Does Harwin sell PhD's?

FOLLOW UP:

Hank's blood results came back. I've got good and bad news.

GOOD NEWS:

Hank isn't allergic to anything. No food allergies what so ever (we never thought he was anyway). Surprisingly, no aireborne allergies either (this we did think he had). Not grass, pollen, pets or pet dander. No trees or flowers or dust mites. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

So of course thats good news, except I can't tell you how many times in the past (few months even) I've taken him to the dr for what I think is a sinus infection or something and they have dismissed it as "allergies." Well turns out, Dr's are morons who get paid a lot of money to do jack crap! Can you tell I'm a little aggrivated? So ok, not all Dr's are stupid, but it appears all the ones we've been to pretty much are, until now. It seems they are giving out PhD's these days to anyone who asks.... maybe they sell them on Harwin like they do knock off purses? Ya think?

Let me back up in case some of you reading don't know what has gone on the past 4 years. Like stated in my previous post, Hank has had tubes twice and his adnoids removed once due to chronic ear infections. Nothing every really got rid of them. Basically they were treated too late, from my understanding now. Since Hank was 4 months old (possibly earlier but I can't remember that far back) he was always sick. Mostly ear infections, but that comes with a cold or sinus stuff. After the second set of tubes things were better and dr's would tell me it was allergies because at the time his nose wasn't green or yellow (you know what i'm talking about fellow mommies). So I just figured Hank got Shays allergies and that was just something we had to deal with.... but again no one ever told me to go see an allergist.

Well fast forwarding to a few weeks ago. Hank was happy as could be one second and the next screaming and crying so hard he could barely tell me what hurt. When he finally did he said his ear hurt. The ear without the tube. So we went to the dr and of course, his ear drum ruptured. So now, the ear infections are back. So on to the ENT because a third set of tubes was reccommended by the peditrician. THANKFULLY the ENT knows what he's doing!

He sent us to the allergist/immunologist and we had blood work done. Which in turn gaves us the results stated above. It also gave us the bad results.

BAD NEWS:

Children get certain immunizations the first year of life. One is called Haemophilus influenzae type b; also known as Hib Vaccine. Another is called Streptococcus pneumoniae; also known as Pneumococcus Vaccine. The first (Hib) is most known to prevent (most)meningitis and other serious diseases. The other is most known to prevent pneumonia. Like all babies Hank got these vacciantions (all rounds of it). Little did I (or obviously any dr thus far) know, they never worked. Not one strain of it. The pneumococcus vaccine has 7 strains injected and children build up antibodies to these 7 strains. Hank never build ONE. Not a single antibody in his system! This only happens to about 5-10% of people.This vaccine also can prevent or help prevent, imagine this, EAR INFECTIONS! 20 percent of serious ear infections requiring tubes! Ok, so now do you understand why I'm so pissed (for lack of better words)?

Everytime I have taken him to the dr and they have told me it's allergies I now know it's been a sinus infection or worse. It has been some sort of Pneumococcus. So you can imagine that right about now I'm pretty upset. I'm mad, angry, scared and really confused. For all these years I have "trusted" that dr's know what they are doing. They went to school for this. They are licensed and I'm not. They know better than I do. I'm just an overprotective mother. Now I don't know if anyone knows anything. Of course, I'm not naive. I have always known dr's aren't always right. I know that for the most part dr's assume my child is like every other child that walks in their office with the same symtoms and yes, maybe those children did have "just allergies" but my child is just as important as the next. They deserve to be checked out as if they've never seen the symptoms before. He deserves to be taken seriously, and so do I.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT:

So now, Hank will need the vaccinations again. He will get the two shots and then 1 month later they will do blood work again to see if they worked like they are supposed to. So all these years that my baby has been getting infection after infection, causing ear infections, there was something that could have been done. Yes, most of his dr's prescribed something, but what I question is could the tubes have been prevented? Would he be "bigger" and weigh more now had his immune system been "up to par" like it should have? Not once, by any of the dr's I trusted so much, did anyone say "hey, there is a chance his vaccinations didn't work. Lets test him and find out."

I'm kind of at a loss for words. Not really sure what to do next. I do know I will be switching peditricians. Some of you might think I'm overreacting, but the whole time we've lived in San Antonio the peditricians office we go to, I have seen every dr in that office. They don't really give you "one" dr that is your childs dr. It's just whoever is free. I've never really liked this, but I never really felt I had a reason to switch. Now I do. I plan on finding someone that will get to know my child and respect my opinions and feelings. Someone that will remember me the next time I walk into the office and not act as if they have never come in contact with me. Hank isn't easy to forget (haha) so when someone pretends they've never seen him before, it's a little frustrating. I also plan to take him straight to his ENT dr whenever he has a cold or sinus issues. The allergist/immunologist told me that everytime he's had a runny nose or cough it's never been allergies. It's always been something more. At least I know now the ENT cares and is doing his job. He didn't jump at the chance to do surgery on my 4 year old child for the money. He instead wanted to have everything checked out and see if we could fix the problem instead of cover it up. That's what I want in a dr. Someone that cares and knows what the hell he is doing!

Is that too much to ask?

Please keep praying for Hank. Pray that the vaccinations will work this time around. Pray it will stop his ear infections and other infections all around. Pray he will (hopefully) start to gain weight (he only weighs 28lbs! Jace weighed almost 21 at his 1 yr check up) and get healthy!

Jace has his gaternologist appt tomorrow at 1 pm. I'll let you know how that turns out. =)


♥Marissa♥