David Gorski, on Science-Based Medicine, has a detailed post about the internet as a means of conveyance for consumer health information.
The super short version is that, as we're well aware, it's awesome and wonderful that huge amounts of good medical information and patient support are available to anyone with an internet connection--and it's kind of terrible that huge amounts of wildly unreliable medical information are available to anyone with an internet connection.
In our library skills classes for the medical students, we try to point out reputable consumer health sites with solid information that doctors can suggest to patients (good old MedlinePlus!), but sadly not everyone can have a librarian following them around on the internet pointing out key markers of an authoritative site.
Not just yet, anyway. That's totally part of my vision for a brighter future once I run the world, though.
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Monday, June 25, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Snuff it Out, Then
Interesting news on Science-Based Medicine about smoking bans and public health.
It's obviously hard to draw precise conclusions about things like this given the vast number of potential confounding factors, but it seems a few recent studies are suggesting that bans on smoking in public places may in fact have measurable public health effects.
There are studies from Scotland suggesting a reduction in premature birth and low birth weight, and in hospital admissions for asthma, after a ban, and one from the US linking a ban to a decrease in incidents of acute myocardial infarction.
Meanwhile, predictions of economic devastation have not really been borne out. Apparently people still like to go out to eat and drink even if they can't smoke in the building.
I might argue that some of them, if they don't smoke themselves, like to go out even more if they know they won't come home smelling like cigarettes. But that's anecdotal.
Anyway, these bans are controversial, and no doubt this won't be the last word, but it's certainly interesting to hear about the results.
It's obviously hard to draw precise conclusions about things like this given the vast number of potential confounding factors, but it seems a few recent studies are suggesting that bans on smoking in public places may in fact have measurable public health effects.
There are studies from Scotland suggesting a reduction in premature birth and low birth weight, and in hospital admissions for asthma, after a ban, and one from the US linking a ban to a decrease in incidents of acute myocardial infarction.
Meanwhile, predictions of economic devastation have not really been borne out. Apparently people still like to go out to eat and drink even if they can't smoke in the building.
I might argue that some of them, if they don't smoke themselves, like to go out even more if they know they won't come home smelling like cigarettes. But that's anecdotal.
Anyway, these bans are controversial, and no doubt this won't be the last word, but it's certainly interesting to hear about the results.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Say Yes to Drugs
If you wanted a quick summary on drug-resistant bacteria, there's a nice one on Skepchick. The post talks about research in antibiotics, how drugs develop resistance to them, and potential new areas for exploration.
It also notes that "We are basically in a ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ relationship with bacteria. We develop new drugs and they evolve."
This makes the whole process sound a bit futile and depressing, but I suppose if the alternative is to just shrug and drop dead from bacterial infections...well, keep up the good work with that research!
Also, don't go around taking antibiotics for viral infections, and if you have a prescription for antibiotics, take all of them as directed. Do your part to resist drug-resistance!
It also notes that "We are basically in a ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ relationship with bacteria. We develop new drugs and they evolve."
This makes the whole process sound a bit futile and depressing, but I suppose if the alternative is to just shrug and drop dead from bacterial infections...well, keep up the good work with that research!
Also, don't go around taking antibiotics for viral infections, and if you have a prescription for antibiotics, take all of them as directed. Do your part to resist drug-resistance!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Whatever You Say, Doc
Hmm. Skeptical Scalpel (via Grunt Doc) writes about a paper from the Archives of Internal Medicine that suggests that people who are more satisfied with their doctors have higher mortality rates than those who are less satisfied.
The post suggests that this is because people tend to be more satisfied when their doctor does what they want (like prescribing the medication they ask for), even if this is not necessarily the best course, medically. So maybe people are asking for drugs they see on TV, or whatever, and the doctor wants the patient to be happy and prescribes it, even if some other treatment might better control the condition.
There are interesting questions to ponder here about paternalism vs. patient involvement in care, and how well patients can expect to understand the fine points of treatment, and how much physicians should try to please their patients as opposed to sternly laying "doctor's orders" if their judgment indicates (but if your patients don't like you and leave to find someone who will give them the prescription they want, what good have you really done?).
I mean, we want people to understand their health and be involved with their medical treatment and so forth. At least, we do as librarians. Consumer health information! Why do we promote it if not to get people engaged?
