Conditions

There is no quick fix for kids’ cold and flu symptoms but there are things you can do

Conditions
December 2, 2021

Colder weather is upon us again – and so is cold and flu season. Nearly two years into the fight against COVID-19, we welcome children returning to schools, daycare, and sports. But with the loosening of restrictions and increased social contacts, we are also now seeing increased circulation of common seasonal respiratory viruses.

Kids are experiencing cough and cold symptoms, including fever, congestion, and sore throat due to other respiratory viruses …

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If you’re a nurse or an abuse survivor, you don’t have to be brave

Conditions
November 30, 2021

For decades, I was constantly told how brave I was and wore “brave” like a scarlet letter on my chest. Brave for choosing to raise my children alone. Brave for becoming a nurse practitioner. Brave for going public with my story of child sexual abuse and complex PTSD. Brave for being willing to stand on a stage and talk about my journey.

I was so convinced of my brave-ness that I …

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Testing gravity during Ladder Season

Conditions
November 27, 2021

The transition from pumpkin spice to gingerbread lattes may conjure warm, cozy holiday feelings for some, but for those of us who treat trauma patients, it signals the beginning of Ladder Season. There is something in the crisp late Autumn air that is driving people to dust off their rickety ladders and climb onto the roof. Later they will line our ER hallways, a spinal fracture here, a pelvic fracture …

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To my patient who is going to lose her hair from chemotherapy

Conditions
November 25, 2021

I understand that the biggest fear you have about going through chemotherapy is losing your hair. I just want to tell you. You will be fine. Trust me.

I know it’s barbaric. Why don’t we have medicines to treat cancer that will not make you lose your hair in this day and age? Strange, right? But science has its limits. Work is being done on finding such …

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Cancer provided an unexpected silver lining

Conditions
November 25, 2021

When I first met her, I perceived she was nervous. I could sense the doctor skepticism. She simply had a negative aura about her. An Eeyore, if you will. A “no” person. A drag.

To my absolute non-surprise, she declined all screenings that a woman of her age is recommended to get. No labs. No pap. No mammogram. No flu shot.

I wondered why she had even come to the doctor.

I think …

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A children’s guide to getting vaccinated, in comic form

Conditions
November 21, 2021

Emily Watters is a physician and created a children’s guide to getting vaccinated, in comic form (click to enlarge):

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It’s a lifestyle: Adopting behavioral approach to health care is urgent

Conditions
November 19, 2021

If you are a frequent flyer in an airlines program, this is often a benefit. If you are a “frequent flyer” in a health care setting, this is not. It means you may have a chronic illness and are often seen in a health care setting, treated, sent home, and quickly return because the care approach was not to prevent recurrence by implementing lifestyle changes.

This is why lifestyle medicine is …

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A nurse’s prayer for safety

Conditions
November 19, 2021

In Catholic elementary school, we sat at our school desks, and the nuns had us pray for the lost souls in purgatory every day.

If we prayed hard enough, we would pray them out of purgatory and lift them into heaven.

Before I clock in, I say my anti-assault prayers to the gods. I pray for safety. I pray for the next 12 hours to be uneventful.

I thought I would give ICU …

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A message from a physician treating COVID patients

Conditions
November 18, 2021

Most of the people who debate COVID-19 vaccination are not physicians. Of those who are, not all have treated COVID-19 patients. I have.

As soon as COVID-19 vaccines became available, my entire practice was vaccinated. One elderly patient was not because he was hospitalized in another state. He acquired COVID-19 there and died.

With the availability of testing and treatment, I have routinely tested patients who were symptomatic or exposed to the …

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Would someone please explain to me how to reconcile different versions of reality?

Conditions
November 17, 2021

I traveled to Denver to California via train in mid-October. The train is aptly named the California Zephyr.

It is a 33-hour trip, across the high mountains of  Colorado — with magnificent views of rocky canyons flanking the Colorado River – and through the scrub deserts and subdued, pink-hued mountains of Utah and Nevada.

