These 2 words can soothe patients who have been harmed
When Donna Helen Crisp, a 59-year-old nursing professor, entered a North Carolina teaching hospital for a routine hysterectomy in 2007, she expected to come home the next day.
Instead, Crisp spent weeks in a coma and underwent five surgeries to correct a near-fatal cascade of medical errors that left her with permanent injuries. Desperate for an explanation, Crisp, who is also a lawyer, said she repeatedly encountered a white wall of silence: The hospital and her surgeon refused to say little more than “things didn’t go well.” Crisp spent years piecing together what happened. “I decided I was going to find out eve...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 18, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/sandra-g-boodman" rel="tag" > Sandra G. Boodman < /a > Tags: Patient Malpractice Source Type: blogs
Things Are Not Working As Planned
Sometimes, things just don ' t go as you wanted or expected. Its a fact of life and we need to learn to cope, change directions, and move on.In the grand scheme of things, my original plans were that would I grow up, go to college, get a job, a career, married, kids, retire to a life of happiness and world travel. Well, we know what happened to that. I got as far as ' go to college ' when my health started taking over my life. One little cancer diagnosis has a big emotional impact and it took time to get my life back together.So I regrouped and started over at college, etc. The job and career went okay. I did eventually go...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - March 14, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: being healthy housebound life new house Source Type: blogs
Your First Colonoscopy! What to Expect
Whee! Time for a Tube Up Your Tuchus!image:wikimedia commonsBy Crabby McSlackerSo, some perspective here: for people with serious illnesses who've been through hardcore, painful, debilitating, invasive medical procedures? A colonoscopy is probably child's play. (Although let's be clear, that's just an expression. If your child actually plays this way? We need to talk).But for most people, there's at least a little trepidation. And for many, if statistics are to be believed, that fear is significant enough to skip the procedure entirely! Well sure, it could save your life and all, but really? Do you have to?There are actual...
Source: Cranky Fitness - March 12, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Crabby McSlacker Source Type: blogs
December Supporter of the Month: Pam Whitehead
Our “Supporter of the Month” initiative was designed to recognize our donors, volunteers, and fundraisers and share their stories with our staff, interns, clients, and visitors. Pam is a cancer survivor and over the past 5 years, has served as a LIVESTRONG Leader. She works as an architect at her own firm and created her own foundation, Triumph Cancer Foundation.LS: How did you become involved with LIVESTRONG?Pam: I was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 2000. I was 36, and at that time the cancer landscape was very different. I didn ’t know anyone my age who had cancer, or even anyone with uterine cancer. There was ve...
Source: LIVESTRONG Blog - December 15, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: LIVESTRONG Staff Source Type: blogs
Another Anniversary
I met my husband in early 2002 and we got married in 2005, then everything changed. We had about three months of ame-being-healthy marriage before my health got the better of me.We married in May and in August I ended up in the emergency room because I had (previously unknown to me) uterine fibroids, one of which decided to die off which caused a massive internal infection, intense pain, ambulance trip to the ER, followed by several days on an IV antibiotic and a week of bed rest at home (when the roofers put in a new roof).Exactly 11 years ago today, I had a open hysterectomy where they removed my uterus (and all the evil...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - December 12, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: anniversary empowered patient online support group Source Type: blogs
Olympus Vying to Bring Back Laparoscopic Power Morcellation Thanks to PneumoLiner Safety Device
A couple years ago the FDA, realizing the dangers of laparoscopic power morcellation when used for removing the uterus (hysterectomy) or uterine fibroids (myomectomy), recommended that doctors quit using this type of technology. The issue is that women may have undetected cancerous tissues within the affected anatomy and taking a morcellator to them can spread the cancer intraperitoneally. Now a new system from Olympus is aiming to bring back laparoscopic power morcellation while preventing the spread of any cancer that may be present.
Cleared by the FDA back in April and just unveiled at the American Association of Gyn...
Source: Medgadget - November 17, 2016 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Editors Tags: Ob/Gyn Source Type: blogs
Not Blogging Equals Stress
As I also previously blogged, I haven ' t been blogging as much recently. And I have been feeling very stressed, and depressed recently. I realized these might be connected. At the beginning of my medical disasters (except my hysterectomy which was 18 months earlier) 9.5 years ago, I started blogging about my medical crap. I was ' expressing my stress ' (say that three times fast). I trained myself to vent through my writing. Then I haven ' t been writing, so I haven ' t been venting.Last night I started thinking (which is very dangerous at times) and realized that I really need to start blogging again for the emotional st...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - November 7, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: blogging stress venting Source Type: blogs
The medical histories of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump shouldn ’t be a big deal
When you are 70 years old, you are bound to have some medical problems, so I am not sure why the media and the public are making a hoopla about the medical histories of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
For an elderly patient, my usual medical dictation reads “Mr. A is a 70-year-old former truck driver who has hypertension, diabetes, bypass surgery, and who now comes in with a cough and shortness of breath over two days …” or “Mrs. B is 69-years-old woman who was small business owner has a history of breast cancer, cholecystectomy, hysterectomy, and now has fever and burning on urination.”
