Archive | April 2022

QUOTE FOR THE WEEKEND:

“An elbow fracture is a fracture at the tip of the elbow. This can happen as a result of trauma such as a direct blow, falling on the elbow or falling on an outstretched hand.  There are three main types of elbow fractures = olecranon fracture (The pointy tip of your elbow), radial head fracture (it connects with the humerus – the upper arm bone), distal humerus fracture (it connects the shoulder to the elbow).  Regarding how common it this fracture; elbow fractures are quite common, especially among children. According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 10% of all bone fractures affecting children are elbow fractures.”.

Cleveland Clinic (https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22050-elbow-fractures)

QUOTE FOR FRIDAY:

“Many people have pain in the base of their foot. This could be due to overuse of one of many different structures in your foot. Common examples are sesamoiditis (inflammation of structures surrounding two small bones under the big toe joint) and plantar fasciitis (overuse of a ligament-like structure that runs underneath the length of the foot).

Pain on standing first thing in the morning is a classic symptom of plantar fasciitis. It is one of the most common problems experienced by runners, accounting for about 10 per cent of running injuries. It is also common among middle-aged people, particularly if they are overweight. It often starts with low-grade pain in the arch or heel of the foot and can get worse over weeks or months.”

Better Health Channel (https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/feet-problems-and-treatments#bhc-content).

QUOTE FOR THURSDAY:

“Infertility in women is often caused by problems with ovulation, the cervix or uterus, or the fallopian tubes. Perhaps the most important risk factor for female infertility is age. Women’s ability to get pregnant declines with age; female fertility declines gradually starting around 35 years of age then declines more dramatically after 40 years of age.   According to the latest WHO statistics, approximately 50–80 million people worldwide sufer from infertility, and male factors are responsible for approximately 20–30% of all infertility cases.  Spermatogenesis is one of the most crucial stages in male fertility.The slightest deviation from the natural course of spermatogenesis can lead to infertility in men.”

National Library of Medicine

 

QUOTE FOR WEDNESDAY:

“Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) happens when you suddenly start to speak with a different accent. It’s most common after a head injury, stroke, or some other type of damage to the brain.  Although it’s extremely rare, it’s a real condition. Only about 100 people have been diagnosed with this condition since the first known case came to light in 1907. Some examples of FAS include an Australian woman who developed a French-sounding accent after a car accident. In 2018, an American woman in Arizona woke up one day with a mixture of Australian, British, and Irish accents after falling asleep the night before with a headache. It doesn’t just affect English speakers. FAS can happen to anyone and has been documented in cases and languages all over the world.”

healthline

Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS)

Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is speech disorder that causes a sudden change to speech so that a native speaker is perceived to speak with a “foreign” accent. FAS is most often caused by damage to the brain caused by a stroke or traumatic brain injury. Other causes have also been reported including multiple sclerosis and conversion disorder and in some cases no clear cause has been identified.

Although it’s extremely rare, it’s a real condition.

Speech may be altered in terms of timing, intonation, and tongue placement so that is perceived as sounding foreign. Speech remains highly intelligible and does not necessarily sound disordered.

FAS has been documented in cases around the world, including accent changes from Japanese to Korean, British English to French, American-English to British English, and Spanish to Hungarian.

Some common speech changes associated with FAS include:

  • Fairly predictable errors
  • Unusual prosody, including equal and excess stress (especially in multi-syllabic words)
  • Consonant substitution, deletion, or distortion
  • Voicing errors (i.e. bike for pike)
  • Trouble with consonant clusters
  • Vowel distortions, prolongations, substitutions (i.e. “yeah” pronounced as “yah”)
  • “uh” inserted into words

How this is diagnosed:

Language skills will be tested. This can be done with:

  • Reading, writing, and language comprehension tests
  • Recordings to analyze speech patterns

Images will be taken of the brain. This can be done with:

  • MRI scan
  • CT scan
  • Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scan
  • PET scan

The brain’s electrical activity may be measured. This can be done with an electroencephalogram (EEG).

