My Summer Vacation...can it begin now?

Hello again everyone.  First I want to thank everyone for the very kind words during my son's illness.  You are all wonderful!

I wanted to give a little update on my son.  He completed his first week at work.  Normally he stands and has to move around a lot, but he had to sit for the majority of his time there.  His legs are still week, but he made it through the week.

Yesterday he called and asked me if he could come out and help me set up the pool.  It's a daunting task, there's a lot of standing and moving around to do.  But we worked well together and took a lot of breaks.  And 3 hours later we were filling the pool.

It was a great relief to see him back to his (almost) normal self!

Here's what we learned in our medical endeavors:

1. ALWAYS ask for the insert to any new medications your receive!  And don't be afraid to talk to your pharmacist about over the counter drugs that might interfere or react with new meds.  My son's first Rx of doxycycline did not specify in the small insert that he should not take antacid medicines with his medication, but his new pharmacy had that information included with his meds.  He takes a lot of antacids and this could have inhibited the effectiveness of the medication.  We're not sure.  I always always ask for the insert that the pharmacy gets with their medicines because it has way more information in it.  You are only given the basic and most important info with the small inserts you receive with a prescription, and you'd be surprised what information you don't receive.
2. Don't be afraid to ask your doctor to repeat tests.  We recently asked for a Lyme test repeat because the first test was negative and a couple doctors my son had seen were sure they were wrong.  We pay for the test, so there's no reason why they shouldn't do it!
3. If your doctor won't listen, get a different doctor.  My son's doctor is wonderful, and she listened to all our concerns.  She spend well over an hour with us.  And she asked US what  we might have thought of that would be of help.  This was good because we asked for a tox screen, you just never know.  So she checked for lead, just because that's the most common toxin in many environments that harms people.  
4. I can't stress this enough...YOU pay the doctor, they should be listening and helping you decide what's best to do.  If they can't give you a valid reason (I hate hearing "because I don't think...." grrrrr) for not doing something, then move on to a new doctor.
5. Do your research online.  Doctors might not like that because not everything online is accurate.  But if you use valid sources for your information then you have a valid point.  Medical sites are great places for info.  Blogs, like mine, are not!  My information is just from my experiences, nothing is medically proven here.

Be smart and assertive about your healthcare.  It's about you, not the doctor!

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