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HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS

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SEPTEMBER 1, 2017

HydroMatic

What is 20/20 vision?

SEE PAGE 3

FOREVER

We all think we know the answer, but do we? Of course, “what is 20/20?” is the simple question. What about the meaning of 20/40 or 20/80?

According to the American Optometric Association, 20/20 describes “normal” visual acuity, or clarity and sharpness of vision. The numbers describe distances from a standard eye chart, with 20 feet being the “control” distance. A person who has 20/20 vision can see at 20 feet away from an eye chart exactly what they should be able to see. Someone with 20/100 vision describes a person who has to get 20 feet from the eye chart to see what a person with normal visual acuity can see from 100 feet away.

While 20/20 is considered the standard for perfect vision, it only measures visual clarity at 20 feet. A person with 20/20 vision could have very limited peripheral vision, be color blind, have difficulty focusing their eyes, or need reading glasses to read this newspaper on paper or online.

People who can see things up close but not far away may have myopia (nearsightedness). Those able to clearly see what is far in the distance may have hyperopia, or farsightedness. If the condition is caused by loss of elasticity in the lens and the inability to focus, the diagnosis is often presbyopia. If that sounds like “presbyter,” defined as a church elder or minister, it’s not your imagination. Presbyopia has its roots in Greek: presbus - “old man” + ops - “eye.”

Glasses, contact lens or surgery can often improve, correct or restore better vision. +

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“Baby’s out!” called the Obstetrician. The Neonatologist signaled me to start the APGAR counter and the NICU nurse waited for the baby with a blanket covering her arms. There was a new life in the room. The only problem was we didn’t hear the fi rst cry of life. I looked over the doctor’s shoulder and saw the baby. Its arms and legs were a blue hue and the limbs were limp. I was no an expert, but I

knew this meant trouble.

It was my fi rst day in the NICU nursery. I picked it up as my last rotation of medical school because it was the only age group I lacked exposure to newborns. My mother is a Pediatrician and I respect and admire her for it. However, I have always known that would not be my path after medical school. Nevertheless, I believe it’s important to improve the areas we are lacking in. Also, I was easily overwhelmed by the sight of a patient smaller than the size of my arm connected to IV lines and other medical equipment. Putting myself in uncomfortable situations that I can grow from is another personal favorite of mine - and so I did.

And here I was in the most uncomfortable situation there is: a baby who just came into the world and isn’t breathing. Orders were being calmly and assertively spoken by the Neonatologist and we were putting them into action. I suctioned the baby, the nurse began to mask and after only minimal improvement in oxygenation, it was clear we needed to intubate. Resuscitation is a part of medicine that fascinates me. I completed 8 weeks of elective rotation in Anesthesiology for the opportunity to learn as much about airway management and resuscitation as possible during medical school. It paid off on my first day of this patient’s life when I was able to predict each step and truly be an asset to the team.

The baby went home two weeks later. By the end of that rotation, I was comfortable handling the care of newborns and infants. I assisted the Neonatologist and NICU nurses on procedures and spent my lunch time feeding and holding the babies suffering from NAS, the acronym for “Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.”

Participating in the patient care of newborns withdrawing from opiates was challenging on many levels. Talk about an uncomfortable situation, and one I hadn’t anticipated. On average, more than 75% of our nursery was NAS recovery and management. I learned to be compassionate, even when it felt impossible. I learned that judgment only stands in the way of patient care. Most importantly, I learned that putting myself out there and growing from these uncomfortable situations is what will eventually mold me into a doctor worthy of my patients.

I completed the fi rst portion of my medical education and will soon have that diploma I’ve been working for with the title M.D., but in many ways the learning has only begun.

As I prepare my residency application in primary care, I look back at one constant throughout my clinical rotations, the Augusta Medical Examiner and my readers.

I personally want to thank AME and the Augusta community for picking up the paper and taking part in my Short White Coat journey. I’m not sure where this road will lead, but Augusta will always hold a special place for me. Thank you! +

by Jasmine Rivas, a fourth year medical student at University of Medicine and Health Sciences. Feel free to contact her with questions or feedback: jrivas@umhs-sk.net EDITOR’S NOTE: With this installent of The Short White Coat, and with gratitude to Jasmine Rivas, the position of student columnist for the Medical Examiner is officially vacant and open. Think you might like to chronicle your med school experience? We would love to hear from you. Contact info is in the box to the right on page 3.

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SEPTEMBER 1, 2017

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AUGUSTA MEDiCAL EXAMINER

Part W of a 26-part series

The

WATER POWER

Advice Doctor

Our need for water is the stuff of Survival 101, the ABCs of staying alive. It’s the gas in our tanks, much more so than food. As a general rule, humans can live 3 weeks or so without food, but only about 3 days without water. In fact, the average human is about 60 percent water. The composition of the brain is almost 75 percent water, the lungs 83 percent. Cells are 90 percent water.

As important as it is, some studies estimate that about 75 percent of all Americans are chronically dehydrated.

So let’s wrap up this article here, short and sweet, by resolving to drink more.

IS FOR WATER

Wait. Hold Up. That’s It? Basically, yeah. We need to drink more water. And let’s be perfectly honest: even flat warm Diet Mello Yello provides hydration. So does beer, coffee, milk, steak, celery, lettuce and tomatoes. Of course, some of those bring along some baggage. The #1 ingredient in soft drinks is water, but all the sugar that comes along for the ride promotes weight gain, tooth decay, and an assortment of potential health problems if that is a person’s primary source of hydration. Coffee and colas contain lots of caffeine, which acts as a diuretic. Alcohol consumption can also lead to dehydration: it acts to decrease production of a hormone which helps the body absorb water. With supplies of that hormone in short supply, more liquid heads to the bladder for urination.

On the other hand, we all know plenty of people who are never without their bottle of pure sparkling spring water, drawn from a pristine artesian well, a melting 10,000-year-old iceberg or a clear spring high in the Alps or the Rockies. They buy the stuff — and drink it — by the case. So they’re in great shape, right? Yes and no.

For starters, drinking clean pure water is a splendid habit. Even so, many an environmental authority has wondered why the entire bottled water industry exists in the fi rst place. We’re buying billions of bottles every year filled with what is often — despite the claims of water companies and their appealing labels and advertising — just tap water from some city’s water system someplace.

That doesn’t mean the water isn’t above-average: what makes this water special is that instead of costing us pennies per gallon, like America’s’s world’s-best and safest tap water, it can cost us dollars per gallon. Incidentally, we (U.S.) throw away 35 billion platic bottles a year.

True, bottled water is extra-purified, so if you don’t want to drink chemicals in municipal water systems like chlorine and fluoride, most bottled water will fill the bill. (Some bottled waters do contain fluoride.)

Incidentally, not every municipal water system treats its drinking water with fluoride, but locally, Aiken, Columbia and Richmond counties all do.

The amount is at levels prescribed by and are monitored by the local water utilities, state agencies and even federal regulations.

Is fluoride safe? It depends on who you ask. It is a definite factor in promoting dental health and cavity prevention. It is almost universally viewed as 100 percent safe in drinking water, as is the small amount of H 2 O chlorine present, but there are always those who hold alternative views.

