I have suffered from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) for most of my life. It first manifested itself when I was in my 20s, and it’s been dogging me ever since. The main symptom is excruciating pain in the gut, and I mean truly, literal gut-wrenching, agonizing pain, and for me diarrhea (though many other sufferers … Continue reading Planning for the Future

I went to see my neurologist this morning, or more accurately, I saw her nurse practitioner, as my neurologist is increasingly difficult to see as she’s spending more time teaching and less time examining patients. It might have something to do with that baby she had a few years ago. Anyway when the nurse was … Continue reading A Simple Home Test for Brain Tumors

The CT Scan came back with this assessment: Total coronary calcium score is 330. Total calcium volume is 265. Total number of coronary artery calcifications is 5. For a Male patient aged 74 years, this corresponds to between the 50th and 75th percentile, that is, 25% of patients this age have a higher score. By … Continue reading Moderately High Risk

I went into Pennsylvania Hospital for another CT scan this morning. Although my cholesterol levels have been quite good for years, the last few blood tests have shown a decided increase in the bad stuff. I’ve been putting off a reckoning for several months as I was sure I could get the levels back to … Continue reading CT Heart wo IV Contrast Calcium Scoring

I’ve become a bit concerned on hearing reports of medical professionals not prescribing paxlovid for Covid so that when I saw my doctor recently I asked him whether he was prescribing it. I was pretty sure that he was because in all the years that I’ve been seeing his predecessor and now him, I’ve gotten … Continue reading Medical Facts

The weather forecast was for a once in a generation bone-chilling freeze. Luckily for me, the brunt of it was scheduled to hit farther up in the New England states, and the Philadelphia region wouldn’t begin to feel the chill until later in the morning. So when I set out for Pennsylvania Hospital for the … Continue reading The CT Scan

On Tuesday I went to see my otorhinolaryngologist (or Ear, Nose, and Throat doc) for basically a routine checkup. After all, it’s been five years. I take relatively few medications (or at least that’s what the medical pros tell me) but two of them are for my upper respiratory tract. And I still have some … Continue reading Slightly Twisted Voice Box