It’s American Heart Month and you should celebrate by feeding your body the right foods.A healthy heart starts with the right diet.This list of foods provides the right balance of fats, amino acids, vitamins and more to keep your heart pumping strong your entire life.To help you get started on the journey, here are eight superfoods to add to your grocery list…
Source: 8 Superfoods for your heart | WPRI 12 Eyewitness News
No, I don’t think bees have knees but I do – and one of them was hurting a lot. Mine started, I think, the day after DH’s heart attack – January 28, 2013.
Fast forward to January 2016.
I fell in the bathroom in the middle of the night and hit my left knee on the tub. I used a brace for a few days and it seemed better.
Around January 27-28, I was in Walmart and had to get a produce bag that was way over my head. I had to stand on tiptoe…and my knee felt like something ripped. Thankfully, I had a cart available to use as a temporary crutch.
Got home, used the brace, took Tylenol but the pain got worse.
Thursday, I drove home from choir at church. My car is a manual so the act of using the clutch, extending my foot that way, made everything worse again.
Friday, we went to the Limp-In Clinic in Greenbriar. That doctor was going to prescribe Cortef or NSAIDs but I couldn’t take either due to my history of Cushing’s (Cortef) and kidney cancer (NSAIDs). He prescribed Vicodin and sent me for an x-ray.
January 31, I got very itchy, presumably from Vicodin so I stopped that and started taking Benadryl for the itchiness.
February 2, I went back to the clinic for the results of x-rays and I mentioned the itchiness. Since I have very limited meds available to me, he recommended an Orthopedist. I called him when I got home and he didn’t take my insurance. I tried another doctor who supposedly took my insurance but they didn’t.
February 7, I really needed the sleep so I took half a Vicodin. No pain and no itching. HOORAY!
February 8, I saw my regular doctor. She thinks it’s a possible “lateral collateral ligament vs meniscus tear”. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001079.htm
I was surprised that she thought my knee was swollen but one of my therapists showed me later that it was.
She referred me to Physical Therapy (PT) and prescribed Ultram http://www.drugs.com/ultram.html. As of this writing, I haven’t used that yet.
February 11, 8:30 am My first appointment with PT. Since my blood pressure was high, we mostly did assessments. I had a main therapist and a student. They had to use 3 types of BP machine to do this.
I bent my knee and they took measurements with a caliper. I lay on my front and they manipulated my knee to see what happened. They also concluded that it was a lateral collateral ligament.
A suggestion – to rest my foot on the walker without the brace and see if gravity helps my knee straighten out.
After this, there was more pain than before but I know this is the right thing to do.
February 13. My leg feels a bit better. I had the brace off last night and almost straightened my knee out.
Somewhere in this period, I learned how to manually move my knee cap (patella) around. I saw my day 1 therapist again and he said my knee was angry. Swollen, angry, whatever. I just want a normal non-hurting knee!
One of the therapists had me doing a stretching exercise and my hip was out of kilter (everything is attached!) since I’ve been walking with my knee bent. So she manipulated that back into alignment.
February 22, A new-to-me therapist had me do an exercise with a basketball under my knee, pointing my toe to the left. I didn’t remember doing that before but she said I had. Hmmm…
That hurt too much so we moved to a foam roll under my knee. It was still uncomfortable but I did it, a bit too much, apparently.
Turns out this exercise hurt my “VMO”, which is short for Vastus Medialis Oblique.
“This is the most important quad muscle and arguably the most responsible muscle for knee stability. The VMO’s main function is to control knee extension…” Read more at http://sportskneetherapy.com/the-best-vmo-exercises/
February 25, My VMO pain still hurt. I told my regular therapist about it and she worked on it some. She concurred that my knee was swollen.
February 26, I went all day with no brace at all!! A bit of pain but manageable.
Today is February 28 and I haven’t worn the brace since the 27th. I still need assistance to get up from sitting but I can see huge improvement.
I still have 6 more PT sessions, finishing on March 16, but I’m really impressed with what they’ve done for me. I still have twinges of pain and I don’t plan on stepping on tiptoe anytime soon but I can tell I’m on the right track.
If there are any significant changes (I sure hope not!), I’ll post an update. When I’m done – and have approval – I intend to keep exercising, walking, climbing stairs, riding the bike. I never, ever want to go through this kind of pain again.
I’ve learned a lot from PT – lots of new exercises, stretching, how to move manually my knee cap, all kinds of muscle names, that the lateral collateral ligament is attached to my ankle, that ice is better than heat for this kind of thing.
From 2/14/2013 and still true today:
Today is Valentine’s Day, and not quite the way one would plan to celebrate but at least we no longer have a broken heart here.
This journey probably began a long time ago but the first we heard of it was our wedding anniversary, January 27, 2013.
Two and a half weeks later, the surgery is over, the wounds are healing, things are sort of normalizing. I know that there’s a long way to go – more doctors, start rehab, relearn life. But, at least we’re on the other side of the crisis now.
Lots to celebrate!
February is American Heart Month. Learn about heart disease in women and what you can do to keep a healthy heart.
While some women have no symptoms of heart disease, others may experience heavy sharp chest pain or discomfort, pain in the neck/jaw/throat, or pain in the upper abdomen or back. Sometimes heart disease may be silent and not diagnosed until a woman has signs or symptoms including:
Healthy Hearts
Heart disease is largely preventable.
Listen to CDC’s Dr. Bowman discuss ways to prevent heart problems.
[00:04:06 minutes]
You can lower your chance of heart disease and a heart attack by taking simple steps.
This was posted today on Facebook from Jeannie Middlebrooks, an EMS provider. She says “Anyone can message me with questions too!”
I have seen alot of people recently asking for advice as to what to put on their Medic Alert Bracelets, What Kind to buy, etc.