The trip was lovely. My husband and I had gotten our COVID booster shots two weeks prior. We paid …

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Use a little compassion: How we treat and support each other is important

Conditions
November 17, 2021

I need to start this blog by saying that these times do try us. I completely understand this as I continue to care for others in what is rapidly becoming the most tenacious public health disaster of my nearly 40 years in nursing.

Last week, as I searched the aisles of the local grocery store looking for tasty, nutritious items to pack for lunches, I happened across a man wearing a …

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A story of medicine’s stolen children

Conditions
November 17, 2021

It was a Monday two years ago. I was still fresh from coming back from having been out of school from a COVID break. I was no older than 22, and I was in my pediatrics clerkship. I was greener than a freshly watered lawn, and I felt every bit of it. It was one day into this rotation that I met Adam.

He was a 7-year-old boy the size of …

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Until next year, breast care center

Conditions
November 16, 2021

I enter the breast care center, check in, and take a seat. Though there are few people in the room; there is a sense of dread and trepidation that hangs in the air. It feels almost like a sacred space as I am acutely aware of all the prayers, meditations, and laments that have been spoken in this room whether aloud or silently. I can imagine behests to God, Jesus, …

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New possibilities for pain management: the case for spinal cord stimulation

Conditions
November 16, 2021

There’s one thing that links every patient I see as a pain management specialist: All they want is relief. And they want it in whatever way is going to be the most effective and least disruptive to their lives. And anyone in this role can tell you that that’s a big responsibility and a tall order. This job isn’t simply about reducing pain – it’s about giving people a life …

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Why you should vaccinate your kids

Conditions
November 16, 2021

I am definitely getting my daughter vaccinated, and I acknowledge a minimal risk. Here is my reasoning, and perhaps this can help your family decide to get the vaccine for the kids in your family, too.

Coronavirus is going to be with us for a long time — years, decades, probably for the rest of our lives like influenza. It is even widespread in deer now, another reservoir …

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How MRI-guided radiation therapy is changing the paradigm in pancreatic cancer 

Conditions
November 14, 2021

I truly believe we’re at the beginning of something great in terms of fundamentally changing how we approach pancreatic cancer, the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States. With a mortality rate of roughly 80 percent, it’s been referred to as a medical emergency, yet minimal progress has been made in its treatment over the past few decades.

In the world of radiation oncology, …

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Mental health and the balance between technology and the human touch

Conditions
November 12, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic escalated the mental health crisis in the U.S., with researchers estimating that 1 in 3 employees will develop a mental illness in the next 12 months. With the majority of Americans part of the U.S. workforce, the onus is increasingly on employers to offer solutions that address ongoing mental health concerns. With mental health providers scarce, a transformative plethora of new treatment options are available, including digital …

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Addressing online addiction has become a moral imperative

Conditions
November 11, 2021

On August 30th Uncle Xi Jinping stepped into many Chinese living rooms and asked hundreds of millions of his nieces and nephews to hand over their video game controllers. Three hours per week is all they get now. According to a press release from Xinhua state news, he promised to give them back on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for an hour each evening.

Now to my ear, that sounds a bit …

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What you don’t know about pain will hurt you

Conditions
November 11, 2021

Chronic pain is an epidemic, currently affecting over 100 million American adults – more than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined. This doesn’t include children, 1 in 3 of whom live with a chronic pain condition ranging from migraine to chronic stomachaches. Chronic pain disrupts life, impeding the ability to work, exercise, have sex, engage in hobbies, even go outside. It’s the number one cause of long-term disability in the …

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Stress: Is it time to expose the alcohol con?

Conditions
November 10, 2021

If you find yourself reaching for a bottle or sighing with relief at a well-deserved glass of wine at the end of a stressful day, then you are not alone.

Far more people than you can imagine do the same thing, and many of them feel ashamed that they do.

Those same people are often baffled to learn that alcohol causes the very feeling that they are drinking to alleviate. Most busy …

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