Mama’s Intuition Is A Real Thing – Don’t Ignore It
Do you ever get that feeling that you know something isn’t right? It’s what I call “mama intuition”. There have been many times when I have had this feeling. I can be alone or with the kids. Here are three perfect examples of where I leaned into my intuition with my kids. And I’m very thankful I did.
Example 1
When Morrison was in middle school he called me and said it hurt when he took a breath. That was an alarming call. I checked him out of school and took him to the doctor. They took his temperature, it was 99 point something. They had him lay on the table and you could tell his side was drawn a little. The doctor came in and looked him over and said he had a pulled muscle. I politely asked about the low-grade fever. The doctor looked back through his chart and could see it had been over a year since we had been in there for sickness. He ordered bloodwork. The new diagnosis: Pleurisy, also known as walking pneumonia. Glad I asked a simple question or we could have ended up in the hospital a day or two later.
Example 2
When Michael was around 2 he became sick and ran a fever close to 105 degrees. I took him to urgent care because they opened an hour before the pediatrician opened up. She ran a test for strep throat and it came back negative. She said it was just allergies. I’m no doctor but I’m pretty sure you don’t run that high of a fever with allergies. We got home and he slept for several hours. This was not normal for him. So I called and spoke to the nurse at the pediatrician’s office, and expressed my concerns about the high fever and lack of energy. I thought maybe he had a UTI. She said to bring him and they would do bloodwork. The doctor came in to examine him and I told him what the urgent care doctor had said. He told me that he didn’t know why they did a strep throat test because kids this age didn’t get strep. After the bloodwork came back he walked in and shook his head in disbelief. The diagnosis: Michael had strep in his bloodstream. They gave him a shot and some meds, and he was better in the next couple of days. Again had I not acted on my instincts we would have ended up in the hospital with a serious infection.
Example 3
This just happened recently. Michael was riding his go-cart and rolled it. He came inside looking a little dazed and I asked him what was wrong. He told him he rolled the go-cart and I immediately start asking questions. Does your head hurt? Does your neck hurt? He said no to both. And yes he was wearing a helmet. I waited about an hour and check on him again. He said his arm hurt some but it was not broken. So I looked at it and it was bruised a little bit. I had him move his wrist up and down and he could with no problem. I then had him rotate his hand from palm up to palm down. That is when it hurt. I went out and told his daddy I thought it was injured. He did not agree. The next day I watched him carefully and he was favoring it as he got ready. But kept saying he was fine and that it didn’t hurt. I could not get that off my mind and told my husband that I would feel better if we got it looked at. I called the orthopedic doctor and they couldn’t get us in so they told me to take him to urgent care and have an x-ray done and they could at least splint it, and then we could get in there in the next couple of days. So that’s what I did. That doctor spent 2 minutes with him did an x-ray and said he was fine, and sent us on our way. To say I was unhappy with that visit would be an understatement. I called the orthopedic doctor back the next day and asked if they could at least look at the x-ray, and explained how the visit went and that I was not confident in the doctor’s diagnosis. She put me on hold and then told me to bring him in right now. I went and checked him out of school, swung by to pick up the x-ray, and went straight there. The doctor there looked his arm over and looked at the x-ray and said it was broken. We ended up with a full arm cast. He was furious that they didn’t at least splint it. He said the most important thing is to protect the arm. Again had I not followed my gut and he fell on that arm it could have really done some damage.
Final Thoughts
I say all of this to say do not be afraid to ask questions or get second opinions when you feel something isn’t right. We have this intuition for a reason. We have to be advocates for our children and for ourselves. The doctors are not always right. And even if it turns out they were right, great, at least you know you did everything you could to make sure.
This doesn’t always have to apply to sickness or injuries. Sometimes you get these feelings because of a situation you are in. Follow your gut, rarely does it end up being wrong. Just because I call it ‘mama’s intuition’ doesn’t mean only mamas have it. Every single person has it if they just take the time to listen to it.
Let me know in the comments a time when you acted on your intuition and were right.
Keepin’ it real,
Magan O.
