October 26th, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Opinion
1 Comment »
That depends on if you can afford to get them. Costume lenses are all the rage for Halloween by adding an exciting dimension to the costume wearer. But did you know it’s illegal to market them as over the counter?
Many consumers do not realize that they are
FDA- regulated medical devices, and that recent legislation has made it illegal to market them as over-the-counter products. Still, they are commonly available in costume shops, beauty shops, convenience stores, novelty shops, and other places that people shop for Halloween items, as well as over the Internet.
Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at A Happy Hospitalist*
October 13th, 2009 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News
No Comments »
Even though we intuitively think that a particular color looks the same to different people, researchers from The University of Chicago and Vanderbilt University have uncovered that the brain plays a critical role in color perception. The brain actually assigns colors to objects and with a bit of tinkering one can fool the brain to assign the wrong color to an object being viewed. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
August 24th, 2009 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network
No Comments »
Ever wonder what the doctor is looking for when she shines the light into your eyes, up close and personal?
This is what she sees if the patient has severe hypertension. The retina shows blurring of the optic disc (in the middle left) and the white areas are called “cotton wool spots”. The blurry part at the bottom is a partial retinal detachment. The patient’s blood pressure was 220/150.
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
April 26th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in True Stories
3 Comments »
A surgeon friend of mine recently told me a story about a little girl who wandered into the territory of some pit bulls. These dogs were tied up with leashes in the neighbor’s back yard – specifically because they couldn’t be trusted to run loose near children. Tragically, the two year old wandered within their grasp after slipping through a protective kiddie gate and out of the house.
The dogs attacked her viciously, dragging her deeper within their territory and attempted to eat her alive. They tore off both her ears and shredded her chest and limbs. By the time she was discovered she was near death. The girl was rushed to the nearest trauma center – where my friend took her to the OR immediately. He spent the entire night putting the pieces back together, as it were.
A couple of days later, my astute friend noticed her having problems turning her head towards her mothers’ spoon during meal times. That observation triggered him to test her vision – and low and behold the girl was completely blind. A brain CT confirmed the clinical team’s worst fears: at some point during her resuscitation, the girl had a massive stroke, and her entire occipital lobe (the back of the brain) was damaged.
Wondering if there was anything he could do to help the girl, and devastated by what he assumed was a grave prognosis (a lifetime of blindness), my friend called a neuro-ophthalmologist for advice. Much to his amazement, the neurologist told him that her visual deficits were likely to resolve completely, because her brain would simply adapt. Children at very young ages can recover from otherwise devastating strokes because of neuroplasticity – the ability of the brain to rewire itself, and recruit healthy neurons to take over for damaged tissue.
True to the neurologist’s predictions, the little girl regained her site within a year. Fortunately, her body healed extremely well too – and despite thousands of stitches, her scarring turned out to be quite minimal. Today it’s hard to tell that she’s had surgery at all.
This story holds special interest to me, as I too was mauled by a dog when I was a little girl. Although I was bitten in the face, and nearly lost my left eye, I can’t remember the last person who noticed my scars or asked about them. They simply faded with time.
The extraordinary healing powers of young tissue cannot be matched in adulthood. However, some degree of neuroplasticity lives on in each of us, offering hope for brain rehabilitation for everyone – from the forgetful to those with major impairments.
Whether you (or a loved one) have internal or external scars – healing is always possible.
December 27th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in True Stories
13 Comments »
Fortunately for me, my recent brush with the healthcare system was not as frightening as Dr. Dappen’s (he blogs here every Wednesday and recently had a mild heart attack). However, it was provided me with some amusing blog fodder.
Last week I was minding my own business, planning to purchase a new batch of contact lenses from a local optometrist, when I was required (under threat of withholding my lenses) to undergo a vision exam. Much to my disappointment, my right eye was not behaving itself, and refused to correct to 20/20 despite a good deal of lens fiddling on the part of the doctor. A slit lamp retinal evaluation followed, and the optometrist concluded that my right eye’s macula “looked like an 85-year-old’s.”
Well, that was not the most welcome of observations. I asked for the differential diagnosis (being that I’m quite a few years away from 85) and wondered how I’d developed macular degernation. He suggested that it could also be a “central serous” which is (apparently) a stress-related swelling of the macula that requires no treatment and usually resolves on its own.
“So basically you’re saying that my eye could be ‘bugging out’ because of stress.” I said. “And you’d like me to see an ophthalmologist just in case it’s something worse and equally untreatable?”
“Right.”
So I made an appointment with a local ophthalmologist – one of the few working on Christmas Eve – and was sorry to have him confirm that there was indeed something wrong with my retina. He even ordered an eye angiogram (I didn’t know those existed, but it makes perfect sense) and I was injected with a vegetable dye. Photographs were taken through my dilated pupils at regular intervals as the dye wound its way through my retinal vasculature.
“It’s not a central serous.” He said with a serious tone. “And you can see the macular defect here on this photograph.”
“So my right eye is like an 85-year-old’s?” I asked, wondering how I’d been so fortunate to have one part of my body on the aging fast-track.
“Well, not exactly. I think it’s unlikely to be age-related macular degeneration. You probably have retinal thinning caused by your nearsightedness.”
“You mean all that straining to see the chalk board wore out my retina?”
“No. What I mean is that your eye is supposed to be shaped like a baseball, but yours is an egg shape. So your retina is stretched thin and is starting to wear in your macula area.”
“Well can you suck out some of the vitreous gel and shape my egg back into a baseball?”
“No. Unfortunately that doesn’t work.”
“How do you know?”
“The Russians tried it in the 1960s.”
“Ok, well how do I take some of the tension off my stretched out retina?”
“You can’t.”
“Well if I lose weight or eat carrots or exercise, or stop wearing contacts, or get lasik… would any of that help?”
“No.”
“So there’s nothing I can do to prevent further damage, and nothing to repair or treat it.”
“Right.”
Pause.
“I don’t like this condition.”
“Well, you’ll have to come and see me once a year so I can monitor the progression. Sometimes the body responds to the retinal damage by growing blood vessels in the area, and that can cause further visual deficits. But we can zap those new vessels with a laser and decrease the damage.”
“So my eye might overgrow with blood vessels like weeds in a garden.”
“It might. But it also may stay exactly the same for the rest of your life.”
“Well, the uncertainty is anxiety-provoking.”
“I’ll see you in a year. You’ll probably be fine. Don’t worry. Oh, and if you see any ‘floaters’ or flashes of light, come in to see me immediately.”
“What would that indicate?”
“A retinal tear that would need laser therapy right away. People with thin retinas can have spontaneous tears. Just keep that in mind.”
“Um… ok.” I said, smiling feebly.
So here I am, with one wonky eye, not knowing if it will get worse or remain the same indefinitely. There’s nothing I can do but watch the progression once a year with an ophthalmologist. Like so many patients, I’m in a gray zone where prognostication is a challenge and reversal of disease is not possible. I have one 85- year-old eye. May it bring me wisdom, courage, and more empathy for patients.
