What passes for food in the U.S. has become scarier than ever. Finding healthy, chemical- and additive-free food is becoming quite the challenge! I had breakfast last weekend with friends at a local breakfast joint. The ‘cream’ for the coffee was a bowl of individual creamers, some flavored, the others labeled ‘half and half’. Yep,…
~Sigh. You just got a message that Mr. Jones is back in the hospital. Again. You just saw him last week! He looked fine…. no complaints. He hasn’t smoked now in 5 years. He tries to exercise, but gets tired quickly. You did a quick 02 test on him in the hallways, and he doesn’t…
Current standards for performing the Six minute walk test (6mwt) include not walking with the patient, so that they will walk at their own pace rather than attempt to keep pace with the tester. While this may allow a better result, careful observation of the patient before, during, and after the 6mwt, and handoff of…
Often times my patients will bring in their ‘home’ Pulse oximeters to compare with the hospital grade oximeters. There are a number of things to understand about how a pulse ox works, in order to understand the numbers. When you place the finger probe on your finger, the light needs to go through the nailbed….
If you have COPD, you are well aware of triggers that can cause difficult breathing, or shortness of breath. Some people describe the scary feeling as: they can’t get enough air, or their chest feels tight. It is important to figure out the things that trigger this short breathing, but sometimes it just seems to…
My patient tells me she feels depressed. She used to go to lunch with all her friends on Wednesdays, but now she just tells them to go on without her. “Why?”, I asked . “I don’t like to hold them up. I walk so slow now! They say they don’t mind but I feel like…
This is one of my favorite (not!) answers when I ask one of my patients why they come to class wheezing and barely able to breathe. I have to pause before I figure out how to tactfully ask the question: You know you need your inhalers, so, how could you not know you were running…
Now, do your storyboard. I do mine in PowerPoint. For CXR’s for example, I would start with what a normal one looks like. Then go into some classic ones such as pneumonia, emphysema, fibrosis, and
Dear Doctor, ~Sigh…. You just got a message that Mr. Jones is back in the hospital. Again. You just saw him last week! He looked fine…. no complaints. Hasn’t smoked now in 5 years. He tries to exercise, but gets tired quickly. You did a quick 02 test on him in the hallways, and he…
“My daughter and son-in-law want me to move in with them, but I don’t want to.” If you have a chronic disease process, or even a temporary (but debilitating) one, it’s wise not to live alone. Barring the fact that they might be smokers, think about why you would not want to do this….
Have you ever thought about what the next version of you would look like? Many of us just go along with the way we are, adding aging, food choices, and other unhealthy habits into the factors that make us what we are today. My yoga teacher does this one move– one I have been working…