The Sickies
by Erinn
My son has been fighting a small head cold all weekend, today it worsened. I thought I heard him wheezing, so off to the doctor I went.
Every time my child is prescribed medicine, which thank goodness has not been often, I run home and check the medicine, side effects and benefits on the internet. I always ask the doctor, but I don’t always trust what they say. Especially when it comes to my kids.
Do you always trust your doctor and the advice and medicine they give you?
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October 24th, 2006 at 8:20 am
This is an excellent point. My son (now 13) has dealt with chronic ear infections since he was one. At 6, they removed his adenoids and tubes were put in his ears.
I happen to have a lack of faith in doctors. I spent three years on betablockers, digitalis, and calcium channel blockers after having what was first diagnosed as a supraventricular tachycardia. Then they changed it to an atrial tachycardia. Then I demanded I go to another cardiologist who did every test known to man and he said there was nothing wrong, but for some reason, my heart would just start beating rapidly for no apparent reason. One afternoon, my father-in-law was dying (leukemia) and I lost it. I’d just switched to a new medication at my cardiologist’s advice, and my BP plummeted to 70/40. Very scary for my then 5 and 2 year olds to watch. Another trip to the ER to be told the medication could do that. I finally wound up doing some research myself and came across panic attacks. Went back to the cardiologist who admitted he knew nothing about it. I finally got the help I needed and it took 8 months to wean myself off of the pills they had me taking. Anyway, since that day I check every little thing possible when my kids are given a prescription.
When he was 10, he had another ear infection and the doctor decided to try something a little stronger. I took the prescription home and did my usual research. The prescription said to take two pills three times a day. That did not match up to what I was reading, so I called the doctor. He’d gone for the day but they put me on the line with a different doctor. The dosage was meant for an adult = not for a 70 lb boy. They’d doubled it. The first question I heard - “did you give him the meds yet, if so you need to go have his stomach pumped.” Thankfully, I hadn’t. I never do until I know everything.
It pays to be overly cautious.
October 24th, 2006 at 9:53 am
It’s not that I don’t trust the doctor, so much as I don’t think they have time to be that thorough. I know I’ve been given meds before which the doctor said did not interact with any other meds I was taking-only to read in the leaflet that came with the meds that it DID! I usually research a med pretty thoroughly. Between formerly being employed in the medical field and taking care of my daughter, and my mother, before she passed away, I’ve learned to cover all the bases.
I’ve actually found that my pharmacist will usually give me more thorough information than the doctor. I call her with questions all the time!
October 24th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Tracy, thank goodness you were cautious!
Gayle, the pharmacist usually is better with the detail information. But why don’t we demand that out of our doctors?
Out of anyone we pay a service for?
October 24th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
I’ve worked in the medical field and, though I feel there are a lot of inadequacies out there, I can honestly say that doctors are some of the most overworked people in the world! Now, they should not schedule so many appointments in their day, so maybe some of it is their own fault, but I have worked in medical records for a large hospital, and most of the doctors I met there were lucky if they got to sit down for lunch!
They simply don’t have time to do everything else they do AND sit down to read the Physician’s Desk Reference every time they prescribe a drug. But I do think they ought to have someone in their office who has the specific duty of checking on all the meds patients are taking and making sure there are no drug interactions. Just my opinion.