My dog is a slob: staying upright and avoiding falls (and a patient story)
Before I get started on this post . . . I have started reading How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman, which is the selection for our online Healthy Matters book club. Check out the recent post about it here and start reading!
Falls
Zoe needs to clean up her toys
Check out our dog, Zoe.
She is a sweet and happy beast with bad hips and definitely has some issues with staying tidy. This is a small sampling of her extensive toy collection which is strewn throughout our house. She’s a slob.
So why am I showing pictures of my dog?
Just imagine yourself in the middle of the night navigating that minefield of toys and dog beds and sleeping dogs and not tripping. Ugh. I’m going to talk about falls, mostly in the elderly, but really it could be in anybody.
In this post you will find:
- Photo evidence of my “research” in the form of an unplanned walk through my own house.
- A story of a patient for whom a fall was life-changing.
- Risk factors for falls.
- Lots of links to great resources and videos.
- Guidance from experts in fall prevention from the Healthy Matters radio show.
- Two cools things – a checklist for safety in your own home and video clips which demonstrate the effect of vision on falls. Check out both of these later in this post
Book club: start reading “How Doctors Think”
The first tim
e I did a book club selection was after I had read a book and I was really excited to share it with you. That was in March 2016 and the book was When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. If you missed the post about that terrific read, click here.
For the second book in our Healthy Matters book club – and for all future selections – I will post the book before I have read it and hopefully many of you will pick up a copy and read it as well. Then I hope we can have a good discussion about it -here on the blog, on the radio broadcast, and on Twitter. I really value using literature, the arts, the humanities, and so forth to help us all think about the practice of medicine. You can be part of that conversation!
So here’s the book I’d like you to considering reading: How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman. Then look for a post on this blog in mid-June in which I hope you will give me your feedback – let’s start an interactive discussion!
Why this book?
Quick tips: stroke symptoms, swollen legs, and glucose levels
Lots 
of questions from listeners on the show this week and time did not permit me to get to all of them. So nothing fancy in this post. Just quick answers on a range of topics from actual listeners.
If you missed the show, the podcast is here (click the logo) for you to listen to on your computer, phone, or whereever:
Just like on the radio show, I can’t give complete answers to questions here. Always good to check with your own doctor.
Here’s how this post will go. I’ll cover 3 topics in a bit of depth: swollen legs, blood glucose, and recognizing a stroke. Although all are important, I really want you to know the symptoms of stroke so I’ll start with that. At the end I’ll do a few quick “lighting round” questions. Fasten your seatbelts. read more…