And yet, no matter how much we read up on things, we still don't necessarily have a grasp on all the details and the background and the complicating factors, and there are times when we may do well to assume that our doctors understand it better than we do and trust to their judgment.
The paper is here, and I'll have to read it sometime, but right now I have to go to bed more than study.
The post suggests that this is because people tend to be more satisfied when their doctor does what they want (like prescribing the medication they ask for), even if this is not necessarily the best course, medically. So maybe people are asking for drugs they see on TV, or whatever, and the doctor wants the patient to be happy and prescribes it, even if some other treatment might better control the condition.
There are interesting questions to ponder here about paternalism vs. patient involvement in care, and how well patients can expect to understand the fine points of treatment, and how much physicians should try to please their patients as opposed to sternly laying "doctor's orders" if their judgment indicates (but if your patients don't like you and leave to find someone who will give them the prescription they want, what good have you really done?).
I mean, we want people to understand their health and be involved with their medical treatment and so forth. At least, we do as librarians. Consumer health information! Why do we promote it if not to get people engaged?
And yet, no matter how much we read up on things, we still don't necessarily have a grasp on all the details and the background and the complicating factors, and there are times when we may do well to assume that our doctors understand it better than we do and trust to their judgment.
The paper is here, and I'll have to read it sometime, but right now I have to go to bed more than study.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
This is Good, Right?
I see on Well that measured levels of trans-fats in peoples' blood may be declining, perhaps in response to the campaigns to remove trans-fats from food products.
A study "showed that in a nationally representative sample of middle-aged Americans, levels of trans fats fell 58 percent from 2000 to 2009." That's a big percent!
I guess we'll just have to wait and see whether there's also a measurable decline in heart disease and so forth.
A study "showed that in a nationally representative sample of middle-aged Americans, levels of trans fats fell 58 percent from 2000 to 2009." That's a big percent!
I guess we'll just have to wait and see whether there's also a measurable decline in heart disease and so forth.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Bleaaaaaahh...
It really sucks to be sick and have a backache at the same time. I wanted to spend all day in bed, sleeping off the worst of the illness, but I couldn't get comfortable there because my back hurt too much, so I figured I might as well get up.
Also, I did need more Tylenol.
I know: whine, whine, whine.
In other news, I didn't accomplish anything productive because I was too busy whining. I was kind of disoriented--I walked several blocks the wrong way down the street when I got out of the pharmacy--so my concentration was probably doomed anyway.
I did read this interesting post on Butterflies and Wheels that mentions the ways in which the work of journalism is changing.
This idea that journalism may be more about a kind of curation that simply reporting facts reminds me of the idea that librarianism of the future (or of the present, really) can also be seen as more about curation than collection.
If everything (or a significant portion of the 'everything' that most people are likely to look at) is fairly readily available, which parts of it do we want to highlight and recommend to our users?
Except for historical or highly specific collections, it might eventually be less about collecting physical items and keeping them in a single spot, and more about linking to items in various locations online. And paying for them, of course. How many times do librarians roll their eyes when someone says they found a journal article 'free' online and turns out they got access because the library pays for a subscription?
Maybe journalism is looking at a similar problem, in that people find all their news 'free' online and don't really think about how someone--perhaps a professional journalist who might enjoy getting paid--may have been involved in writing and submitting the initial report.
Maybe promoting journalism as more 'curation' will make it seem more worth paying for, to at least enough people to keep news sites going?
Or maybe I'm too disoriented (and recently shivering, but now sweating!--it's the ague, I tell you!*) to actually think about any ideas.
*Incidentally, MeSH doesn't have a term for ague, but maps it to Chills, previously indexed as Shivering, which is much less interesting than the dictionary definition of ague.
Also, I did need more Tylenol.
I know: whine, whine, whine.
In other news, I didn't accomplish anything productive because I was too busy whining. I was kind of disoriented--I walked several blocks the wrong way down the street when I got out of the pharmacy--so my concentration was probably doomed anyway.
I did read this interesting post on Butterflies and Wheels that mentions the ways in which the work of journalism is changing.