FAS is rare. A team of specialists may be needed to make the diagnosis.

Treatment for this condition:

The goal of treatment is to manage symptoms. Choices are:

  • Speech therapy to learn how to better move the lips and jaw during speech
  • Counseling to help cope with FAS

How to prevent this rare condition is to do the following:

There are no known guidelines to prevent this health problem. Stroke is the most common cause. People who are at risk for stroke should take steps to lower their risk.

QUOTE FOR TUESDAY:

“Underage drinking is a serious public health problem in the United States. Alcohol is the most widely used substance among America’s youth, and drinking by young people poses enormous health and safety risks. In 2019, about 24.6 percent of 14- to 15-year-olds reported having at least 1 drink. In 2019, 7.0 million young people ages 12 to 20 reported that they drank alcohol beyond “just a few sips” in the past month.  People ages 12 to 20 drink 4.0 percent of all alcohol consumed in the United States. Although youth drink less often than adults do, when they do drink, they drink more. More than 90 percent of all alcoholic drinks consumed by young people are consumed through binge drinking.  The consequences of underage drinking can affect everyone—regardless of age or drinking status. Either directly or indirectly, we all feel the effects of the aggressive behavior, property damage, injuries, violence, and deaths that can result from underage drinking. This is not simply a problem for some families—it is a nationwide concern.”

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism NIH

 

QUOTE FOR MONDAY:

“On-time vaccination throughout childhood is essential because it helps provide immunity before children are exposed to potentially life-threatening diseases. Vaccines are tested to ensure that they are safe and effective for children to receive at the recommended ages.”

Center for Disease Control and Prevention CDC

Immunization Week – Why are vaccines are vitally important?

 

 

Most parents are familiar with the “childhood vaccination schedule” – a detailed plan for when children should get certain immunizations that help protect them from preventable diseases. But as the list of recommended vaccines has grown over the years, so too has the list of questions parents have about vaccinations and vaccination schedules.

Those who wonder why vaccines are so vitally important is because they prevent so many diseases that in the past we couldn’t if you could save your child’s life you would well this is one way in doing it.

While some parents wonder if the number of vaccines and doses kids receive can ever be too much for their bodies to handle, the short answer is: No. Extensive research has been done to ensure the safety of vaccines for young immune systems. Kids are exposed to germs (or antigens) every day. The amount that they’re exposed to by getting a vaccine is just a tiny fraction of the antigens they encounter daily.

Know this to understand vaccines; a vaccine is a dead, or weakened version, or part of the germ that causes the disease in question. When children are exposed to a disease in vaccine form, their immune system, which is the body’s germ-fighting machine, is able to build up antibodies that protect them from contracting the disease if and when they are exposed to the actual disease.

Immunizing helps to protect the health of our community – especially those who can’t be immunized, like children who are too young or those who can’t for medical reasons.  Vaccine schedules recommended by agencies and organizations, such as the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Family Physicians cover about 14 different diseases.

Oftentimes, day care centers, schools and sports teams require proof of immunizations in order for your child to participate. Keeping up with their shots can help make sure they don’t miss out. If you’re planning on taking your child in for a back-to-school physical exam, this can be a great time to get them caught up on their shots. Or you can schedule a separate immunization-only appointment.

Stanford Children’s Health states “Over the years, vaccines have generated some controversy over safety, but no convincing evidence of harm has been found. And although children can have a reaction to any vaccine, the important thing to know is that the benefits of vaccinations far outweigh the possible side effects.”.  So think over getting vaccinations for your child if you against them based on the proof of what they can do.  Always check with your physician if you have any questions.

 

QUOTE FOR FRIDAY:

“April 22, 2022 is National Donate Life Blue & Green Day, a day when anyone can wear blue and green or decorate their homes or dress up their pets in those colors to show support of organ and tissue donation. Blue & Green Day is one of several events scheduled throughout the month of April, which is designated as national Donate Life Month.”

