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Here’s some tips on how to stay healthy. This is especially important for all of you freshmen who just went or are about to go off to college.

1. Eat 4 or 5 meals a day. If your still doing the breakfast, lunch, and dinner thing, that’s good. However, try to eat less for these meals and add another 1 or 2 meals in a day. Eating more frequently helps keep off weight
2.  Exercise for at least 20 minutes a day at least 5 days a week. If you don’t have a gym membership, go get one. Not only can you keep the weight off at the gym, you can meet other people. If just can’t afford a gym membership take a walk, run, or go for a bike ride. If you’re worried about the weather, buy a treadmill or exercise bike.
3. Eat foods that you know are healthy for you, especially fruits and vegetables. If you don’t know how to cook take the time to, it’s really not that hard.  
4. Get outside and get some sun. It can help with your complexion and skin. Don’t burn yourself though, that will give you skin cancer.
5. Stop smoking and quit drinking. If you really want to be a social drinker, that’s fine, just don’t binge. Getting drunk should not be what college life, it’s not healthy and your going to gain weight.
6. Do NOT have any unnecessary surgeries such as wisdom teeth removal.
7. Stretch and don’t be overly competitive. If you’re going to exercise remember to stretch and don’t go out 110% unless you’re making money for it. ACL injuries are serious and occur in sports such as basketball, football, and soccer.

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My recent letter I wrote to help my doctor visits goes smoother has prompted me to look for information on this.

1. Bring an up-to-date cumulative patient profile with you to the interview. You can create one by summarizing your medical history on a page. Include dates of, and reasons for hospitalizations and surgery. You may not end up needing to refer to it, but if questions about your medical history come up, having one will maximize the time you can spend discussing your current medical issue(s). Bring your current medication bottles, which list the name & dose information, including herbal supplements if applicable.
2. Describe your basic reasons for the visit in one or two sentences. Most doctors will start with the interview with something like, “What brings you here today?”. Preparing an answer to this question in advance will facilitate the visit. Some common symptoms include: Pain, weakness, Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, fever, confusion, breathing problems, or headache.
3. Recall the onset and timing of your symptoms. Include starts, stops and frequency. (“I get bad pain right in between my menstrual periods that lasts about three days.”) Be prepared with dates and times, if possible. (“The first time I remember feeling this way was on the 15th. It tends to get worse in the late evenings, but occasionally I feel it in the early mornings, too.”)
4. Explain what makes the pain better or worse. Make note of any movement that sharpens the pain (“My finger feels fine unless I bend it towards my palm, and then I feel a sharp pain.”) or lessens it (“It seems to go away when I lie down on my side.”). If any foods, drinks, positions, activities, or medications worsen or alleviate the symptoms, make it clear. (“The fever got better with Tylenol but then came back in two hours.”)
5. Use adjectives to describe your symptoms more fully. Not all pain is the same. It can be sharp, dull, right on the surface of the body, deep inside, etc. Example: “When I get dizzy, it isn’t just that I feel like I’m going to faint; it feels more like the world is constantly spinning to the left!”. Without getting overly poetic, try to point out what makes this sensation different than other types of pain you have felt before.
6. Point to the location of your symptoms. Include details if the pain moves about. (“The pain was right around my bellybutton but now, it seems to have moved over here near my right hip.”)
7. Rate the severity of your symptoms. Use a scale of one to ten, with one being almost nothing and ten being the worst possible symptom you can imagine. Be honest, and don’t minimize or exaggerate. “Ten out of ten” pain (in the eyes of medical professionals) would render a person almost incapable of speech or any other act such as eating or reading. (“I was sitting eating lunch and then I suddenly got the worst headache of my life out of nowhere. It was so bad that it nearly knocked me unconscious. Definitely a nine or ten.”)
8. Describe the setting and your condition when the symptoms occurred. Where were you? What were you doing? How different was the setting and activity than what you normally do? What had you been doing right before the symptoms arose, and earlier that day?
9. List other things that happen at the same time as your symptoms. (“During the three weeks I’ve been having these fainting spells, my wife also said that I’ve been looking very pale and I’ve also had these dark colored bowel movements and I’ve lost ten pounds even though I’m eating exactly the same.”)
10. Expect the doctor to examine you and potentially order some tests or a trial of treatment.

Also remember to be honest, describe all your symptoms, and bring a friend or family member with you it you feel it would help.

For more information visit http://www.wikihow.com/Describe-Medical-Symptoms-to-Your-Doctor

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I am planning to go the the Mayo Clinic next week because of my frustration,  lack of diagnosis, and belief that something can be done. The following is a letter I typed up to help my doctors and I understand the problem.

Up until two days following the extraction of all 4 wisdom teeth, I was totally healthy and was experiencing no symptoms. I had a headache possibly once or twice a year and had no problems with chronic pain. 

