Doctor Frustration!!!

We've done such a good job at keeping this blog positive but I really must vent about something that happened yesterday at my allergy doctor appointment.

Everything was going fine, same ol' same ol'. Sarah has allergies and is basically allergic to everything except mold including dust and her furry cat. Yep, we're due at the end of October - Thanks! Then I open a can of worms - unintentionally, yet fortunately! My question - so what can, if anything, I take for my allergies while breastfeeding. Seems logical enough, right? I asked the same thing at the last visit only for while pregnant. The doctor didn't know so he was going to look it up. Perfect! (So I wait - and wait - and wait...)

He comes back (w/ a pharmacist) explaining I need to quit taking my eye drops! Okay... last time they were fine but I hardly use them. Oh, and we're going to switch your nasal spray to a Class B drug as opposed to the Class C. Fortunately I seldom use the stuff but I have used it... Wait! I was using a Class C nasal spray? What happened to the eye drops and nasal spray will be fine and will not effect the fetus? Well my advice to EVERYONE is do your OWN homework. Look up the prescription info YOURSELF b/c I asked several doctors, nurses, and even my pharmacist b/c I was rather cautious my first trimester. Heck, I even switched my shampoo b/c there were too many chemicals I couldn't pronounce in the professional curl enhancing one I was using! And I got bit by bugs b/c I refused to use DEET!

I hope and pray our baby is happy and healthy and that the seldom use of two allergy medications does not effect her well-being down the road. If anyone knows of someone who took Flonase or Patanol during pregnancy, please let me know if all was well. It would really help my mental state. I've never been so angry at a doctor before - and I've had my fair share of run-ins with them. This is UNACCEPTABLE and I hope it never happens to any of you. For your future knowledge, I'm including a summary of things I've learned below:

Drugs are classified into 4 groups related to use during pregnancy. Class A is proven safe. This includes Tums and that is about it. Class B is unknown, but some studies on animals show no effect to their fetuses or if animals showed effects, human studies have shown otherwise. Class C are also unknown and constitute somewhere around 80-90% of drugs prescribed by doctors. They either know nothing about these or animal studies have shown possible signs of fetal defects usually with very high doses. No studies in humans have been done. The last Class is X. These drugs are known to cause human fetal defects and are not recommended during pregnancy. The two I was using "as needed" (which I wouldn't have used at all had I known) were Class C drugs. This information is readily available for most drugs (I just learned today) by doing a quick Google search on the drug and clicking on the Prescription Information pdf.

Doctors will sometimes tell you that the benefits of using different drugs outweigh the risks. I am not a doctor and can't recommend anything to you, but I suggest you follow your doctor AND your gut. For example, if you are on anti-seizure meds, that might be important. For me, I'm allergic to so many antibiotics, my allergy medications are somewhat important to at least control the symptoms enough to not turn into an infection. However the Class B pills would have been sufficient! As for breastfeeding and allergy meds - nada! Everything is secreted into the milk. If I must take something, they say the only thing approved by some association is Claritin (over the counter-generic fine). I'm going to simply stop all of them and hope/pray for the best for our precious little one!