WellLivingLivingLiving WellLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingLivingBEAUFORTMEMORIAL.ORGFALL 2017

PLUS Cancer made Kathy Bates a survivor and an advocate

ways to be resilient in the face of life’s challenges 29

Know Than You

Stronger

PRIMARY CARE CRITICAL TO MANAGING CHRONIC ILLS

A Day in the High-Stress, Hectic Life of the ER

FOOD FIGHTS MAY BE MAKING YOU ILL

MEET TWO OF OUR HEALTHCARE PRACTITIONERS … OUT OF THE WHITE COAT See page 6.

The Women’s Imaging Center offers same-day results in a tranquil, spa-like environment. Call today to schedule your mammogram and request 3-D tomosynthesis.beaufortmemorial.org

(843) 522.5015

ContentsFALL 2017

FEATURES

Find your strength in the face of a chronic condition.PAGE 14

COVER PHOTO BY GETTY/DAVID CROTTY; INSET PHOTO OF KATHY BATES BY GETTY/STEFANIE KEENAN

THE BIG STORY

FALL 2017 1

IN EVERY ISSUE 2 Opening Thoughts 3 Introductions 4 Collected Wisdom 6 Out of the White Coat 32 The Quick List 33 This Just In 38 The Truth About Female

Longevity 40 How To: Avoid an

Emergency 42 Quiz: Freak Out or

Chill Out? 44 At a Glance: Surgery 46 In the Market: Eggplant 48 Health by the Numbers:

Joint Replacements 54 Foundation-Building

Is a doughnut or hot chocolate the better indulgence?PAGE 34

52 Primed for LifeA Beaufort retiree manages

a chronic condition with the help of his primary care physician.

9 Tough Stuff Humans have a remarkable ability

to persevere in spite of health conditions—and that goes for you, too.

10 A Survivor’s Mission Actress Kathy

Bates spreads awareness about lymph-edema, an often-overlooked side eff ect of cancer treatment.

14 Resilient You Whether youhave cancer, a

disability, heart disease or another challenge, you have the power to take action to feel better.

22 The Real Risks It’s a scary world out there. But

are we scared of the wrong things? (Yes.)

28 New Parent Survival Kit Tips to keep you,

your baby and the entire family somewhat sane in the early months.

49 Ready When You Need ItWith a highly

trained staff and top-notch technology, Beaufort Memorial Pratt Emergency Center is at the forefront of emergency medicine.

8 Ask the ExpertBMH radiologist Phillip Blalock, MD, answers questions about low-dose lung cancer screening.

If you asked most patients what they expect from their healthcare provider, you’d proba-bly hear something along these lines: Don’t

harm me. Heal me. Be nice to me.Healthcare is so complicated in so many ways, but for

patients seeking help for an illness or injury the expectation is pretty simple. So how is your hospital working to deliver safe, quality and compassionate care?

Over the past several months, our team has been laser-focused on three things: quality care, patient safety and customer service. We’ve made changes big and small—all designed to provide the best care at the right time, every time.

Safety first: Every day, hospital leaders from each department gather for a “Safety Huddle” to discuss areas of concern, to report on staffing, medications and room availability, and to make sure everyone is aware of patients who may be at risk for any number of preventable issues, such as falls.

Skip the wait: In July, we introduced “Online Check-in” in our ER to allow patients to reserve a time to be seen for noncritical services. The popular service has resulted in shorter wait times and increased patient satisfaction.

Cost transparency: In an effort to help patients without insurance or with high-deductible health plans access services at a reduced cost, we introduced MDSave (visit mdsave.com). This tool for imaging, lab, rehabilitation and other services allows patients to see what a service will cost, to pay up front at a steep discount and to avoid any “surprise” costs on the back end.

Along the way, we also earned national recognition for quality, safety and ser-vice, including The Joint Commission disease-specific designation for hip and knee replacement for our Joint Replacement Center; The Leapfrog Group’s “A” rating for patient safety; and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) four-star rating for patient satisfaction.

You can learn more about new services and happenings at Beaufort Memorial in this edition of Living Well.

Regards,

Russell Baxley, MHAPresident and CEO

OPENING THOUGHTS

SAFETY. QUALITY. COMPASSION. Changes help Beaufort provide the best care

Living Well, a subtitle of Vim & Vigor™, Fall 2017, Volume 33, Number 3, is published quarterly by MANIFEST LLC, 4110 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite 315, Scottsdale, AZ 85251, 602-395-5850. Vim & Vigor™ is published for the purpose of disseminating health-related information for the well-being of the general public and its subscribers. The information contained in Vim & Vigor™ is not intended for the purpose of diagnosing or prescribing. Please consult your physician before undertaking any form of medical treatment and/or adopting any exercise program or dietary guidelines. Vim & Vigor™ does not accept advertising promoting the consumption of alcohol or tobacco. Copyright © 2017 by MANIFEST LLC. All rights reserved. Subscriptions in U.S.: $4 for one year (4 issues). Single copies: $2.95. For subscriptions, write: Circulation Manager, Vim & Vigor™, 4110 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite 315, Scottsdale, AZ 85251.

BEAUFORT MEMORIAL HOSPITALPRESIDENT & CEORussell Baxley, MHA

BMH BOARD OF TRUSTEES Terry Murray, ChairWilliam “Bill” Himmelsbach,

Vice ChairDavid Tedder, Secretary/

TreasurerAndrea Allen, MS, LMSW

Kathleen CooperMark Dean, MD David HouseStacey H. Johnston, MDFaith Polkey, MD

EX-OFFICIO MEMBERSNorman Bettle, MD, Chief of StaffHugh Gouldthorpe, Foundation ChairmanBill McBride, Beaufort County Council Representative

BMH EDITORIALCourtney McDermott, Director, Marketing & CommunicationsSallie Stone, Editor and Marketing & Communications Content ManagerPaul Nurnberg, Photographer

PRODUCTIONEDITORIALASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Matt Morgan EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Meredith Heagney SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Gillian ScottASSOCIATE CONTENT EDITORS: Sophia Conforti,

Daniel MuellerCOPY DIRECTOR: C.J. Hutchinson

DESIGNASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Tami RodgersCHIEF ART DIRECTOR: Cameron AnhaltART DIRECTORS: Andrea Heser, Molly Meisenzahl

PRODUCTIONDIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION: Laura MarlowePRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY SPECIALISTS: Marilyn Bain, Sonia

Fitzgerald, Cheri Prime

CIRCULATIONDIRECTOR OF LOGISTICS: Kalifa Konate

CLIENT SERVICESACCOUNT MANAGER: Lauren PetrickACCOUNT SUPERVISORS: Beth Doshan, Laura Ferguson

ADMINISTRATION PRESIDENT: Eric GoodstadtSVP, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT – HEALTHCARE: Gregg Radzely,

212-574-4380CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER: Beth TomkiwVP/CREATIVE: Alejandro Santandrea

For address changes or to be removed from the mailing list, please visit mcmurrytmg.com/circulation.

Beaufort Memorial Hospital955 Ribaut Road

Beaufort, SC 29902843-522-5200

843-522-5585 – Doctor Referral Service

Notice of NondiscriminationBeaufort Memorial does not exclude people or discriminate

on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability or sex. Beaufort Memorial provides free aids and services to people with disabilities or whose primary language is not English to communicate effectively with us, such as

qualified sign language interpreters; written information in audible and/or electronic formats; and information written in other languages. If you need these services, contact our

Patient Advocate at 843-522-5172. ATTENTION: If you speak English, language assistance

services, free of charge, are available to you (TTY: 9-711).ATENCIÓN: Si habla español, tiene a su disposición servicios

gratuitos de asistencia lingüística (TTY: 9-711).

FALL 20172

INTRODUCTIONS

INTRODUCING�…The newest members of the BMH team

Alejandro Garcia Salas, MDAfter serving for four years as a staff physician at Naval Hospital Beaufort, internal medicine specialist Alejandro Garcia Salas, MD, has joined Beaufort Primary Care. A graduate of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, he com-

pleted his internship and residency at Naval Hospital Portsmouth in Virginia. During his medical training, he participated in humanitarian missions in Oaxaca, Mexico, and Leon, Nicaragua. A native of Guatemala, Garcia Salas is fluent in both English and Spanish.

Shawna Doran, VP of QualityShawna Doran, who joined Beaufort Memorial in 2004 as a registered nurse, has been named Beaufort Memorial’s vice president of quality, with responsi-bility for planning and leading all quality, patient safety, risk and patient experi-

ence initiatives. For the last year, Doran, a former litiga-tion paralegal specializing in hospital law, professional liability and compliance, has served as the hospital’s cor-porate director of quality. She holds a Master of Science in Nursing from Walden University.

Cameron Price, PA-C Beaufort Memorial Surgical Specialists has added board-certified physician assistant Cameron Price to its medi-cal staff to assist general surgeons Perry Burrus, Deanna Mansker, Tim Pearce and Stephen Sisco in the oper-ating room and clinic. A recent gradu-

ate of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Price completed clinical rotations in Texas and at Beaufort Memorial.

