July 9th, 2011 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Culture, Emergency Medicine, Family, Fun, Marriage
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This is my column in July’s EM News. Have a restful day!
We travel to Hilton Head, SC, every spring for an ‘end of school-year’ vacation. It is a tradition that started several years ago; one which our family treasures. We plan months ahead, when we arrange lodging. Then, as the date draws closer we have to restrain ourselves from jumping up and down at odd, inappropriate times. The beach calls to us in an inexplicable way.
We live in a beautiful county, surrounded by mountains and lakes. It is, in itself, a worthy destination, perfect for biking, hiking, fishing and/or kayaking. But when May rolls around, our eyes turn to the east, and we long for the sand and sea. It is one of the special gifts of South Carolina, that highland forests and crashing surf are half a day’s car ride apart.
The morning we leave, the car is packed, the snacks tucked away, and we drive through the local Chick-fil-A for drinks. Then my dear wife immerses herself in a novel, her i-Pod turned to her music collection (eclectic as when we first met, running the gamut from Prince to Loreena McKinnet, from Aaron Copeland to Veggie-Tales). The children slip off their shoes and drift into games, or their own books and music before boredom takes them to sleep.
I am left enjoying the singular pleasure of driving across the state of South Carolina, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
July 9th, 2011 by GarySchwitzer in True Stories
Tags: Bad Judgement, Breast Cancer, Creepy, Facebook, Genzyme, PR Company, Privacy, Social Media, Violation
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Marilyn Mann is a very smart woman. She’s a securities lawyer. But she’s also educated herself about health care out of necessity. She’s a breast cancer survivor and she has a daughter with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, a genetic disease causing very high LDL-cholesterol. She is one of the administrators of a Facebook group called Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) Discussion Group – intended primarily for people with FH or their family members.
Recently, Mann got a message from a PR woman who had joined the Facebook page.
“Hi Marilyn,
A few months ago, I had emailed you about some research I was doing about a new treatment for FH. I am now working with a pharmaceutical company, and the company currently has a drug in development to help treat people with severe FH that may not be responding to current therapies. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
July 4th, 2011 by KerriSparling in True Stories
Tags: Corneal Abrasian, Diabetes, Eye Damage, Muro 128, Ophthalmology, Optometry
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Back at the beginning of May, the Bird took a swipe at my left eyeball with her little birdie talon, ripping off a nice, solid chunk of my cornea and leaving me in some serious pain. It was a rough couple of days, especially because Chris was away for the week on business, but my family and friends pitched in to help with the baby and to allow me to heal.
I figured I was done with this issue.
“You may want to be careful about recurrence, Kerri. With this kind of injury, it does happen.” My eye doctor warned me, handing me a small tube of eye goop stuff. “This is Muro 128. Pull down your lower eyelid and smear this in there. It will help keep your eye coated while you sleep.”
(Oh eyeball injuries. You make me feel old, because if you Google “Muro 128,” you’ll see that this product is targeted at the 60+ crowd. Throw in a few tennis balls for my walker and I’m ready for my debut at the bingo hall.)
I used the stuff, but it wasn’t enough Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
June 29th, 2011 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Humor, True Stories
Tags: Emergency Medicine, Epinephrine, Epipen, Fun, Pets, Physician, Rattle Snakes, Red Neck, Wasps
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A physician friend of mine recently bragged that, while driving along a rural South Carolina road, he had stopped, chased a timber-rattler into the bushes, located said rattler, then urinated on it.
‘I wanted to say I had peed on a rattlesnake!’ He beat a hasty retreat (and I imagine a hasty zip-up) when the snake rattled and struck at the air. Who can blame Mr. Snake?
You can take the redneck to medical school, but you’ll just get a redneck with a medical degree.
Which brings me to me. I have to work on our tool-shed/work-shop in the morning. The tool-shed/work-shop is, however, over-run with red-wasps. I counted no less than ten nests inside. These are irritable, contentious creatures with no love of humanity. If they were humans, they would be Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
June 29th, 2011 by KerriSparling in True Stories
Tags: Basal Rate, Blood Glucose, Challenges, Dexcom, Diabetes, Endocrinology, Glucose Levels, insulin, Managing Blood Sugar, Sleeping, Target Range, Type 1 Diabetes
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I do not enjoy basal testing. Even though I sometimes go six hour clips without having a snack (thanks, Birdy and your busy ways), something about knowing I can’t eat or exercise makes me want to do a 5K while simultaneously chomping down on some soft serve.
But when I noticed that I was going to bed at a completely normal blood sugar, but waking up in the 180 – 220 mg/dl range for three days in a row, I knew I needed to do some basal tweaking.
Making adjustments to my overnight basal rates always skeeves me out. I’m a very deep sleeper (as evidenced by the fact that Siah prowling around on the bed all night doesn’t wake me in the slightest, but makes Chris say “We’re sleeping with the door SHUT tonight,” in the morning), and I have a very healthy fear of overnight low blood sugars. My symptoms of a low on the overnights used to be this body-drenching sweat, but since the birth of my daughter, that symptom has all but disappeared. Now, I don’t have any symptoms at all. Blood sugars of 60, 50, and lower don’t even register until I prick my finger and go, “Oh. I guess I’m low?” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
