Thank you to 2nd.MD for providing me with a $200 stipend to test-drive this revolutionary online medical service.
Last Monday I took E8 to the doctor. We got dressed and walked over to the computer for our 9:20am appointment with Dr. Zaks through 2nd.md.
Sounds crazy, huh? It's an interesting concept to be sure and one that would take some getting used to. The premise behind 2nd.md is to provide a "revolutionary new alternative to accessing top medical specialists when you need them most and on your terms. You choose the specialist. You choose the time. You choose the location. And through face-to-face video chat, you get the answers you need about your most pressing medical concerns. It’s just that simple.
No waiting weeks or months for appointments. No office visits or waiting rooms. No wondering if there is a specialist you can talk to. No travel costs or inconveniences for others."
I think this video provides a pretty compelling case for the concept of this new medical experience:
The appointment I scheduled wasn't one that necessarily needed a specialist, but I was definitely interested in trying the service out. I'm skeptical by nature (sometimes to a fault) and would never have spent the money to take a risk like this, so I was happy to get the chance to try it for free.
Setting the appointment was a little tricky for me to decide on. These doctors are all specialists and the issue with my 8yo I wanted to talk about didn't necessarily need a specialist. I was able to choose a doctor and send a VERY brief question to see if he was the right person to ask our questions to. He responded back by saying he was willing and able to meet with us. This was a relief to me because the issue I wanted to talk about? Warts. Yep. Warts. And I felt 1,000 kinds of silly for scheduling one of these appointments for that, yet it is still the major issue I wanted to find more out about on behalf of my daughter. I scheduled the appointment.
The day before our appointment, I logged in to make sure I was all up to speed on the Flash requirements. I totally thought I was. So imagine my major surprise and a bit of stress when 9:10am rolled around and I suddenly discovered that though I had downloaded what I thought was the latest version of Flash, I wasn't able to get into the video chat room for our 9:20am appointment.

This is an example of the page you will see when you are getting it all set up. My page kept telling me I didn't have the latest version of Flash. Right before our appoinment was set to start, I called that number in the top right corner in a panic.
I didn't need to panic. 2nd.md was ready to help. I ended up having a fairly lengthy conversation with Brent Phillips, the CTO for 2nd.md. It appears that my 2008 iMac is still on Leopard or some other archaic operating system that won't accept 11.0 Flash. We only figured this out after Brent asked me to trust him with my computer and I gave him access to the inner depths. I figured I didn't have much to lose here. My computer files are about as chaotic as my actual physical desktop, to the major dismay of my husband. If he'd wanted to snatch something from me he would have had to have hunted really REALLY hard to find it.
Okay, that's ignorant. He could probably have just copied the entire thing flat and I would never have known it. But I really don't think he did that. In short, I trusted him.
Once he discovered that my computer wouldn't take the latest Flash, he changed a few settings on his end to still allow my session to go on. But before all this happened, he called the doctor for me and explained our technical difficulties. The two of them rescheduled my appointment to a time later that morning. Whew!
E8 was watching this entire process and she asked who it was that was moving the arrow around on my computer screen. Once I explained who he was and what [I thought] he was doing she said, "Oh. He must be pretty smart, huh?" Yep. Pretty much! So here's my big nod in the direction of the 2nd.md technical help. They really want to make this work for you and are willing to get their hands dirty in the process.
So, our appointment? It really wasn't one that needed the services of 2nd.md, though I'm not sorry I was able to use it. Dr. Zaks wasn't able to see the warts in question very well through our Skype-ish kind of chat (due to my not having the latest version of Flash), so he gave me his email address and told me to send him a photo. Wanna see it?

She's had that little one on her toe for a LONG time and for the longest time it looked like a tiny rock embedded in her toe. Only recently had it taken on a more wartish appearance. I primarily wanted to find out if that's really what that was and if so, what could we do about it? I also told him that the one her thumb was one I'd tried a few over the counter things on but it's a pretty stubborn wart.
He confirmed that the one on the toe was also a wart and was honest with me when he said that warts were really the one thing that coming to see the doctor about doesn't really help. Any treatment they do is about as effective as any treatment we can buy over the counter and either of those (in-office or over-the-counter) are only effective about 50% of the time.
We chatted some more about this and he sent me a detailed report with several things we can try on our own to take care of these.
Now it's up to me. I've been to the store three times since this appointment and have walked out each time forgetting to get the stuff I'm needing to get. I can't blame 2nd.md for that. It's my own darn fault.
Some quick thoughts on this: For $159, I would never have paid that for this particular concern. But I'm understanding that 2nd.md really isn't intended for the casual medical question, though it can certainly cover that should you so desire. I think the major purpose of the site is to allow easy and instant access to a specialist or second opinion doctor to confirm or question a diagnosis you've already received from your local doctor. While I wouldn't use this service again for something like I used it for the first time, if someone in my family received a concerning diagnosis and the only way to get a second opinion was to fly across the country for an appointment that had to be scheduled 2 months out, I would DEFINITELY use this service. In a heartbeat.
Thank you again to 2nd.MD for sponsoring this blog post. Please click here to learn more about 2nd.MD. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own. #Clever2ndMD #spon