Gift of Life Michigan.org /giftoflifemichigan.org

 

National Donate Life Blue and Green offering organ, eye and tissue Donation!

WHY DONATE:

Organ, eye and tissue donation provides lifesaving and healing opportunities to the nearly 120,000 people waiting for transplants nationwide. Over 2,500 of those people waiting for a lifesaving transplant live right here in our community! Organ, eye and tissue donation allows others to breathe, to see, to move and to live. Donation is a way to give the ultimate gift – the gift of life.

ORGAN DONATION PROCESS:

When the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) was signed into law in 1984, it created the national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) establishing an organ donation process for matching donor organs to waiting recipients. The OPTN standardized the process for donating organs across the country and created the system of federally-designated Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs), like Donor Alliance.

The OPTN is managed under contract by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). UNOS establishes allocation policy and manages the national transplant waiting list, matching donors to recipients 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. UNOS also maintains the database that contains all organ transplant data for every transplant that occurs in the U.S.

DIANOSIS:

There are numerous laws, regulations and standards that govern how and when a medical professional can make an official declaration of death. What is most important to know is that hospitals and emergency medical professionals will make every effort to save a patient’s life regardless of their status as a donor.

Death can occur in one of two ways: cardiac death, when the heart is no longer able to beat on its own, and brain death, which is the irreversible loss of function of the brain, including the brain stem.

Organ donation after Brain Death:

According to the Uniform Determination of Death Act, brain death is defined as the irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem. A brain-dead person is dead, although his or her cardiopulmonary functioning may be artificially maintained for some time.

Because of the neurological nature of brain death, a controlled and extensive clinical exam occurs to make that final declaration. Brain death is final and finite; it is not in the same thing as a coma or persistent vegetative state.

Brain death determination is rare and occurs only in about 1 out of every 100 hospital deaths.

Organ Donation after Circulatory Death:

Organ donation after circulatory death (DCD) is the type of donation that was used in the early years of organ donation. Before brain death criteria was established, DCD and living related donation were the only options.

This type of donation occurs when a patient has an illness from which he or she cannot recover. The patient is not brain dead, but has no hope of recovery.

If the family is interested in donation and has made the decision to withdraw treatment, that process will occur in the operating room instead of the hospital room. The time from the family authorizing the process to the removal of support is typically no fewer than eight hours, due to the need for blood tests and other arrangements.

Once in the OR, if the patient’s heart stops within the designated time frame for donation, the team waits for several minutes to ensure that the heart has ceased functioning. At this time, a physician from the hospital, not the organ recovery team, will pronounce the patient dead. Then, the surgery to procure the organs for donation begins.

While DCD increases the number of organs available for transplant, this type of donation does not allow for organs other than the liver and kidneys to be procured in most cases. It is rare for the heart and lungs to be recovered.

How to match a donor to the best candidate who needs a organ:

The system uses this information to match the medical characteristics of the candidates waiting against those of the donor. The system then generates a ranked list of patients who are suitable to receive each organ. This list is called a “match run.”

Factors affecting ranking may include:

  • Tissue match
  • Blood type
  • Length of time on the waiting list
  • Immune status
  • Distance between the potential recipient and the donor
  • Degree of medical urgency (for heart, liver, lung and intestines)

The organ is offered to the transplant center for the first person on the list. At times, the top transplant candidate will not get the organ for one of several reasons. When a patient is
selected, he or she must be available, healthy enough to undergo major surgery and willing to be transplanted immediately. Also, a laboratory test to measure compatibility between the donor and potential recipient may be necessary. If the organ is refused for any reason, the transplant center of the next patient on the list is contacted. The process continues until a match is made. Once a patient is selected and informed and all testing is complete, surgery is scheduled and the transplant takes place.