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The internet is a wonderful thing. You can become a lay-expert in virtually any topic you like. Grab a search engine and start studying. Grab a blog and start publishing. On the internet, you can find the information that can change your life. You can also find information that can help you take control of your own health.
You can use good old Google to search a wide range of sites or select suggestions from Google Health. You can visit MSN Health, Yahoo Health and Netscape Health. If you prefer, you can visit Healthline, WebMD and Medscape or the Mayo Clinic, IntelliHealth or Family Doctor. There's the NIH and the CDC and the FDA and Medline, not to mention NCCAM, the ADA, and the USDA.
Blogs dedicated to providing health news & information are created almost daily. There's Aphrodite: Women's Health News & Research, Women's Health News, Your Child's Health, Health'Sass and Medblog. We've got Chronic Babe, The Diabetes Blog, and The Cancer Blog. I could go on and on and on but that's the point, so can you. If you want health information, you can get it. If you need health information, it is there for you. Information is power.
In the summer of 1990, Michelle was 3 months old and she got very, very sick. We took her to the emergency room at the Charleston Navy Hospital where she was admitted for testing. Hours later, they wanted to do a spinal tap to check for meningitis, I let them. I had absolutely no idea whether it was necessary. I had absolutely no way to find information about what might be happening or what they might find. I basically handed my infant over to the experts and sat quietly by.
16 years later I still wonder whether I would let them do the spinal tap if it had happened today. With all of the health information available to me now through my friendly search engine, would I have decided the spinal tap wasn't necessary or was too risky? I'm sure I would have felt less helpless and more in control if I had been able to access health information online. I'm sure I would have felt less fearful and more in control if I could have done a quick search of my favorite health information sites and compiled a list of questions to ask, both before and after the procedure.
On the otherhand, it's so easy to go online when we're feeling like death warmed over and decide we've got a year to live and we're going to die a horrible death. It's also much easier to second-guess our physicians and our treatment plans. There was a time when we could walk out of a doctor's office with an RX and believe those magic pills would work. It's almost impossible to be scheduled for gall bladder removal and believe that this is going to take away our pain, we've read the stories and articles online, we know better.
When you go to the doctor, do you look up your symptoms before your appointment? Do you walk in with a list of questions, created from your own internet research? Do you walk out of the appointment and head to your favorite search engine or health information site and begin second-guessing? Is health knowledge empowering or is it getting in the way?
~~Denise
Daily Dose of Denise and Fast Times @ Homeschool High
Image Credit: UUHSC
