HealthyConcerns.com

It's an honor just to be nominated!

Well, actually it is. HealthyConcerns is nominated for Best New MedBlog of 2005 over at the 2005 Medical Weblog Awards. (Probably on the strength of my self-nomination!) I was hoping it'd be a smaller category, but no such luck. The competition is too rich for my blood :)

If you're looking for a place to start getting deeper into MedBlogs, this nomination list is a great place to start.

Grand Rounds is up at Over My Med Body!

Another excellent blog name! Come see the best in this week's MedBlogging over at Over My Med Body!

Blogger Graham reminds us all of what we have to be thankful for, delivering the last drop of Thanksgiving references that any of us are likely to have to endure for this year :)

For example, he kindly posted my entry about freedom of speech vs. "Supporting" destructive behaviors, saying: "Thanks for providing such an important ethical dilemma for our moral stew."

You're welcome Graham, and thank you for doing such a nice job with Grand Rounds.

ThirdAge Carnival #4 over at Orbit Now!

Check out the ThirdAge Carnival over at Troy Worman's Orbit Now blog, including our HealthyConcerns piece on "support groups" and freedom of speech.

I also submitted a piece from one of my other blogs, the hip & zen pen, about some new benefits that have been discovered about green tea. Troy kindly included that post too.

Another recommended post:

Susan, who writes for the ThirdAge blog itself, talks about the holidays and how feelings and food get all mixed up together in Try a little Innercise.

Emotional eating? Me? No, never...how about you? ;)

So, check out the ThirdAge Carnival for some interesting reading about life once you've lived it long enough to know a thing or two.

Are we a little quick to name things "disorders"?

Kevin MD brings us two interesting data points today:

1. 4 million people in the UK are too shy to pee in front of others. "experts" are calling on doctors to be more aware of the syndrome.

2. Meanwhile, BBC News also reports that 1 tenth of 2-5 year olds have "serious" psychiatric illnesses, most of which go unreported. On that list of serious illnesses are anxiety, depression and the ever-popular ADHD.

I don't want to be ornery or anything, but really, isn't the whole shy bladder thing a mental issue. Are they afraid there are dire physical consequences from it?

To veer for the moment into TMI: I often avoid going to the bathroom while out, holding it until I get home. Is it because I am too shy to pee? No it's because I know my bathroom isn't crawling with a lot of other people's icky germs. I know most people assume the men's room is worse, but have you checked out a public ladies room lately: people are pigs!

As for 2-5 year olds... well, one of Kevin's commenters is afraid we're getting way to anxious to diagnose and medicate kids who don't toe some arbitrary line of normalcy...and I would ahve to say I fear the same thing.

What do you all think?

2005 Meical Weblog Awards are taking nominations

Over at Medgadget.com

Now, it seems that both the nominations, and then also the actual awards, are determined by audience voting. So I have no illusions about my chances.

They do have a category for "new" weblogs (those started in 2005) though, so that should eliminate a lot of the big medblog guns.

So, check out my blog and the MedBogs in my side bar and go nominate the ones you get something out of!

OK Diagnosticians: Problem or not?

Last weekend I had brunch with a girlfriend. She used to work for me as a project manager on my team, so I know she is smart, hard-working, and completely reliable. She is only 29.

While waiting for a table someone walked into the restaurant and greeted my friend. They chatted for a bit. After the woman was gone my firend admitted that she not only couldn't remember the woman's name at first, she couldn't remember where she new her from for a couple of minutes. And that this was happening to her now, and it freaked her out. Her husband atrtibutes it to stress (she has a fairly new job that is very non-stop, and they got married a couple of months ago, so there was planning and stress there.)

But in this particular case MFF (My Forgetful Friend) admitted to me that she had last seen the woman only a week before, they were on a sports team together.

I asked her if she was ever good at names. And she confessed that she never was. But the part about taking a moment to even place a person...that seems new to her.

And I agreed that I thought that part was worthy of some concern.

So, what do you think out there: can that change in mental capabilitity really be attributed to stress, or is this something MFF should be concerned about?

Insurance for cancer survivors

Lately I've known a lot of people dealing with cancer. Whether it's my friends whose parents have died. Whether it's actually people in my age group who are dealing with it. There's a lot of very visible support cancer patients get from the larger community in this country: ribbons to be worn, walks to be undertaken etc.

But historically if a cancer patient actually made it through they found themselves hard pressed to find a health insurance carrier to cover them...even for the non-cancer-relatedtype stuff.

According to Henry over at InsureBlog, that may be changing.

It's not like the carriers are suddenly getting altruistic; it's just that I guess they finally had to acknowledge that the statistical outcome for cancer patients these days is a lot different (i.e. a lot better) than it used to be.

Henry's message is that people who have survived cancer shouldn't assume they are uninsurable, that they should look into insurance.

Good advice.

Environmentally-friendly medical supplies

This may be the first post I cross-posted both here and on the hip & zen pen, a blog I contribute to about life balance, lifehacking and progressive causes (like the environment.)

You may not think much about the kind of waste generated by a hospital (and I don't just mean toxic waste, people.)

But HospitalImpact.org brings us a story of one way hospitals can cut down on their environmental impact: PVC/DEHP-free IV-bags and tubing.

Hospitals aren't the only ones, though, who use such supplies. I use them every day. I have a cat with mild Chronic Renal Failure (CRF) and I giver her 100 ccs of sub-cutaneous fluids every day using exactly the same supplies I see on TV during every medical show. Been doing it for over 2 years. The bags I use are recyclable, or so the symbols on the bag tell me. But maybe these new bags are even better? Don't know.

Just thought it was interesting.

Freedom of speech...including suicide assistance?

Interesting post from Dr. David Neubaurer about a teenager who got advice from an online forum about the sure-fire way to successfully commit suicide.

The question: is this simply the exercise of free speech, as one of his commenters suggests?

Or does this fall appropriately into the list of the numerous ways speech isn't really free. (Shouting "fire" in a crowded movie theatre being the shop-worn example.)

This reminds me of the pro-anoerxia forums that Shrinkette has mentioned several times on her blog.

It's one thing to position these groups as "support" groups that show sufferers they are not alone and all. But the implication in someone needing support and to know they are not alone is that indeed they have a problem or condition. As soon as these groups or forums start advising someone on how to perpetuate their condition, or exacerbate it...then how exactly are they delivering on the "support" they claim to be offering?

All that being said: what would I do about it? Very little probably. I mean that I don't like the idea of government monitoring or controlling online groups, and I can't really see a way that you would be able to otherwise prevent determined people from finding information such as this online.

Even when you're talking about monitoring online chatter about violence, for example, don't they have to wait until someone actually makes a move to do something before authorities can actually move in and shut them down? ("Doing" something can include buying materials, for instance.) When does such talk become no longer cheap and become something actionable?

HealthyConcerns on the ThirdAge Carnival

I usually only participate in Grand Rounds with this blog, but there's a new blog in town, the ThirdAge Carnival, that is all about issues that affect those of us over 40.

This week the Carnival (#3) is being hosted by my good friend and colleague, Jory Des Jardins. I submitted my post about when you're just a little too late to make it to your dying loved one's bedside.

The writing spans a lot of topics, as opposed to Grand Rounds which focuses on medical issues. There's health-related stuff, like a primer on ElderCare, and how to avoid eating like crap over the holidays. But there is also stuff about other aspects of life, love and learning...all focused on the over-40 crowd (although frankly, it seems pretty universal to me.)

Enjoy the ThirdAge Carnival.