The NowClinic App

There is a new app out to help make your life even easier. No more sitting in a doctor's office waiting to be told you are sick.  No need to get dressed and drag any number of kids with me to hear someone say it's a cold, allergies or my asthma acting up again.

With the NowClinic app I don't even have to leave my house.  Diagnosed from the comfort of my pj's without the judgemental looks for being in public in my pj's. 

NowClinic is for non-emergency health care needs.  Available 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, it's there when you need it.  Meet one-on-one with NowClinic health care providers through your computer, smart phone or tablet.  Receive diagnosis and even have prescriptions sent to your local pharmacy.

NowClinic online services may be able to help with:

• Acne

• Allergies

• Asthma

• Athlete’s foot 

• Bladder infection/UTI

• Bronchitis

• Cold sore 

• Cough/cold

• Diarrhea

• Ear infections/swimmer’s ear

• Eye infection/pink eye/sty

• Fever and chills 

• Flu/flu-like illness

• Gout 

• Insect/spider bite

• Laryngitis 

• Nausea

• Poison ivy/oak 

• Ringworm

• Runny nose

• Sinus infection

• Skin inflammation 

• Skin rash

• Sore throat

• Sunburn

• Viral illness

NowClinic is available in 44 states, plus the District of Columbia.  

Download the app today from the Itunes App Store or the Google Play Store.  Now you can get the care you need at a time right for you. 

For more information visit LearnMore.NowClinic.com

This will be my family's go to for our above listed medical needs. I used it myself for my out of control allergy induced asthma recently.  (Fall allergies have gone hay wire)  I was putting off going to the doctor because I hate dragging myself into an office full of sick people to request refills on my maintenance medication.   In less than 15 minutes I was seen (video conference) by a doctor. He helped get me the refills I needed and I never had to get out of my pajamas or even leave the comfort of my own bedroom. The visit was only 10 minutes long but that is how long I usually spend with doctors after waiting 2 or more hours to be seen. 

The evil of Asthma... or is it?

One night in the early morning hours I lay there in bed struggling to force myself back to sleep.   Then I hear it... Maxx has woken up coughing this horrible cough. ( unlike croup or whooping cough) he crying as if in pain.   I rush to his room to find him clawing at his throat screaming in terror now.

I rush Maxx to my room and get a nebulizer treatment started.  Believing this to be another episode of something in  This isn't his first time using a nebulizer.  (Bronchiolitis in the past). The difference this time.. He wants nothing to do with it and starts screaming louder.  As I have him sitting in my lap he is biting at me, scratching and starts to spin like a gator.  I wake my husband in the worst possible way by yelling "Help me!" Over our child's screams. ( how he slept up to this point I don't understand)

I watch as my husband calms him to take a treatment.  My poor  husband is an old pro at breathing treatments having had them himself from the time he three.  I see the guilt in his face as he blames himself for passing this lung disease to our boys.

We rush him to the hospital.  On the way there his breathing calms, I start thinking they will say I am overreacting and send us away.   His breathing is still not normal, with a strange rasp.

I carry him into the emergency room.  As I approach the nurse station tears start streaming down my face as I remember what it felt like for me having my first asthma attack at the age of 12.  I thought I was choking on a chip during lunch while at school. One minutes I was coughing, the next I had blacked out and my friends were helping me to the nurses office as I clawed at my neck trying to get air.

As I approach the desk, I blurt out, "Please help my son.. I think he's having an asthma attack."  The three guys at the station take one look at me and rush us through check-in.

I'll never forget the hours after that with the many medical professional standing outside that glass walled room staring at us like a specimen on a slide. Not talking to us, for the most part just scaring the crap out of me.

I look back now and wonder is it my fault they diagnosed Acute Asthma attack since that is what I came in crying.  Why had no one looked in his mouth or at his throat?  If they had looked back then would they have seen the damage? It was very visible once we finally got our true diagnosis 6 months later in an even scarier incident.  Why had his pediatrician not seen this at his checkup between these incidents?  My faith in the medical community is not as strong as they once were. It just feels like educated guessing.  Too many times it's without even finding out all the facts first.

In Dire Need of Mental Health Care Reform

The way the mentally ill are treated in the United States is horrible.
Be warned there is mature language in this post.  This topic is one that make me very angry.

In this country we need mental health care reform in a very serious way.  We went from a country that made institutionalizing people far easier than it should be. (Don't want to be married to your wife anymore?  Just say she is crazy and have her placed in an institution. Then divorce her for abandoning you.) We are now a country that makes it impossible to get the help that mentally ill people need until they have harmed someone. We thought the abuses were over when we closed these horrible places.  Now the world can see that the abusers have just moved buildings as we turn a blind eye.  We need better mental health training for our police, so when they answer a call that involves someone under an episode they can respond in a non deadly manner.  We need changes so that when individuals with mental health issues are jailed they can receive the medical care they need without delays or posturing.

Many years ago we had a friend that ended up in jail for 3 days over some minor crap. He was denied his medication for Schizophrenia for his entire stay.  His parents had even brought it for him with doctor's notes stating it's need.

After being released he took his medicine as usual but it needs to be built up in his system to work correctly. Our usually happy friend ended up having an episode. This episode involved coming to my house and screaming at me about a video we supposedly borrowed without returning. (we didn't even borrow it)  He was over the top angry.  Spit was flying from his mouth as he yelled at me, calling me a lying bitch. He got in my face yelling at times things that made no sense at all.

I was alone with my oldest two as toddlers.(they were napping) I was afraid of how violent he was going to get.  Luckily I knew him enough to know this was not normal behavior. I remained calm and convinced him it must be somewhere else. I collapsed in tears when he did leave. I felt horrible for the thoughts I had when he showed up acting aggressively.  I was expecting my two children to be waking up any minute.  Was I going to have to hurt my friend to stop him from harming my children or myself?  Luckily I didn't have to.  I snapped into what I call waitress mode.  I stood there with a smile on my face. I him answered calmly and quietly.  It was almost as if he didn't know how to process my reaction to his angry outbursts.  His head tilting to the side at times just like a puppy learning commands.   He left in a slightly calmer state as well as in confusion.

He was horrified when he learned what had happened.  I was horrified when cried as he apologized to me.  I knew that it wasn't my friend who was standing before me that acted like that.  It was the unhealthy part of his brain filtering everything through a filter of unreasonable anger.  He did not choose to go off his medication. He was denied his medical rights.