Tag Archives: New York Times

Health Issues: One Man’s Long, Determined Road To Recovery From A Stroke

From NY Times article by Jane E. Brody:

Reversing Damage of a Stroke NYTThe learning curve was steep: “I couldn’t read; I couldn’t write. I could see the hospital signs, the elevator signs, the therapists’ cards, but I couldn’t understand them,” he wrote. The aphasia — the inability to understand or express speech — “had beaten and battered” his pride.

But he refused to give up. With age and prestroke physical conditioning on his side, he had convinced himself that “100 percent recovery was possible as long as I pushed hard enough.”

Strange as it may seem, the stroke Ted Baxter suffered in 2005 at age 41, leaving him speechless and paralyzed on his right side, was a blessing in more ways than one. Had the clot, which started in his leg, lodged in his lungs instead of his brain, the doctors told him he would have died from a pulmonary embolism.

And as difficult as it was for him to leave his high-powered professional life behind and replace it with a decade of painstaking recovery, the stroke gave his life a whole new and, in many ways, more rewarding purpose.

Read more by clicking link below: 

www.nytimes.com/2019/07/01/well/live/reversing-the-damage-of-a-massive-stroke.html

Boomers Health: Routine Blood Test Leads To Unneeded Anxiety Over Elevated Liver Enzymes

Diagnosis Lisa Sanders MD NYT Magazine Liver Problems“The doctor asked whether he was sure that he had not taken anything else when he was sick? No acetaminophen? No herbs or supplements? The man was certain. Moreover, his labs were abnormal even before he took the antibiotics. The doctor hypothesized that the man’s liver had been a little inflamed from some minor injury — maybe a virus or other exposure — and the antibiotic, which is cleared through the liver, somehow added insult to injury.”

 

A few weeks before he got sick, he had blood tests for an application for life insurance. Days later, he heard from his doctor that his liver labs were a little off. There are enzymes in the liver that help with the organ’s work of cleansing the blood. When the liver is injured, these hardworking chemical assistants leak into the circulatory system. The levels of these enzymes, his doctor explained, were double what they should be.

Read more in the NY Times Magazine article by Lisa Sanders, M.D.:

https://tinyurl.com/yyar65pf

2020 Democratic Debates: Mark Shields & David Brooks Debate Merits Of Candidates (Podcast)

Shields & Brooks PBS NewshourSyndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s political news, including the first debates for 2020 Democratic candidates, whether that party has shifted too far to the left to be viable and Supreme Court decisions on partisan gerrymandering and including a citizenship question on the 2020 census.

Click on “Play” button above to listen to podcast.

Health Issues: Seizures and Blood Pressure Swings Complicate a Medical Diagnosis

“Seizures are not uncommon in the elderly. Nearly a quarter of those who have a first seizure are over 65. Most are caused by a stroke or a mass; traumatic head injuries can cause them. So can abnormalities in blood chemistry. In the emergency room, the man had no sign of any of these, despite a thorough exam and extensive testing and imaging.”

The patient had both neurological and psychiatric symptom, which complicated a speedy diagnosis. A “new group of disorders” involving the “immune system wrongly attacking the brain” was a final diagnosis. Read the NY Times Magazine article in the link below to learn more: