When I was in nursing school there was always a lot of eye-rolling when it came time to discuss nursing diagnoses. This was mostly because nursing diagnoses were followed by book-length nursing care plans that we had to produce for various imaginary patients. There was also a faction, including myself, who thought a medical diagnosis was just fine, thank you, no need to reinvent the proverbial wheel.
The Lumberjack World Championships, coming up for those interested in Hayward, Wisconsin in late July 2015, appear to be very impressive. Contestants are judged on a diverse array of aptitudes, from chopping and sawing to pole climbing and log rolling. One presumes the criteria for winning each of these are clear and as objective as possible. There is a panel of master lumberjacks to help oversee the judging.
Have you seen these? The ubiquitous fitness themed motivational memes foisted upon us by corporations and Internet bloggers alike. You know what these all have in common? Aside from the fact that they typically aren’t associated with the funny cat videos that comprise roughly 94 percent of Internet traffic, they all do one thing: They make you feel more inadequate …
NPR recently reported, “Measles makes an unwelcome visit to Disneyland.” Nine people who visited Disneyland theme parks in California over winter break had caught measles, almost all of them unvaccinated children. The next day, ABC reported that the number of cases has grown to 19. Of these, only two had been fully vaccinated. Some of the cases were too young to receive vaccines, others apparently chose not to get vaccinated. …
Influenza has arrived refusing to be ignored or be the ugly step-virus to Ebola any longer. This influenza season is officially an epidemic. The Washington Post’s Wonkblog reported earlier this month that December 2014 was “one of the worst flu months in years.” In fact, they found that it was “the worst December since the polling organization started tracking flu season in 2008.”
My compulsion started when I was 10-years-old. I remember thinking about when I would get my next fix. These feelings got in the way of my ability to perform scholastically and socially. I yearned not for marijuana, cocaine or heroin, but for something with much easier access and profound availability.
Ear infections (or, what we like to call “acute otitis media”) are one of the staple diagnoses of pediatrics. Most kids have at least one before their third birthday. And most pediatricians see at least one every day by 11. You would think we would always get it right. But I have a confession — we don’t. In fact, children are misdiagnosed and over-treated at an alarming rate.
A 74-year-old man is evaluated in the emergency department for a 3-day history of fever and chills as well as confusion. He has a 5-week history of a nonhealing ulcer on the plantar surface of his left foot. He has diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and peripheral vascular disease for which he takes metformin, …
As part of a plan to improve our practice’s quality of care for patients with high blood pressure, my office’s nurse announces at every morning huddle which patients on that day’s schedule had a blood pressure measurement of greater than 140/90 at their last visit. Most of these patients have measurements consistent with mild hypertension (systolic blood pressure less than 160 mm Hg and/or diastolic blood pressure less than 100 …
The case of Cassandra C., a 17-year-old in Connecticut who refused to continue receiving chemotherapy to treat her Hodgkin’s lymphoma, poses a genuine ethical dilemma. The dilemma stems from a conflict between two leading ethical principles. One principle, respect for autonomy, calls for respecting individuals’ right to self-determination. In the medical context, that means allowing people to refuse medical treatment, even lifesaving therapy. The other ethical principle, beneficence, directs physicians and hospitals to …
For years, my husband and I have argued about how to dress the kids for cold weather (given that we have five kids ranging in age from 23 to 9, this argument truly has been going on for a while). He says I don’t dress them warmly enough. I say he overdoes it.
After all these years, I still think I’m right. But that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the way …
A 46-year-old woman is evaluated before undergoing a dental cleaning procedure involving deep scaling. She has a history of mitral valve prolapse without regurgitation and also had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA) aortic valve endocarditis 10 years ago treated successfully with antibiotics. The patient notes an allergy to penicillin characterized by hypotension, hives, and …
News non-flash: A comparison of various diets (low-carb/Atkins, low-carb + low fat/South Beach, low calorie/Weight Watchers, and whatever-the-hell-the-Zone-diet is/protein-carb ratio) shows no difference in long-term outcomes, defined as sustained weight loss, with the attendant presumed decrease in cardiovascular risk factors and events.
Sorry, no great surprise here. But I think it’s because nutrition research has a huge blind spot: not adequately controlling for type 2 diabetes/metabolic syndrome.
You might think of bacon, that thing of gustatory beauty that is salted, cured pork, as just pleasure for your taste buds. However, one of the first medical facts I learned in 2015 was that bacon has medicinal purposes (apart from making you feel better after eating it). With this new knowledge at hand, the time just seemed right for a …
Colonoscopy is the most effective test for the detection and prevention of colorectal cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. An estimated 14 million colonoscopies are performed in the United States every year. About 20 to 40 percent of these colonoscopies have inadequate bowel preparation according to multiple studies.
Inadequate bowel preparation is costly to the patient, the health care system, and society.
My brother wears a scar around his neck. It represents his second surgery for papillary thyroid cancer. The first started off the same way. Ugly, red and angry. Curving like an ominous smile around his neck, like a noose. That’s how it felt too — the lump in his throat growing as he sat quietly, alone in a doctor’s office. It’s interesting how physical scars are a visual manifestation of …
A 66-year-old man is evaluated for vague abdominal pain of several months’ duration and a 10-kg (22-lb) weight loss. He drinks alcohol socially but does not smoke. The patient is otherwise well, has good performance status, and takes no medications.
On physical examination, vital signs are normal. No lymphadenopathy is noted. Cardiopulmonary examination …
Water births, delivering a baby so it is born underwater, are controversial medically because while they are promoted as safe and natural by some midwives and lay midwives they are not recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Congress of OB/GYN. (Laboring in a tub in an entirely different thing.)
Have you ever eaten a healthy meal, maybe some brown rice and stir-fried veggies, and found yourself ready for another meal just a short while later? Or, more often couldn’t overcome a hankering for a satisfying dessert to top off (and undermine the healthiness of) that meal?
As it turns out, this lack of satiety is not merely a function of the …