In a conversation I had with a journalist recently, we discussed what he deemed the two temptations of our post-print era. One is getting mixed up in what he called the“information jungle.” The other is sitting complacently in a “filter bubble.” He suggested that the task of good journalism in the coming years will be to serve as a curator for the public, exposing citizens to, without overfeeding them on, information and ideas that challenge or deepen their firmly held beliefs. All right, but what shall we call it? How about “out-of-the-jungle, beyond-the-bubble Black Swan journalism?”
This idea that journalism may be more about a kind of curation that simply reporting facts reminds me of the idea that librarianism of the future (or of the present, really) can also be seen as more about curation than collection.
If everything (or a significant portion of the 'everything' that most people are likely to look at) is fairly readily available, which parts of it do we want to highlight and recommend to our users?
Except for historical or highly specific collections, it might eventually be less about collecting physical items and keeping them in a single spot, and more about linking to items in various locations online. And paying for them, of course. How many times do librarians roll their eyes when someone says they found a journal article 'free' online and turns out they got access because the library pays for a subscription?
Maybe journalism is looking at a similar problem, in that people find all their news 'free' online and don't really think about how someone--perhaps a professional journalist who might enjoy getting paid--may have been involved in writing and submitting the initial report.
Maybe promoting journalism as more 'curation' will make it seem more worth paying for, to at least enough people to keep news sites going?
Or maybe I'm too disoriented (and recently shivering, but now sweating!--it's the ague, I tell you!*) to actually think about any ideas.
*Incidentally, MeSH doesn't have a term for ague, but maps it to Chills, previously indexed as Shivering, which is much less interesting than the dictionary definition of ague.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Classic Ailments
Although I don't have malaria, I would like to claim the term 'ague' for my condition, because it sounds old-fashioned and severe.
Technically it means you have alternating chills, fever, and sweating, not necessarily as a result of a malarial infection, so I certainly can claim it. The real problem with the definition is that I haven't been sweating that much in between the chills and fever, so I should probably be wrapping myself in blankets and hot water bottles.
I tend to get a touch of ague half the time when I'm coming down with a cold. Like over the course of this weekend.
Yay! Weekend! Bleah.
This is one reason I like a flu shot.
Plain old colds give me headaches, chills, fever and joint aches for a day or more. Do I need that for a week? Yeah, I think not.
Technically it means you have alternating chills, fever, and sweating, not necessarily as a result of a malarial infection, so I certainly can claim it. The real problem with the definition is that I haven't been sweating that much in between the chills and fever, so I should probably be wrapping myself in blankets and hot water bottles.
I tend to get a touch of ague half the time when I'm coming down with a cold. Like over the course of this weekend.
Yay! Weekend! Bleah.
This is one reason I like a flu shot.
Plain old colds give me headaches, chills, fever and joint aches for a day or more. Do I need that for a week? Yeah, I think not.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Sad Feet
Sometimes you don't realize how much momentum you've got built up until you run into something.
To cite an example from my own busy life, yesterday I stubbed my toes on the sturdy wooden base of a coat tree. Wait, no, I didn't just stub my toes, I really smashed them into that thing.
The nail on one toe was a bloody mess, and that toe is now all purple bruises and soreness. I don't think it's broken, and I suppose it doesn't really matter since you can't do much for a broken toe, but it's not happy. It seems unfair that toes, given that we walk on them all the time and might wish them to be tough enough to endure all kinds of insults, are so darn sensitive.
The pain of a stubbed toe is so severe. Surely a nice hoof would be more practical, for beings that walk around on their feet a lot. But even when I was a kid and went barefoot all the time, until the soles of my feet were tough as leather, stubbing my toes still hurt. Kind of a lot.
I should also note that this coat tree has been in the same place in the apartment for the entirety of the 10+ years we've lived here (right in the doorway, where you'd expect!*), so you really wouldn't think I should be bumping into it anyway, but sometimes you roll a one on your Walk check.
Anyway, here I was just puttering around the house, getting ready for bed, and there was still enough vigor in my stride to do damage by walking into a coat tree. Imagine if I'd actually been going somewhere.
Striding briskly along on my way to the train, perhaps. If I walked into a coat tree while going full speed ahead, I'd probably knock myself over. As I said, sometimes you don't realize how much energy you have invested in going a certain direction, until something suddenly arrests that motion.