The most common things I see are that bracelets are being bought that look like “normal jewelry” because they don’t want it to stick out.
The other thing is that they are putting the IMPORTANT information on the BACK of the bracelet
Guys I have been in EMS 16 years, and recently Diagnosed SAI this past april. so I have a few things to say on this subject. You can take it for what it’s worth, but please understand this is coming from someone who lives in the heat of the moment taking care of people like us when that moment counts.. When we find an unconscious patient we have several things that we are attempting to do to save that patient, granted looking for a medic alert tag is important, but it is not more important that keeping a compromised airway open, checking vitals, getting an IV, asking family for a history, etc. Looking for a medic alert is usually done en route to the hospital if it is not blatantly obvious upon arrival.
#1 Anything that looks pictures I have posted below, I can 100% promise you, will be looked over in the heat of the moment if you are unconscious. Your family will more than likely be on edge and forget to tell us, or you will be by yourself and no one will know to tell us to look. It looks like standard jewelry.. so I’m not going to look at it.. therefore missing your life threatening emergency.. and if I am one of MILLIONS of first responders that are unfamiliar with Adrenal Insufficiency, I will NOT recognize the signs and symptoms, and you will NOT get the care you need pre-hospital.. leaving your body without the necessary cortisol for that much longer.
#2- If you place your Pertinent information on the back of your bracelet, PLEASE make sure that the medic alert symbol is on the front of the bracelet, BIG AND RED… don’t make it small and pink, or the same color as the bracelet.. yet again. we will overlook it in the moment..
#3- Necklaces are a bad idea.. They almost always get tucked into a shirt, and we almost NEVER see them. they are easily moved.
#4- Your medic alert tag should have your name. What you Suffer From, That you are Steroid Dependant. Where your Injection Kit is location (if applicable), Instructions to give the meds or you will die.. (This alerts bystanders to give you the injection as well.. I can say this because I had a bystander do it based solely on my Medic Alert tag.. she found it, drew it up, and gave it to me), and an emergency contact who can give responders information they need. If you have more than one Critical condition. List the most life threatening in order.
Please Please Please don’t take this post the wrong way. I am saying all of this coming from someone who lives in these moments every day. I know how many first responders are not familiar with the disease that can so easily kill us, and if you are willing to risk your life for the sake of a “pretty” bracelet, then I can’t stop you.. nor can anyone here.. Just know that it is a HUGE risk…
Until I saw it on Facebook, I didn’t know that today was World Cancer Day. Over the years, our family has dealt with several types of cancer and I have friends that have had cancers of their own. I think that most every family has been touched by cancer in some way.
In my family:
Colon cancer
Kidney Cancer
According to my “risk factors”, I “should” have had colon cancer because both parents and an aunt had it twice each. Of course, there’s no guarantee that I won’t get that, too.
And the risk factors for kidney cancer aka renal cell carcinoma? The majority of kidney cancers are renal cell carcinomas.
Risk factors for renal cell carcinoma include:
- Age. Your risk of renal cell carcinoma increases as you age. Renal cell carcinoma occurs most commonly in people 60 and older.
I was younger than this.
- Sex. Men are more likely to develop renal cell carcinoma than women are.
I am female
- Smoking. Smokers have a greater risk of renal cell carcinoma than nonsmokers do. The risk increases the longer you smoke and decreases after you quit.
Not me!
- Obesity. People who are obese have a higher risk of renal cell carcinoma than do people who are considered average weight.
A Cushing’s gift
- High blood pressure (hypertension). High blood pressure increases your risk of renal cell carcinoma, but it isn’t clear why. Some research in animals has linked high blood pressure medications to an increased risk of kidney cancer, but studies in people have had conflicting results.
Never had this until the kidney cancer. It went away immediately post-op.
- Chemicals in your workplace. Workers who are exposed to certain chemicals on the job may have a higher risk of renal cell carcinoma. People who work with chemicals such as asbestos, cadmium and trichloroethylene may have an increased risk of kidney cancer.
What? Me work?.
- Treatment for kidney failure. People who receive long-term dialysis to treat chronic kidney failure have a greater risk of developing kidney cancer. People who have a kidney transplant and receive immunosuppressant drugs also are more likely to develop kidney cancer.
Nope. Some sites also list polycystic kidney disease. I don’t have that but half my husband’s family does. Hmmm – wonder if that’s contagious
- Von Hippel-Lindau disease. People with this inherited disorder are likely to develop several kinds of tumors, including, in some cases, renal cell carcinoma.
I’ve wondered about this but, you know, it’s too “rare”.
- Hereditary papillary renal cell carcinoma. Having this inherited condition makes it more likely you’ll develop one or more renal cell carcinomas.
Not that I know of.
Pretty close to zero on the risk factors. No signs, no symptoms. I was diagnosed in the ER of my local hospital in 2006.
Skin Cancer
Breast Cancer
Among my friends, there have been many cancers – breast cancers, lung cancers (including people who have never smoked), multiple myelomas, neuroendocrine cancers (this one is supposed to be really rare. I have 3 friends with this.), probably some I don’t know about yet – and maybe it is unknown to the person.
Some ideas how to protect yourself and others from cancer. It could save your life!
Just another blog!
No hidden agendas, no politics, no absolutes – just seeking Christ together.
Upper Hands Piano: A Method for Adults 50+ to Spark the Mind, Heart and Soul
Separating Endocrinology from Quackery
Some things in mathematical logic that I find interesting
Little Free Library
O'Connor Music Studio Blog
Transition, excitement and probably a few tears
A Web Design Company
Support for Women
Official Fairfax County Government Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery Website
Economic and management consulting firm
STORIES WITH NO BOOKS
Be your best self through better health!
MaryO'Medical 