Anyone seeking to live the most salubrious life possible has to decide what to believe and what to dismiss as false. After all, there are people who belong to the so-called “Flat Earth Society,” who sincerely believe September 11 was an attack by Americans on Americans, or that the moon missions never happened. There are websites that vigorously advocate all these positions — and others proclaiming that drinking tap water is almost as bad as drinking nuclear waste.

We’re not here to debate any of these positions, just to say that drinking water is vital, that bottled water is an unnecessary expense, financially and environmentally, but that whatever water you drink, keep drinking it. +

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Dear Advice Doctor, I work with a great bunch of people, but this one lady, I don’t even know why she works. She’s rich. She doesn’t need the money, while all the rest of us are struggling to make ends meet with our little paychecks. She wants to go out to eat every day and when we can’t afford it she gets mad. I’m sorry I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth like her, but does she have to rub it in every day? How can we get this through her thick skull?

— Sign me “She works hard for the money” Dear She Works Hard, I understand your frustration, but to be honest, in my many years of medical practice I have never seen the situation you describe, even though over the years I have delivered literally hundreds of babies. Not a single one had a silver spoon in its mouth upon birth, yet I hear this claim made frequently.

I hate to be the person to break this news to you, but this whole silver spoon story is nothing but a myth, a fairy tale.

But this is still a very important issue in the months and years after delivery, especially for children ages 5 and under, who naturally put objects in their mouth. For that age group, choking is the fourth-leading cause of accidental death.

Food is the #1 culprit in nonfatal choking. Leading the list: grapes, hot dogs, especially when sliced, hard candy, gum, popcorn, and peanut butter (especially in spoonfuls or with soft white bread). Small toys can also be a choking hazard.

When it comes to food, teach children from the beginning to eat while sitting at the table or in a high chair, not while lying down, playing, walking or running. Ideally, family mealtimes should be calm and unhurried. Never leave a small child unsupervised while eating. Set a good example by how you eat.

I don’t think you have to worry about your child choking on a spoon, whether it is silver or not. It’s what’s on the spoon that is of greater concern. + Do you have a question for The Advice Doctor about life, love, personal relationships, career, raising children, or any other important topic? Send it to News@AugustaRx.com. Replies will be provided only in Examiner issues.

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MEDICAL EXAMINER

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www.AugustaRx.com The Medical Examiner’s mission: to provide information on topics of health and wellness of interest to general readers, to offer information to assist readers in wisely choosing their healthcare providers, and to serve as a central source of news within every part of the Augusta medical community.

Submit editorial content to graphicadv@knology.net Direct editorial and advertising inquiries to: Daniel R. Pearson, Publisher & Editor E-mail: Dan@AugustaRx.com

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(706) 860-5455 www.AugustaRx.com • E-mail: graphicadv@knology.net Opinions expressed by the writers herein are their own and/or their respective institutions. Neither the Augusta Medical Examiner, Pearson Graphic 365 Inc., or its agents or employees take any responsibility for the accuracy of submitted information, which is presented for general informational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnosis and treatment, consult your doctor.

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SEPTEMBER 1, 2017

AUGUSTA MEDiCAL EXAMINER

#51 IN A SERIES

OLD NEWS

Who is this?

+

POINTS OF INTEREST TO FORMER KIDS

by Trisha Whisenhunt, Senior Citizens Council

MASSAGE NOT COVERED BY INSURANCE

I

T

his man, Barry Marshall (b. 1951) made medical research deeply personal, and in the process turned the world of medicine upside down and healed millions of people, preventing illness in millions more.

It all started in Western Australia in the early 1980s. There as in many places around the world at that time, about 10 percent of the adult population suffered from ulcers. The list of suspected causes included stress and worry — “Relax! You’re going to give yourself an ulcer!” — spicy foods, and an overactive imagination. Dr. Marshall remembers patients with severe stomach pains who were referred to a psychiatrist and given antidepressant medication.

No one suspected that bacteria could be the cause of ulcers because it was accepted that bacteria cannot survive in the presence of the stomach’s powerful digestive acids.

Except for one minor detail: that “fact” wasn’t true.

In late 1981, Marshall met Dr. Robin Warren, a pathologist working in the same Royal Perth Hospital in Western Australia. Amazingly enough, Warren had a list of patients with digestive woes whose stomach biopsies revealed a curious curved bacteria (above) that was very much alive in acid-filled stomachs. By 1982, Drs. Marshall and Warren had identified the bacteria as Helicobacter pylori, often shortened to H. pylori. As many as half of all humans have H. pylori in their gastrointestinal tract, but the vast majority of us (up to 85 percent) never experience any symptoms or problems because of it, although it does elevate the risk of ulcers, stomach and colorectal cancers and polyps.

Intrigued by those who were suffering, Marshall wanted to know more. He had cultured the bacteria in the lab and killed it with antibiotics and simple bismuth (the active ingredient in Pepto-Bismol). The solution was simple, effective and cheap.

Animal studies were more difficult: H. pylori affects only mammals, not lab mice, and Marshall was unable to get permission for human studies.

Time was ticking by, and both Marshall and Warren knew first-hand that patients all over the world were suffering needlessly. Out of desperation Marshall finally took a decisive step without consulting the hospital’s ethics committee or even his wife: he took some H. pylori from an ailing patient, stirred it into a broth and drank it. As he later said, “I didn’t expect to become as ill as I did.” Nausea, exhaustion and vomiting indicated he was infected, and his self-biopsy confirmed it. He administered the very treatment he had been championing to the deaf ears of the medical community and cured himself.

It didn’t happen overnight — it took the better part of a decade — but by the mid-1990s the tide of acceptance turned.

Fast forward another ten years to 2005, and Drs. Marshall and Warren received the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their ground-breaking discovery. +

have had only a couple of professional massages but they did wonders for me. They were good for my body and my general well-being too. I have a long-standing belief that if everyone on the planet (including babies and pets) got a massage every month, there would be far less discord in the world. We would just plain feel better and be in a more positive frame of mind.

Think how much better we would function at anything we were to undertake.

According to the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA), approximately 9 million people over the age of 55 have had a total of 39 million massages over the last 12 months. Massage therapy has been demonstrated to help treat chronic pain, most often in the joints, while also improving stability and posture. A study suggests regular massage may produce physiological changes that contribute to improved balance which can be a way to decrease falls in older adults.

Massage has much to offer in ameliorating the aches and pains which are associated with aging. Particularly

for those who suffer from Osteoarthritis (OA) and when combined with exercise and NSAIDs, the benefits from massage can last up to 16 weeks, reducing symptoms significantly.

Another group who can benefit from massage are those suffering from Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. When massage is offered to these individuals, it is shown to reduce agitation behaviors and produces a relaxation response. It most often helps with pacing, wandering and resisting these patients often exhibit.

However, verbal displays of agitation were not affected by massage.

