I know that most of my friends think parenting is something you do with young children. By the time you send them off to college, the job is done. Well, I have found out otherwise. Actually, I always thought otherwise.
I have one child who goes to school at the University at Buffalo. I love the school as does he. Unfortunately, his health has suffered while there. His first semester at UB, as a transfer student so not his first time living away from home, he ended up with bronchitis. This was a minor inconvenience as it prevented him from playing club lacrosse.
Last year he spent the summer in Amherst. He had an internship at a business in Niagara Falls. The end of July he had appendicitis. Thankfully, his twin was in Niagara Falls for the summer so she went with him to the hospital. His appendix was out and he was in recovery before I made it to Millard Fillmore Suburban.
In November, upon giving blood, it was pointed out to him that his blood pressure was rather high. His father has had high blood pressure since his teens. Our local doctor took care of this over Thanksgiving and the end of the semester break. He is now on medication for his blood pressure.
Yesterday, he IM’s me. He has been running a fever, has a cough and runny nose. He keeps telling me that there seem to be a lot of cases of swine flu in Erie County but I am not sure why. I tell him to go to Health Services. While he is not in class for the summer, he is still living on campus and doing an internship again. I was not impressed with the quality of what he was told at Health Services. This was the first time I ever questioned Health Services. First, he was prescribed an antibiotic even though he was told he probably didn’t need it. I asked multiply times if he told the doctor he saw that he was on medication for high blood pressure. Yet, the doctor told him to get some “Advil Cold and Sinus.” I asked him to please discuss this with the pharmacist as I did not think this particular type of medication was intended for those with high blood pressure.
His fever continued, even with acetaminophen, to climb until it reached 103F last evening. At that point, I told him to find a walk-in and to go there and see a second doctor. I told him to take his blood pressure meds and the prescribed antibiotic with him. The doctor told him that he didn’t need an antibiotic. He didn’t have strep and didn’t seem to have the flu. He was given an alternating dosage of acetaminophen and ibuprofen to take to reduce the fever.
Some parenting never ends!
