A new year, another new doctor. The first thing my new specialist said as soon as I sat down was: I know what your problem is. Pause. You have physician fatigue. No kidding. Astute. I don’t recall another doctor noticing that on their own or, if have, acknowledging it openly to me. I immediately paid…
Category: Health
Writings on health and nutrition, the health care system, doctors and therapists, heck, anything to do with health.
Bell Let’s Talk Day
People don’t perceive traumatic brain injury (TBI) as a mental illness but neither do they see it as a physical injury. So it gets less attention than even mental illness, which is not exactly visible and the reason why Bell is sponsoring Let’s Talk day today. But TBI is often accompanied by depression or can…
CBC’s Marketplace Posits A Theory About COLD-FX
Bad science: have a pet theory, manipulate the results to suit it. Marketplace mimicked bad science well this past week. Their theory: COLD-FX does not work. Their results: don’t fit. A little manipulation was in order using panning camerawork, fun quizzes, people-on-the-street interviews journalists are addicted to, jerky camerawork as they follow some poor target,…
Neck Traction for Whiplash — Relief
I know I talk about my brain injury as if it was the only injury I got from two drivers slamming into the back of the car I was in, but I got others too. That bowling ball on my neck, pulled that stalk one way then the other, straining and spraining it. The seat…
Value of Rest and Staycations to a Person with Brain Injury
One of the most frustrating things about a brain injury is the energy loss. The words “tired,” “exhausted,” “fatigued” don’t really convey the experience and frustration of this state, for it isn’t anything like one feels after a long day at the office, a hard-drinking night at the frat, an all-night study session for one…
Blood Pressure and Brain Injury: The Test
I had 24-hour blood pressure monitoring done twice this past week, sort of. The first monitor went kaput after a couple of hours. So the next day, back on the highway I went to the clinic and was hooked up to a 2-week-old one. Brand new is better than well used, except when it comes…
HPN Awareness Week
It’s HPN Awareness Week this week: 7 August to 13 August. Parenteral nutrition, or “IV feeding,” isn’t just for patients in the hospital. We know that. And it isn’t as uncommon as it once was. The Oley Foundation has set aside August 7–13 for HPN Awareness Week to help spread the word that people can…
How Do You Know if You’re Malnourished When Fat?
I was watching ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition (link has annoying video with audio ad) last night and heard the medical specialist inform the 456-lb woman that she was malnourished. I wondered: how did they assess malnutrition? How do we know if we’re malnourished, even when fat? So I asked my resident nutrition guru.…
Sweating Brain Injury Heat
The heat dome rose up out of the US and expanded itself north to smother Toronto in record-breaking heat for July 21st, only 0.1 degrees Celsius off the all-time record for the entire month of July. On the news, reporters warned us to drink lots, to watch for signs of heat stress, and to watch…