Massage is beneficial in relieving stress, managing pain, enables better quality sleep, an increase in range of motion and can boost mental health and wellness. The seven most popular types of massage are: Swedish massage, which provides

full body muscle relaxation and is especially helpful in recovering from an injury; aromatherapy massage is enhanced with essential oils which are highly concentrated plant oils; deep tissue massage uses deep pressure and focuses on the deepest layer of muscle tissue, tendons and fascia, the protective layer surrounding the bone, muscle and joints; Shiatsu massage is applied with the thumbs, hands, elbows, knees or feet to the pressure points of the body. It also encompasses the rotation and stretching of the limbs and joints; Thai massage is point pressure, energy meridian work and yoga-like stretching for an invigorating and balancing experience; pregnancy massage is designed to reduce the discomforts associated with pregnancy such as backache, stiff neck, leg cramps, headache and edema; reflexology massage is footbased and is also known as zone therapy. Finger pressure is applied to the feet, hands, or ears and links the pressure points to various internal organs.

The proven benefits of massage would reduce medical costs, so in the long run it would be a win/win if only insurance covered massage therapy.

Unfortunately, like a lot of procedures which are of obvious benefit, it doesn’t. +

MYTH OF THE MONTH Apple cider vinegar works miracles!

Every year or two something else comes along as the latest greatest natural route to better health, something doctors don’t want us to know about because they’ll lose money if it catches on.

One of those is apple cider vinegar which, if you believe everything said about it, helps ward off heart disease, promote weight loss, lower blood sugar, improve the immune system, aid in digestion and probably cure flat feet.

Obviously there isn’t sufficient space here to address each of those claims, but the adage, “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is” comes to mind.

Does that mean drinking apple cider vinegar

offers no benefits, or that all claims made by its advocates are false?

It does not. What it does mean is that being informed is of great value.

Do your homework when faced with any health claims, and seek reputable, neutral information sources.

Our health is one of our most valuable possessions and should be rigorously guarded and protected. If we employ unproven and ineffective treatments we can delay healing and unintentionally damage our health. + — by F. E. Gilliard, MD, Family Medicine 4244 Washington Road, Evans, GA 30809 706-760-7607

SEPTEMBER 1, 2017

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AUGUSTA MEDiCAL EXAMINER

WHAT EVERYBODY OUGHT TO KNOW res? k good eno r skin can ugh cer? son.”

W

o k

hen we were growing up, my mother always told me to be sweet. I tried my best, at least most of the time.

The rest of the time, I was a flat wood boy with an affinity for bare feet and puppy dogs and .22 rifles and tractors and pickup trucks. Working hard was not only expected, it was necessary.

We processed our own meat from the chickens, hogs, and cows we raised. We ate fish from Brushy Creek. We only had dessert on Sunday. Daddy said it was all we could afford.

Mother said it was all we needed. As usual, both were correct.

With all this swirling around me I did not notice we were in the midst of a deadly epidemic. And the epidemic was to be more deadly than the World Wars of our times.

The cause of such a deadly calamity was self-inflicted: we became too sweet. Not the social kind, but the metabolic kind. We were to succumb to the devastation of diabetes mellitus.

Diabetes mellitus back then was commonly known as sugar diabetes, or simply “sugar.” A hundred years ago, if you got sugar diabetes, you usually died fairly quickly, and certainly within a few years.

Then in 1921 Banting and

ABOUT BEING SWEET. AND HEALTHY.

Best ground up some hog pancreas, extracted the juice and injected it into a diabetic.

The diabetic miraculously improved. Within a year it became standard medical treatment.

In 1955, sulfonylureas were developed to make the pancreas increase its production of human insulin.

Now we had an oral and an injectable treatment.

The 4-hour glucose tolerance test was utilized to diagnose diabetes. It was nauseating and involved multiple venipunctures. Patients did not like it.

In 1964, tests strips were invented so that blood glucose could be tested more readily, thereby improving diabetic control via finger pricks instead of drawing venous blood.

In 1977 a monumental monitoring tool was discovered: Hemoglobin A1C. A1C readings indicate the average blood glucose level over an extended period of the recent past. An A1C of less than 6.5 is good. Above that requires medical supervision and lifestyle changes.

In the 1990s we realized there was a whole package of related issues we called Metabolic Syndrome: obesity (Body Mass Index greater than

E TH

Bes 25), hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia (high cholesterol & triglycerides), and increased waist girth (>40” for men; >35” for women).

In 2008, studies showed that good A1C control reduced damage from both macro-vascular (myocardial infarctions, stokes, and sudden death) and micro-vascular (retinopathy, neuropathy, and nephropathy) risks, and extended life. Good A1C control gives 50% decrease in morbidity. It does not cost much. Any doctor’s office can help their patients attain it.

Good A1C control can add 13 years to the life of the average diabetic compared to one who doesn’t have good control.

Presently 12% of the US population has been diagnosed with diabetes.

Another 4% have it but are undiagnosed. 38% are prediabetic, which means they will likely develop diabetes if

ine c i d E tM

they live to age 65. Add it all up and that is more than half the population.

When my mother said to be sweet, she meant to work hard, have good manners, say please and thank you, ma’am, sir, open doors for ladies, go to church on Sunday, ask a blessing before regular home cooked meals, and in general to do no harm to myself or anyone else.

She did not mean to overeat, get fat, be lazy, act like a fool, and die young with a tripledigit blood glucose level.

So how did our society fall on the double-edged sword of the metabolic syndrome and diabetes?

We became lazy. We became industrialized. We became addicted to TV and computer games. We got easy jobs that required no physical work.

We fell in love with fast food and soft drinks and sweets and desserts. We hire someone to mow our grass. We want

doctors to prescribe a pill to reverse our sorry eating habits. We refuse to take responsibility for our own health.

The bottom line is that you should follow your A1C, blood glucose, and serum lipid levels closer than you follow the Bulldogs, Dow Jones Industrial Average, the sports page, or the news out of Washington. None of those will kill you.

Inattention to your weight, blood pressure, waist size, lipid level, and blood glucose level, as well as tobacco exposure, will kill you.

Nothing personal, but I am not interested in going to your funeral, so help me out here: Be sweet. Be healthy. It is a simple choice that has little out of pocket cost. + Bad Billy Laveau is a formerlyretired MD who wields a pointed sense of humor - and now, tongue depressors too. He speaks and entertains at events for audiences not subject to cardiac arrest secondary to overwhelming laughter and glee.

BadBilly@knology.net or 706306-9397.

F REE T AKE-HO ME CO PY!

+

Calling all Bad Billy fans!

More than two dozen of Bad Billy’s personally handpicked stories are collected together in his first book.

Get yours today at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com For personalized autographed print copies, call 706-306-9397

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HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS

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SEPTEMBER 1, 2017

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AUGUSTA MEDiCAL EXAMINER

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That is certainly said about some local publications, but we actually Like and prefer being article-HEAVY and ad-LITE. ...within reason We’d also kinda like to stay in business too. So:

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AUGUSTA MEDiCAL EXAMINER

Southern Girls Eat Clean Refreshing & Healthy Piña Colada Popsicles In hot weather, what could be better than a cool and refreshing popsicle?

Popsicles bring back memories of childhood for me. As a child, my favorite flavor popsicle was banana. Every time my mom would go to the local market in the summertime, she would allow me to have a banana popsicle. I can remember riding back home with her and licking on my popsicle, racing to eat it before it melted. Most of the time, more of it ended up on my shirt than in my stomach due to the heat in upstate South Carolina in July. No air conditioner in car back then.

