Friday, August 29, 2008

Multiple Threads

Surprisingly enough, there are a few things I wanted to write about today. That's mainly because I needed to sit down and collect myself. While I was at work yesterday I started to feel a bit unwell, and while I thought it was maybe an allergy attack (the pollen count is obscenely high right now), but when the body aches started I knew I was in trouble. Turns out I have managed to pick up a summer cold. So, between the Allegra which is part of my daily drug regimen, regular doses of Ibuprofen, and Afrin when I need it, I can sort of breathe. However, it's pretty bad when I have to stop to blow my nose every 15 minutes or so.....

I've been following the political landscape pretty closely lately, as I'm sure others are doing as well. I got a chance to watch The Speech this morning, and I have to say that as much as I dislike both candidates for President, Obama did a nice job with his oratory, as did Joe Biden the night before. It doesn't change my mind, however; I'm still not happy with our choices in this race. Plus, I happened to check CNN earlier this afternoon, and I found that John McCain has a running mate. Her name is Sarah Palin, 44 years old, is the current govenor of Alaska. I had no idea who she was, and as I read her bio it seems she has good conservative credentials. With that said, it is possible that McCain could be shooting himself in the foot with this choice. After all, she is unknown to most of the nation, and he kept his cards pretty close to his chest with this. He also by-passed a number of well-known, more experienced conservative politicians (Palin was elected govenor for the first time in 2006).

So look at both sides of the race now; one half of each ticket has been around the block, so to speak, for quite a while now, evidenced by the approximately 65 years total service McCain and Biden have combined in the Senate. On the other hand, both Obama and Palin are relative newcomers; Palin is an Washington Outsider, so to speak, and Obama was elected to the Senate in 2006. I'm not going to re-hash their respective records in this forum, but I will say that at least in my mind the character and integrity question is huge, not to mention the question of trust. I'm not sure the whole execution of duties issue is going to really matter in the long run, but what will matter, in my own humble view, is whether or not either of them will really think of the American people as they sit in office. Personally, I'm not convinced either of them will do that.

I'm know this is a cynical point of view, but I've lost my own ability to trust our leaders. This is especially because of our current sitting President; no disrespect to his office, but the man has done way more damage in 8 years to our nation and its citizens than anyone ever thought possible. And the road of recovery will be very long indeed.

And now - onto another topic.....

I'd forgotten how much I like to build stuff. I'm taking a break from re-building the inside of the closet of our master bedroom. When we moved in, the person who lived in the house before us had built a wall unit in that closet. It was really ugly and it wasn't terribly practical in that the amount of space to hang clothing was really restricted. So I tore it out, and in its place I am installing a unit that will provide probably twice the hanging space that was available before, plus better shelving that is more open. I only took a break to write, but I have to get back to it soon. I'd like to get it done and everything put away before my better half gets home from work.

I don't have a lot to write about on the clinical side of things as it wasn't a terribly busy day yesterday. The only one notable to talk about is a 67 year-old female, history of breast cancer and a partial nephrectomy from renal cancer, presented to the ED at the BI with chest pain and shortness of breath. In addition to the cancer history, she also had a history of a prior MI with a stent placed in her LAD in 2005. She is currently undergoing her third round of chemotherapy and has had trouble with reactions to previous treatments.

I took a look at the 12-lead ECG done in the ED; she was slightly tachycardic at a rate of 108 with a sinus rhythm, her blood pressure was elevated at 140/90, and her labs were suspect. Her Troponin was on the edge of diagnostic for an MI, so she was admitted to the Oncology unit for observation. I should mention that one of the nice things about the different units in the hospital complex is that Cardiology is available pretty much everywhere. In many other hospitals it's a little bit more difficult to get access to a Cardiologist when you need one. Sure, pretty much every place has a code team, but I don't know of anywhere else where the docs are on call for that particular specialty as readily as at the BI. Of course, it's that way for many of the specialty services as it is a teaching hospital.....

When we arrived to transport her she was pain-free, able to ambulate without assistance to the stretcher and seat herself. We attached our cardiac monitor to her and brought her to the ambulance for transport. Vitals were obtained. Life was good.

The thing that was significant for me with this call wasn't the clinical findings; we see those every day on many different people. This lady was wearing a pink bracelet, so we got to talking about the Breast Cancer 3 Day. Turns out her granddaughters walked. She'd been planning to walk herself, but she'd gotten sick in the middle of her training regimen. Because of that, she was advised not to go. But it's funny; since I worked the walk, I've encountered more women over the past couple of weeks that have had to deal with breast cancer. In my mind I knew that they were always out there, but now I seem to be able to put a face on it much more than I did before.

I have no words for that.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My name is Bob Kelly and i would like to show you my personal experience with Allegra.

I have taken for 6 months. I am 42 years old. After I discontinued taking allegra, my mood changed back to normal. If I decide to take it again I will likely reduce my dosage: Maybe just one 75mg tablet every other day -- which means I would go from taking about 60 tablet/month to 15.

Side Effects :
I experienced sudden/sharp lower back pain, became mopey and slightly depressed. Lower sex drive. But it significantly reduced my hives (food allergy related). I was taking 75mg twice daily.

I hope this information will be useful to others,
Bob Kelly