Lee Butterfield, MDLee Butterfield, MD, a board-certified cardiologist experienced in complex coronary interventions, has joined Beaufort Memorial Cardiology and is now seeing patients in both Beaufort and Bluffton. Trained in cardiology, interventional cardiology and vas-

cular medicine, Butterfield practiced for 13 years in Columbia. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Medicine and completed his internship and resi-dency at Yale University School of Medicine–New Haven Hospital and fellowships at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Maureen Chapman, APRN, CNMMaureen Chapman, a highly skilled advanced practice registered nurse and certified nurse midwife, was brought on board to assist Patricia Thompson, MD, at Beaufort Memorial Gynecology Specialists. Prior to joining BMH,

Chapman served as a clinical instructor in women’s health at the Medical University of South Carolina. Previously, she worked for eight years in a Pennsylvania OB-GYN practice and was a flight nurse with the U.S. Air Force Reserve at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey.

Margaret Thompson, PMHNPSea Island Psychiatry welcomed board-certified psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner Margaret Thompson to its medical staff in May. Most recently, Thompson worked in Savannah in the inpatient acute care units at Coastal

Harbor Health System and Georgia Regional Hospital. During her 25-year career, she has also served on the staff of several counseling centers in Virginia. Thompson earned her master’s in nursing with a specialty in adult mental health at the University of Virginia and went on to complete her nurse practitioner degree there in 2006.

FALL 2017 3

COLLECTED WISDOM

O� the TableTired of feeling like you belong on a TV commercial for diarrhea, gas and bloating? Relief from your gastrointestinal distress may lie no further than your kitchen.

A wide range of foods can play havoc with your digestive health. To fi nd out what’s upsetting your gut, Beaufort Memorial registered dietitian Kassie Nicknadarvich recommends trying the elimination diet to uncover hidden food intolerances.

“You start with a basic, bland diet that eliminates the most likely culprits—refi ned and artifi cial sug-ars, whole grains, dairy products, eggs, alcohol and

caff eine,” Nicknadarvich says. “Once your symptoms are resolved, you begin rein-

troducing one food at a time.”If the food doesn’t cause any fl are-

ups after several days, it can stay. Those that

cause problems are out.

WEBSITE

Allergy vs. Intolerance A sensitivity to certain foods doesn’t mean you have a food allergy. To learn the diff erence between the two and how to identify the source of your GI troubles, go to bmhsc.org/foodatfault.

GLUTEN GONE, PROBLEM SOLVED For fi ve years, Beaufort native Elinor Borgert thought the pain she was experiencing in her hands and feet was rheumatoid arthritis.

“It got so bad, I worried for my future,” she recalls.It wasn’t until her father discovered that several relatives on his grandfa-

ther’s side of the family had gluten-related disorders that she was tested for gluten sensitivity. The blood test came back positive.

“I thought it was going to be the hardest thing in the world to cut gluten from my diet,” says the 44-year-old mother of three. “No one loves cake and bread more than I do.”

But with the wide range of gluten-free foods now found on grocery shelves and restaurant menus, making the change was much easier than she expected.

And the results were dramatic. Within two months of eliminating gluten from her diet, the pain and swelling in her hands and feet were gone. She’s now able to run up to 10 miles a day with her husband, Andy.

“People don’t realize gluten intolerance has such a strong genetic link,” Borgert says. “Cutting wheat out of my diet has made all the diff erence in the world. I have a whole new life.”

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT (AND DRINK) Eating a well-balanced diet is a cornerstone of good health. But for some people,

food staples like milk, bread and cheese can do more harm than good.

FALL 20174

TARGET NUMBERS

Sources: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive

and Kidney Diseases;Beyond Celiac;

NutritionFacts.org

GOT MILK? On Second Thought …As a new mom, Angel Gray wanted to do everything she could to give her newborn twins a healthy start. So, following the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics, she breastfed her babies from day one.

While her son, Jack, was happy nursing, her daughter, AnnaCate, wouldn’t stop crying.

“I eliminated everything in my diet that can cause colic,” Gray recalls. “But nothing changed. She would writhe around and cry every time I fed her.”

Convinced there was something wrong with her daughter, Gray made an appointment with Beaufort Memorial pediatri-cian Chip Floyd, MD. Despite all the benefi ts of nursing, he suggested Gray put AnnaCate on lactose-free formula to see if she was lactose intolerant.

“It was amazing,” Gray says. “Within a short period, she was smiling and giggling just like her brother. She was like a new baby.”

Now nearly 9 years old, AnnaCate has learned to stay away from cheese and milk.

“She’s really thriving,” her mom says proudly. “She scored in the 95th percentile on the presidential fi tness test.”

EGG

S AN

D S

OD

A PH

OTO

S BY

TH

INKS

TOCK

70 Percentage of

African-Americans who are lactose

intolerant

30–50 MILLION Number of

Americans who are lactose intolerant

98Percentage of people

who don’t have gluten issues

18 MILLION Number of

Americans who have gluten sensitivity

FOOD FACT or FADClean eating. Gluten-free diets. Juicing for health. With all the food fads out there these days, what’s a grocery shopper to do?

“Your nutritional plan needs to be sustainable,” Beaufort Memorial dietitian Jenny Craft says. “Unless you’re diagnosed with a food allergy or intolerance, you don’t want to eliminate an entire food group.”

The most popular target these days is gluten, a protein found in grains like wheat, rye and barley. For most people, though not all (see profi le of Elinor Borgert at left), going gluten-free won’t provide a benefi t and could actually have an adverse eff ect on their health.

“Whole grains are a good source of fi ber, vitamins and min-erals,” Craft says. “Gluten-free products are often made with refi ned grains and are low in nutrients.”

CALL

Advice from the ExpertsBeaufort Memorial’s registered dietitians can get you started on a well-balanced diet designed to fi t your unique genetics and health issues. Call 843-522-5635 to make an appointment.

OUT WITH THE SODACarrying an extra 50 pounds of weight on her body was making it diffi cult for 55-year-old Jeannette Wright to take the daily walks that help her relax after work. More important, she was having trouble managing her diabetes.

After a visit with Beaufort Memorial dietitian and certifi ed dia-betes educator Kim Edwards, she knew she had to kick her soda habit.

“I would drink sodas all day long, starting at 6 a.m.,” Wright, a Seabrook resident, says. “All that sugar was not good for me.”

Instead of soda, she now drinks water. She’s also working on cutting fried foods from her diet.

“You can’t stop everything at once,” she says. “I decided to tackle the soda fi rst.”

In addition to changing her diet, she’s working out again at Beaufort Memorial LifeFit Wellness Center.

“I need to take care of my health,” Wright says. “I’m back on the right track now.”

FALL 2017 5

Marc New, MD

Not many golfers can claim they’ve hit a hole-in-one. In fact,

the odds of an amateur scoring an ace is 12,500 to 1. Marc New, MD, has hit three of them—at Kiawah Island, Wild Dunes and Coosaw Creek Country Club.

A 9-handicapper, New plays once a week, usually at Sanctuary Golf Club on Cat Island or The Legends Golf Course at Parris Island. He has putted on greens all over the continental United States, as well as in Hawaii, the

Caribbean, Mexico and South Africa, and on 10 courses in Ireland.

“Every time I travel somewhere, I play golf,” says New, a gastroenterologist at Beaufort Memorial Lowcountry Medical Group. “If I can take my golf clubs, they’re coming with me.”

Much as he loves the sport, his first love is his family. He calls his wife of 25 years, Karen, a nurse, “my best friend.” The couple have a 16-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son, and the four enjoy doing things together.

Despite his Kansas birthplace, New is a Southerner through and through.

“My family has been in South Carolina since the 1600s,” says the physician, who was brought up in Greenville.

While the College of Charleston grad-uate grew up immersed in the culture of the South, he also is deeply rooted in his Irish Catholic heritage. He attends Mass with his wife and children at St. Clare of Assisi on Daniel Island, and currently serves as co-chairman of the church’s building committee.

On the weekends he’s on call, he stays in his weekday cottage on Cat Island and attends St. Peter’s Catholic Church.

Avid travelers, New and his family have taken several cruises, including one on the Mediterranean that included a stop in Turkey at the ancient Greek city of Ephesus, where St. Paul established a church and preached the Gospel.

“We also saw Mary’s home,” New says. “It was a big thing for me.”

OUT OF THE WHITE COAT

Mark New, MD, a gastroenterologist,

is an avid golfer.

GET UP AND GOEven with busy practices, these two Beaufort Memorial Lowcountry Medical Group physicians find time to have fun—at home and on the road

CALL

Marc D. New, MD, is a board-certified gastroenterologist with Beaufort Memorial Lowcountry Medical Group. He can be reached at 843-770-0404.

FALL 20176

Carl Derrick, MD

Standing around a tableful of slimy mollusks may not sound

like the most romantic setting. But don’t tell that to Carl Derrick, MD. It was at an oyster roast that the Beaufort Memorial internist met his Brazilian-born wife, Melissa.