I still love popsicles even as an adult, but I don’t like all the artificial sugars, flavors and ingredients in most of the popsicles you purchase at the supermarket these days. Even the so-called “Fruit bars” are loaded with excess sugars and artificial ingredients.

Some are labeled “sugar free” and you can guess what that means:artificial sweeteners such as Splenda or Aspartame. Not so good if you are trying to eat a healthy, clean diet.

Here is a super simple, healthy and clean popsicle Piña Colada Popsicles recipe you can whip up in about 5 minutes. Literally, 5 • 1 organic banana, sliced Freeze until hardened, minutes. Your children will • 2 tsp. of maple syrup or approximately 8 hours. love them and I can bet you honey Remove from freezer and will too.

• 2 Tbsp. of organic fresh run warm water over molds to Enjoy what is left of coconut (Optional) loosen and remove. summer, my friends! Eat Serve immediately. + well, laugh often, and love Instructions: much. Transport yourself Special equipment you will Alisa Rhinehart is half of the blog back to childhood and treat need: Popsicle molds. southerngirlseatclean.com. She yourself to these healthy and Place all ingredients into a is a working wife and mother refreshing popsicles. high speed blender and blend living in Evans, for approximately 1 to 1-1/2 Georgia. Visit her blog Ingredients: minutes until smooth. for more recipes and • 1 cup of organic light Pour mixture into popsicle information on clean coconut milk molds and place the stick into eating.

• 1 cup of organic pineapple the mold chunks

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Will he ever get one right?

Peach Orchard • Furys Ferry • Grovetown • Louisville • Serenity • Wrens • barneysrx.com

Probably not.

“

Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.

-Thomas Szasz, The Second Sin, 1973

”

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Questions.

And answers.

On page 3.

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OUR NEWSSTANDS Medical locations: • Children’s Hospital of Georgia, Harper Street, Main Lobby • Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Ctr, 15th St., Main Entrance • Dept. of Veterans Affairs Med. Center, Uptown Div., Wrightsboro Rd., main lobby • Doctors Hospital, 3651 Wheeler Rd, ER Lobby Entrance • Eisenhower Hospital, Main Lobby, Fort Gordon • George C. Wilson Drive (by medical center Waffle House and mail boxes) • Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home, main lobby, 15th Street • Augusta U. Hospital, 1120 15th Street, South & West Entrances • Augusta U. Medical Office Building, Harper Street, Main Entrance • Augusta U. Medical Office Building, Harper Street, Parking Deck entrance • Augusta U. Hospital, Emergency Room, Harper Street, Main Entrance • Select Specialty Hospital, Walton Way, Main entrance lobby • Trinity Hospital, Wrightsboro Road, main lobby by elevators • Trinity Hospital Home Health, Daniel Village, main lobby • University Health Federal Credit Union/ University Hospital Human Resources, 1402 Walton Way • University Hospital, 1350 Walton Way, Emergency Room lobby area • University Hospital, 1350 Walton Way, Outside Brown & Radiology/Day Surgery • University Hospital - Columbia County, 465 N. Belair Road, Main Lobby • University Hospital Prompt Care, 3121 Peach Orchard Road, Augusta

Around town: • Barney’s Pharmacy, 2604 Peach Orchard Rd. • Birth Control Source, 1944 Walton Way • GRU Summerville Student Bookstore • Blue Sky Kitchen, 990 Broad Street • Columbia County Library, main branch lobby, Ronald Reagan Drive, Evans • Enterprise Mill (North Tower), 1450 Greene Street, Augusta • Daniel Village Barber Shop, Wrightsboro Road at Ohio Ave. • Family Y (Old Health Central), Broad Street, downtown Augusta • Hartley’s Uniforms, 1010 Druid Park Ave, Augusta • International Uniforms, 1216 Broad Street, Augusta • Marshall Family Y, Belair Rd, Evans • Parks Pharmacy, Georgia Avenue, North Augusta • Southside Family Y, Tobacco Road, Augusta • Surrey Center, Surrey Center Pharmacy, Highland Avenue, Augusta • Top-Notch Car Wash, 512 N. Belair Road, Evans • Wild Wing Cafe, 3035 Washington Road, Augusta

Plus more than 875 doctors offices throughout the area for staff and waiting rooms, as well as many nurses stations and waiting rooms of area hospitals.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2017

AUGUSTA MEDiCAL EXAMINER

ASK DR. KARP

NO NONSENSE

NUTRITION Tripp from Grovetown asks, “Why is red meat bad?”

Actually, Tripp, red meat is not “bad.” Surprised? There are plenty of people in the United States and around the world who eat red meat and who are perfectly healthy and happy.

Here’s a better question: should you get less of your

dietary protein from red meat and more from other sources, such as fish, chicken and plants? Absolutely.

In the past several years, we have found that people who eat plants and fish, rather than red meat, are healthier than those who do not. So, it does appear to be a prudent thing to do. And it’s great for your wallet, too. Non-red-meat protein sources are much less expensive and include eggs (egg white contains the protein), skim and low-fat dairy products, vegetables, grains, legumes (such as peanuts) and beans (soybeans, black beans, red beans, pinto beans, white beans, lentils, and chick peas).

Compared to red meat, these other protein food sources have less fat, particularly saturated fat and cholesterol. Since plants can’t make cholesterol, there is no cholesterol in plants and the foods made directly from plants. The more saturated fat and cholesterol that you eat, the higher your blood cholesterol level and the greater your risk of

heart disease and stroke.

Also, plant protein often comes with more fiber and vitamins and minerals compared to red meat.

Not all plants are low in saturated fat; the exceptions include coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil. The recent coconut and palm oil fad should be avoided.

An additional health issue with red meat arises in the way it is prepared. When red meat is cooked at high temperatures or preserved, smoked or pickled, unhealthy cancer-causing chemicals are introduced into the meat. This includes red meats that are grilled, broiled or fried. It also includes luncheon and deli meats, smoked meats, bacon and jerky. And yes, bacon.

From a far larger perspective, there is quite a difference in the energy and resources needed to produce edible protein from animals compared to plants. It takes approximately 80 times less energy and 15 times less water to grow one calorie of soybean protein as it does to produce one calorie of beef protein. Another issue with

cattle is all the methane and nitrous oxide produced in their guts which end up in our atmosphere and have a further environmental impact.

There are easy ways of incorporating more plant protein into your diet. Have a bean-based dinner at least once-a-week; this simple meal may be Cajun-style red beans and rice with a tossed salad and a piece of whole grain bread. When you make a salad, sprinkle some black beans or garbanzo beans onto the salad. At dinnertime, serve those pasta sauces and toppings over white beans, rather than pasta.

