Yes but there is a fine line between keeping up to date on the research involving your condition and the people who come to my HIV testing office hysterical because they have a cold sore and WebMD told them that was a sign of AIDS.
I had a physical this year for the first time in 3 years. My new physician insisted on the pertussis shot because I shall soon have a second grandchild. I did it. What I didn’t realize is that there seems to be a possibility you can spread it during the first 2 weeks after you’ve had the shot. I came into contact with an almost newborn during that period. Fortunately, nothing happened. Still, if you’re going to be a grandparent do it more than 2 weeks before meeting your grandchild.
And remember, even if you own grandchild is over 18 months and thus fully vaccinated, if you go to a playground, story time at the library and lots of other places, you will run into younger children who haven’t been.
Roughly half the kids who get pertussis before the age of one have to be hospitalized.
For years, I used to ask for the paperwork so that I could have my blood tests done a couple of weeks before a routine appointment with my doctor – and doctors and their office staff used to look at me as though I were insane.
Now my doctor’s office calls me a couple of weeks before the appointment and tells me that the request has been sent to Quest electronically and that I need to get myself over there and get stuck.
I think this is the only instance in my life when I was ever ahead of my time.
@Marian Exactly. I have osteoporosis, which is being managed by an endocrinologist, who knows exactly what tests my gyn has ordered, who knows what Rxs my dermatologist has prescribed, and my primary oversees all of it. (They’re all in the same big medical group.) Before the osteo diagnosis, my medical care was hit or miss, but now I get all of my exams, tests, and vaccinations on schedule, and I’m glad for it.
I love the way my medical group does flu shots. They hold flu shot clinics by appointment, at the Internal Medicine/Family Practice office, 4 or 5 Saturdays beginning October 1st. (My primary is an internist, but this is open to all patients of the group.) They have it down to an assembly-line science. They have tables set up in the waiting room, where you get your pre-printed form. Then you take the form down the hall way, where 3 or 4 nurses are stationed with their carts, giving shots one after the other. Last year, I was in the office for exactly 6 minutes, door to door. It couldn’t be easier.
Yes! Such a good point!
The true true gems are the primary care physicians who take it upon themselves to do this research when they have a patient with a very rare disease, especially a disease with systemic effects. I’m a lawyer and I bill my clients for research time but our crazy medical billing / insurance reimbursement system doesn’t allow for this. I weep for joy when my PCP spends countless hours researching the insanely ancane issues that my very rare disease raises, and I feel terrible that the time is not reimbursable.
And the very worst docs are the ones who pooh-pooh the information presented by well-informed patients with rare diseases. Been there!
Tdap vaccine includes acellular pertussis vaccine, meaning it does not contain the whole pertussis organism, so vaccine derived pertussis infections should not occur. However, some research indicates that it may not completely prevent pertussis from colonizing a vaccinated person without making such person sick.
^ Serious question, if you are a lawyer and bill say 30 hours for research time on some obscure topic, then unexpectedly another client comes in with essentially the same question and it only takes you 3 hours, for how many hours do you bill the second client?
3 hours
Interesting information on the flu vaccine
https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/28/2016-flu-season-shots-science/