As Parents We Want To Protect Our Children

As parents we want to protect our children. We all do. With all that is going on around us, sometimes it may feels like a gargantuan task.

My issue as a parent, is with doctors and privacy, the system and prescription drugs.

We all know that the amount of transmitted venereal disease amongst our youth is at sky high levels. We all know that untreated, those diseases can cause a lifelong health issue.  Infertility for women as well as still birth and death. What gets me worried, mad even, is how the whole thing is handled while trying to see both sides of the issue.

Annually our teenagers go thru their well check to go back to school. Part of the exam is testing our children for venereal diseases. Perfect and absolutely on board with the idea. However, the following makes me angry. The results are not shared with the parents because it is a private matter. The hell it is!  Therefore, if your child has been sexually active and contracted something, is she/he going to tell you on their own? You can guess, the answer will be “no”. The fear of being discovered and face the repercussion that their actions have caused, is greater than the alternative. Lack of facilities where our youth can turn safely to for medical help, stigma, ignorance and embarrassment are factors of keeping it a secret. Meanwhile, continuing spreading the disease as if nothing happened.

This to me, is absolutely not acceptable. Doctors, in my opinion, have an obligation to tell us parents about it. How can we help stop any disease, teach, get the right medical treatment if we are kept in the dark? Granted, not all parents may act the same. Some parents will have a diverse reaction. However bad or good our feeling and emotions are on the subject, reality is that our kids will, at one point in time, be sexually active. Isn’t our job as parents to accept the fact and make our kids comfortable to be open and talk to us about anything? Even if the subject makes us uncomfortable?

Why are our children scare to talk to us?  Scared to get the help needed? That is the other side of the coin. Are we raising our children in a world that is telling them that they perfect and cannot do anything wrong that when something like this happens, they die inside of fear and shame. Worse yet, how about the parent that will shame the child and kick them out of the house because they are tarnished now. I feel like we are back in the dark ages but this is still very true today.

Doctors are caught in the middle of all this by protecting a child from a violent parent, shaming or worse, being kicked out of the house.  But who is at the losing end of this battle? Our youth. While understanding their point of view, and the child fear, it is unbelievable that there is not an easier way.

The world around us sends so many mixed messages. We must teach and help, but we cannot teach and help. Sex is still such a taboo and yet our youth is sexually active at a younger age. Some cultures are not believer of protective sex thus spreading diseases at a faster rate. Why are we such prudes and close minded? How can we dispel the stigma and teach parents in some cultures, religions, rural areas about all the dangers that those diseases will cause the their children’s health.

Unfortunately, where is our youth to turn to if not their parents or doctors?  Local health infrastructure, even-though are working hard on prevention and control, still does not not have all the resources necessary to direct to our most vulnerable youth. Doctors can help to a certain extend.

My other issue is the prescription of opiates to our kids for small surgical matter. This did happen to us and we all, my son included, hit the roof.

Here is my teenager getting his wisdom teeth out. All four teeth pushed thru, not hurting, and taking advantage that they have not rooted themselves on the gums too deep to take them out. The procedure took 29 minutes. That is all. Medication given: Antibiotics, Ibuprofen 800 mg – pretty strong if you ask me, and oxycodone. Yes, you read right, oxycodone. We could not believe our eyes. With all the statistics showing that our teenagers are the most at risk of addiction that comes from those medications, here they are sitting on our counter. I wanted to scream.

What is green’s hearth was the doctor thinking? I am still in disbelieve that 12 pills were given to us, to our child. With all the pain killers, why was that one dispensed? No wonder we have such an issue of addiction. Who is to blame here? We sure did not ask for it. Why weren’t we consulted prior to it? Why were we dismissed as if nothing happened and “you have a choice to take them if you want to” attitude. Putting the responsibility on our laps instead of the doctor being held responsible for: 1. talk to us first and founding alternatives drug 2. do not prescribe it.

Is this why there is such a problem with addiction amongst our youth?

Your opinion means the world to me, how do you feel about all this? Please share with me.

xoxo

Giangi