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7477. robertjayb - 3/29/2009 12:09:00 AM Stroke prevention device announced...
ORLANDO, Fla. — A novel device to treat a common heart problem that can lead to stroke showed promise in testing, but not without risk, new research shows.
The experimental device, called the Watchman, is the first to try to permanently fix atrial fibrillation, a heartbeat problem afflicting more than 2 million Americans. A federal Food and Drug Administration panel will consider it next month.
In the study, the Watchman was at least as good at preventing strokes as warfarin, sold as Coumadin and other brands. The drugs pose hazards of their own, so doctors and their patients are anxious for a better option.
7478. robertjayb - 5/19/2009 5:32:30 PM Harry and Louise making a comeback?
This morning I saw my first commercial of the season attacking health care reform. Government-run health care they call it. Many of the supposed horrors of the Canadian system are viewed with great alarm.
I expect there wiil be much more of this sort of thing even though at present the Obama administration doesn't seem to be proposing any radical changes in health care delivery. They have kicked single-payer to the curb and don't even permit it to be discussed.
There is hope, maybe, for a public option that seems to have the for-profit people spooked. But the emphasis is still on insurance and not actual care. Until we squeeze out the 20 to 30-percent (estimates vary) of health costs wasted
on insurance there is small hope for real progress.
7479. wabbit - 5/20/2009 12:05:17 AM I just want the same taxpayer-financed-for-life anything-I-need-or-want no-copay-ever health care that the Congress critters get. Oh wait — it's ok for them, but when it's me on the receiving end, it's socialized medicine. Nevermind. 7480. judithathome - 5/20/2009 1:44:23 PM In health news: Friday I cracked my thumb at the joint and am still wearing a brace on it...it still hurts but feels 24% better than it did over the weekend. 7481. robertjayb - 5/20/2009 2:32:43 PM Twenty-four percent, huh? No marble shooting for you any time soon. I prescribe Tylenol with codene. I think it's Tylenol 3, or maybe 4. 7482. judithathome - 5/20/2009 8:48:28 PM Strangelly enough, I'm doing fine with one vicodin in the morning and one in the evening. And yesterday, I took OTC Motrin and it worked just as well. 7483. robertjayb - 5/22/2009 5:51:08 PM Krugman reports health industry double cross
That didn’t take long. Less than two weeks have passed since much of the medical-industrial complex made a big show of working with President Obama on health care reform — and the double-crossing is already well under way. Indeed, it’s now clear that even as they met with the president, pretending to be cooperative, insurers were gearing up to play the same destructive role they did the last time health reform was on the agenda.
.................................................
The medical-industrial complex has called the president’s bluff. It polished its image by showing up at the big table and promising cooperation, then promptly went back to doing all it can to block real change. The insurers and the drug companies are, in effect, betting that Mr. Obama will be afraid to call them out on their duplicity.
It’s up to Mr. Obama to prove them wrong.
7484. arkymalarky - 5/31/2009 6:35:15 PM Well, Robert, finally getting the nose surgery in early August, so I have the whole summer to dread it. 7485. Wombat - 6/1/2009 3:08:51 PM Is this the deviated septum surgery? 7486. arkymalarky - 6/2/2009 1:02:28 AM Yep. If I don't chicken out. 7487. Wombat - 6/3/2009 10:18:55 PM Don't chicken out. if your problem is anything like Wombette's, there will be a noticeable benefit. 7488. arkymalarky - 6/3/2009 10:30:39 PM That's what everyone who's had it says, as I sit here with my humpteenth sinus infection of the year. I'm sick of being sick. The doc told me if I were a relative of his he'd say get it. He thinks it may reduce my migraines also, since they're so connected to weather. He's older (over 70, I think) and his son will do the surgery. He also made it clear that I have to keep my allergies under control or I will continue to have problems, even with the surgery. He's a very straight-up guy who was recommended by a friend at work, and I'd feel fine if he did the surgery, but he doesn't any more. 7489. arkymalarky - 6/4/2009 12:34:07 AM I've got to say that this school year is what did me in. I've had more down days at work and at home than any other year of my 28 by far. A baby and surgery were things to go through and miss school for, but I've felt far worse this past year than either of those times, and this wasn't a good year for that. I've missed out on a lot. I've enjoyed our exchange students immensely, but I'd have been more fun and have done more stuff with them if I'd felt decent. Feeling like that next year is not an option if I'm going for National Board.
