by Sarah Osborne | Aug 28, 2016 | Blog
EpiPen maker Mylan is in the middle of a firestorm from the media and general public for their recent and substantial price hike. As a medical professional, the crazy price for EpiPens is not news to me, and if you have a child with a severe allergy, it’s probably not new news to you, either. But price aside, I wanted to take a minute to address a related issue here on the Above Average blog. (While we don’t have life-threatening allergies in our family, you may: bigger families are statistically more likely to have a kiddo who has a health issue like a food allergy!) There are many ideas being tossed around for alternatives to the expensive EpiPen device, particularly one that suggests an ampule of epinephrine and a sub-q syringe is a cheaper, equivalent alternative. One way it’s going around is in this viral meme that has hit my Facebook wall numerous times: Beware! Here’s why all of this can be dangerously wrong, even if the creator of the image had good intentions. While this information is technically accurate, it’s very impractical for the average person when someone’s life is on the line. There’s simply too much that could go wrong. As a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner with several years of pediatric acute care experience before my MSN, and also as a mother of five kids, I have given a lot of medication to children for many different reasons, including injections in emergency situations. Epinephrine is a drug you need in an emergent, anaphylactic event. It matters how fast the drug can be administered. Drawing up a medication like this in an emergent situation...
by Lance Osborne | Jul 1, 2015 | Episodes
How to make your big family’s road trip a little better It’s summertime! And for many families that means some road tripping is about to go down. Lance and Bobby tackle a ton in this episode, from tips for trip planning to how to stay sane in the van (or – in some cases – bus), and from eating healthy on the road to dealing with digital devices while traveling. The podcast is live on iTunes now or you can play the episode below: In this episode we mentioned… Bobby and Kat’s favorite list app, Listary:...
by Lance Osborne | Jun 17, 2015 | Episodes
In this episode, we unpack a recent study from Ohio State University researchers that shows when it comes to preventing divorce in adulthood, the more siblings the better. This is BIG news for big families!