Even with so many disea...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 28, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/manoj-jain" rel="tag" > Manoj Jain, MD, MPH < /a > Tags: Physician Medications Source Type: blogs
Transgender healthcare coverage: Prevalence, recent trends, and considerations for payers
The post originally ran on Milliman, Inc. on July 28, 2016.
Recently, the concept of gender identity and what it means from a health insurance coverage perspective has been receiving increased attention. This paper lays out recent trends, including recent federal and state laws affecting health insurance benefits for transgender individuals. We also examine health insurance clinical coverage policies related to gender reassignment surgery as well as prevalence estimates. Finally, we provide future considerations for healthcare payers, including appropriately capturing data relevant to the healthcare needs of the transgende...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 9, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Transgender Healthcare Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
TroClose1200 Trocar With Built-In Sutures for Rapid Closure of Abdominal Wall
Gordian Surgical, an Israeli company, won the European CE mark for its TroClose1200 laparoscopy trocar that has a built-in suturing system to close the abdominal wall once you’re done with the procedure. The sutures are placed internally around the puncture once the trocar is positioned and are brought together by simply pulling on the lines once the laparoscopic instruments are removed.
The company hopes the device will save surgeons time over manual suturing or introducing additional devices just to close the incision. Moreover, it believes that a good deal of ports will be able to be closed with its system ...
Source: Medgadget - September 7, 2016 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Editors Tags: Ob/Gyn Surgery Thoracic Surgery Urology Vascular Surgery Source Type: blogs
Should cancer decide whether or not you have children?
In 2009 I was diagnosed with stage 3 cervical cancer. I was told I would immediately need a radical hysterectomy and five weeks of radiation and four cycles of chemotherapy. While I was in the middle of complete shock, my oncologist advised I should think about preserving my eggs or embryos before surgery. If she hadn ’t mentioned this, I doubt it would have crossed my mind. I was in survival mode at that time. She sent me to a fertility doctor right away.I had just started a new relationship with Jason, who is now my husband. I felt awkward, worried and embarrassed about discussing fertility with him, but we had known e...
Source: LIVESTRONG Blog - August 10, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Guest Source Type: blogs
Sexism in medicine is a public health issue
Author. President. Teacher. Doctor. These are all gender-neutral words which happen to relate to a person’s profession. However, I find it particularly interesting that while “doctor” is a gender-neutral word, the field of medicine is riddled with institutional sexism.
Let me begin by explaining that I am a military physician currently training to become a gastroenterologist. If being the only woman in any room bothered me, my journey would imply that I am a sadomasochist. But it’s still a hard pill to swallow when a program director asks me if I have children, a recruiter asks if I will be interested...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 7, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/lavanya-viswanathan" rel="tag" > Lavanya Viswanathan, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Specialist Source Type: blogs
TBT: Getting Diagnosed with Cervical Cancer
In honor of it being Cervical Cancer Awareness Month today’s TBT post is one we ran as part of a series back in 2014.
January is Cervical Cancer Month. According to the CDC, in 2010 11,818 women in the United States were diagnosed with cervical cancer and 3,939 women died from the disease. And while these statistics are disheartening, once the leading cause of death in women, cervical cancer has rapidly declined over the past 40 years. The decline in cases can be attributed to preventative medicine: more women are getting regular Pap tests, which can find cervical precancer before it turns into cancer.
Throughout t...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - January 14, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Cancer TBT Women's Health Source Type: blogs
Free market for surgery: interview with Allevion CEO Arnon Krongrad, MD
Surgery can be expensive, scary, dangerous and even deadly. Yet it’s hard for patients and even for referring physicians to navigate the system. So I was intrigued when I was contacted by Dr. Arnon Krongrad , CEO of Allevion, Inc., a healthcare logistics company that markets surgery packages. The company’s Surgeo online marketplace let’s patients shop for the surgeon of their choice.
I explored the topic in depth with Dr. Krongrad in this email interview.
What are the limitations of referrals to surgeons by primary doctors?
Conventional surgeon referrals by other doctors, such as primary physicians, r...
Source: Health Business Blog - January 6, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: dewe67 Tags: e-health Entrepreneurs Patients Physicians Source Type: blogs
A physician reflects on her experience in Rwanda
The optimism of a Rwandan in 2015 will strike you. Take a population that has seen or been raised in the wake of more horror than the average Westerner can imagine, and bring up a problem or something negative. Too short to reach the top shelf? It’s OK, you’ll fit under doors better. Hair stands out when bright red? Easier to pick out in a crowd. Mother has had 3 Cesarean sections with a hysterectomy? Her religious beliefs would’ve made it hard for her to request a tubal ligation, so she will feel relief knowing her child-bearing days have come to a close.
That optimism draws you in, even if you may squirm at the...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - December 7, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Frances Grimstad, MD Tags: Physician Primary care Source Type: blogs