So, what is the “nononsense nutrition advice” for red meat lovers? It is not a crime or a mortal sin to eat red meat. Lots of people do. However, if you decrease the amount of meat in your diet, you will be healthier, your wallet will be fuller, the planet will be cleaner, our natural resources will be used more wisely and cows can stop carrying around those “Eat Mor Chickin” signs. +

Have a question about food, diet or nutrition? Post or private message your question on Facebook - www.Facebook.com/AskDrKarp - or email your question to askdrkarp@gmail.com If your question is chosen for a column, your name will be changed, to insure your privacy. Warren B. Karp, Ph.D., D.M.D. is Professor Emeritus at Augusta University. He has served as Director of the Nutrition Consult Service at The Dental College of Georgia and is past Vice Chair of the Columbia County Board of Health. You can fi nd out more about Dr. Karp and the download site for the public domain eBook, Nutrition for Smarties, at www.wbkarp.com Dr. Karp obtains no funding for writing his columns, articles or books and has no fi nancial or other interests in any food, book, nutrition product or company. His interest is only in providing freelyavailable, evidenced-based, scientific nutrition knowledge and education. The information is for educational use only; it is not meant to be used to diagnose, manage or treat any patient or client. Tthe views and opinions expressed here are Dr. Karp’s alone and do not reflect the views and opinions of Augusta University or anyone else.

Dr. Karp

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SEPTEMBER 1, 2017

9+

AUGUSTA MEDiCAL EXAMINER

Ask a Dietitian

REASON TO CALL US #37: WHEN YOU FORGET TO OPEN THE DOOR.

JUICING: TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?

by Rachel Johanek, MS, RD, LD

• Don’t forget the protein (and fat) – Adding a little bit of protein will balance out the carbohydrates in the juice and the fat will help you absorb the fat-soluble nutrients from the fruits and vegetables. A great option would be to make a smoothie by adding some Greek yogurt and a sprinkle of nuts. Or maybe eat some scrambled eggs or a string cheese along with your juice.

• Get those Crucifers – Cruciferous vegetables are great for you because of their increased fiber content and other nutrients that can help detoxify the body. Add one or two of these into your day (juicing or whole). Examples include broccoli, kale, bok choy, radishes, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and collard greens.

• Eat the Rainbow – No, not the candy! Work on getting all the different colors of fruits and vegetables in your day. Each color has different nutrients that are important for our health. Don’t zero in on just green or orange – get red, yellow, blue/purple and yes, even white fruits and vegetables in so you don’t miss out on vital nutrients.

In summary, remember juicing can be a great way to add more fruits and vegetables in our day-to-day diet. But you should focus on whole foods fi rst and then do some healthy juicing to add a little more oomph into your already healthful diet. +

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Highland Ave.

if you focus too much on fruits, which we all love to do because of its sweet taste.

Does that mean juicing is a bad thing to do? Not necessarily. It just depends on how you go about doing it. First, strive for five of your daily servings of fruits and vegetables to come from whole foods, not juice. Think about different ways to add them to your diet – vegetables added to omelets, fruits added to cereal, chopping up extra vegetables to add to soups or sandwiches, or to eat plain as a snack.

These are just a few things to think about before heading down the juicing road. Once you can accomplish this whole food goal, then aiming for those last few extra servings through juicing can be a good choice – if you can do it healthfully.

Below are a few tips to consider to get the most out of juicing: • Focus on Vegetables – When we think of juicing, we think sweet. This means more fruit. But a little sweetness can go a long way without requiring a big serving. Aim for one fruit serving to two or three vegetable servings per mixture.

• Watch the Portions – In other words, drink only what you would eat. Keep that carrot example in mind. Only use what you would eat in one sitting. Using too much will result in more calories and can cause unintended weight gain.

Ohio Ave.

It seems like everywhere you look nowadays, greater intake of fruits and vegetables is being stressed by dietitians and doctors. There are many reasons for this: vitamins, minerals, antioxidants to name a few. These nutrientdense foods are great for our bodies, which is why the daily recommendation is five to nine servings/day. But everyone is looking for a quick way to achieve this in these hectic days. Enter the solution: Juicing. Or is it?

Juicing, the process of separating the juice from the pulp of fruits, vegetables, and plant foods, is a great way to add more servings to an already-healthy diet. It shouldn’t be used, however, to meet basic nutrition needs.

Why not? For one thing, it can significantly reduce your fiber intake, which is an important factor of getting these food groups in. Fiber helps keep our gut healthy. For another, there is a potential to overdo it in the calories department.

To put it into perspective, to make one cup of carrot juice, you would have to use four to six large carrots. Would you eat that many carrots in one sitting otherwise? Of course not! Doing so by juicing can result in more calories than we need. It’s also a risk to overdo your daily sugar intake

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The

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SEE PAGE 3

To save a man’s life against his will is the same as killing him. — Horace

+ 10

ASK DR. KARP

AUGUSTA MEDiCAL EXAMINER

GOT A FOOD OR NUTRITION QUESTION? EMAIL IT TO askdrkarp @gmail.com

NO NONSENSE

NUTRITION

or post it (privately or publicly) at Facebook.com/ AskDrKarp SEE PAGE 8!

This shirt could be yours

FREE!

IT’S A QUESTION OF CARE How can I relieve stress when caring for my aging parents?

by Amy Hane, a licensed Master Social Worker in South Carolina and Georgia, an Advanced Professional Aging Life Care Manager and also a Certified Advanced Social Work Case Manager.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2017 Caring for aging parents can present a myriad of situations in which you are faced with decisions that you have never contemplated before. It can be draining on you emotionally and physically. Therefore, you must work to balance caring for them with your own needs.

• Hire respite care. Options would be hiring in-home care, assisted living placement for either a temporary period of time, such as for a vacation, or perhaps long term with the understanding that you will visit as often as possible. You may also have to consider a nursing home if you loved one’s needs are very extensive and medically based.

• Attend a caregivers’ support group. These come in many shapes and sizes and often are specific to the medical condition that your loved one has, but sometimes they’re just general caregiver support groups. You can typically find listings for these in the local Medical publications, through the Agency on Aging and also in your church bulletin.

• Consider hiring an Aging Lifecare Manager if you feel like you need a higher level of expertise to help you navigate caring for an elderly parent. The Aging Lifecare Manager’s role is to help guide, educate, counsel and support you through the decision-making process and implementation of care for your loved one. Essentially, they do for you what you do not have the time and expertise to do, all the while partnering with you in areas in which you feel comfortable.

• Don’t forget the family and friends who have offered to help (if they have actually offered). Make a list of these people, and call on them intermittently. Be careful not to overuse their assistance, but know they are available to help you when needed. +

will work for YOUR PRAC TICE

That’s what our Professional Directory is for. See page 15.

Doctors, we can help you reach new patients and make it convenient for current patients to connect with your office.

Call us today — 706.860.5455 — to add your listing to the Medical Examiner’s Professional Directory.

We’ve just added this shirt to the haul winners of the Mystery Word contest receive — in addition to gift cards from Wild Wing Cafe and Scrubs of Evans.

FIND THE WORD AND ENTER TODAY!

PAPER OR PLASTIC?

Remember: the Mystery Word is always hidden. It is never in plain sight and it’s never in an article. See all the deets on page 14.

