in clinics”. These are where you go if you don’t want to wait two months for an appointment with your own doctor, or eight hours in the emergency room to be seen because other people have worse problems than you (e.g. not breathing, heart not beating, that sort of thing - a broken bone doesn’t really belong in Emergency). This gives you a compromise between an appointment for the same day and waiting a few hours till it’s your turn.

For example, I plan to go to one in the next few days. I’ve been sick three times in the last month and I think it’s bronchitis, because I have fever and I can’t stop coughing. Emergency is not the place to go - I’m too sick to sit there, and they won’t do anything for me anyway - and my doctor isn’t available. So a walk-in clinic is just right for me.

Incidentally, this is in Canada, where we have medicare. I’m not complaining, just mentioning, because if it weren’t for that I wouldn’t be able to afford any medical treatment at all. Just want to give the right context. Walk-in clinics, like Emergency, are free for everybody. I don’t have to pay for a doctor appointment, either, unless I want a doctor who chose not to participate in medicare.

koff, koff,….

I may have gone once to ER when oldest child had a serious asma attack. I never went again, because I saw that such “minor” things were put off and any treatment could more easily been done at home. With 4 healthy shildren, I learned the use of butterfly bandages and other home remedies- they are now mostly over 50 ;-)