Wow Fed. That could almost be our story (other than the air-flight and three weeks in the hospital). In our case my wife kept telling our pediatrician - the one we had been seeing for six year with the first two kids - that "something is NOT right" and he kept telling her that DS just had a minor cold and that she was overreacting. Even after he stopped breathing and we made the dash to the ER with him the pediatrician wanted to downplay the whole thing. I distinctly remember sitting in the ER listening to the ER doc telling our pediatrician "You can say what you want but I'm the one looking at this kid's stats and he is SICK." For the first six days in the neo-natal ICU they had to leave him on constant oxygen because everytime they tried to take him off the alarms would immediately start ringing (low pulsox?).
Oddly, we still go to this pediatrician but he has apologized several times and whenever DW calls with a question or complaint he takes her VERY seriously.
In our adventure with DD, it was the Pediatrician who was right and the ER was wrong. DD just wasn't right. We knew she was off in a major way, very lethargic. DW took off from work and made an appointment with the pediatrician. I got a call from her while I was at work that they were being sent directly from the pediatrician to the ER. I got there as fast as I could, but when you have to take a train from NYC out to Long Island in an emergency, it certainly feels like it's taking forever. She was examined, treated, and sent home that night. Next day pediatrician calls to follow up and DW tells them we're home and the pediatrician is surprised and asks us to bring her back in. DW calls me again from the appointment to let me know they're going back to the ER. This time pediatrician also calls the ER to tell them she's to be admitted. We ended up staying in the hospital for a few days and it wasn't until the 2nd or 3rd day that the hospital doctors were onboard with the pediatrician's diagnosis. My understanding is the pneumonia in children is hard to see when it's in the early stages, but my pediatrician was sure of it and the ER doctors just weren't seeing the same thing at first.
The other "fun" part of our adventure was that they had trouble inserting an IV line into DD. They tried several times in both arms, and with different techs, in the ER and just couldn't get it. They tried one last time once we were admitted and still no go. So the next morning the staff docs show up to introduce themselves and have a look. One of them pulls out the IV kit and says he is going to try the IV again. DD leaped out of the bed and into DW's lap. Before I even realized what I was doing I was standing and had put myself between the doctor and DD. Now normally I am a VERY passive person, and would just let a doctor dictate how things would go. But I wasn't going to let it happen again. I told him I was sorry but we're not putting DD through any more attempts at an IV. We want the shot of meds like they did last night. The doctor asked if I was sure, explaining this would be a painful shot they'd give her every 12 hours. I didn't hesitate. I told him we'd rather have DD get one shot every 12 hours than deal with the IV problem indefinitely. At least I could look my DD in the eyes and honestly tell her that it's just going to be one shot and it's only going to hurt for a little while. We had to hold her down each time because she was terrified whenever the doctors came in, but at least we knew it would be over relatively quick.
In related news, got a letter from our insurance today to let us know that our copay on Flovent will be increasing. Last year they decided not to cover Xopenex anymore and told us to use Albuterol instead. Thankfully with some documentation from the specialist and our pediatrician regarding DD's reaction to Albuterol, we got them to approve coverage for the last Xopenex prescription.
Last week at this time we were posting pictures.
Today we are not...
weird.
Man if I had a time machine... there'd be a part of me that would want to use it just to go back a week so I could see those pics!!

Sweet. Sometimes I wish I would've got my degree in computer science instead of marketing. I know nothing of programming and wish I did.
Some of my best students are folks who have degrees but have decided they want to get something different. Of course it's a long rough path to start - especially with a couple of kids in the house.
I am right there with you Scott...I would like to do the same thing! However, I think I am in too deep to choose another career at this stage of the game.
I wish I had gone with the B.S. in my field (Television) instead of the B.A., and maybe minored in computer science instead of... English! I think I would have made a good engineer. I would still try, and I might try eventually to go back to school and learn those things... but that costs money, and I just don't have it.