READ THE EXAMINER ONLINE OR ON PAPER

Our next issue will be dated Sept 15

ON PAPER: ALL OVER TOWN / ONLINE: WWW.ISSUU.COM/MEDICALEXAMINER

SEPTEMBER 1, 2017

11 +

AUGUSTA MEDiCAL EXAMINER

The blog spot From the Bookshelf — posted by patient Laura Fraser, on August 23, 2017

CAN DOCTORS SEE BEYOND A PATIENT’S WEIGHT? My older sister, Jan, visited me in San Francisco last spring. “You look great,” I told her, noticing that her clothes were hanging loose; she’d been heavy most of her life. “I’ve lost 60 pounds,” she said, and I automatically congratulated her.

“I wasn’t trying,” she replied.

It hit me then that something was very wrong, first with her health, but also with the way I assumed that her weight loss was a sign of well-being. My own judgments and shame associated with being fat got in the way of seeing my sister. Looking closer, her face seemed strained, and despite the constant smile she turned on, she wasn’t well. She told me that she’d been in so much pain that she’d had little appetite for months.

I asked Jan if she’d seen a doctor. She had, but it hadn’t gone well. The doctor she’d known for years had converted his practice into a concierge service, and she hadn’t wanted to pay $15,000 to stay with him. So she’d made an appointment with an OB-GYN a friend had recommended.

Jan’s eyes welled up as she described the visit.

She related her symptoms: vaginal bleeding, unexplained weight loss, and near-constant pelvic pain.

She told me the doctor hadn’t taken her complaints seriously, dismissing her concerns and performing only a cursory examination.

“He didn’t do anything for me, and he didn’t find anything. He just saw me as a fat, complaining older woman,” Jan said. Demeaned and discouraged, she didn’t seek a second opinion right away. Instead, she explored possible causes of her abdominal pain, wasting months avoiding dairy and gluten and taking over-the-counter pain medications.

Jan’s experience as a fat 59-year-old woman is hardly unique. Several studies have shown that many physicians consider the time spent with obese patients a waste, and they don’t hesitate to broadcast their biases in the examining room.* Fat people are less likely to seek medical treatment because they know the stigma and lectures that await them. My oldest sister, Cynthia, who is also heavy, recently visited a doctor for a rheumatologic problem and was curtly told to “lay off the hamburgers and Cokes,” even though she never touches fast food. On her next visit, she brought along her slim and athletic husband, and says she got better care by association.

Weight has long been part of our family drama. My sisters and I weren’t as trim and fit as our parents, who focused on thinness as the barometer of our worth. Our father is a pediatrician, and perhaps the sense of failure that many doctors feel when they see their fat patients in the office greeted him every evening when he came home to his kids. Our parents believed that making comments about our weight and putting us on diets would help — just the opposite of what the American Academy of Pediatrics today considers better wisdom for preventing obesity and eating disorders. Criticizing us for being fat, instead of encouraging us to be athletic, became a selffulfilling prophecy. Jan, who’d been strong, bright, and athletically gifted as a child, the fastest skier and the best at team sports, became the heaviest of us four sisters.

During our visit in San Francisco, I encouraged Jan to see another doctor to get to the bottom of what was ailing her. A few months later, she finally got an appointment

The doctor thought she was just trying to score an opioid fix

Please see BLOG SPOT page 15 * For more information see the August 4, 2017 Medical Examiner, page 1, at issuu.com/medicalexaminer/docs/aug04_17

You know you’ve touched a nerve among readers when comments like this are made about your book:

From Amazon.com: Many books provoke a visceral reaction, but few really make you itch. Science writer Carl Zimmer’s Parasite Rex does just that, provoking a deliciously creepy sense of paranoia in the reader as it explores a long-misunderstood realm of science. While entomologists love to announce that there are more species of insects than all other animals combined, parasitologists can trump that by reminding us that “parasites may outnumber free-living species four to one.”

Zimmer looks at the E. coli in our guts as well as the worms, flukes, mites, and other critters that earn a healthy living at our expense--and the expense of our domesticated plants and animals. Zimmer knows his subject well, and his

writing, while robust and affecting, never descends to the all-too-easy gross-out.

You wouldn’t expect to find respect for a tapeworm, but Parasite Rex will show you how beautiful Earth’s truly dominant life forms are.

From Publishers Weekly: One of the year’s most fascinating works of popular science is also its most disgusting. From tapeworms to isopods to ichneumon wasps, “parasites are complex, highly adapted creatures

that are at the heart of the story of life.”

[Zimmer] looks at how parasites pass from host to host, and how they defeat immune systems and vice versa. Many parasites alter their hosts’ behavior: Toxoplasma makes infected rats fearless, thus more likely to be eaten by cats, who will then pick up the microbe. Quantifiable “laws of virulence” lead parasites to become nasty enough to spread, yet not so nasty as to wipe out all their hosts.

Two final chapters address parasites in human medicine and agriculture.

Not only are parasites not all bad, Zimmer concludes in this exemplary work of popular science, but we may be parasites, too — and we have a lot to learn from them about how to manage earth, the host we share. + Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature’s Most Dangerous Creatures; 320 pages;

by Carl Zimmer, published in 2001 by Atria Books

Research News Remarkable cancer news In an Aug. 28 letter to the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine, medical researchers and Massachusetts General Hospital report complete remission of an inoperable brain tumor that had become resistant to chemotherapy.

Subsequent to the failure of chemotherapy the patient, who was enrolled in a clinical trial of an immune systembased therapy, was treated with CAR T-cells. The T-cells induced complete remission of the diffuse large-B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) tumor within one month.

In addition, when a second tumor began to grow two months after the initial CAR T-cell treatment, they spontaneously reactivated and attacked that tumor. Doctors described the CAR T-cells as like a living drug that can disappear and then reemerge in response to biologic stimuli.

Although the patient, a 68year-old woman, died more than a year after the CAR Tcell therapy, the brain tumor never recurred, Beneficial statin side-effects A 14-year study of more than one million patients by the European Society of Cardiology has found that women with high cholesterol treated with statins have significantly lower rates of breast cancer and improved mortality, The study established two things: what researchers call “the most conclusive and direct evidence yet to confirm the link between high cholesterol and breast cancer; and secondly, the strongest evidence for a protective effect, which is “likely” related to statins.

It’s fun to fight aging Well, it can be. It depends on whether or not you enjoy dancing. A new study

published Aug. 25 in the online journal Frontiers in Human Neurology shows that older people who routinely exercise can reverse the signs of aging in the brain. And the exercise with “the most profound effect” is dancing.

While the study found that both dancing and endurance training were beneficial to the brain, only dancing showed reversal of brain fitness and improved balance.

Being - and staying - a loser According to Drexel University research published on Aug. 28, people who lose weight consistently (even if moderately) have the best chance of weight loss success. By contrast, those whose weight fluctuated the most at the beginning of a diet had the worst outcomes when measured one and two years later.

The findings suggest that slow and steady isn’t the key.

Just steady. +

+ 12

SEPTEMBER 1, 2017

AUGUSTA MEDiCAL EXAMINER

THE EXAMiNERS +

This article says childbirth is the most painful experience a person can have.

That doesn’t sound right.

by Dan Pearson

I suppose you’re going to say kidney stones?

I wouldn’t know.

I’ve never had one.

But it’s definitely not childbirth.

How would you know?

Because I went through childbirth, and I don’t’ remember any pain. ButL N. maybe I was too young.

