10-10-2009, 04:22 AM
I just got off the phone with my daughter in Connecticut, who'se an LPN in a pediatrician's office. She agrees that for the time being, this 2009 H1N1 issue (Mexican Flu?) is hype, but she made a few comments that are a bit disturbing. For one, there are "seasonal" ailments that haven't gone away this summer, such a strep throat. There is also an issue (which most people are already aware of) that concerns prescription abuse within the medical profession. One she mentioned was the dispensing of Tamiflu, which is prescribed for non-flu related ailments such as ear infections. She added that her office does not do this, and commented that parents quite often request it (she laughed when I suggested that parents ask for it because the name "Tamiflu" sounds cute). When she was a kid, doctors prescribed antibiotics for everything (I remember her doctor prescribing this liquid pink stuff for everything, and wondered if it was pink because it looked "cute"). When I was a kid, it was penicillin and if you go back far enough in time, it was snails, nails, and puppydog tails. It's all enough to make me "sick".