We just got back from the hospital. Baby Girl was confined for a couple of days. She had fever, was coughing, and lost her appetite. After daily visits to her pedia’s clinic, and on-and-off fever, and uncharacteristic listlessness, her pedia decided to have her admitted for observation and infusion of fluids. It could be just upper respiratory infection, but she couldn’t rule out UTI or worse, dengue.
Thank God it turned out to be just the common cold. But at her age, she doesn’t know how to get rid of phlegm, and we were seriously concerned about her malaise. So on the third day, we went to the ER of Medical City. As a father, it’s difficult to see your child in pain and discomfort. It didn’t help that we were stuck in the ER for four hours for lack of an available room. It was hardly the environment for a baby to rest — what with the glaring light and screaming kids. We realized how important it is to take care of our and our baby’s health. Getting hospitalized sucks.
By the time a room was freed up, it was an hour to midnight. Thankfully, by the next day, Baby Girl was looking a lot better. The IV and nebulizer definitely helped. Her coughing and colds have lessened. She didn’t have a fever and she was becoming more playful. She was vomiting, but that’s one way babies get rid of phlegm. So it was actually a good sign. By afternoon, she was ready to go home.
Except her pedia didn’t do her rounds until after her clinic hours, which was like seven in the evening. That meant we were forced to stay another night, and pay for an extra full day rate and spend an extra night unnecessarily. Worse, it turned out we were charged a half day’s rate on the first night when we spent exactly an hour in the room. Sure, it’s past cut-off, but c’mon, this wasn’t a hotel where we casually checked in late evening. We had no choice — it was an ER case and they had no available room. Of course they charged us for the use of the ER.
We created a little ruckus over this daylight robbery. We gave our nurses, the resident, and our pedia a piece of our mind (of course, we had to tone down when our pedia arrived; she after all is taking care of our baby). We’ve got to hand it to the staff though — they’re well trained to show empathy. They just can’t do anything about the unfair policy. At the very least, they should charge per hour on the first day of admission for ER cases. But hey, that’s how they pay for their nice facilities (and admittedly, they do have nice facilities).
There is a bright side to all these. The good thing about Medical City, aside from the modern facilities and courteous people, is the range of food choices. There’s no way I can eat hospital food. They have a food court in the second floor (Hungry Hippo cheeseburger meal!), Starbucks (where we ate al fresco our to-go Jollibee Chickenjoy at 11pm, to the dismay of the guards and baristas) and Pancake House (2-piece pan chicken!) at the ground floor, a 24-hour convenience store (ice-cold Pepsi Max!), and a strip of restaurants in front of the hospital with Figaro, Teriyaki Boy, Cafe Via Mare, and North Park (lechon macau over fried rice!). So as you can see, there’s always a silver lining.
Best of all, Baby Girl was able to get the rest and fluids she badly needed. The nebulizer and, well, vomiting, decongested her stuffy nose and expelled her phlegm. And she’s back to her “old” self — the high-energy, lovable, charming bundle of joy that she is.
