Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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“No man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” This is the beginning of a poem from 1624. In it, the poet John Donne appreciates how humans are all connected. Indeed, humans are social beings and social connection is a factor in our health. We all know the importance of a healthy diet and exercise for our health. We are getting better at understanding the importance of mental health. One thing we do not discuss much, however, are the ben...
The patient was young, healthy and short of breath. She had not been sick recently, other than a minor cough. Her oxygen level was normal and her lungs sounded clear. Her heart rate was a little fast and she was breathing rather quickly, too. She was anxious about it, but she knew there was more to this than anxiety. Meanwhile, she was taking an antibiotic for bronchitis which did not seem to be helping. We did some additional tests, some blood work, to look for other possible causes. One test...
You are probably familiar with drug commercials. There are all sorts of them showing people being active and smiling as they attend a birthday party, go biking, go surfing or shopping at a flower shop. At some point, they start listing some of the side effects and precautions, including some obvious and some scary statements. “Do not take this medication if you take nitrates for chest pain, do not take this medication if you do not suffer from a disease or do not take his medication if you are a...
Like a car racing along the interstate, exiting onto a highway, and finally reaching the family farm along a dusty gravel road, our blood circulates inside our bodies. There are the major blood vessels, such as the aorta running out of the heart and there are the tiny capillaries allowing blood cells, one at a time, to carry oxygen and nutrients to all the cells in our bodies. The network of capillaries is so complex it is estimated there are over 40 billion in one person and, if stretched out...
Imagine how just over 100 years ago, nearly one-third of people in the upper Great Lakes and upper Midwest regions walked around with a goiter on their neck. A goiter is a lump on the throat, which could be as big as an orange, a grapefruit or larger. Actually an enlargement of the thyroid gland, a goiter can come from an overactive thyroid gland, an under-active thyroid gland or an autoimmune condition, but in the United States before the 1920s, the reason was almost always deficiency of...
If you have pain on the bottom of your foot at the heel, especially when you take your first steps of the day, you likely have plantar fasciitis. One of the most common causes of foot pain, plantar fasciitis pain can subside with time, but sometimes the pain keeps people from doing what they love, whether that be running, walking or other pleasures of life. I once saw a young woman suffering from plantar fasciitis who got some relief from an injection. A few years later she returned wanting...
Recently I received a mailing from my clinic reminding me it is time to schedule my annual preventative care physical. Apparently, doctors need to go to the doctor, too, even when they feel fine. As a primary care physician, one of my passions is preventative care. Preventative care is focused on catching problems before they even start to cause symptoms, catching issues early when they are easier to treat. Whether you want to call it your annual physical, your yearly checkup or an annual...
A hug when I come home after a long day. A smile that melts my heart. A song and a dance that are spontaneous and carefree. Those are some of the blessings that come to mind when I think about my daughter. Daughters can be a blessing in so many ways, as can sons of course. However, when it comes to taking care of families, women often play a vital role. Whether it is a young mom with her baby, a concerned wife encouraging her husband to go to the doctor or a loving daughter preparing her...
After a visit about aches, pains and various medical issues, a patient was commenting on getting older. Similar to other patients, I expected him to say something like, “It’s no fun getting older.” To my surprise, the patient said, “I’m 85. That means I have a lot to be thankful for.” Some people are almost always positive, and some are usually negative. Those who are positive have been found to have better outcomes and seem to enjoy themselves more while unfortunately, those who tend to be...
Recently our family went on a camping trip. Our kids loved how we canoed our supplies across a lake and set up our campsite. My wife and I were reminded how much work it is. Soon our children were experiencing more mosquitos, flies, caterpillars and ticks than they had ever seen before. On one of our lovely hikes, nearly every time I looked down, I found another tick crawling on my shoe or leg. Ticks love tall grass, wooded areas and other moist and humid environments often close to the ground....
With the storm approaching, my wife texted me after work to come home right away. Within minutes, after I left the clinic, she called me again to tell me NOT to come home and to seek shelter immediately. At first, I thought I could make it home, but then the wall of wind hit and a tree fell onto the road in front of me. I turned around and another tree blocked the way. Then it got so dark. It was disorienting and I turned on my windshield wipers using the fluid to try to clear the dust and mud...
The act of breathing is essential to life and can be done with or without thinking about it. You can control your breath and vary it, but eventually, air must come in and air must go out. The breath of life and breathing exercises are an important aspect of many religions. In the book of Genesis, when God created man, he formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Several Eastern religions use controlled breathing in meditation and prayer, helping in...
Since ancient times, marijuana has been used for medicinal and recreational purposes in many cultures. In the United States, it became illegal during prohibition, like alcohol. Later, under the Controlled Substances Act in the 1970s, the federal government classified marijuana a Schedule 1 drug. This classification includes heroin, LSD and ecstasy, all deemed to have no safe, effective medical use and a high potential for abuse. This Schedule 1 status imposes bureaucratic and legal barriers,...
Perhaps this has happened to you: Your recent cough kept you up for another night, so you went to the doctor. The nurse took your vitals, the doctor asked you some questions, listened to your lungs, maybe looked at your ears and your throat, and recommended rest, fluids, over the counter treatments and time. It all seemed fine until you got home and realized the doctor did not “do anything” for you. Why didn’t the doctor prescribe an antibiotic? What could it hurt? The use of antibiotics has bee...
Did the groundhog see his shadow this year? Every year on Feb. 2, people gather in the small town of Punxsutawney, in western Pennsylvania, to observe the annual Groundhog Day ceremony. If the groundhog does see his shadow, he may retreat to his den and winter will last another six weeks. If he does not see his shadow, spring may arrive early. This tradition is nearly 140 years old. Organizers claim, for the sake of folklore, that the original groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil is still alive today,...
As a family physician living on the upper Great Plains, I have many patients of Norwegian and German descent. Thus, I am familiar with some diseases that are prone to affect people of northern European ancestry. One such example is Dupuytren’s contracture. Dupuytren’s contracture is a gradual thickening of the connective tissue of the palm of the hand. It may begin innocently as a nodule in the palm or joint stiffness, which are common for anyone. However, with Dupuytren’s contracture, over...
A woman had been feeling short of breath for several weeks. Physical activities which had previously been easy for her were becoming a chore. In fact, simply laying down resulted in difficulty breathing. She had gained some weight and her legs were swollen. This woman was a patient of mine and she was in heart failure. This doesn’t necessarily mean her heart was going to completely stop, but it was having trouble keeping up. For whatever reason, her heart struggled to pump and fluid was b...
Imagine yourself in a blizzard so thick and cold and blinding that you could not see your hands right in front of you. Such blizzards were common 150 years ago on the upper Great Plains. Without much for houses and trees, the wind blew the snow with such force that the little ice crystals were more like little knives making it hard to keep one’s eyes open even if there was something to see. Thus, to get safely from the house to the barn, farmers often hung a rope between the two, to not get l...
This summer I attended the celebration of life service for Dr. Rick Holm, the original Prairie Doc who founded this newspaper column, a radio show and a television show now entering its 20th season. He died from pancreatic cancer in March 2020 during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic and thus, there was no public service at the time. Many friends and family gathered to celebrate Rick. We sat on lawn chairs, shared tales and sang songs in a beautiful park on a gorgeous evening. We recalled...