I had all 4 wisdom teeth extracted on 6/23/06. I was given anesthesia and my blood pressure dropped rapidly. Because of this I was sedated, given laughing gas, and awake during the entire procedure. I remember laughing while the teeth were being removed and pieces of the teeth coming out of my mouth.

Two days following the extraction I awoke with the most severe pain I have ever experienced. It was a pulsating headache, coming from inside of my head, slightly to the right, and top. It did not go away and was made worse by running. 

I saw a pediatrician, he recommended an MRI of the brain with contrast. The MRI showed a completely opacified right maxillary sinus. I saw an ENT and was given an antibiotic: augmentin.  I remained on the antibiotic and had a few CT scans throughout the summer of 2006. The sinus showed no improvement. I also went on levaquin and prednisone. The prednisone made me act strangely. At this time I went to a different ENT. Went back on augmentin and had sinus surgery on 8/30/06.

I continued to have a 24/7 headache following the sinus surgery even though the sinus was now clear. I was referred to a neurologist and ended up seeing 2 other neurologists in the area. I tried petadolex with no improvement. Then I tried neurontin and went up to 400mg with no improvement and feelings of dizziness after working out. I also tried darvocet and had some temporary improvement but felt very strange. I then tried vivactil and had severe heartburn after a week so I discontinued it. I then went on nortritpyline and it seemed to help take away some of the pain and the headache; however I continued to feel as if my head was pounding all the time and noticed it more whenever my head rested against something. I then tried verapmil and noticed no improvement and had reaction to it causing my veins in my back to become inflamed.  

During this time I did 18 sessions of biofeedback, visited a chiropractor, tried acupuncture, did 5 sessions of cranioscaral massage, and did 4 sessions of myofascial release. I had an MRI of the brain with and without contrast, and MRI of the cervical spine, and an MRA, all which came back negative.

Symptoms

I notice the following symptoms ever since my wisdom teeth were extracted that I never noticed and had prior to the extraction. I had a anal abscess in September of 2006 that went away after a week or so. I feel as if my head is pounding and especially notice it whenever I lay my head down or rest it on something such as when I go to bed. I noticed my head pounding right when I wake up in the morning and until I fall asleep. It never goes away. Throughout the day I have a lot of head pain. I have noticed nerve tingling sensations throughout my back and shoulders. I have pain behind my right shoulder. I have noticed a tender, red, and painful to touch spot of my head slightly to the right and on the top. I sometimes feel as if I hear cracking noises in my head slightly on the right and deep inside. I also have a felt a few times as if something was moving around in my head in this location. I have noticed shakiness in my teeth especially the right front tooth. I have also noticed periodic dark blood coming out of my nose, especially in the morning after I wake up. I feel as if the head pound is extremely rapid. I have also noticed pain behind my left eye. 

I have sensitivity to heat, it makes the pain worse. Lack of sleep especially less than 8 hours of sleep at night makes the pain much worse. Physical exertion can sometimes make the pain worse such as running or biking.  Being stressed out by things such as school and relationships makes the pain worse. 

Taking a cool shower or going for a swim in a pool seems to help ease the pain.

Again I noticed none of these symptoms as described prior to the extraction of all 4 wisdom teeth. I have noticed an improvement of my pain level and intensity since the 24/7 head pain began; however it has never gone away and has been continuous.

Let me know if you think there is anything I should change

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My father had colon cancer at a very young age. Because of this I am going to have a colonoscopy in a few weeks. Colon cancer is certainly a cancer that can be stopped before it becomes serious. All that needs to be done is finding a polyp and removing, but if a polyp is not found due to not have a colonscopy, then you can have colon cancer.

In recent years genetic testing as become a tool that parents can use to determine if their sons or daughters are more susceptible to certain types of cancers. However, it is important to remember that even if you test negative for a certain disease, the risk does not go away.

A year or so ago my father can genetic testing done on him to determine the likelihood of his children to develop colon cancer. Even though the tests results did come back negative, I still have a higher risk of developing colon cancer.

The Mayo Clinic offers a lot of advice surrounding genetic testing. To view their thoughts and suggestions click here

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/genetic-testing/CA00088

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As you may know from the about me section, I live in the Midwest of the United States.

This past week has been really awful as far as thunderstorms go. My house had some flooding through the window well in the basement earlier this week. But yesterday was the worst I have ever seen it.

A real downpour occurred yesterday afternoon with lots of rain, thunder, and lightning. It rained so hard that my gutters could not handle the water and nearly a foot of water was outside of my house over the window wells. To make matters worse my neighbors sewer was forced to backup somehow. As time went on our entire front yards began to flood. The road in my subdivision flooded. It was impossible for cars and even trucks to go through because it got so high at one point.

In my basement and my neighbor’s basements water began rapidly coming out from the drainage holes. About a foot or two of water eventually made it into my basement causing the carpet to be ruined and everything on the ground that we couldn’t save in time.

After about 3 hours the heavy rain passed, and everything outside began to drain and go into the sewers.  I have never seen this much rain in one week in my life.

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