“We were eating oysters and I off ered to get her a beer,” Derrick recalls. “We sat by the fi re and talked half the night. One thing led to another.”

It was a match made in the Lowcountry. Derrick, originally from Charleston, found he had a lot in com-mon with Melissa, a clinical dietitian at BMH.

“We grew up similarly, just in diff erent countries,” Derrick says. “We’re both very family-oriented.”

Six years ago, the couple married. Between the two of them, they have four children—Derrick’s three teenage sons from a previous marriage and his wife’s teenage daughter.

Squeezing in family time can be dif-fi cult with everyone’s busy schedules. Some days it’s just a quick game of hoops with his sons while dinner cooks on the grill.

“It’s a way for us to hang out together,” Derrick says.

Although he enjoys shooting baskets with the boys, soccer is his sport of choice. He played on his high school and college soccer teams and later joined city leagues in Charleston and Beaufort.

No longer able to make the commit-ment to play regularly, he’s hung up his

Carl Derrick, MD, and his wife, Melissa, have been

married for six years.

CALL

F. Carl Derrick III, MD, is a board-certifi ed internal medi-cine specialist with Beaufort Memorial Lowcountry Medical Group. He can be reached at 843-770-0404.

cleats and now takes to the fairways or tennis court when his schedule allows.

“With four kids and a busy job, I don’t have a lot of spare time,” he says.

In the summer, the Derricks like tak-ing the kids to the beach or out on their boat. This time of year, they’ll drive to the Upstate for the weekend to watch football games at Clemson, where Derrick’s oldest son attends school.

“It’s a fun family trip,” he says. “We like those kinds of short family vacations.” �

FALL 2017 7

ASK THE EXPERT

Phillip Blalock, MD

Q Why is lung cancer screening now recommended for heavy smokers?

Early detection is especially important with lung cancer because by the time you have symptoms of the disease, the cancer may have spread and become much more difficult to treat. It makes a huge difference in outcomes if you can detect it early. A low-dose CT scan is the only lung cancer screening tool that has been shown to reduce the risk of dying from lung cancer. While chest X-rays can be used to check for signs of can-cer, they’re not that good at picking up smaller lesions.

Q Who should be screened for lung cancer?Both the U.S. Preventive

Services Task Force and the American

College of Radiology recommend annual low-dose CT lung cancer screening for adults ages 55 to 80 who have a 30-pack-year smoking history and cur-rently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years. These are the people with the highest likelihood of having a tumor.

Q How does the CT scan work? CT scans produce cross-sectional images of the body using X-rays

and a computer. The images allow doc-tors to visualize subtle abnormalities that may not be apparent on regular X-rays. Over the years, manufacturers have improved the technology to minimize the radiation exposure and still produce a good image.

Q Are there any risks to screening?The test is painless and not inva-

sive in any respect. You don’t even have to take your clothes off. The only risk is radiation exposure, but the accumulated dosage from yearly exams is minimal.

Q Why is it important to be tested annually?Tumors in the lung can grow

very fast and spread to other parts of the body. If you are a current or heavy smoker, you should speak with your physician about this potentially lifesaving screening.

Board-certified radiologist Phillip Blalock, MD, is chief of the Beaufort Memorial Department of Radiology. �

CALL

Get ScreenedIf you’re a heavy smoker or former smoker and think you might be qualified for a low-dose CT lung cancer screening, call 843-522-LUNG (5864).

LIFESAVING SCREENINGLung cancer accounts for 27 percent of all cancer deaths—more than breast, prostate and colorectal cancers combined. Beaufort Memorial now o�ers low-dose CT lung cancer screening. Radiologist Phillip Blalock, MD, explains why the test is important.

PHO

TO BY TH

INKSTO

CK

FALL 20178

The cliche is true: You can do it.

Issue

TheResilience

TOUGH STUFF

PHO

TO B

Y G

ETTY

/ TA

XI

You already know that life brings many challenges and struggles, health and otherwise. But do you know that human beings have a remarkable

ability to persevere? And that goes for you, too.

More than 1 in 10 Americans have a diagnosis of heart disease, but the mortality rate for cardiovascular disease has been reduced by 70 percent since 1968.

Each year, more than 600,000 knees and 400,000 hips are replaced in the U.S. Roughly 7 million Americans are living—often actively—with artificial knees and hips today.

World War II veterans created wheelchair basketball in 1946. Since then, the National Wheelchair Basketball Association has grown from its original six teams to more than 200.

There are an estimated 15.5 million cancer survivors in the United States. By 2026, that number is expected to increase to 20.3 million.

Inspired yet? Read on for stories of survival, advice for overcoming health road-blocks and encourage-ment to keep going.

FALL 2017 9

F or acclaimed actress Kathy Bates, the events that unfolded after her treatment for breast

cancer were hauntingly familiar. Her mother had undergone a radi-

cal mastectomy in the 1970s, and as a result of the surgery, she developed lymphedema. The condition causes fl uid accumulation and swelling—usually in one part of the body—plus changes in the skin, like hardening and thickening. Bates watched as her mother’s lymphedema “defeated her spirit,” she said on The Dr. Oz Show.

So when Bates was diagnosed with breast cancer and scheduled to undergo a double mastectomy in 2012, she feared

the same thing would happen to her after surgery: “I thought, I’m terrifi ed. I know I’m going to get it. My mother got it, and I know I will,” she said.

“And sure enough, I did.”Knowing what was coming did

not make her lymphedema diagnosis any easier. After learning she had the condition, “I went berserk, I went nuts,” Bates told CBS News. “And for a long time after that, I was really, really angry. ’Cause I thought, great, now I gotta deal with this.”

Because lymphedema mostly aff ects those who have had cancer, the focus in the medical community has been on the cancer itself, says William Repicci, execu-tive director of the Lymphatic Education

& Research Network, known as LE&RN. Lymphedema has been treated as a side eff ect and is often relegated to medical therapists—rather than physicians—to handle. And despite the large number of people who have lymphedema, it is not a widely known condition.

Bates is trying to change that. The actress serves as spokeswoman for LE&RN, trading on her fame from her high-profi le roles, including her Oscar-winning turn in the 1990 movie Misery as well as the more recent TV hit American Horror Story. She is advo-cating for improved diagnosis and treatment of the condition.

“People together in a group are very strong,” Bates said in an interview with PH

OTO

BY

GET

TY IM

AGES

/STE

FAN

IE K

EEN

AN

KATHY BATES is pressing for better diagnosis and treatment for lymphedema, a common but little-known eff ect of cancer BY MONIQUE CURET

A Survivor’sMISSION

FALL 2017 11

THINGS YOU (PROBABLY) DON’T KNOW ABOUT

KATHY BATES1 Kathy Bates was 42 when she landed the role that catapulted her into

the limelight, playing psychotic nurse Annie Wilkes in the movie Misery, based on the Stephen King novel. For that movie, she won the 1991 Academy Award for best actress in a leading role.

2 One of her movies, 2002’s About Schmidt, included a nude hot tub scene with Jack Nicholson.

3 Her TV debut was on the show The Love Boat. She played a bride on a segment that aired Jan. 7, 1978.

4 She’s a native of Memphis, Tennessee, and a graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

5 She once worked as a singing waitress at a Catskills resort.6 Her extensive theater credits include a role written just for her by play-

wright Terrence McNally. She starred as Frankie in a 1987 off -Broadway production of McNally’s Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune.

7 She loves driving and owns an RV.

Sources: IMDb.com, TVGuide.com, AARP.org, Fandango.com

PHO

TO BY G

ETTY IMAG

ES/MICH

AEL TRAN

LE&RN. “The more people that come out and the more people that say they need help, if we all band together, we give it—as we call it—a face. Then I dare people not to pay attention.”

What Is LYMPHEDEMA?When the body’s lymphatic system is working correctly, “it is part of the essential machinery to maintain balance everywhere in the body,” says Stanley Rockson, MD, who specializes in lym-phatic diseases and is a member of the International Society of Lymphology. The body forms liters of fl uids in its tissues, and much of that fl uid must travel through the lymphatic system back to the heart, Rockson says.

Lymphedema occurs when the ability to transport fl uid is impaired. It begins as a “plumbing problem,” Rockson says, with fl uid accumulating just below the surface of the skin, causing one area—typically an arm or a leg—to swell.

Long term, lymphedema involves much more than fl uid accumulation.

In advanced cases, the condition causes changes in the skin, including thicken-ing and hardening. The aff ected area becomes enlarged, fi rst because of fl uid buildup, later because of the diminished quality of the skin.

Cancer’s MANY CONSEQUENCES The most common causes of lymph-edema are related to cancer treatment. The lymphatic system is the path can-cers use to migrate from a primary tumor to the rest of the body. When surgeons want to determine the stage of a cancer that has spread, they take samples from lymph nodes, causing damage to the lymphatic system.

