...Of infinity. I had to add the "Part I" because this is in no way a comprehensive discussion-it is more of a starting place. I don't even pretend to know all the intricate workings of health insurance companies and if I did I wouldn't attempt to type them up one-handed on my iPod while 20 pounds of handsome sleeps on my writing arm.

I read an article this morning about a hospital in California bringing down its rate of cesarean sections due to pressure from an insurance company. (While c-sections are a life-saving option for some mothers and/or children, they are also more dangerous, more expensive and more difficult to recover from. Limiting c-sections to those women who truly need them benefits moms, babies, doctors, hospitals, insurance companies...we'll just go whole-hog here and say it is good for everybody.)

Well there may be a few lucky ducks who haven't been to a doctor's office or pharmacy or dentist or hospital in the last few years but the rest of us are all pretty aware just how much say insurance companies have on the care you receive. (While they can't tell you exactly what to do, they all use the power of the dollar to "guide" your decisions.)

Sounds like a bad thing, right? Not necessarily. The insurance company in this article actually used that power to IMPROVE patient care while reducing costs. This is why I loved the article--it illustrates how insurance companies and healthcare providers can work together for the greater good while still respecting the bottom line.

Our healthcare system may not be great but it is getting better. We all just need a little bit of patients.

(Did you see what I did there? He he.)

We dragged Little Miss and Mister on an "adventure" tonight. That's a code word we use to convince children to go somewhere that will probably be boring. (It has the added bonus of playing along with the song from the inspiring television docudrama, "The Cat in the Hat.") Our adventure was to a city-sponsored open house on radon gas since I apparently don't have enough weird things to worry about. I am going to share my newfound knowledge with y'all so I won't have to worry alone. (Also, it has serious health implications so it is blog appropriate.)

Radon is an invisible odorless gas that can seep into homes and...sit there. It is a heavy/"big-boned" gas so it tends to accumulate in "hot spots" like basements (which are actually cold but I try not to nit-pick). Radon is produced by uranium decaying in the dirt all around us which means it is radioactive which means it can cause serious cell damage in your lungs which means...it is the second leading cause of lung cancer (I'm guessing that is a pretty distant second after smoking. Don't smoke!)

Luckily(?), this is all preventable. Simple, inexpensive tests are available at most home improvement stores. (We got a free one at the open house! It is sad what makes "grown-ups" excited.) That is where the luck runs out. If your home shows high radon levels you will then have to either: (a) train your child to hold their breath in the basement or (b) fork over $1200 for a venting system. Oh happy days.

Anyone have more experience with this? Please share!

There exists a huge selection of products made to help you remember to take your medicine. Some of them are really cool--especially if you are friends with your technology (unlike myself). I have seen apps and timers and plastic boxes and...none of them really help me. (I should admit here that the majority of the issue is my tendency to sleep in and the resulting rush to get ready.)

What does work? My wedding ring. No joke. I take my ring off every night (blah blah...irrational fear of fingers swelling...blah blah) but my hand feels weird during the day if I don't have it on. Those two facts made it the perfect daily habit to tie to the medication I need to take. I actually have one medication I take in the morning when I put the ring on and another I take when I remove the ring at night. The "naked hand" feeling serves as a built in warning system; allowing me to address any missed doses before it becomes a real issue.

If you don't have weird ring issues like me, look for another daily habit to tie to your medication dosing to. Preferably something you do every day almost mindlessly but something you will miss if it doesn't happen.

Do you have another pill minder trick? Please share in the comments!

(Before anyone asks, no I am not a professional hand model but it has always been a secret dream of mine.)

I got this in the mail today and it inspired me. We got one of these "prescription discount" services about once a week in the pharmacy and, as far as I am aware, they never worked. Never.

First off, if you have regular insurance, your co-pay is probably less than or close to what the discount service will charge you and (since the pharmacy can only use your insurance OR the discount) I would recommend using your insurance so the amount paid applies to your deductible.

Second off, we were able to work with most uninsured customers to: [a] find manufacturer coupons (available on some brand name medications), [b] match the $4 prescription list (which most pharmacies have or match) or [c] contact their doctor to find something less expensive. If an uninsured customer tried the discount service and it sent back a price lower than what we had come up with using those three options it was usually because the discount service was forcing the pharmacy to take a loss (and not a little one). Understandably, most pharmacies will opt to let you go elsewhere over giving away medications for significantly less than they paid.

Third off (if you can read the fine print), the coupon says "15% of profits go to charity." How can something save you money and make a profit? Someone has to pick up the difference and it is either you or the pharmacy or both. It is most definitely NOT the "discount" service.

Please, if you are struggling to pay for your medications, talk to the pharmacist or the pharmacy technician or even your doctor. If they deserve your business they will try to help you.

*I am aware second off and third off aren't real things. I think they should be.

Someone recently asked me why their prescription bottle had a little sticker on it telling them not to eat grapefruit. They had to work on me for a while but I finally let them in on a secret--pharmacists hate grapefruit farmers.

Just kidding! Grapefruit farmers are wonderful people. The actual answer is slightly less crazy (but only slightly). Grapefruit inactivates one of the types of proteins responsible for processing drugs in your gut (not your liver as I mistakenly thought when I first answered this question) and can cause a big spike in the drug concentration in your body. Unfortunately, this protein plays a big part in a lot of drugs' metabolism--about 80 drugs are affected to varying degrees.

So what does this mean for all you citrus lovers out there? If you only eat grapefruit every once in a while, check with your pharmacist. You may be able to simply monitor for increased side effects but some drugs are too sensitive to grapefruit's effects to risk even a little exposure. If you are eating a grapefruit every morning (or drinking an equivalent amount of juice) you will need to look for an alternative medication or an alternative breakfast. Have you tried muffins? They're delicious AND free of weird drug interactions!

Bonus section for the extra curious reader: there are a couple of other citrus fruits capable of causing this issue but it is extremely uncommon for anyone to eat enough of these to cause an issue.

Things are a little busy around here as we just added a Little Mister to our family so the heavily researched and grammatically perfect posts will have to wait for another day.

In the meantime, I saw a snippet on TV the other day (don't judge me) that I thought was worth passing on. (FYI It is something I learned in school but I forget not everyone knows these things until I hear them on television.) Anyhoo, did you know more than 10% of people are allergic to one of the ingredients in "triple antibiotic creams" (think Neosporin)? That means it can often make wounds WORSE.

But don't you need that magic ointment? Short answer: not really. For any wounds a sensible person would treat at home a good cleaning regimen with soap and water along with petroleum jelly and good clean bandages will get you healed up in no time. (The petroleum prevents the edges of the wound from drying out and helps the healing process along.)

BONUS: Cute baby alert!

Confession: I have blocked people on The Book of Faces just for bragging about how their newborns sleep 30 hours a day. Even when Little Miss has been sleeping well I live in fear of “those nights.” (I am not the most rational person in the nighttime—bad decisions have been made.) So it goes without saying (well obviously not without saying) that I have a lot of empathy for the parents wandering the pharmacy aisles looking for something to help their children sleep. For a long time I was hesitant to recommend anything due to a lack of good evidence but…that has changed! Are you excited?!? 

The majority of these recommendations also apply for adults but insomnia treatment in adults includes a lot more treatment options (mostly prescription medications) that are better evaluated on a case by case basis.