Dr. Zibners.com

How to know if your child's illness or injury is really an emergency

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Please Welcome…

Thought I’d give you all a special treat and invite a guest blogger. My husband. Aren’t you curious about what it is like to live with me? So here’s his post. Okay. I’m lying. He thinks I’m ridiculous. But here’s my post, channeling his brain. I bring you: Life as Mr. Dr. Mommy Zibners. Subtitle: I could have gone to medical school too.

Hi. I’m Mr. Zibners. Not really, but I don’t like the spotlight. I could have gone to medical school if I wanted. But seriously. Between Google and Wikipedia, why bother? I generally let my wife make family medical decisions, unless I find her opinion suspect, in which case I verify the information using the Internet. (Note from Dr. Z: I came home after Zoe’s birth to find an open search engine looking for verification that newborns’ heads do, in fact, look like that.)
Anyway, back to me. Mr. Z. Here’s our conversation last night after I broke into my wife’s computer and read her blog before it was posted.
Me: What’s wrong with Eva! Is she sick? Is she okay?
Dr. Z: She’s fine. It’s a virus. Did you read anything other than the words that alarmed you?
Me: But I hate it when she’s hurting.
Dr. Z: She’s not. She’s fine.
Me: But I think of her sick and it makes me miserable.
Dr. Z: I know, honey, but you have to remember that the more little colds and viruses she gets now, the less we have to worry later. So if she’s a little sick and not bothered, isn’t that a good thing?
Me: I know. I know. I know. But does she need an antibiotic?
Dr. Z: because antibiotics treat viruses?
Me: oh I forgot. Right. Viruses.
I’ll stop here. What was the point of this? Two-fold. Firstly, I thought it was worth reminding you that not all sickness is bad. There is plenty of evidence that the more little colds and bugs children get when they are young will result in fewer illness and possibly less allergies and asthma when they are older. Secondly, isn’t it nice to know that even if you pay close attention to everything I say, when your kid is sick your first instinct is to panic? The man lives with me and still can’t think straight when he thinks one of the girls is ill. Which means that I had to learn a long time ago to say things over and over and I don’t mind a bit. Go ahead and ask me one more time, just to be certain.

Dr. Lara Zibners, Oct 14, 2010

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