So thanks for that encouraging info, Wombat. I know you've posted about how it helped Ms. Wombat before, but it helps a lot to hear it again. I've talked to a number of people who had it and not one felt it wasn't worth it, but every single one said it was a miserable experience. 7490. Wombat - 6/4/2009 3:31:02 PM Arky:
It doesn't make allergies go away, but it eases breathing and virtually eliminated Wombette's sinus infections. What surgery is pleasant, anyway? 7491. arkymalarky - 6/4/2009 5:24:16 PM Very true. That's why I try to avoid them! ;-) Bro said that about the sinus infections as well. I'm just ready to get past it. I was disappointed they wouldn't do it this month, but he wants me as clear as possible first. 7492. robertjayb - 6/11/2009 6:42:37 PM WHO says flu pandemic is here...
GENEVA — The World Health Organization declared a swine flu pandemic Thursday — the first global flu epidemic in 41 years — as infections in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere climbed to nearly 30,000 cases.
The long-awaited pandemic announcement is scientific confirmation that a new flu virus has emerged and is quickly circling the globe. WHO will now ask drugmakers to speed up production of a swine flu vaccine. The declaration will also prompt governments to devote more money toward efforts to contain the virus.
WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan made the announcement Thursday after the U.N. agency held an emergency meeting with flu experts. Chan said she was moving the world to phase 6 — the agency’s highest alert level — which means a pandemic, or global epidemic, is under way.
“The world is moving into the early days of its first influenza pandemic in the 21st century,” Chan told reporters. “The (swine flu) virus is now unstoppable.”
Sounds grim. Wash your hands. 7493. robertjayb - 6/11/2009 8:35:03 PM Kristof compares bad old Canadian-style health care to glorious U.S. free-market system...
...Back in the election campaign, some people spread rumors that Barack Obama might be a secret Muslim conspiring to impose Sharia law on us. That seems unlikely now, but what if he’s a covert Canadian plotting to impose ... health care?
7494. robertjayb - 6/20/2009 9:53:25 PM Be wary of breakthroughs...(The Independent)
Two patients with inoperable prostate cancer have made dramatic recoveries after receiving one dose of an experimental drug that is creating excitement among cancer specialists.
The results were so startling that researchers decided to release details of the two cases before the drug trial – in which the patients took part – was complete. Doctors said their progress had exceeded all expectations. The men were treated at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota in the US, one of the top medical centres in the world.
Dr Eugene Kwon, the urologist who was in charge of their treatment, compared the results to the first pilot breaking the sound barrier.
"This is one of the Holy Grails of prostate cancer research. We have been looking for this for years," he said.
7495. judithathome - 6/21/2009 6:58:32 AM When my son was ten he had experimental chemotherapy for Hodgkin's Disease Stage 4. It worked on him and after 23 years of testing him, they deemed him cured...not in remisson but cured. He was the only one of that group who lived long enough to follow his progress...which they did, year after year.
Today when children get Hodgkin's, that very treatment they tried on my son is the one now being used on them.
His neurologist did an experimental technique on the artery in his brain last year and it was successful for nine months, at least. So the doctor told me that the things he learned from that surgery will help others down the line...he also said he had hoped for more time to study my son's case because he thinks this particular technique will be really helpful to others in situations like my son's.
So I think my kiddo did his part in helping others...something of which I'm extremely proud. 7496. arkymalarky - 6/21/2009 7:48:14 AM Absolutely. And do you remember Spook's nephew's wife who came to the gathering with her son several years ago and was terminal with cancer in her organs? She's still alive and getting experimental treatment as part of some study.
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