Tag Archives | doctor

Would you continue to let your doctor see your children if he lost his medical license?

By on September 14, 2010 in Autism

Let say your family doctor did some very painful tests on other children that resulted in him losing his medical license… would you continue to bring your child to that doctor for medical treatment?

What if the doctor did those tests while patenting his own ‘medicine’ as an alternative to what he was hoping to discredit? What if you found out that lawyers were paying him to discredit it so that it would strengthen some court case they had going?

Ok, I think it’s fairly evident that I’m talking about Dr Wakefield but forget about who it is or what conspiracy theories you know surrounding his whole situation and imagine it was just your family doctor right there in your town.

You see, we are all too far removed from Dr. Wakefield to put it into proper perspective, in my opinion. He’s a celebrity doctor now, a martyr. Many people praise him for saying what they want to hear and so they dismiss the stories, theories and even facts.

This is not an article about whether or not he was right, it’s about what we know of a doctor… a doctor that could have been checking out your children, just as easily as anyone else’s child.

Remove yourself from stories… true or false.. and go by what has happened and imagine he was your doctor and ask: Would you continue to bring your child to a doctor that did unethical tests and hurt other children resulting in the loss of his medical license?

Yes? or No?

I’m sure, if your judgment is clouded enough by the hoopla of it all and unable to separate yourself from the situation, that you may just praise him as a God enough to say yes. But for those who have any real common sense and can put that all aside and imagine it was actually just your family doctor right there in your town, the answer must be a very absolute no. Even if we were 99.9% certain that the good doctor was just a victim of global conspiracy, we’d still say no as a responsible parent looking out for the safety of our children.

So let me ask you this, if you would not take your child to such a doctor for the safety of your child, why in the world would you listen to him and take his words as if they were a prescription from God when he didn’t even see your children in the first place?!?

If you know, as I do, that no doctor knows my child without seeing them, why would you think that this doctor holds dominion over all children without seeing them? I mean, imagine your family doctor up and left the country because of it all… would you still continue to see that doctor? Would you still listen to what he tells you to do?

Maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m the one confused by all of this. Even if I had the undisputed greatest doctor in the world caring for my child, and these allegations came out and events happened such as losing his license, leaving the country, being discredited and findings retracted… I’d stop listening to what he tells me.

I know I’m strange like that, but it just kind of makes sense to me. My own health, and certainly my children’s health, are far too important to me to be dismissing these things and hoping that maybe his conspiracy theory stories are true… cause let’s face it, if he did do all those things, he wouldn’t lie about conspiracy theories… right?? Right??

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Allergy Testing at Sick Kids Hospital, My Little Warrior

By on June 28, 2010 in General

So I wrote about how humbling it was to visit a place like Sick Kids Hospital, to see all the children truly suffering and even dying, but I didn’t feel it warranted writing about my own experience at the same time as it distracted from the message, so here it is now.

My wife, Cameron and I arrived at the hospital around 8:40am in anticipation of our 9:30am appointment and was immediately warmly greeted by nurses and given a lot of video games and toys to occupy our times with. First we headed off to the cafeteria for a warm bacon and egg breakfast since we had a little time.

We were called in right away to have Cameron weighed, measured and pressure taken… however, due to his diet rendering him so skinny and his squirmy behaviour, they never did get his blood pressure. Their digital devices simply couldn’t get an accurate reading but he did great with standing on the scale and against the wall.

After a short period we found ourselves in the little doctor’s room where they put 4 drops on his arm and then punctured the skin a bit… at this point, I think Cameron had more of an issue with his arm being held and something being done to him that he didn’t understand than he did with any actual pain. He complained quite vocally but then calmed down just as quickly once it was over.

We had to wait a short while for any reaction, none came. So back came the doctor and this time, with needles. The doctor even told me that they were really quite painful… not at all like when you simply have blood drawn.

This time, Cameron let out some screams that likely scared the bejeebies out of any other children still in the waiting room. However, that being said, he never once tried to pull his arm away… never once tried to get away at all. Despite the overwhelming pain and his arm being held against his will and his obvious distress… he did what was asked of him. Cameron sat on his mother’s lap who held him, comforted him and most of all, was the one to keep his arm where the doctor could do his work… if they hadn’t allowed her to be the one to hold him, it could have gone a lot worse. He demonstrated a truly a brave character trait that I can be quite proud of… but not only me…

The doctor was apparently impressed with him as well because he left for a bit and then came back with a brand new book that he got to keep. It was a cute little animal puzzle book which Cameron loved quite a bit… and immediately got to work on. However, when my wife asked him “Do you want to take this book home or leave it here for other boys and girls to play with while they wait?” he quickly replied that he wanted to leave it for other boys and girls. Again, another great character trait.

The doctor checked his arm out and found no allergic reaction so we were onto the 3rd and final test, the actual medicine portion… he had to take a dose of penicillin and see what happens. Again, he wasn’t happy but he did as told.

The doctor heard how Cameron liked the book but wanted the other children to enjoy it and so he returned again shortly later and this time with a dvd! He gave my son the “Arthur and the Invisibles” DVD, still wrapped in plastic… for being such a great patient.

We finally got to leave after 1pm, we finally found out once and for all that he wasn’t allergic to penicillin (although now we have no idea why he broke out in hives when he took it when he was younger) and we were heading back to the hotel with a new movie for him to watch.

It sure did make for a long day but Cameron handled all the waiting, all the pain, all the discomfort and all the overwhelming issues that must have come from having Autism and being stuck in a place like a hospital… and he handled it very well.

For how well it all went, I sure do hope that we don’t have to do it again any time soon.

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