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Whew! Got the shots

My daughters got the first of their two H1N1 shots in school yesterday.

I didn’t realize how anxious I was about H1N1 until my daughters came home from school with Band-Aids on their little shoulders and I felt a weight lift off my shoulders.

When the news of the virus first hit, I tried to stay calm and to think that all the excitement about the virus was just media hype.  Just recently, though, I read a post in my favorite New York Times blog (the blog is called Well) and learned that doctors “are seeing a lot of infections with a virus against which children have no immunity, and which has already caused more deaths in children under 5 than we would see in years of regular seasonal flu.”

After reading the above, I started to get a little nervous, especially since one of my daughters has asthma and the other has reactive airways.  The daughter with asthma is prone to pneumonia.  She’s been in the hospital twice for pneumonia, and believe me, it’s no picnic.  She pulled through it fine both times, but it’s still very scary.

So as soon as the vaccine became available in our school district, you better believe I signed my daughters up.

I know folks are concerned about the small amount of mercury in the shot.  I am concerned too. But I have a different attitude about these kinds of things since I had cancer.

Our environment is poisoned, our planet is poisoned, our bodies are poisoned.  I do not believe that we can escape it for the time being.  I believe that we can only pick lesser evils at this point; for example, I try to eat organic when I can because it’s the lesser of two evils.  But, as far as the mercury in the shot, well, I can pick between the small amount of mercury in the shot or the whopping dose of very, very powerful steroids my daughter will have to take if she gets pneumonia again.

The steroids rip her stomach up, giving her stomach aches, and then they make her aggressive for a few nasty days.  Once, to my horror, my daughter — hepped up on steroids after another bout with pneumonia — clocked her sister a good one on the jaw in the pediatrician’s office.  I was naturally mortified and tried to explain to the doctor that my daughter didn’t usually punch her sister unprovoked.  He looked unimpressed and simply said, “I call it ‘Roid Rage. It’s a very real thing.”

You bet your sweet patootie it’s real.  Which would you choose?  To me, it’s a no-brainer.  We’ll take the shots, thank you very much.

A little mercury in the shots, yeesh.  I can only imagine what’s in our tap water.

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TwinWatch: Health tips for busy parents of twins/multiples

About TwinWatch @ BeTwinned

Doctor and mother of twins Barbara Barnett with some tips about when to call your doctor about a suspected ear infection.

by Barbara Barnett, M.D.

One of the toughest questions for me to answer is how parents know when to take their children to the doctor. If you wait too long, the window for precious treatment time is lost. However, if the child presents too early, an accurate diagnosis may be difficult.

Consider, for example, acute otitis media, better known as an ear infection.

Ear infections are the most common bacterial illness in children — over 5 million cases of acute otitis media occur each year, with 10 million antibiotic prescriptions and about 30 million annual visits to the doctor’s office. Fifty percent of antibiotic prescriptions for preschoolers in the U.S. are prescribed for ear infections. (F.Y.I. The average preschooler carries around 1 to 2 pounds of bacteria! These bacteria have had 3.5 billion years of experience resisting and surviving environment.)

An acute otitis media infection usually has an abrupt onset of illness. Middle ear fluid collects, and then the signs of a middle ear inflammation begin. The most common symptoms of an ear infection include fussiness, fever, pulling/rubbing at the ears, or changes in sleep or appetite.

New guidelines suggest starting antibiotic treatment only if symptoms do not improve within 48 to 72 hours. Surprisingly, 80 percent of children with acute otitis media do get better without antibiotics!

And for those children who do end up needing antibiotics, about 15 percent suffer from diarrhea or vomiting, and up to 5 percent have allergic reactions.

So don’t be surprised if your children’s doctor recommends “watchful waiting” for 48-72 hours. Fortunately, after 24 hours of watchful waiting about 60 percent of children feel better.

When in doubt, however, it’s always best just to go ahead and call your doctor.