And the moral is, if you're moving right along and everything's going fine, just watch where you're going. I guess that's not a very profound moral, but there's nothing else written on my injured toe.
Well, I'm off to see if I can walk into any walls while brushing my teeth tonight.
*Just kidding. It's out of the way, against the wall. Easy to avoid...or so you'd think.
To cite an example from my own busy life, yesterday I stubbed my toes on the sturdy wooden base of a coat tree. Wait, no, I didn't just stub my toes, I really smashed them into that thing.
The nail on one toe was a bloody mess, and that toe is now all purple bruises and soreness. I don't think it's broken, and I suppose it doesn't really matter since you can't do much for a broken toe, but it's not happy. It seems unfair that toes, given that we walk on them all the time and might wish them to be tough enough to endure all kinds of insults, are so darn sensitive.
The pain of a stubbed toe is so severe. Surely a nice hoof would be more practical, for beings that walk around on their feet a lot. But even when I was a kid and went barefoot all the time, until the soles of my feet were tough as leather, stubbing my toes still hurt. Kind of a lot.
I should also note that this coat tree has been in the same place in the apartment for the entirety of the 10+ years we've lived here (right in the doorway, where you'd expect!*), so you really wouldn't think I should be bumping into it anyway, but sometimes you roll a one on your Walk check.
Anyway, here I was just puttering around the house, getting ready for bed, and there was still enough vigor in my stride to do damage by walking into a coat tree. Imagine if I'd actually been going somewhere.
Striding briskly along on my way to the train, perhaps. If I walked into a coat tree while going full speed ahead, I'd probably knock myself over. As I said, sometimes you don't realize how much energy you have invested in going a certain direction, until something suddenly arrests that motion.
And the moral is, if you're moving right along and everything's going fine, just watch where you're going. I guess that's not a very profound moral, but there's nothing else written on my injured toe.
Well, I'm off to see if I can walk into any walls while brushing my teeth tonight.
*Just kidding. It's out of the way, against the wall. Easy to avoid...or so you'd think.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Learnin' Stuff
I was at the 40th anniversary party/slash 9th edition book launch for Our Bodies, Ourselves, yesterday. There were a lot of amazing women from all over the world who spoke about their work in women's health as global partners of OBOS.
I was knitting an afghan square, not taking notes, and the event was streamed and will be archived, so I won't say much even though there were many cool moments I could highlight.
One thing that did strike me, and then made me wonder at how striking it was, was Miho Ogino, who edited the Japanese edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves (published in 1988 and now out of print, she said, but not before inspiring many other women's health books), mentioning that, unlike in many countries, there was no religious backlash to the book's content in Japan.
She said this was because Japanese society is not strongly religious, and did mention that there was some cultural resistance, as of course there may be anywhere.
"Imagine no religious backlash!" I thought.
And then I thought how unfortunate it is that the default assumption is that religious figures would naturally object to frank information about women's health and sexuality. Can't have people knowing stuff about stuff.
Speaking of frankness, another recurring theme was how tough it is in some languages and societies to even find words for some of these topics. There might literally not be a word for something, or the one commonly used might be inherently associated with shame or secrecy--obviously not what you're going for when you're trying to present facts about health.
Anyway, a very interesting day.
I was knitting an afghan square, not taking notes, and the event was streamed and will be archived, so I won't say much even though there were many cool moments I could highlight.
One thing that did strike me, and then made me wonder at how striking it was, was Miho Ogino, who edited the Japanese edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves (published in 1988 and now out of print, she said, but not before inspiring many other women's health books), mentioning that, unlike in many countries, there was no religious backlash to the book's content in Japan.
She said this was because Japanese society is not strongly religious, and did mention that there was some cultural resistance, as of course there may be anywhere.
"Imagine no religious backlash!" I thought.
And then I thought how unfortunate it is that the default assumption is that religious figures would naturally object to frank information about women's health and sexuality. Can't have people knowing stuff about stuff.
Speaking of frankness, another recurring theme was how tough it is in some languages and societies to even find words for some of these topics. There might literally not be a word for something, or the one commonly used might be inherently associated with shame or secrecy--obviously not what you're going for when you're trying to present facts about health.
Anyway, a very interesting day.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
License! License!
Good news everyone! It doesn't matter if you try to live a healthy lifestyle or not!
