ceramic person with closed eyes and the upper skull cleaning removed, showing a detailed model of the human brain
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Traumatic Brain Injuries and Emergency Rooms

I want to specifically talk about brain injuries in relation to emergency rooms because I have had too many experiences with them. I know how challenging it can be to have a TBI recognized and how very important this is, especially in the case of the brain injury being caused by an accident that eventually…

Should I go to the emergency room: the trauma factor
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Should I go to the emergency room: the trauma factor

My phone rang. ‘Hey, honey?’ my partner Al said “I need you to call mom and dad about this, but I want you to make sure they don’t freak out” “Freak out about what?” I asked, instantly concerned. “Well, they called an ambulance for me. I slipped and I think I might have dislocated my…

Alison’s Adventures in the ER: a migraine story
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Alison’s Adventures in the ER: a migraine story

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about the current storm of stress that is happening in my life. My migraine started as a headache during a peak stress day(the day started with dropping my cat Rorschach at the vet’s for an endoscopy, then picking up a bridal shower present for a friend…

Building a partnership with your doctor: good doctor-patient communication
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Building a partnership with your doctor: good doctor-patient communication

Doctor and patient communication should be a two-way street, not one. While your doctor has medical expertise and training in how to recognize and treat medical conditions, you are the expert on your body and your needs. As a patient, it’s your responsibility to gather good information about yourself and your history and symptoms, and…

a doctor and patient, both white men look at a series of CAT scans on a light board. The doctor is gesturing at one of the images.
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Building a partnership with your doctor(s): Deciding when you need to see your doctor

This is the first of three posts on creating a partnership with your doctor(or doctors). This post focuses on how often to see your doctor. The second post will be about how to communicate better with your doctor, while the third post digs into recognizing your doctor’s ability(or inability) to work with you. I always…

Al’s diagnosis journey: how a broken hip led to diagnosis of a blood disorder
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Al’s diagnosis journey: how a broken hip led to diagnosis of a blood disorder

This post is about why it’s so important to keep pushing doctors in order to find out just what the medical problem is, and how to solve it. The following is what Al and I went through(mainly from a medical perspective), and the lessons we learned from it. Despite mostly finding very good doctors, going…

poster stating"FND(functional neurological disorder): confirming your diagosis
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Getting diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder

I have a condition known as Functional Neurological Disorder(FND).  I was diagnosed in 2003, when people were even less aware of the condition than they are now.  It had a different name(Conversion Disorder) and was labeled as a form of mental illness, rather than as a neurological condition.   In my case, Conversion Disorder remains…