Should I Call the Doctor?

DISCLOSURE: Dear Reader,

I was given the following product by a junior account manager at a marketing or PR firm who saw my blog listed in a mommy blog catalog. You and I both know they didn't bother to read my blog or else I never would have been asked to give my humble endorsement of the product below. In any event, I readily agreed to except their gift and tell my reader what I think of it. For me the biggest thrill in the whole exchange has passed - it was in seeing the FedEx truck pull-up outside my house and having a package handed to me (thereby giving both me and my neighbors the false impression that what I'm up to all day is both urgent and businessy). That said, since my emotional tie to this product was spent upon its delivery, you can trust that the review below is accurate and unbiased.

At this point, I don't think it's overly optimistic to assume that we're in for some serious and definitive changes in our health care system. And while try as I might to follow the discussions on such an important topic I couldn't tell you what exactly those changes would be - even if you promised me two hours in Target without my kids. I am pretty sure that no matter how the government addresses health care in this country, they're not going to change one of my own biggest issues with the system: calling the doctor's office.

As I have mentioned before, I have a sordid past when it comes to calling the pediatrician's office. And while the staff at my kids' doctor's office is by no means judgmental (as far as I can tell) I am acutely aware of just how often I call there and for what purpose. I have always believed that if I played my cards right and resisted calling the office for minor situations, then I would have a much better chance of getting prompt and considered attention when I really needed it. I think this dawned on me when I called in about a bloody lip on my then three year old (now nine year old) daughter. For the curious, the lip was split during a run-in between her face, a blow-pop and a slide...

So if you're also working on the "less is more" doctor-calling philosophy you'll be interested in the following product review (!). Here are two books to check before calling your pediatrician (or you own grown-up doctor). One of the books (DK's Baby & Child Health, edited by Jennifer Shu) I bought on my own; the other (Merck Manual Home Health Handbook), I got for free from the Merck publicist who values my opinion even more than you do. For this review, I checked each of the books for information on the three ailments that have most recently impacted my family: H1N1, plantars warts (I said family, not me), and laryngitis. I also looked up head lice in both books because information on head lice is the true measure of the worthiness of any family health book.

The Merck Manual is strictly for grown-ups, yes it discusses things that impact children, that happen to children, but it is in no way written for anyone under eighteen to read. It's a resource for parents (whereas I could give my fourth grader the DK book to look at if she were doing a report on strep throat or first aid). The book's H1NI section is quite good, it's long enough and gives more information than let's say the local county board of heath website. The sections on warts and laryngitis are too general to be of much help. The head lice section is pretty good though, its straightforward rather then alarmist and what's best is it doesn't make you feel any guilt for choosing chemical lice treatments over homeopathic ones. Merck's deficit for me is that it doesn't have enough pictures. No matter how good the text is in any medical book, you need pictures. Without pictures, the description of almost any ailment is easily interchanged with several others. If I can look at a picture of what's growing on the bottom of someone's foot, I can know in an instant what to do about it, whether to head for the drugstore or to call the doctor. Text alone doesn't give me that clear option.

Pictures are where the DK Baby & Child Health excels, they've got great pictures of rashes, infections, and even emergencies. And they've got great diagnosis charts too. The problem with those is that most end up in the same final box, "call your doctor." This book is by no means definitive, but it's a great starting point. I should note however, that the head lice section is not very good at all. But I'm ok with that because I now have the Merck Manual.