When to Call for Help

This weekend we had a little medical “event” at our house. Esther and I agreed to host a high school senior prom “after party” for about fifteen 18 year olds. Trouble ahead, right? We thought we’d give it a go as our son’s friends are really great kids. And we made it clear there would be no drinking, no drugs. Just clean fun until they fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning. Parental supervision was close at hand.

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When Pregnancy Hides Illness

Usually when you or your partner is pregnant, it is a joyous event. We have three kids, and I can remember when my wife, Esther, announced that she was pregnant with our first child. It was an announcement at a family dinner at the future grandma’s house and I had the video camera rolling. The grandma-to-be was beside herself with happiness. I can still remember her turning to me and saying before the group, “Andrew, I am so proud of you!” It made me feel more like a man right off.

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The Power of Community

I hosted a webcast today that featured old friends, Beth Mays, a parent of a child with eosinophilic gastroenteritis (EG), a relatively rare condition; and Dr. Glenn Furuta, a subspecialist in the condition from Children’s Hospital of Colorado. I know them both since my daughter, Ruthie, has “EG” and has coped with it for several years.

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Helping Patients: Mission or Money?

I produced my first patient education program, a video on “erectile dysfunction” (that’s another story), back in 1984 (That was the year my assistant producer, Blake, was born!). So I’ve been at this a long time. This was 12 years before I was diagnosed with leukemia and became a patient myself. And while I made a living back then producing programs to help people make informed healthcare decisions, it was not big money. It was, and remains, very satisfying.

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A Few Words that Cured Chronic Pain

Okay, what follows will not work for everyone. But, nevertheless, the story I am about to tell is one of hope and inspiration. It shows how just an off-hand comment, if you are listening and take action, can have a huge impact on your health.

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Patient Power's New Look

I hope you’ve had a chance to enjoy our new home page and our new look. Our goal is to continually update our content and the clarity of our communication to help patients and family members get the most compelling, most authoritative health information for their area of concern.

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Frat Boys Becoming Fat Boys?

Each Spring for the past four years I have made a 3-4 day trip to Arizona with my son, Ari, now 18, to be a baseball fan and attend Spring Training games. This year we saw three games at three different stadiums. Each time the look of the crowd was different and, unfortunately, the waistlines of the men got progressively bigger. I am worried about them.

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Health Information for Hispanic-Americans

For many Americans we move in parallel but separate universes. In my case, as an American Jew who is fairly “assimilated” I feel right in the mainstream. But I remember how my parents and their parents mostly lived in Jewish neighborhoods and associated mostly with Jewish people. My grandparents spoke Yiddish, an eastern European Jewish dialect, in the home. But that’s all family history.

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Why More Internet and Less Radio for Health?

I am ending my 3-year-old Sunday morning Seattle radio show. The last edition is this Sunday, March 9th.

How come?

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Sudden Death

My son, Eitan, mentioned something in passing at the dinner table recently. As a 10-year-old he’s always jabbering. This time I couldn’t believe what I was hearing – the mother of a 5th grade classmate had died of cancer after only a three-week illness.

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