Valentine's Day Stories
Check-Out Romance
“I met my husband while I was working in a science library. He came in every week to read the latest journals and eventually decided to take out the librarian instead of the books.
After a year and a half of dating, he showed up at the library and started rummaging through my desk. I asked what he was looking for, but he didn’t answer.
Finally he unearthed one of the rubber stamps I used to identify reference books. ‘Since I couldn’t find the right engagement ring,’ he said, ‘this will have to do,’ and he firmly stamped my hand. Across my knuckles, in capital letters, it read NOT FOR CIRCULATION.”
Technological Advances Have Transformed Surgery
Medicine has progressed dramatically over the past 20 years, but perhaps no area has evolved more quickly than surgery. “In the 1990s, we performed surgery totally differently,” said Marian McDonald, MD, Chief, General Surgery, St. Luke’s University Health Network. “The change is as great as the difference between a rotary phone and the latest smart phone.” Today, the majority of surgeries are performed using minimally invasive procedures. To describe the impact, Dr. McDonald referenced gall bladder surgery. In the 1990s, surgeons reached the organ by cutting through the patient’s skin and muscle. As a result, patients spent many days in the hospital and needed several weeks to recover.
Diabetes and Wounds: A Dangerous Combination
Wound Care Specialists Can Help You Heal
“People with diabetes are at risk for developing hard-to-heal wounds that can cause serious infections”, says wound care specialist Steven Bowers, DO, Network Medical Director of Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at St. Luke’s University Health Network. “Diabetes and wounds are a dangerous combination” Dr. Bowers says. “Left untreated, wounds can become infected. These infections can be quite serious and can result in amputation or even death.”
Industry News For Local Professionals Holiday 2019
HealthNet
Wed. Nov. 13, Dec. 11 at 12 pm. Traditions of Hanover Bethlehem, 5300 Northgate Dr., Bethlehem. Networking group for professionals hosted monthly and features a speaker and time for networking - $5.
Lehigh Valley Aging in Place Mixers
Wed. Nov. 20 - Hosted by Sacred Heart Northampton 11:30 to 1:30. 602 E. 21st St. Northampton PA 18067. Please register by Nov. 15 with Kim Garrison
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It’s the Gift That Counts!
Many gift-giving holidays surface this time of year: Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Three Kings Day, Eid-al-Adha, and Diwali, to name a few. It’s a time of love, obligations, and equality. It’s a time of love expressed by sharing gifts given for the sheer pleasure of seeing the sheer pleasure in the recipient. It’s a time of obligation when you feel you have to give Uncle Gaspar a present because, after all, it is Christmas, and he’s related in some mysterious way that even Henry Louis Gates, Jr., can’t trace. It’s a time of equality when you hope Cousin Itt gives you a gift card equal in value to the one you got him.
Endovascular Surgery Saves Lives and Limbs
A ground-breaking advancement in surgery occurred in 1990 when a pair of Argentinian surgeons successfully repaired a large aneurysm in the artery of a 70-year-old man’s abdomen. What made this surgery so significant is they reached the aneurysm by making a small incision in the patient’s groin, threading a wire to the aneurysm and opening a graft inside the vessel diverting the blood flow away from the aneurysm. This restored the patient’s blood flow to the legs and prevented the risk that the artery would burst, causing him to bleed to death.