“It’s like testing for termites by taking out part of the house—you’ve weakened the house,” Rockson says.

Radiation treatment for cancer also targets lymph nodes, because that’s where residual cancer cells are. To eradicate cancer, the lymphatic system is signifi cantly compromised.

“There are improvements, but we can’t get away from lymph node sam-pling” or radiation therapy to control a lot of these cancers, Rockson says.

Between 15 and 25 percent of breast cancer survivors who underwent exten-sive treatment will develop lymph-edema, Rockson adds. The likelihood is higher for those who are treated for other types of cancer, such as cervical and endometrial.

Profound EFFECTS Suff ering from lymphedema is akin to carrying 15 pounds of weight on one part of your body but not anywhere else, says Repicci, of LE&RN.

Those with lymphedema face a host of diffi culties: traveling by plane, because high altitudes exacerbate the condition; engaging in intimacy,

FALL 201712

as fl uid accumulation can be off -putting to partners; and even simple acts like choosing clothing, which doesn’t fi t properly because of disfi guration from the condition. Infection is a constant cause of concern, because the decreased fl ow of lymphatic fl uid also compromises the immune system.

The condition prevents people from working and socializing and keeps them in constant pain, Repicci says.

Common BUT UNKNOWN Lymphedema suff erers number between 5 million and 10 million in the United States, Rockson says.

The condition aff ects more people than multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS), AIDS and Parkinson’s disease combined, but it is largely unknown among the public, Repicci says.

“How could we have a disease that aff ects up to 10 million people in this country and yet has such a wall of silence around it?” he asks. “Even peo-ple who have it are unaware of the dis-ease they have,” because receiving an accurate diagnosis can be challenging.

Rockson says the disease is over-looked for several reasons. First, the condition is generally not life-threatening, and it often appears in the context of a life-threatening dis-ease such as cancer.

“It can have a tendency to be under-recognized because, in the mind of the clinician, it becomes more background noise,” he says.

He cited the reluctance of doc-tors and cancer surgeons to recog-nize lymphedema as a complication of cancer treatment because it seems like an implicit criticism of the treat-ment itself.

Finally, and importantly, the condition “historically hasn’t had what I call 21st-century treatments,” Rockson says. Available treatments are eff ective, but they are not as

simple as going to the pharmacy and picking up a prescription.

Recovery and PREVENTION Most of the available treatments are physical ones, such as massage to move fl uid from the tissues, compression techniques to further mobilize the fl uid, and laser-based therapies.

“All are designed to physically stimu-late the lymphatic system to be more active,” Rockson says.

People who have been treated for can-cer can be monitored and tested during the fi rst year after treatment to detect early signs of lymphedema and possibly prevent the condition. If compression therapy is used at the optimal time, the condition can be prevented or reversed.

Telling THE WORLDSometimes doctors are unable to diag-nose lymphedema because they receive little training related to the condition during medical school, Repicci says. LE&RN is pressing for physician certi-fi cation programs and training related to lymphedema.

Bates wants to help LE&RN raise money for research. In an interview with the organization, she said her dream was to go to Congress “and have a chamber full of people who are suff ering from lymphedema stand up in front of that committee and say, ‘We have lymph-edema. We are suff ering. Please help us.’�”

When that happens, Bates said, “I want to be there with them to add my name.” �

FALL 2017 13

CANCER and GENETICS Kathy Bates has been diagnosed with both ovarian and breast cancers, and the actress told People magazine that the latter “runs like a river through my family.” Families with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome usually have several members with at least one of those types of cancer.

Criteria that can indicate genetic predisposition to the cancers include cases of premenopausal breast cancer in the family, multiple family members developing breast or ovar-ian cancer and occurrences of male breast cancers, says general surgeon Perry Burrus, MD, medical director of the Beaufort Memorial Breast Health Center.

“Knowing you’re at high risk for breast cancer can literally be lifesav-ing information,” Burrus says. “There are a number of risk-reduction options you and your family mem-bers may want to consider, including closer screening, anti-estrogen drugs and prophylactic surgery.”

The average lifetime risk of breast cancer for women is about 12 percent. If you inherit the harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation, the risk is 45 to 65 percent.

“A lot of women think they’re off the hook if they don’t test positive for BRCA,” Burrus says. “But in fact, 75 percent of breast cancer cases occur in women without a family history of the disease.”

Bates told People she tested nega-tive for genetic mutations, but even in that scenario, she said, “you can’t assume you’re OK.”

CALL

Lymphedema TreatmentBeaufort Memorial offers evaluation and treatment for lymphedema as part of its outpatient rehabilitation services. Call 843-522-5593 for details.

THE BIG STORYPH

OTO

BY GETTY/TA

XI

FALL 201714

FdVVFA1700_14-21_TheBigStory.indd 14 4/25/17 3:40 PM

YOURESILIENT

Does a chronic health condition like heart

disease or cancer have you down? Don’t count yourself out. Not even close. BY SHELLEY FLANNERY

FALL 2017 15

FdVVFA1700_14-21_TheBigStory.indd 15 5/18/17 8:59 AM

How much does optimism play a role in overcoming cancer?

CANCER FIGHTER

Everybody has that one friend. You know the one. The one who’s always happy and upbeat. You complain about how your kids are stressing you out, and she says, “You’re a great mom!” You lose your job, and she says, “You’ll get a new one in no time!”

And then you tell her, “I have cancer.” Her reply? “Just be positive!”

THE MIND OF A

SPIRIT

You can see the good in tough times.

PHO

TO BY G

LOW

IMAG

ES

You know she means well, but it’s not that simple—especially when it comes to a serious diagnosis like cancer. Still, many people claim positivity has great power. Is there something to it?

“This is a somewhat controversial area,” says Tenbroeck Smith, the stra-tegic director of patient-reported out-comes for the American Cancer Society. “The literature shows mixed results. Some studies show having a positive attitude is better for you. Then there are

FALL 201716

results that say positivity doesn’t really affect disease outcomes.”

POSITIVITY IS SHORTSIGHTEDDon’t go pooh-poohing positivity just yet. Smith says it’s all about how you define it.

“We have to ask ourselves what we mean by positivity. Is it being happy and smiling? In a good mood? Or generally believing in an optimistic outcome?” he says. “There are days and times of day where you feel better than others. Optimism, however, has more to do with the belief that things are going to work out well in the long run.”

And optimism can affect your health.In one study, optimistic women were

nearly a third less likely to die from can-cer, heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease or infection compared with less optimistic women. Specifically, opti-mists had a 16 percent lower chance of dying from cancer than nonoptimists, according to the study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. In another study, published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, optimistic lung cancer patients lived an average of six months longer than their pes-simistic counterparts. No studies sug-gest optimism is detrimental to cancer outcomes, so it’s worth a shot to take a sunnier view of things.

What does that mean if you’re posi-tively a pessimist? That’s OK—you don’t need a personality transplant to see potential benefits.

FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE ITYou don’t actually have to be an opti-mist to reap the health benefits of optimism. You just have to act like one. Here’s how.

Surround yourself with support.Dealing with cancer is hard. There will be days you’re too tired to get out of

bed or too distracted to listen to your doctor’s advice. The key is having people around you who can pick up the slack when needed. You might need someone to make you meals, drive you to treatment appointments or jot notes in the examining room. Let the people in your life help, and don’t feel guilty about it.

Follow your doctor’s orders. It might not be that optimists have better outcomes because of their atti-tudes, but because they’re more likely than pessimists to follow a doctor’s treatment guidelines, Smith says.

“A true pessimist might decide they don’t want treatment because they believe it’s not going to matter either way,” Smith says. “But optimis-tic patients follow all the recommen-dations of the doctor, because they believe it will work. And if you follow the treatment guidelines, you’re more likely to survive.”

Talk about side effects. Optimists look for ways to deal with problems because they can see the other side of them, whereas pessimists are more likely to assume the way things are is how they’ll always be. Treatment side effects are a good place to practice optimism; you don’t have to just accept them. Talk to your doctor about ways to feel better. You may have more options than you think.

Let yourself get angry. “One thing I feel strongly about is that we don’t want to tell people dealing with cancer they need to be rosy, shiny, sunny all the time,” Smith says. “Feeling angry, sad or depressed—those are real emotions you’ll deal with. Trying to smile when you feel like crying isn’t going to help anything.”

So go ahead and scream, cry or stay in bed when the feeling strikes. But also allow yourself to laugh, smile and be joyful when you feel like it, too. �

FALL 2017 17

OTHER BENEFITS OF OPTIMISMPositive thinking can help people feel better when they’re sick, but the benefits are even greater with some conditions.

One study showed cardiovascular patients who were optimistic were half as likely as pessimists to require rehos-pitalization after a cardiac procedure.

“The more optimistic you are about your health, the less stress you put on yourself,” says board-certified interventional cardiologist Stuart Smalheiser, MD, of Beaufort Memorial Lowcountry Medical Group. “Stress is one of the big risk factors for cardio-vascular disease. Optimism can have a significant benefit if it reduces your stress level.”