I © 2017 Daniel Pearson All rights reserved.

EXAMINER CROSSWORD

PUZZLE ACROSS 1. Pleat 5. Tear down 9. Anesthetic 14. Woodwind 15. Anti (Dialect) 16. Rasp; shred 17. Ceremony 18. Tie up 19. Haggard 20. Unexplored or undiscovered land 23. Brain wave activity (abbrev) 24. Flash start 25. Experts 29. Boast 31. Romaine synonym 34. Cloth woven from flax 35. Voice of Princess Fiona 36. Quantity of medicine 37. Like sports in high school 40. Mondrian’s first name 41. Network of nerves 42. Fragrance 43. 2013 sci-fi film 44. Big party 45. Title of reverence for God 46. Clumsy person 47. Type of boat 48. Sharp spending cuts 56. Trunk 57. Meter prefix 58. Western state 59. Extraterrestrial 60. Partner of zeroes in code 61. Chip additives 62. 7 numbers above 12 63. Regard or consider 64. Jacob’s twin

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by Daniel R. Pearson © 2017 All rights reserved

by Daniel R. Pearson © 2017 All rights reserved. Built in part with software from www.crauswords.com

DOWN 1. Kid’s cardboard structure 2. Off-Broadway theater award 3. Tolkien ltrs.

4. Animal on road signs 5. Viral disease afflicting dogs 6. We’re always doing it 7. Element in some skin ointments 8. Prefix meaning internal 9. Christmas drink 10. Distinguishing quality 11. High-class; elegant 12. Volcano in Sicily 13. Veteran’s abbrev.

21. Healthcare insurer 22. Muslim fighter (and “Ben” follower) 25. “A” of the Hebrew alphabet 26. Chicks adjective?

27. Word on many doors 28. Green bottle shampoo 29. Word before control or weight

S C T O L C W T N Y E F O H E U A H T O W E N O O T R C F U F Y L U U U A T O A P R A

30. Infrequent 31. Part of the large intestine 32. Man killed on May 2, 2011 33. Inn for caravans 35. Membership fees 36. Former 5 peseta coin of Spain 38. _______ beer 39. Get something by begging 44. They’re used by conductors 45. Condition characterized by difficulty using language 46. Coworker of Kent and Lane 47. Number of rings in a circus?

48. Trunk of a tree 49. Great Lake 50. Apple music player 51. Mr. Sarazen 52. Au naturel 53. Inflammatory suffix 54. California valley 55. Old AU acronym 56. Make lace

— Al Bernstein

DIRECTIONS: Recreate a timeless nugget of wisdom by using the letters in each vertical column to fill the boxes above them. Once any letter is used, cross it out in the lower half of the puzzle. Letters may be used only once.

Black squares indicate spaces between words, and words may extend onto a second line.

Solution on page 14.

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by Daniel R. Pearson © 2017 All rights reserved. Built with software from www.crauswords.com

U D O K U

DIRECTIONS: Every line, vertical and horizontal, and all nine 9-square boxes must each contain the numbers 1 though 9. Solution on page 14.

Use the letters provided at bottom to create words to solve the puzzle above. All the listed letters following #1 are the first letters of the various words; the letters following #2 are the second letters of each word, and so on. Try solving words with letter clues or numbers with minimal choices listed. A sample is shown. Solution on page 14.

C V 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 I M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1 2 3 4 5

H 1 2

1 2 3

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1.SARVOVIGATO 2.HAFFMNRREEE 3.PRAILSEE 4.UNNIRE 5.SCCLOD 6.PTTPO 7.ASE 8.ERRO 9.EN 10.N 11.T 12.S

SAMPLE:

1. ILB 2. SLO 3. VI 4. NE 5. D =

L 1

O 2

V 3

E 4

I 1

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B 1

L 2

I 3

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D 5

by Daniel R. Pearson © 2017 All rights reserved

BY

VISIT WWW.AUGUSTARX.COM

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Solution p. 14

WORDS NUMBER

All Mystery Word finders will be eligible to win by random drawing.

We’ll announce the winner in our next issue!

45

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12

Simply unscramble the letters, then begin exploring our ads. When you find the correctly spelled word hidden in one of our ads — enter at AugustaRx.com

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The Mystery Word for this issue: EARPLANT

QUOTATION PUZZLE

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THE MYSTERY WORD

SEPTEMBER 1, 2017

13 +

AUGUSTA MEDiCAL EXAMINER

THE BEST MEDICINE

ast week’s eclipse did two things political leaders seem unable to do.

It slowed global warming and gave us all something to look up to.

Moe: I was thinking about re-marrying my ex-wife.

Joe: Was? Moe: Yeah, but I don’t think it’ll work out.

Joe: Why not?

Moe: I’m pretty sure she’ll figure out I’m just after my money.

Moe: If you could describe yourself in one word, what would it be?

Joe: Rule breaker.

Moe: How did the mathemetician cure his lisp?

Joe: I give up. How? Moe: He developed a theorem.

Moe: I hear Humpty Dumpty had a terrible summer.

Joe: Well, hopefully he’ll have a great fall.

A 60-year-old billionaire walks into a bar with his smoking hot 25-year-old wife.

“How did you meet her?” a guy asks him while the lady is in the powder room.

“I lied about my age.”

“That’s brilliant. What did you tell her, that you’re 45?”

“No,” said the man. “She thinks I’m 90.”

Moe: You sure have a lot of guns.

Joe: I buy them from a T-Rex. Moe: A T-Rex? Joe: Yeah, he’s a small arms dealer.

Moe: Your neighbor is a lazy eye surgeon?

Joe: Yeah. He cuts his grass like once a month.

Moe: You want to come to the pool with me today? It’s supposed to be 95°.

Joe: Sorry, I’m banned from the pool.

Moe: What? Since when?

Joe: Last time I went they yelled at me for peeing in the pool.

Moe: Oh wow.

Joe: Yeah. It startled me so much I almost fell in. +

Why subscribe to the Medical Examiner?

Because no one should have to make a trip to the doctor or the hospital just to read Augusta’s Most Salubrious Newspaper.

+ +

SUBSCRIBE TO THE MEDICAL EXAMINER

A PATIENT’S PERSPECTIVE Editor’s note: Augusta writer Marcia Ribble wrote a long-time column in this paper entitled The Patient’s Perspective reincarnated in this new format. Feel free to contact her at marciaribble@hotmail.com Today was one of those days when my dog, KC, kept me busy!

I managed to get out early to pick up a few groceries and arrived back home. I started to unpack the groceries when a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses walked up and asked if they could help me get the groceries in. I said, sure, and thank you! I walked in and they followed me in and KC made a mad dash for freedom!

Success! The groceries were in the kitchen, which was good, and KC was outside which was not good. However, she rapidly came in and I got the groceries put away.

Timing was a big deal today because I had a long list of things to do, so chasing after the dog didn’t fit in the pre-ordered sequence of events. Next on the list was to have Meals on Wheels come, so I could eat and get ready for Mary, my cleaning lady, to arrive, before I had to go to the imaging office for a CAT scan.

Mike came at the spot-on time to take me, and then the cleaning lady came in. I finished eating and taking my meds and was ready to leave for my CAT scan.

