First, Do NO HARM....

I haven't posted in a while, the only reason I can give is... life. Through our journey one constant has persisted.....why??? Why us? Why J? Why M? Why did I question the doctor? What is our path? This journey has to have a reason? What is God teaching us? He is calling me to something. I am not sure what, but hopefully it will become clear to me soon.
The other night I was watching a documentary about psychotropic drugs. It ended at about 1:30 a.m. at which time I was enraged with frustration. It made me have such a combination of feelings. I felt so thankful and relieved that something made me question our dermatologist. But it also made me feel so angry that someone would prescribe one of these drugs to my little girl. I was also sad for all of the parents who don't understand that they have the right to informed consent, that may have given the drug and may be suffering without knowing why. I was compelled to write this letter. I needed to tell the doctor what she could have done!!! I needed to feel that I at least put it out there. I wanted to share it with you. I hope I can empower you to look at the package insert, read the side effects and research the prescription. But please do this AFTER you ask the doctor for all available options and talk to them about your family history! We are their consumers, they work for us. We are our own, our children's, our sister's, our brother's and our friends' advocates.  Make sure they are treating you with what is best for YOU!!

Dear Dr. -------,
My daughter was a patient of yours over a year ago. We came in to be treated for eczema with extremely high histamine levels, obvious by sight. You were the witts end of our journey to treat her condition, referred to us by a family member. In our first visit you prescribed Atarax, stating that her "issue" is that she needs to be out the minute she hits the pillow because nighttime was when she did the most damage. You even stated the Atarax was a go to for you when you travel with your own kids, I guess justifying to me the safety. What you didn't do in this visit was inquire about the family history that we may be a part of in terms of any health related issues. You also prescribed derma-smoothe again assuring the safety of this very mild steroid. I took both home, with a renewed spirit that maybe my daughter will find peace and our whole family will get the rest we so desperately needed. I used both products ASAP. The derma-smoothe created hives, which you very rudely requested evidence of these hives, I showed you a picture. I tried Atarax for a full month. During this time, my typical 3 year old became scared of the world, paranoid, defiant, restless. This scared everyone that witnessed it. I had stopped the meds by the time our second appointment came. When I gave you the reasoning for our discontinued use you scoffed at me in front of your two medical students, my mother as well as my child. I stated that she woke with a hang over, was wired after 3 hours and completely not herself. You couldn't imagine a hang over after 8 hrs. Well I am 32 and get a hang over 8 hrs after 1 glass of wine. Not only did the appointment start 1 hour after it was schedule, during which time I saw you leave the office for 30 of those minutes and return with a restaurant soda, but you spent all of 10 minutes with us. You requested no family history, questioned my judgement the entire time, made observations of my daughter including "her histamine levels must be through the roof." Then stated to your students "I'd hate to do this, but I think she needs it." Following this up with prescribing a psychotropic drug that is not suggested to be used in kids under18, not FDA approved for kids under 12 to a 3 year old who has a family history of clinical depression and a close relative who committed suicide. I left your office beside myself. I thank God everyday that for some reason I questioned your judgement, because we have a 4 year old today that sleeps through the night, with minimal eczema who was later diagnosed with several food and environmental allergies. On an allergen free diet, she requires an over the counter antihistamine only when she encounters dogs. We were left to our own devices after many doctors failed us. Not only did you fail us, but I shudder to think of where we would be today had we gone down your prescribed route! Every bit of information I read on the drug states that doctors will want to follow the patient weekly during the intro phase and these are adults it was referring to. You prescribed a psychotropic to a 3 year old over a year ago and we have not heard from you since. I called 3 pharmacies in my area and not one of them had ever heard of prescribing to such a young child. Maybe practicing medicine makes you numb to the fact that everyone who walks through your door is someone. Well this child is my world and I thank God that she wasn't lost in your in and out, impersonal and un-proffesional treatment. That I realized that my whole world, to you was just a clinical trial! What happened to informed consent? What happened to first do no harm? What doctors don't realize in their specialized body systems approach is that every aspect of human life works in synergy of the body's other systems. What would I have sacrificed in my child to treat her skin condition? You provided not one other option to me and listed not a breath of what possible and PROBABLE side effects of this treatment were. I am troubled almost daily of the fact that I questioned your treatment, but who out there hasn't? Who has suffered, and conveniently for you, doesn't know the source of that suffering. I hope that my child was the exception and not the rule. I hope that I get some sort of valid response to this email because I will keep trying until I do!

Sincerely,
M

** The author is not a medical practitioner, does not advise to ignore medical attention and is not providing medical advice. Simply suggesting to ask questions and get informed as much as possible.***