Here are two other specialties with proven positive correlations between optimism and outcomes:

• Immunology: Optimistic patients were less likely than pessimists to con-tract a common respiratory virus in a 2006 study.

• Gerontology: Multiple studies have shown optimism can increase longevity. One study showed a 45 per-cent lower risk of mortality in adults ages 65 to 85 who demonstrated optimism compared with adults who did not.

DOWNLOAD

Track Your Gratitude One way to increase optimism is by practicing gratitude. Get started by downloading Gratitude Journal to your iPhone or Android and record what you’re thankful for each day.

MOVEMENT When it comes to exercise, something

is always better than nothing.

MAKE WORKING OUT

WORK

PHO

TO BY G

ETTY/E+

People use plenty of excuses to avoid exercise. From “I don’t have time” to “I’m too tired,” we’ve heard them all. But you, you have a legitimate reason. You have a physical limitation—a disability, a chronic health condition or an injury—that makes working out impossible!

Don’t let physical limitations keep you from being active

FALL 201718

Not so fast. While it may be a challenge to exercise with physical limitations—whether permanent or temporary—you can still do it. And you absolutely should.

“Being active is beneficial for all Americans, and even more so for peo-ple with chronic health conditions, to maintain health and function,” says Amy Rauworth, associate director of the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability. “The important thing to remember is to look at the ability and not the limit.”

Of course, the limits can sometimes be difficult to get past. Let’s explore some of the barriers you might encoun-ter when working out and ways to break through them.

BARRIER: You’re worried exercise will aggravate your condition.

What to do to break through: Talk to your doctor.

“People have that fear that they’re going to do too much or that they can’t be physically active,” Rauworth says. “But they can. They just need to talk to their doctor first. Most of the time, the doctor will say, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ Sometimes the doctor will say, ‘Let’s run a couple of tests first.’�”

BARRIER: You don’t know where to start.

What to do to break through: Your doctor has given his or her blessing to be active. But how should you go about it? Rauworth recommends walking, if you’re able.

“Walking is always a great way to start,” she says. “It’s inexpensive, and if you can do it with a friend, it makes the time pass quicker.”

Rauworth suggests mapping out a route ahead of time to identify places to sit, use the bathroom or do whatever your health condition might require.

If you’re interested in strength train-ing or functional exercises that simul-taneously improve strength, endurance,

balance and agility, consider working with a trainer in the beginning to learn proper form and get tips.

“Choose the right level of personal trainer that motivates you and understands your health conditions,” Rauworth says.

BARRIER: You’re not sure whether facilities will be accessible.

What to do to break through: Even though the Americans with Disabilities Act has been in effect for more than a quarter century, not all recreational facilities make it easy for people with disabilities to get around.

If you’re thinking of joining a gym, call ahead or schedule a tour to find out whether it will meet your needs. Does it have the equipment you require? Is it accessible? Can you get around in the changing areas?

If not, ask for what you need. You might not get it in the time frame you require, but it could mean breaking down a barrier for someone else down the line.

“The more you go out there and ask for access, the more people will benefit,” Rauworth says. “If we create an environ-ment accessible by all, we’re all going to be more active.”

BARRIER: You lack motivation.What to do to break through:

To stick with an exercise regimen, it shouldn’t feel like exercise.

“Find the types of things you like,” Rauworth says. “If you’re not going to like riding a stationary bike in your basement, don’t do that.” Instead, go for a bike ride outside, take a belly dancing class or sign up for tai chi in the park.

BARRIER: You fear failure.What to do to break through: Start

slow and work your way up. Set realistic goals and adjust as needed on a monthly, weekly or daily basis.

Remember that any move in the right direction is a good thing. And if your

limitation is new, give yourself time to adjust to your abilities.

“Recognize that you won’t be able to do the exact same exercise routine you did before,” Rauworth says. “Do what you feel is comfortable for that day, and remember every day is a new day.” �

FALL 2017 19

ACCESSIBLE ACTIVITIES Physical limitations may mean down-hill skiing is out. But that doesn’t mean you can’t stay active (with your doc-tor’s approval, of course). Beaufort Memorial Outpatient Rehabilitation Services manager Diane Haigler rec-ommends these exercise options.

• Walking. If you’re able to walk, it’s a great workout that costs nothing and requires no special equipment.

• Water aerobics. The hydrostatic pressure in water makes it especially beneficial to patients with chronic leg edema. It’s also easier on the joints. And because water aerobics is done in the shallow end of the pool, you don’t need to know how to swim.

• Yoga, tai chi or Pilates. Stick to low-impact, gentle motions.

“It’s important to find something you enjoy so you’ll be motivated to keep doing it,” Haigler says. “Sometimes the benefits of exercise only happen after an extended period of time.”

WEBSITE

Staying Active as You AgeYears of overdoing it may have left you with aching joints. That doesn’t mean you can’t exercise anymore. Go to bmhsc.org/inthegame to learn ways to maintain an active lifestyle.

PHO

TO BY G

ETTY/E+

Do you have a strong family history of cardiovascular

problems? Take heart—you’re not doomed by your genetics

BYPASS

Dad’s heart problems don’t mean you will have them, too.

RISK

HEART DISEASEEvery time you see a new doctor or fi ll out a health information questionnaire, you dread the question.

“Do you have a family history of heart disease?”

You answer yes and wonder when—not if—you will develop it yourself. After all, you know heart disease is hereditary. Medicine has known that for many years.

FALL 201720

“Genetics certainly is part of what puts you at risk for heart disease,” says Martha Gulati, MD, a cardiologist and the editor-in-chief of the American College of Cardiology’s patient edu-cation and empowerment initiative, CardioSmart.org. “And there’s not one unique marker. There are 50 or so that seem to be the strongest indicators of heart disease. We have probably not even identified them all yet.”

Having some of those genetic mark-ers makes it more likely for someone to have high cholesterol; other markers increase a person’s risk of high blood pressure, diabetes or obesity. All of them increase your risk for heart disease to some degree.

Heart disease also tends to run in families because of shared lifestyle hab-its. In other words, if your parents ate a high-sodium, high-fat, high-sugar diet, you’re more likely to eat the same.

“The foods that were cooked for you, the emphasis on physical activity—there’s more to familial heart disease than just your genetics,” Gulati says.

There’s also more to heart disease risk than just family history.

FITNESS OVER FAMILY HISTORYJust because your family history puts you at greater risk for heart disease doesn’t mean you’ll develop it. In fact, a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) showed that lifestyle factors can over-rule heredity. The study found that making even a relatively modest effort to live healthfully can cut your risk for heart disease by up to 50 percent.

The study looked at four factors and their effect on heart disease risk: not smoking, maintaining a body mass index (BMI) of less than 30, getting regular physical activity and eating a healthy diet.

“The study showed even people with the highest genetic risk could cut their risk in half by doing three out of the

four things,” says Nisha Jhalani, MD, the director of the Women’s Heart Health Initiative at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation. “It supports what doctors have been telling patients for years—that you can balance the things you can’t change with healthy behaviors you can change.”

And you don’t need to transform your whole life to benefit.

“When the study authors talked about healthy lifestyle, the way they diagnosed it was very liberal,” Gulati says. “Risk was reduced with weekly physical activity, a general healthy eat-ing pattern, not smoking and not being obese. Being overweight [having a BMI between 25 and 29.9] was OK.”

OTHER WAYS TO REDUCE RISKWhile the NEJM study didn’t look at the following factors, research suggests they, too, are beneficial in reducing risk of heart disease:

Get enough sleep. Poor-quality sleep increases blood pressure, an important risk factor for heart disease, accord-ing to the American Heart Association. Aim for six to eight hours per night of quality sleep.

Manage diabetes. Uncontrolled dia-betes damages blood vessels, making you more susceptible to heart disease. You’re also more likely to have a heart attack without realizing it, as diabetes can damage nerves that signal pain. Keep your blood glucose levels under control.

Ask about medication. If diet and exercise aren’t enough to reduce your blood pressure or cholesterol, talk to your doctor about prescrib-ing medication.

Reduce stress. Stress doesn’t directly cause heart disease, but it can increase the likelihood you’ll engage in other risk factors such as smoking, drinking, overeating and being inactive. Learn to alleviate stress in healthy ways, such as deep breathing, exercising or simply taking time to relax. �

FALL 2017 21

THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR HEART There are plenty of ways to decrease your risk of heart disease. But the most important thing you can do is stop smoking.

“Smoking affects your entire vas-cular system, not just your heart,” says board-certified interventional cardiologist David Harshman, MD, of Beaufort Memorial Cardiology. “It increases your risk of suffer-ing a heart attack and heart failure as well as stroke and peripheral artery disease.”

The nicotine and tar in tobacco constrict your arteries and increase the tendency for plaque and blood clots to form, Harshman says. Smoking can also cause a condition in which carbon monoxide attaches to hemoglobin cells, hindering the blood’s ability to carry oxygen to your tissues.