The NYT Well blog reports that a study of centenarians found they were no more likely to eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly, or avoid smoking than were people who did not live to be 100 years old.
This, good people, is serious license for extremes of behavior. Go wild! Smoke, drink and carry on! If you have a combination of genes that supports a long life, you may live to be 100 regardless.
Of course, if you don't have that combination of genes you may not live to be 60, but whatever. Don't let that stand between you and your license.
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The NYT Well blog reports that a study of centenarians found they were no more likely to eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly, or avoid smoking than were people who did not live to be 100 years old.
This, good people, is serious license for extremes of behavior. Go wild! Smoke, drink and carry on! If you have a combination of genes that supports a long life, you may live to be 100 regardless.
Of course, if you don't have that combination of genes you may not live to be 60, but whatever. Don't let that stand between you and your license.
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Saturday, July 23, 2011
Time to Slouch
Yes, I have heard about the study (via @medlineplus4you on Twitter) suggesting taller people are at increased risk of cancer, and as a tall person I am naturally all agog.
One theory mentioned is that taller people might be exposed to more growth hormones, which might encourage the development of cancers later in life.
This is obviously not directly relevant to anyone's personal life, since height isn't something you can do much about (indeed, one researcher is quoted as stressing that "[t]he study is important not for individual or public health, but because it may help us to understand better how cancer develops"), but it is interesting.
So it's not all fun and games for us tall people, but at least we can reach things from high shelves. That makes up for a lot.
.
Among women, the risk of breast, ovarian, uterine and bowel cancer, leukemia or melanoma appears to go up about 16 percent for every 4-inch bump in stature, the researchers said.This is based on data from 1.3 million women, whose information was divided into four groups based on height, from those shorter than 5'1" up to those 5'9" and taller.
One theory mentioned is that taller people might be exposed to more growth hormones, which might encourage the development of cancers later in life.
This is obviously not directly relevant to anyone's personal life, since height isn't something you can do much about (indeed, one researcher is quoted as stressing that "[t]he study is important not for individual or public health, but because it may help us to understand better how cancer develops"), but it is interesting.
So it's not all fun and games for us tall people, but at least we can reach things from high shelves. That makes up for a lot.
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Sunday, December 5, 2010
Crushing Health Issue of the Day
I just ate a grapefruit, and for some reason it provoked hiccups.
Siiiiiigh.
I hate the hiccups.
See the Mayo Clinic's explanation of this phenomenon...which doesn't really help me in my current situation.
Once The Simpsons is over, I'm going to play Assassin's Creed II: maybe climbing some walls in Venice will distract me.
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Siiiiiigh.
I hate the hiccups.
See the Mayo Clinic's explanation of this phenomenon...which doesn't really help me in my current situation.
Once The Simpsons is over, I'm going to play Assassin's Creed II: maybe climbing some walls in Venice will distract me.
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Saturday, September 25, 2010
Getttin' Some Schoolin'
Although I was homeschooled, I have some love for the public school system. I therefore enjoyed this post from Jeff Fecke on Alas, A Blog, arguing that the public school system in the U.S. does not, in fact, completely suck.
I will leave with that thought, because I am busy coughing.
Coughing, coughing, coughing.
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I will leave with that thought, because I am busy coughing.
Coughing, coughing, coughing.
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Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Failing to Learn From History
Every year, I get stuffy and develop a scratchy throat and think "I must be coming down with a cold."
And then the symptoms fail to progress in a cold-like fashion, and I realize I'm actually just allergic to something. The itchy eyes usually give it away.
My point it, it's been years now that I've had seasonal allergies, and still every fall when they kick in I assume I'm getting a cold. Must I therefore conclude that I am not a fast learner?
The thing is, there's a lot of time in between episodes, and also there have been many times in my life when stuffiness and a scratchy throat did herald a cold, so it's possible I'm just not a fast un-learner, since I need to edit a previously-learned response template rather than pick up a new lesson from scratch.
Nevertheless, you know what they say about not learning from history.
Yes: that you will continue to be plagued by allergies. Also, you should have some tea.
.
And then the symptoms fail to progress in a cold-like fashion, and I realize I'm actually just allergic to something. The itchy eyes usually give it away.
