Pulmonary emboli are notoriously difficult to diagnose clinically, especially in otherwise healthy young women. The early signs include such nondescript symptoms as breathing difficulties, chest or back pain, and fatigue; symptoms that are easily attributable to a host of viral and bacterial infections or other less serious respiratory conditions. As a result, and more often […]
What does it feel like to have a stroke? We’ve all seen TV re-enactments of stroke, usually in older folks, and some of us have had the unfortunate opportunity to witness a stroke first hand, also typically in an older person, but few of us have any real sense of what a stroke feels like […]
No sooner had we landed than my phone began to convulse with a cacophony of bells and chimes. Most of the notifications were last minute details about the live broadcast that brought me to town. In one voice message, a coworker informed me that the producer cancelled our pre-production dinner meeting because of her migraines. He […]
A Google search for “birth control + multiple sclerosis” features the dangerously deceptive headline, “Birth Control May Lower MS Risk.” The linked article begins, “Women who take birth control pills may be less likely to develop multiple sclerosis (MS) while they’re on the pill, according to a new study.”The key phrase is ‘while they’re on […]
A lot of things baffle me about the medical industry’s approach to birth control, but the one thing I’ve struggled with the most has to do with the thyroid. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand how any doctor could prescribe The Pill to a patient and not be concerned about the affect it […]
If you haven’t read Chandler Marrs’ latest article on the safety of medications, take a moment to do so and understand that no medication is, as Marrs puts it, “perfectly safe.” I’m here to reaffirm this harsh pill to swallow (pun intended) through the telling of my own personal experience and the showcasing of research […]
“The doctor wouldn’t have given it to me if he thought it was dangerous, right?”My wife asked this salient question as we discussed the pros and cons of The Pill. It sent us both into deep reflection. Everything we read said The Pill was dangerous, but the doctor had acted like they should come in a Pez […]
If you are reading this, you might be thinking to yourself, “there she goes again, writing about some arcane medical condition that few can pronounce much less define” or “why in the world would I need to know about pseudotumor cerebri?” Well, let me tell you. If you are a woman who uses a progestin […]