And you’re not any better off using e-cigarettes or chewing tobacco, Harshman adds, since they contain nicotine, too.

CALL

Are You at Risk?You can get a vascular screening for just $60 at Beaufort Memorial Hospital and Beaufort Memorial Bluffton Medical Services. The package includes carotid artery, abdominal aortic aneurysm and ankle-brachial scans. For an appointment, call 843-522-5635.

The things we fear are often not the things we should

BY JENNIFER SMITHY ou could get Zika. ZIKA! Or,

heaven forbid, Ebola. Think about that for a minute or 10. Think, while you’re at it, of the

many dangers of this world, big and small: airplanes (crashes!), motels (bedbugs!), trains (derailment!), bees (anaphylaxis!), tuna (mercury!), elevators (mechanical failure!).

So much to be afraid of if we let our imaginations run wild. And that’s exactly what we do sometimes, isn’t it?

REALRISKS

The

REALRISKSREALRISKSREAL

FALL 201722

ILLU

STRA

TIO

NS

BY S

HAW

NIE

LSEN

FALL 2017 23

Our logical brains can calcu-late the very low odds that our plane will crash or that

we’ll be stuck in an elevator. Humans are uniquely able to assess risk and can reason, and yet, scientists say, our emo-tions and fear often are louder than our logic. And that is why, even though we know we might never get a rare disease or ride a train that jumps the tracks, we still fear those things and might even

change our behavior in an attempt to avoid them altogether.

“It’s not bizarre or crazy. It’s characteristic of all life forms, that their fear mechanism drives their response,” says Marc K. Siegel, MD, a physician and the author of False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear. That’s because, he says, “we

are derived from beings that were always in a sense of impending doom.”

We are holdovers from another era, when a twig snapping beyond the campfire might have signaled real dan-ger: a toothed predator approaching.

Thankfully, we are no longer hunted in the wild. But we continue to experi-ence fight-or-flight reactions to things even when there is no reasonable risk, Siegel says.

People think their fear is ratio-nal, but it’s often not, Siegel says. Humans understand the concept of risk assessment, but they’re not

always great at the execution.“Humans are unique in

that we can reason our way through this,” he adds.

“But we have to first understand our fear.”

FALL 201724

WHEN WORRY TAKES OVER For most people, a little self-talk and calming breaths are all it takes to squash runaway worry.

But for some, the amygdala—the brain’s fear center—runs a little hot-ter, so to speak. People with anxiety can have fears that they know aren’t realistic but still struggle to accu-rately assess risk and quiet those worries. Those with clinical anxiety can work to retrain their brains with therapy so they get better at making rational, fact-based decisions.

Psychiatrists have had success in helping patients retrain their brains, a concept called neuro-plasticity, says Tristan Gorrindo, MD, a clinician and the director of education for the American Psychiatric Association.

Using cognitive behavior therapy and sometimes medication, clini-cians can help people chip away at phobias and their responses to things that frighten them.

“They can practice, like a sport or playing the piano,” Gorrindo says. Many people master new fear-management skills in six to eight sessions.

Research has proved the meth-ods effective, he says. Scientists have, for example, been able to watch the amygdala of a person who fears snakes light up wildly in an MRI and then, after therapy, see very little fear-center activity during the test when the person’s fears are provoked.

If you’re having trouble with typical activities because of your worry—you’re not getting to work, you’re having trouble sleeping or you’re feeling serious physical effects—you should see some-one, Gorrindo says. There’s help for anxiety.

The Brain: WHERE WE FEAR AND REASON There is a so-called fear center in the brain called the amygdala. It sits behind the frontal lobe, which is responsible for reasoning.

“In a situation of danger, fear, anger or rage, it actually turns down the frontal lobe and our ability to reason. Evolutionarily, we needed something like that. It was in our best interest to assume the lion was in the bush,” says Tristan Gorrindo, MD, a clinician and the

director of education for the American Psychiatric Association.

When an airline passenger starts to worry midflight that the plane could crash, the powerful amygdala is working hard. It is moments like these when awareness of the situation comes in handy.

“You might be able to evaluate the evidence: Millions fly every day, and on most days, nobody crashes,” Gorrindo says. “Even in an ‘amygdala moment,’ you can evaluate the evidence.”

What Gorrindo is saying, really, is that knowledge is power. We can quiet our brain’s fear center. But first we must understand what risks we actually face.

FALL 2017 25

Getting REAL The National Safety Council, a nonprofit group that benchmarks odds of injury and death, says you’re more likely to die in a vehicle crash than in a plane, train or bus crash. (In case you’re wondering, the odds of dying in an “air and space trans-port incident” are 1 in 9,737, while for a motor vehicle crash they are 1 in 113.)

Ever worry about being struck by lightning? Extremely rare. In fact, your odds of dying from a strike are 1 in 174,426. That means you are more likely to die in a legal execution (1 in 111,439).

Pandemic diseases are often perceived as real risks. It’s something Siegel has written about extensively. If you travel to South America, aren’t you at risk of Zika, for example? What about avian flu? Ebola?

The risk of contracting one of those diseases feels very real because they’re so frightening. But Siegel and other experts say those aren’t high on the list of risks that immediately affect Americans. (There are exceptions. Medical experts say pregnant women shouldn’t travel to areas with known Zika outbreaks.)

You know what is high on the list? Heart disease and cancer, which the

safety council says carry a 1 in 7 risk of death and are No. 1 on the council’s list of things that Americans are most likely to die from. Chronic lower respiratory disease and intentional self-harm are No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. They’re followed by unintentional poisoning, a car crash, a fall and assault by firearm.

“Sometimes it’s a question of what you are more afraid of—for example, the measles versus the vaccine to prevent it. Measles is a highly contagious killer, and yet many parents are more afraid of the lifesaving, safe vaccine,” Siegel says, because of well-publicized but false information about a link between vaccines and autism.

Researchers acknowledge that this idea of being informed about real, and not perceived, risks is not always easy. Interpreting numbers and probability is difficult for many people. And that can make it harder to put into con-text things like the odds of dying in a lightning strike.

“The information that comes at us is often very difficult numeric

information about uncertainties and outcomes. Probabilities, mon-etary outcomes, number of lives at risk,” says Ellen Peters, PhD, a fellow of the American Psychological Association who studies human judgment and decision making.

“People who are less numerate tend to perceive more risk than

the highly numerate,” she says. The science on this shows us that when people who understand numbers well are faced with a risk, they use what they know. “It competes against their fear.”

FALL 201726

The Tools to REASON Peters suggests that when we don’t understand or can’t contextualize the odds of something bad happening, we turn to experts. Put simply: Ask someone who does understand it.

Armed with information, you’ll be able to force yourself to embrace rea-son, even in a moment of emotional panic. Gorrindo suggests these steps:

• Slow your breathing. It will send a physical signal of calm.

• Practice mindfulness. Try to become aware that you’re thinking about risk based on your feelings.

• Evaluate the evidence. That’s where you recall what you know about air travel, for example. Planes rarely crash. The odds are very low

that there will be a problem. Most flights have no issues.

You probably are safe.“Externalize it: What advice

would you give to a friend? We have a lot of different advice we’d give to others. Can you take your own advice?” Gorrindo asks.

Truthfully, an important compo-nent to overriding emotion-driven decision making is practice.

The more you force yourself to become a logic-driven decision maker, the less often you’ll be driven by fear. Got Zika? Not likely. Avian flu? Doubt it. A faulty plane? You’re pretty safe, you’ll think with a shrug.

There’s so much you could be afraid of. But with practice, your reason can be stronger than your fear. �

FALL 2017 27

GETTING OVER PSYCHO LOG ICALTRAUMAYou’re cruising along the interstate when you hit a puddle, causing your car to spin out of control. The next thing you know, you’re facing an 18-wheeler head on.

In the end, there’s not a scratch on you or your car, but you’re an emotional wreck. Weeks later, you still can’t get back on the highway.

“When people experience extreme vulnerability, the natural response is fight, flight or freeze,” Patricia Rickenbaker, a licensed clinical social worker with Beaufort Memorial Sea Island Psychiatry, says. “In situations where your only choice is to freeze, you’re more likely to have long-lasting anxiety.”

Events can become imprinted on the brain, causing PTSD-like symptoms. To get past fear, you have to face it in incremental steps, Rickenbaker says. Somatic therapy can help.

“The therapist’s role is to care-fully monitor the level of activa-tion,” says Rickenbaker, who is trained in somatic therapy. “If you’re pushed into a situation and you have a panic attack, you lose ground. With this kind of therapy, slower is really faster.”

TOOL

Safety SnapshotThe National Safety Council's Safety Checkup can help you understand your risks and ways to keep yourself safe. Visit nsc.org/forms/safety checkup.aspx to learn more.

BAG PH

OTO

BY GLO

W; PH

ON

E PHO

TO BY TH

INKSTO

CK

FALL 201728

SURVIVAL

The author with her baby, Edwin.

KITNEW PARENT

They say pregnancy lasts for about nine months so you have time to prepare for parenthood.

