Bored stay-at-home moms (and I know you all read HN), please don't take this article as a suggestion to make even more Facebook posts about your children. :(
(Seriously though, pretty amazing story...I find it pretty unbelievable that not just one but three of her FB friends knew about a rare immune disorder.)
Bored stay-at-home moms (and I know you all read HN)
I'm no longer a bored, stay-at-home mom and I really don't do Facebook, but I still have connections to the types of communities (including some health lists) with high-ish numbers of full time moms and I do read HN. So, in theory, I could start posting links like this around and get such people here...
I have to say it would be pretty awesome if there was a sudden influx in bored SAHMs learning to program / contributing to open source / starting their own company.
FWIW: I did post a link to HN on a homeschooling list where a parent (most likely a mom, since such lists tend to be dominated by women) was asking for resources related to programming. I also posted a link to a particular discussion here on another list (a really tiny list). I have long told my two sons that they aren't likely to be employable (especially my older son) so they need to plan on making their own company. I will likely do more to promote the "start your own business" concept to homeschoolers. I think there are some significant parallels between the two mindsets/lifestyles and I think homeschooling is good preparation for starting a business, much better preparation for that than for becoming a drone at a large company.
Cool. :) If it's not too rude, why unemployable? Does homeschooling just create people who are too independent to be a good fit with a lot of employers, or do employers/college admissions see a homeschool education as less valuable than public/private?
I homeschooled my sons because they are both "twice exceptional": gifted and learning disabled/otherwise handicapped. They didn't fit into the school system and they won't fit in well in most environments. There is an old, out of date website where I talk some about parenting and homeschooling them if your curiosity requires more than a two sentence explanation to satisfy: http://www.kidslikemine.com/ I don't mind talking about it. I just haven't been sleeping well this week and I'm quite tired.
I think the two-sentence explanation was enough for me to get the idea. I knew a guy like that when I was a teenager, very smart, decent guy but problems getting along with people. (I think he made his money doing freelance programming actually, so we've come full circle.) Thanks for the link, though; your kids' blog is great. Gaming plus plothole-picking plus social consciousness is one of my favorite combos.
Thanks. I'm really glad to hear you like the blog. So far, it hasn't seen much traffic/gotten much feedback so it's very nice to hear that. (If you have any ideas on how to promote the blog, drop me a line.)
Well two of them did work in pediatrics where they'd both presumably seen it before, it might be rare but obviously wasn't in the "once in a lifetime" category.
>three of her FB friends knew about a rare immune disorder.
sounds like not that rare. Or is it rare just because doctor couldn't diagnose it?
Just an experiment - googled "Face swelling" and the first page of the first organic result has
"If you experience facial swelling accompanied by difficulty breathing, hives, intense distress, fever, redness, or warmth, seek immediate medical care (call 911)."
I see how the following logic also may be applied - they went to ER on the 3rd something day as a result of FB suggestions, while the search on Google directs to 911 immediately. So did the FB help? Or may be wasting time on FB diverted the time and attention from the more effective information search activities?
> sounds like not that rare. Or is it rare just because doctor couldn't diagnose it?
The highest incidence of Kawasaki Disease is in Japan, at 0.175% (175 cases per 100,000 children younger than five). In the UK, it's around 0.008%, though may be on the rise. In the USA, it's between 0.009% and 0.019%, according to the CDC. That's certainly fairly rare, and it doesn't surprise me that it wasn't the first thing the doctor thought - if you read the article to the end, you'll notice that he said that "[he] was actually just thinking it could be Kawasaki disease," after she called him from the hospital. As another person mentioned, he was maybe a a few hours behind the social network in his diagnosis.
There wasn't really a very clear timeline but you appear to have confused things somewhat.
The parents noticed the rash and swelling on the Sunday and so were in the paediatricians office that same day. If the [emergency] paediatrician gives a clear diagnosis in person would you really say "hang on a minute Google's SERPs say I should call 911". You're standing there with the doctor, you don't need to call for one.
The next day [Monday] it seems the mother sent images to her family doctor. The test to confirm the diagnosis came back false and one of the images sent to the doctor was incidentally posted on Facebook. A friend, mother of a Kawasaki disease sufferer, and a relative who specialised in cardiology both offered the diagnosis that pushed the mother to go to seek emergency medical aid for the second time.
She doesn't say what her family doctor's reaction to the second diagnosis was nor interestingly does it appear that the paediatrician she sought counsel from offer an alternate diagnosis when tests came back negative (though this info could just be missing).
>If the [emergency] paediatrician gives a clear diagnosis in person would you really say "hang on a minute Google's SERPs say I should call 911". You're standing there with the doctor, you don't need to call for one.
Bringing up such seemingly applicable to your case search results while talking with doctor is necessary even if only to make sure that the professional would rule the results out as not really applicable to your situation.
Anyway, if you replace "Google SERP's" with "FB social search", then your gave a pretty accurate description of what happened in the article. It is just that "FB social search" took days, though it happened to bring more specific results.
(Seriously though, pretty amazing story...I find it pretty unbelievable that not just one but three of her FB friends knew about a rare immune disorder.)