I’m so thankful we found Dr. Smith. My 10 year old son, John, who has always been “sickly”, is now enjoying robust good health!
John has been “treated” for seasonal allergies his whole life, and suffered a great deal with a recurring violent cough, as well as multiple bouts of pneumonia. I say “treated” because he wasn’t tested for allergies, but prescribed one medication after another, none of which ever helped him.
Upon moving to this area, he became very ill with a high fever and unrelenting violent cough that led to throwing up. I chose a pediatric group out of the phone book. This group gave him even more and stronger medicines, including daily steroids. His symptoms worsened and compounded. The physicians, a different one each time we came into the practice, were all displeased when I questioned if these new symptoms could possibly be reactions to or side effects of the medicines. At one point he was given medication for a particular condition and instructed to begin taking it while we awaited (for several weeks) results of a blood test – which turned out to be negative — to determine if he had that particular condition. I did find another medical doctor who tested him for environmental allergies, finding that he had none.
At that point, I threw out all the steroid medication and began earnestly seeking alternatives. I wanted to find the cause of my son’s distress and address that, not merely cover up his symptoms with medications that I felt were introducing their own sets of symptoms, which led to additional medications, etc.
Dr. Smith spent several hours with us on the first visit, not only listening to the litany of symptoms, but asking probing questions so that he could understand what all was going on in my son’s sick little body. The regimen that he prescribed for my son was very do-able and easy to integrate into our busy family life. John’s health began to improve and has continued to steadily improve during the approximately 9 months we have been seeing Dr. Smith. Each time we have seen him, he continues to ask the probing questions, sometimes making small tweaks in his recommendations. Dr. Smith tested him for food allergies, and discovered that my son has a severe food allergy. We have eliminated that item from his diet, and he has now improved dramatically.
Particularly after the multiple experiences we had with so many different health care providers quickly diagnosing based on a quick peek at my child and minimal terse conversation regarding symptoms, I am so thankful for Dr. Smith’s approach of taking the time to really understand what is going on with my child.
It is also significant that he appreciates my interest in understanding his recommendations, and does not respond to my questions as if I were challenging him in some inappropriate way. I have changed the label on the file folder where I store paperwork from Dr. Smith from “medical” to “John’s Health.”