On my way out of the house there were bags of trash Mary had readied to take out right in front of the door. I bet you can visualize the sequence! Door open. Mary and I colliding along with two bags of trash and my walker. KC noticing a perfect opportunity to escape. She knocks me, a walker, Mary, and the trash to one side as she plows right through us. This time, I am in a hurry to get to my appointment. I don’t have time to play chase the dog. I leave poor Mary with a “situation” to deal with.

After my scan I came home. Mary had left. KC was still on the lam. After an hour or so of calling her, a very wet, bedraggled, slightly guilty, but mostly happy dog decided to come home. I knew the whole story right away. Behind our home there is a lovely woods. In the woods there is a creek which is usually dry. But as I write this we have had days of rain and the creek has just the right amount of water in it for a dog to jump in, roll around, sniff and smell to her heart’s content and otherwise engage in dog mischief. Given a choice between water in her bowl and water in the creek, KC always chooses the creek. Creek water has fascinating flavors that water from the tap completely lacks. Creek water also is colder than tap water and that is the perfect temperature for a dog swim on a hot day, or a cold day, or any day with a morning and night in it.

An hour or so later, Mary came back to resume the search for KC and was delighted to see her curled up with a well-satisfied grin on her doggy face. Now KC is taking a nap.

I deserve one, too, but it’s time to start supper. +

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SEPTEMBER 1, 2017

AUGUSTA MEDiCAL EXAMINER

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The Mystery Word in our last issue was: ANIMAL

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Outstanding schools (K-12) 4 mi. away. $49,000 (706) 831-9015 ROOM FOR RENT with private bathroom and full house privileges. Martinez $600/mo (706) 840-6860 FOR SALE 3 bedroom/2 bath, single garage Townhouse in Martinez. Master/ bath down, 2 upstairs bedrooms share bath, large loft for office, playroom, den; wood-burning fireplace, covered back porch. Freshly painted with new flooring, lighting and ceiling fans. Easy access to Riverwatch Parkway, Washington Rd, I-20, Augusta. 1987 sq.ft. $147,900.

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ROOM FOR RENT 1 room, private bathroom, 2bdrm MH on private lot. Clean quiet neighborhood. Non-smoker. $600 monthly. Must be stable, verifiable references and income. Cable and Internet included. Warrenville, 5 min from Aiken, 20 min to Augusta. (803) 270-2658 POND VIEW! Evans all-brick 2-story with solar panels. Avg. electric bill $170 in Northwood, 3,400 sqft. Call 1-800401-0257, ext. 0043 24/7 for price and details.

SERVICES PETS Dogs walked, cats sat, in the comfort of your home by retired pharmacist.

No kennel noise, fleas, disease, transport cost/time. Avail 7 days/wk in Martinez/ Evans. $15 per visit. References. Call for free interview at your home. Call Buddy for your buddy: (706) 829-1729 HOUSE CLEANING Your house, apartment, rental move-outs. Thorough, dependable. Weekly, or whatever schedule you prefer. References. 706-877-0421 F. E. GILLIARD, MD FAMILY MEDICINE Acute & Chronic Illnesses Occupational Medicine PROMPT APPOINTMENTS (706) 760-7607

MISCELLANEOUS CEMETERY SPACES (2) Sunset Memorial Gardens, Graniteville SC adjacent to lighted military flagstaff, includes granite bench with urn space, installation and inscription.

All $4700 ($8600 value). Spaces only: $2700. Call (803) 295-3033 FISHING CLUB wants more grey-haired members. Meet 2nd Thurs of month at Harbor Inn Restaurant, 12 noon.

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SEPTEMBER 1, 2017

15 +

AUGUSTA MEDiCAL EXAMINER

BLOG SPOT … from page 11 at an internist’s office. A physician assistant examined her. Jan arrived at the visit weak and wracked with pain. She came out of it in tears, with no answers and no relief.

“She wouldn’t give me anything because she thought I was just trying to get an opioid fi x,” she told Cynthia, who had accompanied her.

Did the physician assistant think Jan was putting on an act to cadge drugs because she was fat, that despite her detailed and articulate medical complaints — not to mention her obvious and tremendous pain — she fit some undisciplined, drug-seeking profile?

The physician assistant did, at least, send Jan to have some blood tests. When she had finished giving blood, she was so exhausted she couldn’t drive herself home.

Very early the next morning, Jan got a call from the internist who,

even though he had never met her, told her to go immediately to the emergency room. She was quickly admitted to the intensive care unit in critical condition, with a sky-high level of calcium in her blood. An MRI revealed an enormous mass in her abdomen.

When Jan was stable enough for surgery, the hospital’s gynecologic oncologist removed the largest endometrial tumor he said he’d ever seen, the size of a volleyball. It had peppered her pelvis with cancer, infi ltrating her bladder and other organs. The MRI also showed spots on Jan’s lungs, likely signs that the disease was spreading even further.

In hindsight, endometrial cancer is an easy disease to Google. The fi rst few hits reveal the signs and symptoms: unexplained weight loss, vaginal bleeding after menopause, pelvic pain. Jan had them all. I’m no

doctor, and I know that physicians are not infallible, but it strikes me that those symptoms — the very ones the patient came in worried about — should have raised red flags far more than the fact that she was overweight.

Jan went through a few rounds of chemotherapy and lost even more weight. She took some perverse pleasure at being able to fit into normal sizes and fashionable clothes for the fi rst time in her life, not the unsophisticated, uninspired garments that most manufacturers muster up for plus-sized women.

By then she’d lost about 100 pounds and, despite her conspicuous illness — the wig, the pallor, the fear in her eyes — people kept on complimenting her about her weight loss. They, too, saw only her size.

Jan died last Christmas Eve,

six months after learning she had cancer.

Hers was an unusually aggressive type of endometrial cancer. Maybe she would have died just as quickly if she’d been thin. But I can’t help thinking that Jan might have had a better chance if her doctors had looked beyond her weight and their prejudices about fat middleaged women; if she hadn’t been so reluctant to seek medical treatment because of the fat-shaming lectures she knew awaited her; and if she’d grown up thinking that her body was OK the way it was, and she should love it, move it, and take care of it. + Laura Fraser is a journalist and author of Losing It: False Hopes and Fat Profits in the Diet Industry. This article originally appeared in STAT News.

+

PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY ALLERGY

Tesneem K. Chaudhary, MD Allergy & Asthma Center 3685 Wheeler Road, Suite 101 Augusta 30909 706-868-8555

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Dr. Judson S. Hickey Periodontist 2315-B Central Ave Augusta 30904 706-739-0071

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Jason H. Lee, DMD 116 Davis Road Augusta 30907 706-860-4048 Steven L. Wilson, DMD Family Dentistry 4059 Columbia Road Martinez 30907 706-863-9445

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Urgent MD Augusta: 706-922-6300 Grovetown: 706-434-3500 Thomson: 706-595-7825 Primary Care Rates

OPHTHALMOLOGY Roger M. Smith, M.D. 820 St. Sebastian Way Suite 5-A Augusta 30901 706-724-3339

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SEPTEMBER 1, 2017