12 % of 9th graders have experienced at least 1 panic attack and many of them before the age of 10.
It's a startling statistic to me, but while researching children having panic attacks, it's a stat that I came across. Wow. 12%! It seems like a low number, but when you consider what a panic attack is... Scary stuff.
Natalie has been having chest pains and elevated heart rates for about four noted days, starting the evening before Thanksgiving. She told us her "heart hurts" and when we felt her chest and listened at her heart, it was alarming how quickly her heartbeat was. I took her to the local hospital ER only to be told that maybe she was "scared", after her EKG and chest x-ray came back normal. Nice. I'm sure that's it, dill hole. She was just scared.
It happened again last night and we called the nurse hot-line at our doctor's office. After our feeble attempts to get a good heart-rate on her (about 108), she suggested that since Nat had pain, we take her to the ER again. Not thrilled with the level of care we received at Henry Medical, I took her all the way into Atlanta to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. We got there, got her weight, they tagged her arm and went through registration only to have it confirmed that my child, who's having CHEST PAINS, won't be able to see a doctor for 2 1/2 hours. Insanity.
We left. I went against my better judgment and took Natalie home, the whole time screaming at myself inwardly that there could be something wrong with her and no one seems to care enough to help us. I know they can't drop everything for her, and she's seemingly okay today, but what if she was having a heart-attack? I know, rare in 5 year old children, but not impossible, right?
Anyway, it's our goal to keep her home the rest of the weekend and not have to rush off to a hospital with doctors who can't help. I'll take her into the pediatrician on Monday and hopefully they'll be able to guide us. I'm pretty sure she's having anxiety because of our move. I'm having anxiety myself... So why shouldn't she?
I'll update after we see the doctor on Monday.
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