New Doctor, New School, Same Old Asthma

Like going on vacation or enrolling a child in school for the first time, moving across the United States and adjusting to a new pediatrician and state public school system takes asthma parents a couple of extra steps. Even if you haven’t ever made a move like my recent Florida-to-Colorado one yourself, you can probably guess most of the those steps:

1. Make sure all inhalers and medications are at least half-full before you leave town. Don’t drive yourself crazy with having to transfer and/or renew prescriptions in transit or first thing when you arrive in your new city.

2. Start gathering pediatrician and specialist recommendations as you pack up your old house. I used Twitter, Denver-area messageboards, and Mr. Asthma Mom’s co-workers for advice. Not only did I learn of a wonderful pediatrician only 5 minutes from my new house who works in a practice with Saturday hours, but I was also able to get appointments for both girls during our first week here. Which leads to item #3:

3. Set up a first appointment ahead of time, so your child can be established with a pediatrician in your new city as soon as possible.

4. If your child uses an inhaler at school like mine does, make sure you keep the necessary paperwork with you during the move. In both Florida, our former home, and Colorado, our current one, I had to provide AG’s school clinic with either a medication form from the pediatrician who subscribed the inhaler or the original prescription box from the pharmacy. (I always choose the second option.)

5. Keep a business card from your child’s now-former pediatrician in your wallet. That way, you’ll have the address and fax number you need to fill out a records request at the new practice.

There’s another step to take, though, and it’s one of those obvious ones that nevertheless takes a conscious effort to complete: ensure your child’s medical history is firm in your head. By that, I mean go over important dates or ages on the asthma timeline and familiarize yourself with your kid’s exact dosages, symptoms, allergies, and any other pertinent information.

It seems like a no-brainer, I know, but how many times have you sat in a doctor’s office, mulling over names and dates and prescriptions and trying to sort out that information from the dozens of other details in your head? In fact, you may even want to write down the key points, dates, and medications and bring that list in with you. Remember that the new practice likely won’t have your child’s medical records right away, so accurate answers to questions like these come straight from you:

How old was your daughter when she was first diagnosed with asthma?
Has she ever been hospitalized for it?
What are her major triggers?
What strength corticosteroid does she use for maintenance?

You get the idea.

Writing about parenting a child with asthma has kept me far more familiar with all this information than I would be otherwise, and as a result, the appointment AG had last week with her new pediatrician was the easiest I’ve ever experienced. Her new doctor was extremely receptive to my questions and requests, and I can’t imagine a smoother transition. It sounds simple, but here’s the best piece of Asthma Mom advice I could ever give you:

If you take your kid’s health seriously, so will the doctor.

A former pediatricians did not take AG’s asthma seriously (that is, in fact, how he became her former pediatrician), and while he certainly bears part of the blame, so do I. Because at that point in my life I remained undereducated and misinformed about the seriousness of asthma in a young child in general and my own kid’s lung health in particular, and he took his cues from me.

Now obviously, if a pediatrician is not providing the level of care you feel your child needs, you should clear up any miscommunication and/or insist upon better care or change physicians altogether. But also ensure that you’re sending the right signals by demonstrating that you’re informed, educated, and involved in/about your child’s health problems.