Letter to the Editor
Trust health instincts
Published Friday, May 2, 2008
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To the editor:
We all know the long-running joke in health care is you don’t want to be in Fairbanks if you have anything really wrong with you. My family has experienced this to be true for the past 16 months. My third child has had something wrong with him his entire little life from pneumonia to eczema. My maternal instincts have always told me that my son’s health issues have stemmed from an allergy of some sort.
At 6 months, my son had his first allergy test, which came back negative for many things but primarily for milk, egg whites, peanut, soy and wheat.
At 14 months we went back for more allergy tests, this time he had a blood and stool test done and again negative results. My gut was telling me there had to be something wrong, but all the tests and doctors gave me no answers or help.
I decided to start over with a new clinic, new doctor. That was the best decision I’ve ever made. … Finally, my new doctor gave me the best advice I’ve received thus far: Go to Anchorage. We’ve just returned from a very eye-opening experience.
In fact my son is allergic … he’s anaphylactic (allergic emergency) to egg whites and peanuts. His overall health issues are linked to contact allergies to milk, egg whites, wheat, barley, rye, peas, green beans, corn, turkey, chicken, pork and beef. My No. 1 question is how could my son’s life-threatening allergies to egg whites and peanuts be missed … twice.
To all parents who are having similar health care frustrations or new parents, trust your instincts, you know your child best. Ask questions and demand that the doctors listen to you and don’t take “nothing’s wrong” for an answer.
If you aren’t getting help or answers, talk to your insurance about health care options in Anchorage or even Seattle. Although I was in Anchorage, I only had to pay my regular $20 co-payment plus the expense of a $179 airline ticket, but that ticket possibly saved my son’s life.
Community Discussion
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You can build a nice building but what you put in it...
Funny that this letter comes out the same day an article about our Fairbanks "women of distinction"
Here's the reference I believes really says a lot.
"Kilgore, the executive director of the Interior Community Health Center since its founding in 1995, didn’t start her professional life intending to go into management or medicine. She always wanted to help people and graduated from UAF with a degree in secondary education."
Wonder why Fairbanks heath care is sub-par? We give the people running it awards.
I too had a similar experience. My daughter was sick with a cough for months, I kept taking her in to TVC. She was tested for every expensive thing this Dr. could think of, even Cystic Fibrosis. Well, thousands of dollars later I did the same thing as you, I started over with a different Dr., the 1st thing he did was order a chest Xray, he suspected pneumonia. That is what she had. She had it for months while waiting for a Dr.to use his brain!
I think every Fairbanksan has horror stories about docs or the hospital here, I know I do!When you arrive at the hospital in an amblunce and it takes an hour and 45 mintues to even be seen something is wrong. What scares the most is the people that have no health coverage at all and what they do.
My daughter has no health coverage and just to get the HPV shots they are almost $165.00 each and there are three of them. And we all complain and the goverment complains but nothing is being done to solve the problem.
And I wish someone would find a way.
I feel the pain of this momma. My daughter has been sick since she time she was 15 months old. She is now almost 4 yrs old. She has had huge bags under her eyes, a chronic cough, pneumonia, bronchitis, ear infections, and I can't remember the last time she didn't have a cold of some sort. I have done all the tests as well and even asked for help by doctors on-line. Docs has assumed she has an allergy, but I have tested her for allergies at TVC and nothing. I was even told by one of the Docs that I should not bring my kid back in, because there was nothing they could do for her! I made the decision to take her to an Ear, Nose and Throat doc and had her adnoids removed in December of last year. She has been more active and the cough has deminished, but the sickness remains the same. It is very frustrating to know that something is not right with your child, and no one seems to care(doctors in Fairbanks). This is good advice to take the child down to Anchorage or Seattle, but some of us can't afford that. After all the sickness in my family it is almost impossible to keep up with the bills that we have now, much less adding plane tickets on.
There should be a solution to the bad docs in this town, but I don't know what that is. TVC has a policy of diagnosising within 15min, so they can see the next patient. Most of the time the person is giving the diagnosis anyway, and the docs are writing the prescription. We need doctors that care and are going to take the time to find out what is wrong with the person. Frustrated.
