‘Tis the season

Flu

allergy-18656_640Influenza A and B viruses – better known as “the flu” – should NOT be taken lightly.  It’s one thing to have a cold, sneezing, sniffles, but it’s another to have the flu virus.

Influenza is a respiratory viral infection that attacks the nose, throat, sometimes respiratory system.  It can spread rapidly and can also become deadly – especially for small children and the elderly.

Late fall and winter seasons is the peak of the  flu – changes and fluctuation of the weather and temperature – and everyone is susceptible.

There are three types of Influenza – A, B and C.  Both A and B are the most common annual flu epidemic whereas influenza C is less severe.  Symptoms of the flu versus a cold are:  fever, chills, tiredness,  muscle aches.

Everyone’s body reacts differently to illnesses, so know your body  and be proactive.  Again, as I’ve mentioned in other posts, I’m not advocating running to the emergency room or doctor’s office every time you have a slight symptom, but KNOW your body and use common sense.  If you have a fever, chills, severe cough that has gone on for more than a day or two,  and to keep down the spread of any potential viral infection, please go and see your doctor.  Now available in most communities are your local minute clinics if you’re still hesitant to go see your doctor.  There’s no appointment necessary and they do have licensed medical staff who can treat you and/or direct you where you need to go.

year-198469_640Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and healthy 2014!!  Have a story or experience you’d like to share?  Have questions regarding any medical term or health subject you’d like to know about, feel free to ask, comment or question and I’ll do my best to answer them!

Matters of the heart

Heart

Yes, it’s been a LONG time since I’ve been here……but I am BACK!!

We hear so much these days about being “heart healthy”, being careful in what we eat to keep a healthy heart.  Well……it’s all true!  The heart is a very interesting organ.  It plays many, many roles in our health.   The role of the heart is to pump blood throughout the cardiogram-heart-pulse-trace-concept-cardiovascular-medical-exam-32285203body.   It’s located between the two lungs and lies left of the middle of the chest.

Though there was no early-age family history of heart problems/heart disease in my family – mother’s and father’s side – I just brushed off those ‘signs’ as family members being OLD and developing heart problems.  My dad was generally healthy – was still driving at 92 years of age!  But it was then I started realizing that yes – there IS a family history of heart problems.  Dad developed heart problems in his early 80s (actually probably before that, but with his ‘pride’ in the way and his generation of people with the thought process of “i’m okay – nothing’s wrong”) probably developed it earlier than the age of 80.

My own personal experience with the heart came in 2010 when I had a myocardial infarction (heart attack).  I was doing my usual…..working at home transcribing, early morning around 6:00-6:30 a.m.  I was actually feeling quite great, until I had a sudden pain in the center of my chest right at the breast bone.  Okay…… I brushed that off and kept working.  Five minutes later, I had a second pain which was even sharper than the first, in the same spot.  It was so sharp, it moved me out of my chair.  I began to feel queasy, so I sat on the bed for a moment.  Still not thinking ANYTHING about having a heart attack, I still brushed it off as maybe having indigestion.  It certainly was not indigestion as I later came to find out, to sum it all up.

All in all, it took me approximately 2.5 hours from the time of initial chest pain to getting to the hospital and being diagnosed as having a heart attack. One of the tests that determines when one is having a heart attack is called a troponin level, which is part of the cardiac enzyme levels.  Normal levels are around 0.00-0.02.  My troponin level in determining my heart attack was 34!!! Needless to say, I have damage to my heart and I’ve had to have 2 stents placed.  Cardiac stents  are placed to keep the arteries open, free of plaque buildup and used for better reducing chest pain in the event of another heart attack.

