Dr. Deb

I have to be honest. I was never one to get the flu shot. We really never got sick nor had any health problems in my family. I did encourage my husband who has more patient contact but never thought about it for my 4 kids or me.  I knew that sometimes the vaccine was right on and protected against the flu that was going around. I also knew that sometimes it missed and wasn’t even effective in certain years. I just didn’t think it necessary and worth possible down time from the vaccine.

I am not alone. Less than 40% of all health care workers received the H1N1 vaccine last year when it was a pandemic.  It is actually the pandemic that has changed my mind about flu shots. We did all get the H1N1 vaccine in my family and none of us had any side effects. Now, it turns out the H1N1 was not as severe as they first thought but plenty of young healthy people died from it. In fact, it is the youngest and the oldest that are most at risk from the flu. It comes down to the fact that if my child died or was hospitalized over something that I could have prevented, I could never forgive myself. The flu vaccine has a very long safety record so I feel that I should give it to my whole family now.

October marks the official start of flu season, which lasts all the way until May.

5-20% of all people (15-62 million people) will get the flu and more than 200,000 people are hospitalized each year for influenza-related complications. (more…)

Vitamins make me sick. I really don’t like the way they hurt my stomach, burp up later and certainly the color and smell in the bathroom. So the question is do I really need to take them and if I do, which ones?

I do take daily vitamins and give them to my kids even if there is not overwhelming data to support the practice. Ideally everyone should get all their nutrition from a diet rich in fruits, vegetable, fiber and lean protein. We do better than most in getting the fruits, vegetables and fish down but there are still too many drive through dinners in our life.  There is also enough evidence to the benefit of certain supplements that makes me think it worthwhile.

You can spend a fortune on vitamins but my motto is to take the simplest formulation that you are most likely to stick with. If you can’t afford it, tolerate it or fit it into your life then find something else that works. Vitamins sitting on the shelf are certainly of no benefit.

Here are Dr Deb’s recommendations for supplements

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I am a competitor. I like to win. So when I labored for 52 hours with my twins only to end in a cesarean I felt like a failure.  Such a ridiculous thought since I had just given birth to 2 healthy beautiful boys, but the process (which I didn’t even care going into it, how I delivered) was so draining.  I puked through the delivery and just couldn’t understand why my husband was so darn happy when I felt like a loser.

Sadly, like many women, the birth process was not the Hallmark greatest moment that it is commonly portrayed. (I even knew better since I had performed thousands myself. )

So when it came time to deliver my daughter, a repeat cesarean was looking pretty good to me even though I knew and had always encouraged VBAC or (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean).  I decided to give it a try and had another long delivery but this time it ended in tears of joy in what truly felt like a miracle. My recovery was so much faster and contrary to what many women have heard, vaginal birth actually enhanced my sex life, not ruined it. (Details for another blog) My last child was delivered by an even easier VBAC. Unfortunately today, many women are not even given the opportunity to try to for a VBAC.

Once a cesarean always a cesarean has reemerged in the medical field with the rate of cesareans increasing by 53% over the past 10 years since I first gave birth.

1/3 of women now deliver by cesarean but several expert panels of doctors from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the National Institute of Health have discouraged repeat cesareans and recommend offering VBAC again.

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