My point it, it's been years now that I've had seasonal allergies, and still every fall when they kick in I assume I'm getting a cold. Must I therefore conclude that I am not a fast learner?
The thing is, there's a lot of time in between episodes, and also there have been many times in my life when stuffiness and a scratchy throat did herald a cold, so it's possible I'm just not a fast un-learner, since I need to edit a previously-learned response template rather than pick up a new lesson from scratch.
Nevertheless, you know what they say about not learning from history.
Yes: that you will continue to be plagued by allergies. Also, you should have some tea.
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Redecorating
I received word via an email list that the redesigned MedlinePlus is live today, offering its fine consumer health content with a spiffy new look.
It's abandoned its former purple color scheme in favor of crisp blue and green (English version) or blue and orange (Spanish version), with plenty of white space to give it a clean, open feel.
I was familiar with the old site (and I like purple), but I find the new one to be pretty user-friendly as well. There are tidy divisions between health conditions, drugs and supplements and 'videos and cool tools,' and a handy sorting of search results according to where the information comes from (news, encyclopedia, etc.).
A little box with a sort of tag cloud of popular searches is also a fun touch, and there are links for a mobile version, an option to get email updates, to subscribe via RSS, or to follow on Twitter (been there, done that).
There are also still touches of purple (yay!), notably in the big "more languages" button. Pointing to reliable consumer health info in various languages is one of the especially awesome things MedlinePlus does, so I approve of it being highlighted in this most excellent of colors.
Good stuff.
.
It's abandoned its former purple color scheme in favor of crisp blue and green (English version) or blue and orange (Spanish version), with plenty of white space to give it a clean, open feel.
I was familiar with the old site (and I like purple), but I find the new one to be pretty user-friendly as well. There are tidy divisions between health conditions, drugs and supplements and 'videos and cool tools,' and a handy sorting of search results according to where the information comes from (news, encyclopedia, etc.).
A little box with a sort of tag cloud of popular searches is also a fun touch, and there are links for a mobile version, an option to get email updates, to subscribe via RSS, or to follow on Twitter (been there, done that).
There are also still touches of purple (yay!), notably in the big "more languages" button. Pointing to reliable consumer health info in various languages is one of the especially awesome things MedlinePlus does, so I approve of it being highlighted in this most excellent of colors.
Good stuff.
.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Bring on the Towers!
MedlinePlus, via Twitter, reports that "Experts say living near a cell phone tower while pregnant doesn’t appear to raise your child’s cancer risk."
This is reassuring news if we were worried about radio frequency fields.
Strictly speaking, it's reassuring if we were worried about our children's exposure to radio frequency fields. It doesn't say anything about adults, other than that "health effects can take time to appear, and studies of cancers in adults might be more revealing."
However, based on this information I am going to continue not devoting significant portions of my attention to concerns about cell phone towers, which leaves plenty of mental energy available for more important things like Medical Subject Headings and killer robots.
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This is reassuring news if we were worried about radio frequency fields.
Strictly speaking, it's reassuring if we were worried about our children's exposure to radio frequency fields. It doesn't say anything about adults, other than that "health effects can take time to appear, and studies of cancers in adults might be more revealing."
However, based on this information I am going to continue not devoting significant portions of my attention to concerns about cell phone towers, which leaves plenty of mental energy available for more important things like Medical Subject Headings and killer robots.
.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Ow! My Neck!
Is this because I was bitten by a vampire?
My neck is really stiff. It makes me wince if I move just a little wrong. Also, it started in the back of the neck, and now it's creeping down my spine. Ouch!
I probably slept on it wrong. Hovering over the computer at my desk adding e-books to the library website all day, and then sitting on the floor staring up at the TV for a couple of hours, and then slouching in this chair staring at this laptop, probably don't help.
I should probably be sitting regally straight and staring ahead or something. I dunno, what's good for a stiff neck? I've tried punching it, I've tried yelling at it...
I think freezing up is the wrong idea, although that's always the first inclination. I think you have to move through the pain to some extent, or else it just gets stiffer and more painful.
But seriously, ow.
.
My neck is really stiff. It makes me wince if I move just a little wrong. Also, it started in the back of the neck, and now it's creeping down my spine. Ouch!
