welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

add rsv to the list

 ADD RSV TO THE LIST

usa today
i always say to folks 
i dont want to die from something i can prevent

enter vaxxines
they prevent disease that can kill you when you get older 

now i have had all of my covid vaxxines
this fall i will get my annual one
plus
i will get my flu shot

then
it looks like i may need a new pneumococcal vaxxine
whats that
it a bacterial infection that can be a cause of pneumonia in all age groups
older folks though can get hit hard with this infection
it can be prevented by getting a vaxxine shot 
younger kids get a series of them
we didnt get them when we were younger

then
i need my shingles shot
my wife she had shingles once a few years ago and doesnt want it again
its the chickenpox virus that you got as a child that lives in your body and comes out it seems when you least expect it
it can be quite painful and debilitating 
i had it once when i think i had covid
it was above my eye and popped out as couple of crusty bumps that were painful
i took antiviral meds that cleared it and kept it from getting worse
if you dont treat it early the meds dont work well

now there is a new vaxxine
arexvy
its a vaxxine for rsv or respiratory syncytial virus
it just got approved by the fda for use in adults over 60

rsv is the most common cause of hospital admissions in the us in kids under 5
icus in kids hospitals are full of these cases in the winter

it hits babies hard especially younger ones

if you go over to the adult icus during the winters youll see some older folks in there also with rsv

you know how it is if you have younger grandkids
you always get what they get 

so it is with rsv

around 150,000 older folks get admitted each year wth rsv
around 44,000 die

those are mostly preventable now if the grandparents get that vaxxine for rsv

you know how it is when a new grandbaby is born how they wont let anyone around them for awhile

later its actually the other way around
its the kids that give stuff to their grandparents

this spring i got an upper respiratory infection that lasted for several weeks
my cough made me feel like i had a broken rib or sternum
i was short of breath when walking
i was sick enough i wouldnt go to the garden so you know i didnt feel good

as i was sick i thought i bet this is rsv
i could have been a casualty of this disease but luckily i recovered

now
after i get my vaxxine for rsv i can mark that one off my respiratory illness list
it is 82% effective in preventing lower respiratory infections in the elderly
it also will probably get approval for kids in the future
it also will be given to pregnant females so their newborns will have antibodies against the rsv when they are born

so 
if you have younger grandkids or you are around younger kids
maybe you should get this new vaxxine
then they can come visit you safely this winter

the organicgreen doctor

No comments:

Post a Comment