vacination & Your children

Why would large companies want to waste all of the time making sure medicines are safe anyway?! What a way to cut into profits!

 

And still far too many still believe the oligarchs care about them.


This is sickening, yet predictable.

 

I have to believe that most of you never lived through the Polio years as I did, or when deafness was caused by mumps as I did, or children died from measles as I did and had hearts destroyed by Rheumatic Fever as I did. Because of those experiences, I am grateful there were vaccines that helped protect my child from those diseases and tht I could let her splash around in puddles of water following a summer flood without fear that she would live the remainder of her life in an Iron Lung.

Some risks in life are worth taking.

 

True, RH. But that was then, and this is now. With big pharma getting an immunity of their own, I don't see this as a "win-win" no matter how you slice it.

 

Why is profit now a dirty word????? The US is a capitalist society and although some may find that fundamentally wrong, it is the basis of our economy.

I'm not an apologist for the pharmaceutical companies, but it has to be acknowledge that the development of new drugs and treatments have an astronomical cost attached. Combined with the relatively short 20 yr patent protection, the low prices charged to underdeveloped 3rd world countries, the results of frivolous lawsuits, and a profit for the shareholders, drug prices have gone through the roof. Is it fair that we are forced to foot the greatest share of the bill? No but as long as we want to continue advances in treatments for everything from the common cold to cancer, that is the way it is.

As a culture, we want a pill for everything from acne to erectile dysfunction and as long as that is the case, drug companies will try to maximize their market by giving us what we want.

 

I, too, share your dismay that drugs are released before they are fully tested. However, when it comes to drugs intended for children, which of us would allow our child to participate in drug trials? Not I. Without that test, everything is experimental with possible consequences.

Like you, I have always used the medical professionals only when absolutely necessary preferring common sense to common nonsense. That said, I was very happy to have antibiotics available when I nearly separated my thumb from my hand. I was also most grateful for the pain medication!!!!!! I was given enough percocet for about 10 days but used it for only 2 days, preferring not to over-medicate.

My dad suffered with heart disease for many years. He had a pacemaker for 35 years which required a lot of doctor visits for monitoring. Every time he mentioned a a symptom, the Dr would add another pill until he was taking about 30 a day. His health continued to decline - he was getting older - but then he began hemorrhaging from his GI track. He almost died. I maintained that his stomach and intestines were being eaten away by all them meds. When he came out of th coma, he rejected all medication and intervention. We brought him home to die which the Dr felt would occur in 2 to 3 days. Well, low and behold, on no medication, he began to improve and after a couple months, was stronger and healthier than he had been for the past 15 yrs. He flourished for several good years before he began to decline and eventually did require some meds but I carefully monitored what he was being given, the side effects, and the drug combo being put into his body.

I didn't blame the drug company but rather the physicians who kept adding medications without looking at the full cocktail prescribed by several different specialists. I guess I didn't really blame them as much as I regretted both my own failure to act early on and the lack of gerontologists near us to function as his primary having a full grasp of the entire health picture.

 

Not sure I get your point UGRev

 

My sister is on enough drugs to choke a horse. Diabetic with a slew of complications and unrelated issues. What we have recently discovered is that her PCP, while a decent enough doc, is unable or unwilling to do much more than collect the data from the specialists and keep her records all in one place for reference rather than see to it that treatments are coordinated between the specialists. So on the one hand, drug A for issue Z from doc 1 is countered by drug B for issue X from doc 2. Or, said another way, issue Z gets no treatment; the effects of A are canceled out by B and create issue Y (wanting another drug.)

This woman is not passive nor stupid by any means, but has trusted her medical types for many years. Until last week, she had no reason to second guess the louts she is paying for treatment, even tho' some things did not seem consistent. She has decided to go on the war path and take over her own treatment coordination to ensure the various "quacks" are aware of what the other "quacks" are doing in the face of real evidence that they don't. 'Bout time, says me; she's ignored her older brother long enough. I hope she sticks with that plan, I'm her executor and it's a duty I'm in no rush to carry out if the drugs get her instead of the diseases.

For those of us that are under care for any reason, do NOT think that your PCP is doing what was hoped would be done when the PCP concept was created. It ain't happenin' unless you are a regular at (say) the Mayo or Lahey.

 

I'm glad that she has "seen the light" so to speak. I believe that occurs more often than any of us care to believe. The coordination of care and meds is a critical function that we must now assume for ourselves and our families. What I did observe when caring for my folks was their absolute belief and support of the doctors that I think was generational. My mom would tsk-tsk me when I challenged her Dr with questions and politely demanded answers. As I told her, the doctor is in essence our employee and we have a right to demand full value for our dollar.

 

Heh. How did we get from vaccinations and kids to geriatrics?

 

A natural progression LOL One day you're in diapers and before you know it, you're back in them again

 

I'm really surprised that no one has mentioned pharmacists.

Regardless of how many physicians are prescribing meds; I've found that a good pharmacist will let you know if one drugs counters the other.

Maybe I've just had incredible luck.