There are some good medical people in this town. There are also some good educators. However not all end-of-the-roaders are bush wannabees or fugitive. Some are professionals who find it easy in a place with a shortage of competition. I list police, lawyers, and politicians among those
I have heard about these good medical people in this town, but I don't believe any of them are accepting new patients. I don't know about the educators yet, b/c my daughter is not old enough. I can only imagine what that will be like. I love this town, but somethings are left to be desired.
You know those people who take advantage of every opportunity to talk about their allergies, stomach bug, latest surgery, back problems, etc.,...?
Thank goodness the commenters here have made this into a real discussion about a real issue.
I'm sorry to hear you are having problems with your childrens doctors...the one I had as a child was awesome. He'd be ashamed of how the clinic is being run these days...he was one of the original founders.
Unfortuantely, my mother had the same problem that you are facing. Only her ending was not what we expected.
Our mother went into the doctors office because she had blood in her urine. The doctor kept telling her that she had an bladder infection and sent her away (that was in March of 2004). They even took an x-ray at this time.
Between March and August, she kept going into the doctors office and they kept telling her that she had a bladder infection and on her last visit she was told "come back in 3 days if the bleeding doesn't stop, otherwise we will see you in 4 months"!!!
After receiving a very disturbing phone call from my brother, I flew back to Fairbanks. Only to find my mother in the middle of 80 degree weather, with her home furnace cranked up to 100 degrees and she was in several blankets, thermal underware and winter jacket... and she was still shivering from the cold.
I flew her to Seattle and with the wonderful doctors there, she was diagnosed within a few days... she had "stage 4, terminal kidney cancer", that had spread into her lung!!!
What's really upsets me, is that the x-ray that was done in Fairbanks in March, showed the cancer!!!!
How the heck do you miss something so severe as cancer when it is right in front of your nose????
Our mother did not last ONE MONTH after the doctors office told her to come back in 4 months!!!!
What really upsets me, is she could have had an operation to remove one lung and one kidney, had they diagnosed the cancer in March!!! By the time we got her to Seattle, she was too weak to undergo any type of surgery!!!
DON'T TRUST THE DOCTORS IN FAIRBANKS WITH YOUR CHILDRENS LIVES!!!!
On another note. I have a cousin, actually 2, who both have apartments at Little Dipper. In both apartments they are battling MOLD! Now, one of the cousins has talked to the people who take care of running the place and they sent people over to spray it with Tilex Mold and Mildew. After they spray it, they paint it and the mold just comes back. Apparently this is happening in not only these 2 apartments, but several. My cousin has called the owner who never returns calls. Management got everyone to sign papers saying that the mold problem was there, they basically caused it and that any damage done, trying to clean it up, is the tenants fault. She and her family are finally moving. The problem will stay there and potentially make some small child gravely ill; In Fairbanks, where the doctors send you home with some Tylenol and tell you it's all in your head. So, if you are the manager of the Little Dipper apartments, YOU SUCK!!
LAGIRL. Maybe your child has asthma. I have had the same problem with my daughter. After moving from Alaska to Virginia she was getting sick all the time. I blamed it on the weather change. I took her to the doctor about 6 times in 3 months with coughing, runny nose, fevers etc. Finally her doctor sent her to a asthma and allergy doctor. She was found to be allergic to ragweed and she has asthma. So the doctor prescribes her some inhalers and singulair and the problems gradually went away. She kept getting sick because of the asthma.
Don't surprise me none at all. It took doctors here 10 years to diagnose my diabeties and 5 to diagnose I had a fractured shoulder.
This also depends on the Dr. you have. Do the research on who you are seeing. It helps to talk to the locals that have been here for more than 20 years to get a good idea of who is credible and who isn't. If you are not a talker then there are good websites out there that display the rating of certain docs. Here is one good site that I use on occasion.... http://ratemds.com/social/?q=node%2F2888...
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