However you spell it: Hay Fever or Hayfever, it’s miserable; and the name has become, like “Kleenex”, the “generic” moniker for any scratchy, itchy, watery red eyes with runny nose – even though the true disease occurs in the fall during the farmer’s haying season.
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Did you pick out the Five Things About Concussions You Should Know?
First – don’t wait to “see if it goes away” before you seek accurate diagnosis. Often an accurate diagnosis depends on comparing measurements in an early visit with those in a later visit.
Second – Follow-up care is important not only to prevent further harm but sometimes to make an accurate diagnosis, especially about the brain and nervous system which can be very subtle.
Third – We now realize that there are long term effects of concussions, possibly up to 6 years! There may even be life-long consequences that must be overcome.
Fourth – Even multiple impacts without a diagnosed concussion often lead to long term effects. And,
Fifth, Helmets are designed to prevent skull fractures and NOT concussions.
With summer comes heat – at least that’s how we do it in the U.S. (so far). And, for most of us: Summer Vacation, Little League and lot’s of sun.
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We’re talking about ‘travel diseases’ which should be considered before taking a trip ‘abroad’ either with or without the family in tow. Yes, from the standpoint of living in the U.S. most of these seem vague and ‘out there somewhere’ but not associated with our daily worries.
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The summer travel season is upon us, at least here in the U.S., and for most of us it means dusting off the car games for the kids to use between bathroom stops as we cruise across the country on vacation.
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This post begins the series of TEN Travel Diseases you shouldn’t forget to consider if you’re lucky (and brave) enough to be taking a vacation this year which involves some degree of traveling – especially across some borders. And remember, the more borders you cross, the more of these you should consider.
You may or may not have even heard of them (hence writing these posts) but be assured, they are still alive and well in the world. And many still here in parts of the United States!
Here is the index to the Ten Travel Diseases series:
Due to editing and space constraints, my (newspaper) article on tonsillectomy two weeks ago did not present the entire picture of how physicians feel about this surgical procedure… and generated several additional questions – which we will cover here.
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I have been asked several times this week about tonsillectomy – whether or not a child should have their tonsils taken out by surgery. Usually the question is in response to a sore throat of some kind, whether or not there is an infected tonsil.
There are just so many variables (i.e. whether it is acute or chronic, allergic or contagious etc.) that my reply must be largely individualized; so, a short article cannot adequately cover the topic.
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What would you think if your child, who had been toilet-trained for many years, began wetting the bed but was otherwise healthy and in no discomfort; or, if your little girl, 2 1/2 years old, began refusing to sit on the toilet, had a low-grade fever, and was extremely irritable; or, if your 15-year-old boy told you that he had pain on urination for the past four or five days and was now passing bloody urine; Read more→
I have been holding off writing a summer article until the weather made it clear that it really was summer. I don’t seem to have been quick enough on the draw, however, there was no spring to warn me.
When the weather warms up we begin seeing less contagious illnesses like colds, ear infections, chicken pox, etc. (very warm areas decrease illness in summer as people go indoors for air conditioning.)
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What do pilgrim and pioneer children have in common with aborigines in the highlands of New Guinea, hamsters, and some children living in "progressive" homes of today?
The answer? Read more→
We’ve done this before but in this case history I won’t make you guess. It was between me and my “professor” many years ago. Attendings and residents both saw clinic patients but residents also had hospital ward rotations. An attending “summoned” me Read more→