Mommy Calls

Part of being a pediatrician is being on call.  As a pediatric resident, part of my training is to take mommy calls.  What are mommy calls you ask?  Well, let me tell you about mommy calls.  Mommy calls are supposed to be calls taken by us after hours for emergencies.  This however is not always the case.  I have gotten calls after midnight from parents wondering what time their appointment is at the clinic, wondering who their doctor is, wondering if I have a copy of their child's immunizations, and many many calls about constipation at 3 o'clock in the morning.  I do get some emergency calls and I love being able to help in those cases, but I have to admit some of my favorite mommy calls are the non-emergent ones.  Why you ask?  Well....let me humor you just a little...

I received a call from a mom at midnight one night asking me for help because she said her kid started talking and now he wont stop.  Now, I am only human.  I cannot, for it is impossible to address this without bursting in laughter.  After we both laugh about the silly nature of this call, I tell the mom to give the child a little bit of benadryl, for it may be a medication side effect from a med the child is currently taking, and try to get some rest.  Three hours later the mom calls me back frantic because she said the child is "worse." Worse?  How is he worse?  Well, now the child is jumping off the walls and talking non-stop.  Uh-oh.  In a small percentage of kids benadryl has the opposite effect on kids and actually makes the hyper instead of calming them down.  Poor mom.  I bet she didn't get any rest that night!

You can learn many things from children.  How much patience you have, for instance.  ~Franklin P. Jones

Another favorite call I got, well, I will just let the page I received through my pager explain....

 

Dear Mommies, 

For the most part I love your calls and I love being able to help/calm you, minus the ones about constipation at 3 0'clock in the morning.  I especially love the silly ones when we both have a sense of humor and can laugh at the matter at hand.