Has it always been this difficult

to raise children! I am not talking about the discipline part, the lack of sleep, the wash your hands a bazillion times and use sanitizer, no what I am referring to is the medical part of it all. We have been home now for almost 2 months. Hard to believe! Time does go fast. In those 2 months though I have had issues with every medical provider we have dealt with.

Lets start with last week. We were supposed to go into see the pediatrician but then they realized that they didn't need to see him til he was 6 months (so in October.) Well then it got me thinking about his 6 month shots. I want to have them done separately. Not all in one day. It is a lot for the immune system to handle. And he has to have a synagis shot on top of that (for the RSV.) So I asked if the public county nurse would be able to do it (to save some extra trips to Great Falls). They said sure. So I called her up to make sure. She said oh yeah that is not a problem. I said that I wanted to spread them out. She asked why. I explained my concern for uncertain facts about vaccinations, how it could be a toll on Ethan, and if nothing else it would ease my mind. She then went on to tell me that she went to a seminar and they said that there is nothing wrong with vaccinations. Oh, ok great lady. Yeah you changed my mind now. Not! So then she got really snobby and said that I would be doing Ethan more harm by taking him to the office 4 times vs 1 time to get the shots. Followed by "I think it would be best that you do your shots with your pediatrician because I have signed an agreement that I would follow for such and such regulations and by spreading them out I would not be following them." Well I kindly ended the conversation and said thank you. I then hung up and started to bawl. It is so frustrating. It is my right as a parent to decide weather or not I vaccinate my child. If I chose to do so it is my right to spread them out. Seriously people! It is so frustrating. Mark is by my side on this too if you are wondering ;) So we will be doing a few trips to Great Falls but that is so worth it to me. So let me point out to you that I am not one that says "NO vaccinations" obviously since we are vaccinating him. But I do find some facts very interesting. One that I read the other night was: "In 1983 we had ten shots on the vaccination schedule. Autism was one in 10,000. Today there are 36 vaccines given. Autism is nearing 1 in 100." Did you know that hep B is one of the first vaccinations given? Do you know what hep B is? After I read what it was it made me think "and newborns need this why?" They can get it later on when their immune system is stronger. Even like 10 years old. I really wish I could take my child to the doctor and know that they know what they are doing. Sit back and relax. But nope. You really can't these days. It truely is best if you do some research as to what is going on with your child and what the doctors are doing.

Now the most recent thing. So Mark has talked about a friend that has a child that was on prevacid for a long time. Mark didn't know too much about it but knew that it had caused him issues. Mark had brought this up to me awhile ago but it was hard to make anything from it because he didn't know much. Well the other night he started talking about it again and the parts that he did know I was able to piece together because of the reading I have been doing. Mark still didn't make sense but because of what I had read it did. Well I decided to jump on the internet to look it up. Prevacid has been linked to cause a leaky gut which can cause food allergies as well as an exhausted immune. I had forgot to give Ethan his medication at 8pm that night so I said well we will give it to him when he gets up next. Well then after doing some reading I said "let's see how he does without it." You see, I called the pediatrician last month to see if we could take him off of it and he said lets wait to see how is doing at his next appointment and then we can take him off. Well that was originally set for Sept and now it is changed to October. So we went the night without it and I called the pediatrician to see if we could take him off of it now. His nurse called back and said that he thinks we should keep him on it until the next appointment. So of course at this point I got a little irritated since this was the exact same thing he said last month only he thought we would be in last week! So I continued on with telling her that I did take him off of it now for 18 hours (by the time she got back to me) and he was doing fine and that I read that prevacid has side effects and that I want him off of it asap. She said that she would talk to the Dr. and give me a call back in the morning.

Well now it is the morning and I didn't get a call back. So I called them. Oh there was a note in the records stating that the Dr. ok'd it for him to go off the prevacid! What! Really! So I just needed to INSIST that he say yes its ok to stop the medication. Really?!?!? I am soooo frustrated! So if it wasn't for me telling him that I had stopped it and was looking for an ok my baby would have to stay on the medication for another month when he really didn't need it! So should I have INSISTED last month? Is it my fault that he was on the medication for the last month now? I don't get it. I really like our pediatrician but in this instance he has failed Ethan and he has failed me. I don't want him to be on medication that he doesn't need. Don't doctors understand that medicine is not natural? And they wonder why there are more children with autism, ADD, and many more that are not coming to me right now. I am not a doctor. I don't research a TON but I do read articles and I do read books. I would like my doctor to think of Ethan as one person, think of him as his own child, and think OK what is the benefits of keeping him on the medication and what are the benefits of taking him off. Now we still have the nebulizer... the breathing treatments. I have no idea what I can do about it. I have told them that I want him to take a picture of his lungs at his next appointment and send it to his lung Doctor in Billings to see if we can reduce the treatments or even stop them. If for some reason this isn't done I will be calling the lung doctor myself and would be willing to take a trip to Billings if I have to. Hmm... calling him now doesn't sound like a bad idea either.

Oh and Ethan has been wire-less for more than a few weeks now. Love it! For some reason the monitor is still here though. They were supposed to pick it up a few weeks ago. Another great customer service experience on that too but I won't bore you!

And now for what you are really looking for... pictures!

This next one I took of Kiara when I was just playing around with my camera and then found it later... I like her reflection in the door ;)
Just love this next one... he looks like he pooped his pants!
And for something you weren't expecting....

I am taking a class on-line to learn to take self-portraits. A lot of it is repeat stuff to me but at least it motivates me to take some pictures of myself as I don't get on the other side of the camera much. I plan on doing more of Ethan and I soon. Just doing these pictures is a lot of work. It means I need to get in the shower before the sun goes down! You laugh but I am not kidding. Most days it seems like a major accomplishment when I get a shower in!