Thursday, March 17, 2016

Is It Necessary??

"I'm writing you a prescription for Tamiflu, you probably saw it on TV, that's where I learned about it."  Not exactly words I expected to hear from my doctor.  My only regularly used medication sits in a mug in front of me with steam rising above it.  It's a beautiful sight and smell, you coffee lovers know what I'm talking about.  Anyway, sitting here thinking about what to write about and decided to talk about a recent event.
It started Saturday evening, I had taken the children to a state park near our house.  We took a hike played, played on the playground, threw football around and waded in the water.  All except my oldest son, he fell into the water while they were trying to carry a large branch out deeper in the lake.  Side note here, all of my fatherhood, I feel like I've been an overreacting, harsh, overly critical father.  I have recently been trying to adjust my fatherhood reactions so that the softer emotions play out sooner than the harsher emotions.  So, anytime I think I have completed this by not flying off of the handle over some trivial matter, I get a small rush of...satisfaction....maybe??  I call them, "Dad deserves a Klondike Bar" moments.  That Saturday was a "warm" March Saturday in Pennsylvania.  Which means it was about 65 degrees, and that's being generous.  The young man stood up totally soaked from armpits down.  And I can see the fear in his eyes.  I look at him shake my head and with a half smile and say "you better dry off before you plan on riding in my van home."  With that, I took him over to the sand volleyball court and threw the football for him so that he had an excuse to roll around in the sand and dry off the water.  Yes, that day I deserved a Klondike Bar.  :) Course, maybe you perfect people don't struggle with temper flares and have no understanding of these moments.
Well back to my original topic.  I came home from the park with a slight tickling in the back of my throat.  Wondered if it was seasonal allergies.  Not sure that I'm a seasonal allergy guy, but it looked like it could be a possibility.  I woke up Sunday and discovered that it was getting a little worse.  By Monday morning I could barely crawl out of bed.  Bailed on work after only 3 hours and crawled home to lay on the couch.  Which FYI Morgan Freeman is an excellent voice to dose off to.  Two days laters my muscles and joints had quit aching but I still had major ear drum pressure, sinus congestion, sore throat.  I decided to head to the Doctor, which I don't have a family doctor, I think people of my generation have neither Family Doctors or Landlines.  This means when I have an issue with my health, I head to the local walk-in clinic.  I go through the usual proceedings of insurance card, payment, fill 16 pages of information out; and am immediately taken back to the doctor.  Which is a miracle at the local walk-in clinic.  My reason for going is that I'm wanting to make sure that I don't have an ear infection.  If I do I wouldn't mind an antibiotic.  I'm not against medications, just don't go to the doctor looking for them.  Had a vasectomy 5 years ago, never filled the Vicodin prescription he game me.  Not that I'm tough, just didn't think I needed it.  Now the time I had shoulder surgery, I popped those Vicodin's like they were M'M's.  Seriously, worst pain in my life was getting the shoulder anchored in place.  I still cringe at the thought of it.  I actually called the doctor up days after my surgery asking if everything was okay because it was a two-person process to just put deodorant on.  Me, lifting the arm with my good hand and my wife applying the deodorant for me.:) So anyway I'm still filling out the paperwork when the doc walks in, asks me what's wrong.  I describe my symptoms.  He does a rapid check of my ears and throat.  I take the time to tell him all the symptoms, when they start, why I am there, pressure in ear drums, worries of ear infection.  He tells me he's going to write me a prescription for Tamiflu and I can pick it up at Walmart.  I don't say anything because I'm not sure if Tamiflu works on sore throats at this time.  He departs the room in normal walk-in clinic doctor fashion.  Scarcely has he left the room and I'm on my phone verifying what I think about Tamiflu.  You can find what I read here, on webmd.  Several things immediately jumped out at me.  It treats the SYMPTOMS of sore throat, so according to my knowledge that means it just makes your sore throat feel better.  If you have strep throat it won't fix that.  Okay, next thing I found was that it could cause nausea and vomiting.  Now up until this time I hadn't had any nausea or vomiting.  Just the "hit by a bus" feeling.  Also saw that it worked best when taken within 2 days/48 hours of symptoms first appearing.  Basically, I was on the mend already, and me taking Tamiflu, would improve my condition by approximately zilch.  Called the pharmacy and explained my situation, that the doctor had sent in a prescription for Tamiflu but that I thought it would be pointless to start taking it at this time of my sickness.  She was very helpful and said she basically would not disagree with my decision.  I told her to cancel my prescription and drove home to find my couch and lay down.  Hey, if it works for you fine, but I'm the type of person who wonders if we are an over prescribed society.  Did the doctor feel obligated to prescribe me Tamiflu?  Is that what most people expect when they walk in the doctor?  He prescribes a magic pill to make the pain/hurt stop?  I wonder about the wisdom behind such actions.  "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Right??  Whatever happened to gargling saltwater, compresses, steam remedies?  Too much work apparently.. That's just my two cents.

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