Sunday Morning Shout Out

Image Source: http://vaccineimpact.com/2015/medical-doctors-opposed-to-forced-vaccinations-should-their-views-be-silenced/

The season is upon us.  Before you think I am talking about the holidays, think again.  I am talking about cold and flu season.  I am talking about the various “’plagues,” that are commonplace in many schools.  There are times when you wish for a bubble for you and your family.  There are times when you can’t get past it.

Fortunately, there are things we can do to shore ourselves up for the cold, flu, and “plague season.”  There are the tried and true tips: frequent hand washing, covering your face and mouth when you sneeze and cough, avoiding direct contact with someone who is sick, avoiding touching your face or eyes -as to avoid transmitting germs and sickness, eating for health-whole foods -as opposed to processed food and junk food, which decrease our bodies’ immune system, lots of rest, exercise, stress management, etc.  The medical community advocates for flu shots being the number one preventative measure a person can take.  Others like Dr Mark Hyman would disagree.  Vitamin C, big kettles of chicken soup, garlic, and a whole host of other more natural remedies are lauded by more holistic folk.  Every family is different in their approach.  Our favorites are airing out the house, frequent hand washing, whole foods, and pre and probiotics.  What are yours?

 

Sick Days Chronicle

So I started and finished a post similar to this on Wednesday. However, I gave the computer a burp and sadly lost the original. A couple more days have passed and our daughter has still not fully recovered from the fever, cough and runny nose. So lets look at the last couple of days and the brilliance of our medical system. I’ll hold some of the thoughts I had from the lost post on home schooling, standardized testing and Kindergarten for another day.

So…We had taken our daughter to the doctor’s office on Monday after the fever that started on Saturday evening wouldn’t break on Sunday. We thought we’d be a bit more proactive than in the past taking her to the doctor’s office since there were cases of Strep Throat at her school earlier in the week. At the office they took a swab and the initial test was negative for Strep. That was good. However, it was also bad since the ‘true’ results from the sample would not be available until Thursday. Thus, the physicians assistant (we rarely see the ‘real’ doctor) did not prescribe any type of ‘-cillin since if it was Strep it needed to be treated by one type while the normal Amoxicillin we have gotten in the past when our daughter was sick only treated normal fluish / respiratory illnesses.

On that Monday doctor visit the physicians assistant did give us a script for steroids (Prelone), but looking at what it treats (see below) we decided it was not in our daughters best interest so we did not fill it. The physicians assistant also suggested our daughter get a flu shot. I have a bit of a problem with that because 1. I don’t think flu shots are of any benefit, 2. My friend’s sister got one six years ago at CVS and became paralyzed from it and is still disabled from it. CVS takes no responsibility for it and the producer and suppliers are all protected by a variety of State and Federal laws. The next time you get a flu shot take a moment to read the paper they make you sign. and 3. My daughter is already sick, so why would I put her body through the introduction of more viruses and junk into her body?

So Thursday came along and we called the doctor’s office about 8:30am. They didn’t seem to remember there was supposed to be follow-up lab results and they needed to call back when they found the results. That took 5 hours and they said it was not Strep and that they faxed a prescription to our drug store for Amoxicillin. So I got that about 4pm and started my daughter on it right away. Already this morning she is showing improvement as of 5am Friday! How nice it would have been if they had just prescribed this on Monday! It seems that now instead of prescribing -cillins for everything the new fad is to prescribe steroids for everything.

What is also a bit troubling is that I asked the secretary from the doctor’s office who called with the Strep results and news of the Amoxicillin prescription about continuing to control her fever she suggested we us Tylenol (acetaminophen). I had to laugh to myself on that because it is well documented that extended us of Tylenol (acetaminophen) especially on children can cause liver failure and damage. To help avoid this we alternate between Tylenol (acetaminophen) and Advil or Motrin. If we had continued using Tylenol (acetaminophen) straight through this it would have been six days. I worked with a woman whose son went to ICU because of liver failure 15 years ago and he now has behavioral problems. She used Tylenol (acetaminophen) for his fever at the time and yet the physicians nor government would recognize that it was due to the Tylenol. Sad…if you now look at any bottle of Tylenol (acetaminophen) you clearly see the warning about potential liver damage from extended use. Also note that if we had used the Steroid script with our daughter there are warnings against using Advil for the fever

Welp, I didn’t recreate that lost post, but I’ll try again tomorrow. For now I think the point here is to be VERY careful with any medication, do research, read label and don’t be afraid to question your doctor. Remember they are human and can make mistakes.

Prelone – Treats inflammation (swelling), allergies, arthritis, asthma, skin conditions, kidney problems, and many other medical problems. Also treats flare-ups of ongoing illnesses such as multiple sclerosis. May be used for some symptoms of cancer. This medicine is a corticosteroid (steroid).