Dear Colleagues:

Well, I'm back for a while having finished my new edition of Medications
and Mothers' Milk. It'll ship in two weeks.   After four months of review,
the content of the book has basically doubled.  Therefore, I had to make a
number of major changes, one being the addition of an Index.  I know that
many of you may not like an index, but I had two choices,  dramatically
increase the number and content on each drug and use an index...
or keep the redundancy and keep it small and less complete.  Well,  I
decided it was time to add the index. Sorry.

So the content on many drugs has dramatically increased. Some monographs go
on for 3 pages.  I added approximately 74 new drugs and conditions, and
major changes in many drugs including Imitrex, Diflucan, etc.   I also
added oral bioavailability, Adverse Effects, updated the family tables, and
added a table of distasteful drugs, or drugs that induce altered taste
sensation.

In addition,  I added a FAX code for each drug/condition.  The faxcode is a
number that you can use to request a FAX-ON-DEMAND document to be sent to
you or your physician concerning the drug/condition.  The FAX-ON-DEMAND
system is a new service that I am offering (for a small fee) that you can
request via telephone (24 hrs/day).  You dial in (806-356-9556), enter your
password, and then request a set of documents be sent to a fax machine of
your selection. It is a nicely formatted fax document that reviews the drug
as well as its kinetics in breastfeeding mothers.  It should be great for
sending to the doctors office fax when you're having trouble convincing
them to do something such as use a medication.

To register
for this fax service, call 806-356-9556 and use 1 as your password and a
registration form and listing of drug faxcodes will be faxed to you along
with a typical drug fax.  This service can be used to fax anything, meeting
announcements, treatment protocols, etc.  As the owner of this service, I
am going to set some rigid ground rules so that the data included may be
reviewed by a group of reviewers before it is added to the database.  This
is to ensure accuracy.  I need your help in this review, so I may be asking
some of you to help me review topics prior to their addition.  I'm not an
LC and I need your expertise on these topics.  The intent of this service
is to provide you with information that you can provide directly to your
physician to help in many situations when they don't believe you.  Let's
see if it works.

So its nice to be back.

Tom Hale