Public Service Message- No spiritual lesson or art

I hope this message may help some kid, and even save lives. If you have a child with sleep problems, allergies, or chronic congestion, please read this. For 21 years, no doctor, including Matt's allergist, ever thought to check for nasal abnormality, including narrow passage or deviated septum. No one ever thought to examine chronic complaints of being unable to sleep with sleep apnea, related to poor oxygen intake due to deviated septum and narrow nasal passageway. No doctor should EVER prescribe any kind of sleep medication without first ruling out deviated septum, physical abnormality of the nasal cavity, and sleep apnea. The sleep meds Matt's doctor prescribed could have killed him. It was a perceptive doctor at UVa who instantly diagnosed the deviated septum and sent him to an ENT. The ENT here tells me that many if not most of his allergy, immune system, sleeping, and congestion problems will be relieved with proper treatment of the septum and nasal cavity.
Blood work results which showed the need for more blood work never reached us. The policy of every doctor office should be that abnormal blood work should always be reported to a patient not only through mail but follow-up phone calls. If your doctor doesn't have such a policy in place, you should advocate for one. In lieu of that, always follow up yourself for blood work results.
If what doctors are telling you don't "feel" right- keep pushing. Research symptoms, diagnoses, and treatments yourself. It will at least help you to knowledgeably talk with doctors. And I would also strongly fight for repeal of HIPA laws for dependent children- which I believe extends to age 25 when they are students. Contacting your congress people is always a good start. I hope others can learn from our problems.