Somthing going on with my son...

Nurses General Nursing

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Alright, first off I know nobody on here is allowed to give out medical advice, and I understand that - it's not what I'm looking for. If a Staff Member still finds this inappropriate feel free to delete it.

Over the weekend we let my 10 year old indulge himself in way too long a play period with his video games. He started complaining of neck pain on Sunday.

Monday morning we noticed every so often he would roll his eyes up and to the right involuntarily.

Yesterday it was severe, happening every 5 or 10 minutes. He says they "itch" when he rolls them.

Anyway, I am not wondering what is wrong - I know it's out of everyone's scope to diagnose something like this.

What I do want to know is if I should be taking him straight to an Optomotrist first or a Physician. We do not have insurance. So it's important that - as alarming as this is - we be as frugal as we can when trying to get him to the right specialist.

Specializes in CCU, ER, Psych.

Haha I think what socks meant was that the physician was abrupt in his speech - thats probably what she meant.

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Specializes in L&D; GI; Fam Med; Home H; Case mgmt.
:rolleyes:

I don't believe the OP was referring to the physician's physical height in this remark. "Short" is an adjective that may be used to describe someone's behavior. As in, they are not very talkative, brief, dismissive, do not elaborate, etc....

Yeah, I'm a dork... :lol2:

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Specializes in L&D; GI; Fam Med; Home H; Case mgmt.
Haha I think what socks meant was that the physician was abrupt in his speech - thats probably what she meant.

Doofus = Me

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Yeah, I'm a dork... :lol2:

At least we all got a good chuckle. :lol2:

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I don't trust the optometrist's opinion, based on an experience I had once with an optometrist.

Do go to the pediatrician. And sort of block the door so the doctor or PA or NP can't leave until you are ready to let him or her leave, you know, like after all your questions and concerns are addressed.

And if you see a PA or NP, courteously ask their kind indulgence to have the physician also see him. Many times, the NP's are much more thorough and take more time with you than the doctors, but sometimes it's also more reassuring to have another pair of eyes see the patient, too, and that would be 2 evaluations at the price of 1.

Why is your son not on MediCal? Get it implemented immediately. If you go to a county clinic, they should be able to help you at once with it.

YES to that. I do it!

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Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.

that's a scary situation for you. are you anywhere near a children's hospital or a university with a med school? they often don't care whether a child is insured or under-insured at all.

i have had a type of seizure that shows up as muscle tightening across my face, that has been so tight that it leaves me unable to blink for the duration of the seizure. i remain totally conscious throughout.

afterwards, sometimes my neck is stiff and sore. my seizures don't show up on a regular eeg and only occasionally on a 24 hour sleep deprived eeg, which my neurologist says isn't that unusual. i have seizures because i had an aneurysm rupture when i was 13 months old. as a child, i had a type of seizure that affected my gi tract --diarrhea, cramps, trapped gas pain, which went away by my mid

twenties.

if you can get him to a pediatric neurologist attached to a med school and/or a children's hospital, they can help you get a definitive diagnosis, often for little or no cost.

kathy

shar pei mom:paw::paw:

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Specializes in Army Medic.

Ah the joys of searching through random pediatrician's names on Google.

Aside from this tic my son is acting normally and has good cognitive and motor skills, but understanding how dangerous neuro stuff can be I want a doctor that cares enough to look him over more intensely than a 5 second stare test.

This ped. that he saw this time - when our son was sick with an upper resp. infection before we took him there. In about 30 seconds my son had a prescription of phenegran w/ codeine, did not listen to my son's lungs or anything - just flat out prescribed it.

He also did not ask if my son is allergic to anything, or try to find any relevant medical history.

Just keep plugging away 'til we find a good one, I guess. I wouldn't be as concerned if the symptoms didn't become so severe so quickly.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
=DirtyBlackSocks;4147853]So we took him to pediatrics today.

The appointment with the doctor lasted less than 30 seconds (I timed it with my watch).

My wife mentioned that we had taken him to see an optometrist and everything checked out fine, and his reply was "So why are you here wasting my time?"

Now see, DBS-- this is where I probably would have lost it on the doctor, so if something like that should occur, I know now to bring along an adult with a cooler head. I don't give a rodent's rear end that you don't like your Medi-Cal reimbursement rates, you have a rollicking case of hemorrhoids or whatever else was his problem. At 10, your son is certainly old enough to understand what an a-hole this guy was, and I would at the least go on one of those websites where consumers rate their doctors at let him have it with both barrels.

My children have been seen at County Health offices, I have been seen at the Free Clinic in LA that was started by the hippies long ago. Never have I, or they been treated in any way but politely. That is just inexcusable, and your son didn't even get anything approaching an adequate exam. Sounds like a waste of everyone's time.

I don't know where you live, but I have found that there are providers who treat Medi-Cal patients as well as they would treat someone with private insurance, and they will often confer with you to keep costs down. You might consider a Family Practice office that sees lots of kids, or an Urgent Care center that you may have to pay for the initial visit, but again there are providers willing to work with uninsured families. I know that someone here mentioned not relying on the opinion of an NP or PA-C, but I see no harm in them doing an initial exam, and many are more than happy to run it by the MD. Your son deserves a kind, caring and thorough exam.

I agree with your instinct to go through as many doctors as you need to until you are satisfied that every avenue has been looked into.

Don't want to make this too long winded- just a quick personal story. My daughter, a cross-country runner in high school a few years ago, suddenly developed severe exercise induced asthma which devastated both of us as her running was so important to her. Her coach insisted she see a specialist. Neither of the names he offered were feasible, but we kept calling offices until finally we found one in a neighboring city who would see us for a discounted price, filled out all our PPA drug forms, and gave us all the samples he could. He was an older guy who tended to ramble :) but what a sweetheart! The point is, be persistent, try every option that occurs to you, and hopefully you will find answers. Best wishes to you!

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Specializes in Army Medic.

I was up until 5 in the morning reading through the MediCAL list of providers and cross referencing them with Google for reviews. I think I've finally found one, but now it's a matter of getting his doctor switched over ect. ect.

We received an e-mail from his teacher stating she was alarmed because in class he was doing this every few seconds, and that she had never seen a child with tics roll his eyes so far back into their head before.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

My nephew was recently evaluated for a similar problem...eyes would go to the right frequently and by his control. He saw a physician here, had an MRI, and was sent for evaluation at CHOW...they determined that it wasn't seizures or a neuro issue, that it was indeed a tic, and something he would grow out of (but was scary until the CHOW appt, as the doc "wasn't sure" if he saw something on the MRI).

Granted, they had an MRI to go on, and that hasn't been done for your son (yet). This makes me angry...I'm not familiar with MediCal, but at ANY rate, the feelings that doc has towards it should be irrelevant, this is a child! Keep pushing, but also keep in mind that while the thought of the source can be scary, it also could very well, just be a tic. Best of luck!

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Specializes in L&D; GI; Fam Med; Home H; Case mgmt.

DBS, despite my recent brain-fart with regard to your remark about the doc being short (haha) I do know a few things about kids. Tics are FAR more common that you would even believe, and so often they disappear as quickly as they appeared. I wouldn't waste any energy worrying on this until and unless you have more information that it is something more serious. I really, really don't think it is (but of course diagnostics are a bit outside my scope). I do hope it all works out for the best for you guys!

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Specializes in Army Medic.

I agree with the tic's being common in children, but being a parent - and with how quickly the condition developed into the severe level it's at now - I want to make sure I have a Doctor who I feel gives two craps look him over.

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