“They” have obviously never had an actual baby. No preparation is suffi cient.

I confess: I was a smug nonparent and an even worse pregnant lady. I had grand illusions of days spent lounging in bed with a sleeping newborn, catching up on reading and Netfl ix. I fi gured my free time (free time!) would be spent cook-ing, cleaning and getting back into shape. When it came to prepping for actual

childbirth, I felt ready, and after 25 hours of grueling labor, I met my beautiful son and reality hit: He was mine. I was a mom. I had to fi gure out how to keep him from screaming his head off . I just wanted a snack and a nap.

While I thought a lot about having the baby, I hadn’t really thought through what the next few weeks and months would look like—and what I might need to do to keep this tiny human alive. Here are the things I wish someone had told me before we became a family of three.

Having a baby is hard work, not to mention trying to keep up with the rest of your life. Read on to learn how to stay sane, ask for help and raise a healthy baby BY ELLEN RANTA OLSON

FALL 2017 29

NEW-PARENT PROBLEM: Will I ever sleep again?

The short answer: Yes. But it may be a while before you get good, long chunks of sleep.

“The truth for moms is, if you’re breastfeeding, you’re going to be waking up a lot,” Sanford says. Newborns typically need to feed every two hours or so—a newborn sleeping through the night is actually something to be concerned about.

“Once you’ve established breastfeeding, you can pump and bottle-feed, which will allow your partner to take some of the night shifts,” Sanford says. “Otherwise, you really do need to try to sleep when the baby sleeps, whether that’s during the day or night.”

3PRO TIP: Remember that this phase won’t last forever. In just a few months, your baby will start sleeping for longer periods and some twisted part of your brain may miss all of those midnight feedings.

NEW-PARENT PROBLEM: Shouldn’t I be feeling normal by now?

In the age of social media oversharing, it’s all too easy to compare ourselves with others. In my fi rst weeks home, I could hardly hobble around the house, when it seemed as if the other new moms I knew were already registered for mommy-and-me yoga classes.

“Some women bounce right back from childbirth and are ready to get up and out, while for others it takes a bit longer to even begin feeling back to normal,” says Tiff any Moore Simas, MD, a fellow with the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

No matter what, your body needs at least six weeks to heal—possibly more after a cesarean section.

3PRO TIP: Be patient with yourself, listen to your body and let yourself rest when you can. “Six weeks is the gen-eral rule of thumb for actual physical healing, like the uterus going back to its normal size and a reduction in bleeding, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t still recovering in other ways well beyond the six-week mark,” says Christa Sanford, a certifi ed nurse-midwife and a spokeswoman for the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

and a reduction in bleeding, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t still recovering in other ways

mark,” says Christa Sanford, DECLINED: Mommy-and-Me Yoga @8:00a.m.

CALENDAR

PHO

TOS BY TH

INKSTO

CK

NEW-PARENT PROBLEM: Will I ever sleep again?Will I ever sleep again?

The short answer: Yes. But it may be a while before you get good, long chunks of sleep.

and a spokeswoman for the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

Mommy-and-Me Yoga @8:00a.m.

FALL 201730

NEW-PARENT PROBLEM: I haven’t done anything social in

weeks. How can I fi nd the time?Parenthood is an all-encompassing endeavor, especially as you’re just fi nding your footing. It’s OK if you’re a little behind on responding to text messages and happy-hour invites, but once you’ve started to get accustomed to the new you, try to reconnect with the old you, too. Schedule a date night with your spouse or a quick coff ee catch-up with a friend.

3PRO TIP: Craving company? Ask friends to come to you. Most people will be delighted to cuddle a new baby, and you can get some much-needed adult interaction. �

NEW-PARENT PROBLEM: I’m not loving every moment of this like I

thought I would. Could it be postpartum depression?With the fl ood of hormonally induced emotions that come along with baby, it can be hard for new moms to tell the diff erence between normal baby blues and postpartum depression.

“Normal baby blues include weepiness and minor anxiety and typically resolve within a week or two after giving birth,” Moore Simas says. “Postpartum depression lasts longer and can cause feelings of hopelessness, guilt, sadness and sometimes suicidal thoughts. Some women may experience it diff erently, with things like anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder showing up.”

3PRO TIP: Don’t feel guilty if you’re not thrilled with being a parent every second of the day. That’s normal—raising a baby is exhausting! But err on the safe side if you suspect you’re dealing with something more serious, and tell your doctor. “Any signifi -cant change in behavior should be discussed with your physician,” Moore Simas says. cant change in behavior should be discussed with your physician,”

with baby, it can be hard for new moms to tell the diff erence between normal baby blues and postpartum depression.

“Normal baby blues include weepiness and minor anxiety and typically resolve within a week or two after giving birth,” Moore Simas says. “Postpartum depression lasts longer and can cause feelings of hopelessness, guilt, sadness and sometimes suicidal

FALL 2017 31

DON’T GO IT ALONEIt can be tempting as a new parent to strive to do it all. But tag-teaming the parenting thing and letting your spouse share in the responsibilities will make it easier on you.

“In the first two weeks, mothers are recovering from the marathon of labor and birth,” says certified nurse midwife Catherine Tambroni-Parker of Beaufort Memorial Obstetrics & Gynecology Specialists. “Fathers should be doing chores and helping with basic baby care.”

At least a couple of times a day, dad should take over all baby duties to allow mom to get some much-needed undis-turbed sleep.

“By sharing responsibilities from the beginning, parents become more vested in child care and the load of doing it all is diminished,” Tambroni-Parker says. “Both mom and dad will feel that raising baby is a team effort.”

WEBSITE

Baby UniversityBeaufort Memorial’s parenting classes offer help with everything from breast-feeding to reading your baby’s body language. Visit beaufortmemorial.org for a complete schedule of classes.

THE QUICK LIST

7WANT MORE HEALTHY IDEAS? Check out our winter issue, all about improving your habits.

10 WAYS TO CONQUER LIFE’S CHALLENGES

PHO

TOS BY TH

INKSTO

CK

3WANT MORE HEALTHY IDEAS?

3

1 Stay active. The way you do it—biking, dancing, taking a quick stroll around the

block—is up to you.

2Conditions such as heart disease might be hereditary, but you can make small, relatively easy changes to cut your risk. Start with eating more greens and getting more exercise (see No. 1).

4 If you’re recover-ing from

an illness, don’t bypass your check-ups. Early detec-tion of side eff ects can help prevent further issues.

5 When you’re dealing with hard times,

acknowledge and process all of your emotions—including the unpleasant ones. It’s better for your health than forcing a smile.

Whatever you do, please quit smoking!

If you need accommodations to exercise at a fi tness center because of a physical limitation, ask for them. You might end up helping others, too.

9 Struggling with anxious thoughts?

Take a few deep breaths and evaluate the evidence. Everything is probably OK.

New parent? Be patient with yourself. It’s normal not to feel normal for a while.

10 If you’re dealing with a health cri-

sis, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Your friends and family want to be there for you.

Go to bed! Sleep is when your body resets itself, and an inadequate amount of rest can lead to problems such as high blood pressure.

68

FALL 201732

THIS JUST INGOOD-FOR-YOU NEWS, CUES AND REVIEWS

PHO

TO B

Y TH

INKS

TOCK

SICK KID CONUNDRUMWith fall comes school. With school comes sick days. Yet a poll of almost 1,500 parents nationwide shows that parents don’t agree about when to keep sick kids home.

For example, 8 in 10 parents prob-ably would not send their child to school with diarrhea, while only 6 in 10 parents would keep kids home after vomiting.

Age also matters. Parents of high school students often weighed missed classwork or tests as impor-tant factors, while parents of young elementary school students were more likely to weigh health consider-ations. Some parents struggle to fi nd someone to care for their sick child and can’t miss work.

If your child is vomiting or has diar-rhea, do what you can to keep him or her home (and consider giving your pediatrician a call). It’s best for both sick kids and their classmates.

FALL 2017 33

THIS JUST INGOOD-FOR-YOU NEWS, CUES AND REVIEWS DOUGHNUTS

Which sugary treat is better for you?

PHO

TO BY G

ETTY/ MO

MEN

T OPEN

ANSWER: HOT CHOCOLATE.Fall’s crisp temps invite us to get cozy under a warm blanket and indulge in sweet treats. But what to choose? Let’s say your choices are a mouth-watering doughnut or a steaming cup of hot choco-late. (And yes, it may be tempting to have both, but moderation is key when it comes to sugar fi xes.)

Ounce for ounce, hot chocolate is the way to go. With nearly 100 fewer calories and fewer carbohydrates, less sugar and less fat, 1 cup of popular brand-name hot cocoa runs circles around its 175-calorie counterpart, a medium-sized, 3-inch-diameter dough-nut. (Eat the cream-fi lled variety, and you’re suddenly downing 20 grams of fat, compared with hot chocolate’s 3 grams.) So curl up, stir up and drink up.

