Thank you to 2nd.MD for providing me with a $200 stipend to test-drive this revolutionary online medical service.

A few weeks ago I opened my inbox and found an email looking for someone with a personal medical concern or history of medical issues to try out a new service, I nearly fell over in my chair. Yeah, I’d say I have a history of medical concern.

2nd.md is a way for the average person to have access to top medical specialists without having to wait months for an appointment, having to travel, or even having to leave their home. The service provides online consults through video chat or by phone.

You can search for a specialist by symptom, condition, disease, or specialty, and then select the one that seems most appropriate for your case. If you’re not sure if they can help you, you can send them a brief synopsis and they’ll let you know within 48 hours whether they’re a good match for you.

Once you’ve chosen a doctor, you sign up for an appointment time. The doctor I chose didn’t have any available appointments when I signed it, but I simply sent a request for him to open some up and I was immediately set up with an appointment that was convenient for me.

It was purely coincidence my appointment fell on the day of my 3 year anniversary. {Do you have anniversaries of medical conditions?}

The consults last 20 minutes and cost anywhere from $100-600 {I’m roughly estimating here, don’t quote me}. At first I about choked when I saw that, but it’s actually a pretty good deal when you think about it. I’d owe at least that in insurance fees, and I can guarantee a doctor’s never talked to me uninterrupted for 20 minutes. Not to mention there was no wasted time sitting in a waiting room for a backed up doctor.

I consider myself pretty tech savvy, but I’ve never used my webcam. It was super easy to get everything set up and ready for the appointment- it was pretty much automatically done for me. You also have the option to preload any medical records you may have.

The doctor didn’t have any miracle answers for me {shucks!}, but he did provide a new perspective which is always a good weapon to have in your back pocket. He suggested I double check a couple labs and measurements, recommended a few more I might want to try, and helped brainstorm some alternative treatment ideas.

We also talked about my refusing-to-heal knee and the possibility of it being connected to whatever’s going on with my hands & feet.

Although I was secretly hoping for a mind blowing diagnosis, it was still a good experience. Sometimes you just have this nagging desire to ask a doctor a question and you don’t have that specialist near you or it’s too hard {or too much trouble} to get an appointment. This would be a pretty good option for that type of situation.

It’s not quite the same as a real doctor’s appointment- they can’t touch you to examine you and you can’t skip on down to the lab to get your blood drawn, but it’s an easy way to get a second opinion about a condition or issue you’ve been having. {ALWAYS get a second opinion!!!}

Overall I thought the service was pretty cool, especially as someone who does online counseling. If only I had their technology!

Learn more about 2nd.md with this video.

Don’t miss my 32 week update on tiny sneakers!

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