With a 6-day hospital stay during that time and now 3 years later, I must say that I am doing fine,  changed my eating habits (I DO tend to fall off the wagon from eating right, but I get back on track) and taking Crestor (a statin drug) to help reduce the amount of plaque in me.  I was VERY reluctant at first to take any type of statin drug (and had been on 2 other different statin drugs prior to the Crestor to see what works best for me) because of its side effects.  Yes – pretty much ALL medications have some sort of side effects that are listed, but if you have a concerned, caring physician and in tune with the things going on with your health, different alternatives can be reached between you and your physician.  I had ‘heard’ so many negative things about statin drugs, but I’ve had to take it upon myself to educate myself regarding statins.

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Oh My Aching Head!

Headaches

dreamstimecomp_30996740(HEADACHE)Yep, that dull, aggravating, constant headache you’ve been having.  It’ll go away but still eventually return.   Headaches, dull or severe could be a number of things – stress, anxiety, a migraine never diagnosed, TMJ (temporomandibular joint (or grinding of teeth) or something more serious.

Two things I NEVER play around with is my head and my heart (no punt intended) medically.  My experience with headaches (on different occasions in my life) were TMJ and the onset of me developing hypertension (high blood pressure).  With the TMJ issues, there were LOTS of stressors in my life during that time  so I would take out my ‘stress’/anxiety in my sleep by grinding/clinching my teeth while asleep.  I would clinch so hard that upon awakening, I would instantly have a sharp headache.  The headache would diminish to a dull headache throughout the remainder of the day, but never go away entirely.  

Even though I sit here year after year typing patient medical records and coming across varying different diseases, medical problems, not once did I think I was creating my own medical problems.  I guess I had the “it can’t happen to me” syndrome!  Beginning approximately 2006, I never realized I was creating my OWN hypertension either back in 2005 and on.  Alcohol and excessive amounts of salt intake  I feel is what started that.  I was not a heavy drinker of alcohol, not even an every day drinker, but those are 2 factors that contributes to high blood pressure.  

Again, I’m not suggesting to go to the doc every time you have a pain or symptom, but if it is a persistent or ongoing pain, do NOT ever put it off getting treated.  You’d rather be safe,  get seen, than to let it drag on and once finally seen, be some sort of serious or even devastating medical issue.

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An Eye-opening Experience

Eyes

dreamstimecomp_12139239(EYES)My experience with my eyes having any ‘signs’ of needing to get medical treatment started in 2012.  I spend 90% of my day on the computer – and have done so since the late 1970s.  Wow – that’s sounds pretty rough – but it’s true.  I began having ‘watery’ eyes, actually around 2009-2010.  Not having health insurance at the time, I ignored the watery eyes because I thought well, I’m not having pain, just watery eyes, maybe I’m getting ‘weak’ eyes.  I am in my mid 50s. It was not until December 2012 (I knew my insurance would kick in January 2013) that I finally sought treatment.  Plus, I couldn’t take the watery eye any longer as they were getting worse.  I’m actually a tough person – tough in the sense that I’ve been through A LOT health-wise, but nothing could have prepared me for THIS particular diagnosis.  While doing the eye exam, doc kept saying to me, “your pressure in your eyes are so bad, it’s a wonder you ain’t gone blind.”  That is when he diagnosed me with glaucoma.  He also informed me that long-term use of prednisone (steroids) he feels is what caused the glaucoma many, many years ago.  Devastated I was!!  No pain,  no nothing but my right eye watering some. There are 2 types of glaucoma.  There’s an “open-angle” glaucoma and a more severe kind called narrow-angled (also known as “closed-angle”) glaucoma.  The closed angle glaucoma is what I have.   Glaucoma is considered the “silent thief of your eyesight.” Only having 15% of my optic nerve left is NOT good, but thank God I did go when I did.  After several consistent visits, laser eye surgery to both eyes (iridotomy) I CAN save what  optic nerve I can and keep my glaucoma under control. I’m not saying to go to the doctor/emergency room every single time we have a little ache.  What I AM saying is do not procrastinate like I did. Don’t wait weeks, months, years to get checked.  Call your community medical provider, ask questions, don’t just assume you can’t afford it.  You may find a really caring medical provider who will work with you.  Empower your health!

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