I probably slept on it wrong. Hovering over the computer at my desk adding e-books to the library website all day, and then sitting on the floor staring up at the TV for a couple of hours, and then slouching in this chair staring at this laptop, probably don't help.
I should probably be sitting regally straight and staring ahead or something. I dunno, what's good for a stiff neck? I've tried punching it, I've tried yelling at it...
I think freezing up is the wrong idea, although that's always the first inclination. I think you have to move through the pain to some extent, or else it just gets stiffer and more painful.
But seriously, ow.
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Monday, April 19, 2010
Health Spending
If you have flexible spending benefits from work that allow you to set aside pre-tax dollars for out-of-pocket health care expenses, you may be interested to hear that recent health insurance reform measures will affect what you can buy with the money in your account next year.
The New York Times reports that,
The program at my current job never actually let me use it for sunscreen or vitamins (to my consternation, since I buy piles of those things), but I have been known to go on year-end shopping sprees to load up on cough drops and adhesive bandages in an attempt to spend down the account on health-related stuff that would keep. Presumably those will no longer be covered in future.
I'll have to double-check the list of eligible expenses before I decide how much to set aside for next year.
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The New York Times reports that,
Another attraction had been the extremely generous list of eligible expenses — including deductibles and co-pays, eyeglasses and dental work, over-the-counter cold medicine, sunscreen and vitamins. But under the new law, starting Jan. 1, flex-spend users will no longer be able to submit claims for over- the-counter medicines unless they have been specifically directed to use them by a doctor.
The program at my current job never actually let me use it for sunscreen or vitamins (to my consternation, since I buy piles of those things), but I have been known to go on year-end shopping sprees to load up on cough drops and adhesive bandages in an attempt to spend down the account on health-related stuff that would keep. Presumably those will no longer be covered in future.
I'll have to double-check the list of eligible expenses before I decide how much to set aside for next year.
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Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Bone Growth
I'm getting some nice knobs and angles on this collarbone as it heals. I can only hope they're normal and semi-temporary, because right now I swear there are edges jutting out here and there, and it's pretty weird.
On the plus side, things don't feel quite so fragile anymore. I mean, no punching me in the shoulder or anything, and I'm not reaching for things on high shelves with that arm, but there's some mobility there.
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On the plus side, things don't feel quite so fragile anymore. I mean, no punching me in the shoulder or anything, and I'm not reaching for things on high shelves with that arm, but there's some mobility there.
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Monday, February 15, 2010
Horrific Photos!
I heard from some friends that they have a digital camera with a 'food mode,' so that food will look as appetizing in pictures as it does on the table.
I think I need a 'bruise mode,' so that these interesting marks would look as impressive in pictures as they do on the flesh.
Lacking that, however, I'll just toss up these health-related images of my poor old shoulder and knee about a week post-accident.
Getting some nice shades of purple and yellow in there, aren't we? There are also some lovely subtle greenish tones on my wrist and hand that I didn't even bother trying to photograph since it wouldn't have come out.
The abrasion on my forehead (a bit Harry Potter-ish, though not zig-zagged) is already fading. It was just a little airbag burn, nothing major. I probably will not scar noticeably from any of this, although I do hear that broken clavicles often heal with a bump.
I was always wickedly vain about my lovely collar bones, so this will be a hard blow, but if I had any pictures of the car for comparison it would be clear that this is a pretty decent result.
Charred to a cinder, it was! At least on the inside. It was hard to tell it even had front seats.
.
I think I need a 'bruise mode,' so that these interesting marks would look as impressive in pictures as they do on the flesh.
Lacking that, however, I'll just toss up these health-related images of my poor old shoulder and knee about a week post-accident.
Getting some nice shades of purple and yellow in there, aren't we? There are also some lovely subtle greenish tones on my wrist and hand that I didn't even bother trying to photograph since it wouldn't have come out.
The abrasion on my forehead (a bit Harry Potter-ish, though not zig-zagged) is already fading. It was just a little airbag burn, nothing major. I probably will not scar noticeably from any of this, although I do hear that broken clavicles often heal with a bump.
I was always wickedly vain about my lovely collar bones, so this will be a hard blow, but if I had any pictures of the car for comparison it would be clear that this is a pretty decent result.
Charred to a cinder, it was! At least on the inside. It was hard to tell it even had front seats.
.
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