HOT CHOCOLATE

FALL 201734

DRUGS AND TEENSHigh school seniors appear to be drinking alcohol and smok-ing cigarettes less than they did in the past.

The number of seniors who say they’ve been drunk in the past year was down to 37.3 percent in 2016 from a peak of 53.2 percent in 2001. And a striking drop in the use of tobacco cigarettes was reported among seniors, who smoked a half-pack or more a day at a rate of 1.8 percent last year, compared with 10.7 percent in 1991.

CALL

Kick the HabitSign up for the Freedom From Smoking program at Beaufort Memorial Hospital. For details, call 843-522-5570.

SCHOOLS COULD PUT CLASSROOM PARTIES ON A DIET Time to celebrate your kid’s birthday in school? Before you bake or buy those cupcakes, check with the teacher or an administrator fi rst.

New nutrition rules from the Department of Agriculture for school districts that participate in federal lunch or breakfast programs require foods and beverages sold on campus dur-ing school to conform to minimum nutritional standards. While those standards don’t automatically apply to classroom parties, schools now must at least set standards for those foods and drinks, too. That means while some schools will remain a food free-for-all, others will devise rules for what you can and can’t bring in to share.

PHO

TOS

BY T

HIN

KSTO

CK

TRUE OR FALSE Junk food causes acne.

TO BE DETERMINED. If you strug-gled with acne in the past, you may have heard someone suggest that a bad diet was to blame for your blemishes. First off , how rude! Second, research spanning half a century dis-pelled the myth that junk food causes acne.

But dermatologists might be changing their minds. Several recent studies suggest that diets steering clear of “white” foods such as bread, chips and potatoes in favor of multi-grain bread, peanuts, vegetables and beans result in signifi cant improvements of acne. The theory is that high glycemic index foods (those that raise blood sugar levels quickly) can trig-ger acne, while low glycemic index foods don’t.

VETERANS SACRIFICE IN MORE WAYS THAN ONEMilitary service has many challenges, and new research shows that one of them might be an increased risk of physi-cal pain, especially among young vets. According to an analysis of National Health Interview Survey data, 7.8 per-cent of veterans ages 18 to 39 report severe pain, compared with 3.2 percent of nonveterans.

Migraines and jaw pain hit veterans of all ages particularly hard.

The data may drive new eff orts and funding to understand nonmedication approaches to pain management for veterans. Experts suggest that this, in turn, could improve pain management strategies for everyone.

CANCER OUTLOOK

15.5 MILLION

That’s how many Americans are

alive today who have had cancer,

according to the American

Cancer Society.

By 2026, survivors will number

20.3 MILLION

—almost 10 million men and

10.3 million women.

That’s

4.8PERCENT

of the U.S. population.

FALL 2017 35

WORKOUTS THAT WORK:HIKING If you’re anxious, overweight or dealing with aches and pains, take a hike.

That’s a bit tongue-in-cheek—your physician should check out any health concern you have, especially before starting a new exercise. But hiking does offer some of the best health benefits around.

3HEART: Physical activity such as hiking lowers blood pressure four to 10 points. This can reduce the risk of heart attack.

3WAISTLINE: Those who lose weight through hiking or walking are more likely to continue losing it—and keep it off—than those who lose weight through dieting.

3MIND: Endorphins and adrenaline released by walking decrease tension and lift spirits.

3BONES: Hiking and walking slow the rate of bone loss, which begins as early as age 30 in women and accelerates rapidly after menopause.

THIS JUST INGOOD-FOR-YOU NEWS, CUES AND REVIEWS

PHO

TOS BY TH

INKSTO

CK

SAYING ‘I DO’ MAY ENHANCE RECOVERY FROM STROKEHappily married couples know the art of surviving whatever life throws at them. That might include stroke, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The study found that those in a stable marriage who had never been divorced or widowed had better odds of stroke sur-vival. Furthermore, of the more than 2,000 adults studied who experienced a stroke between 1992 and 2010, stroke mortality was 71 percent greater for adults who had never married than for adults who were continuously married.

DOWNLOAD

Stay Alert for Stroke Signs How can you recognize the sudden warning signs of stroke? Visit stroke.org and click “Stroke Resources” and then “Decision Aids” to download a wallet card with quick tips on how to identify a stroke.

FALL 201736

IMMUNOTHERAPY This is a type of treat-ment that harnesses your own immune system to fi ght disease, commonly used for cancer and asthma.

JARGON WATCH

GRILL GUIDANCE If you haven’t heard about possible dangers of eating a diet high in grilled and smoked meats, it may be time to turn up the heat on this issue.

Research has previously suggested that meats cooked at high tempera-tures might increase breast cancer risk due to the formation of potentially cancer-causing chemicals. Now, a recent study suggests barbecued, grilled or smoked meats may also lower survival after breast cancer.

The American Cancer Society recommends these precautionary steps:• Choose lean meats.• Trim excess fat.• Avoid charring meats or eating burned or black portions of meat.

WHAT ARE THE ODDSof having a

second episode of depression?

1 in 2. If you’ve had one bout of depression, you

have a 50 percent chance of having another one,

according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Make sure you’re monitoring your

mental health with a professional if you’ve dealt with depression,

even if you feel better now.

FALL 2017 37

THE TRUTH BY JENNIFER SMITH PH

OTO

BY GETTY/E+

Thank goodness for good friends

as we age.

THE TRUTH ABOUT

FEMALE LONGEVITYAnyone who has visited a retirement home knows it: Women live longer than men. The reasons why are not as obvious

Women: They outlive, they outlast. Globally, women have an average life expectancy that’s about 4.6 years longer than men’s. And they live longer than men in every coun-

try in the world. It’s been known for years, but scientists still are try-ing to figure out exactly why it is. Here, Hiram Beltran-Sanchez, PhD, a researcher who focuses on demographics and health, helps us sort out what we know and have recently come to understand about female longevity.

TRUE OR FALSE:Women have always had longer life spans than men.

FALSE. Beltran-Sanchez used data back to the 1700s to examine the life-span disparity and found that women began to live longer than men beginning in the 1800s.

“We tend to think this is something that has been happening throughout our history, but [it wasn’t] until we looked at this data that we realized that it’s fairly recent.”

Researchers found that in the late 1800s, men began dying of heart dis-ease (and stroke) at a greater rate as female death rates decreased.

FALL 201738

TRUE OR FALSE: Men die sooner because they engage in riskier behavior.

TRUE. When it comes to diet and smoking, men historically have been bigger risk takers. That puts them at greater risk of deadly lung and heart diseases. But that’s been less true in modern times, when women began adopting those risks, too.

“Smoking, early on in the 1900s, was mainly a male hobby,” Beltran-Sanchez says. “That changed in the 1950s or ’60s.” That said, men are still more likely to smoke than women; nearly 17 in 100 American men smoke, while nearly 14 in 100 American women do.

TRUE OR FALSE:Biological differences put women at an advantage.

COULD BE TRUE. Heart disease historically has lowered survival rates for men. That’s because men are more vulnerable to cardiovascular damage and women are more resistant, Beltran-Sanchez says. Scientists are still looking for a clear-cut reason for this advantage, though cholesterol plays a role. Studies have shown that before women reach menopause, estrogen increases good cholesterol and decreases so-called bad cholesterol.

TRUE OR FALSE:Women live longer because of hormonal differences.

MAYBE. Some scientists hypothe-size that estrogen helps lower mortality rates up until menopause. Mortality rates among women do rise more

sharply after menopause, but they don’t keep pace with mortality rates of men. Beltran-Sanchez says that although researchers are exploring this, the link hasn’t been proved.

TRUE OR FALSE:Longevity is increasing for men, too, and the life-span difference between men and women is narrowing.

TRUE. “Women are doing worse; now it looks like men and women are catching up,” Beltran-Sanchez says.

Men still are more likely to die at younger ages. But because behavior differences between men and women aren’t as severe anymore—women are taking risks, too— their average life spans also will look more similar. This is especially true for white women, for whom life expectancy is going down.

(Researchers think it’s driven in part by rising suicide rates, alcohol and drug poisonings, and liver disease.)

“Things are changing so much,” Beltran-Sanchez says, “I’m not sure how much longer we’re going to keep seeing this large female advantage.” �

FALL 2017 39

LIVING IT UP OK, ladies. Want to keep your longevity edge over men? Board-certified gyne-cologist Eve Ashby, DO, of Beaufort Memorial Lowcountry Medical Group, says one of the most important things you can do is get your ZZZs.

When you’re up all night worrying about work, your level of the stress hor-mone cortisol stays elevated, disrupting your immune function. Inadequate sleep has been associated with obesity, diabetes, stroke, heart disease and cancer.

“Get away from your snoring husband and the dog on the bed if they’re keeping you up at night,” Ashby says. “And don’t drink wine or alcohol with dinner. It has a sedative effect for five hours and then your body reactivates.”

If you’re taking all the right steps and you still aren’t getting the recom-mended seven to eight hours of sleep a night, you may need a sleep aid.

In addition to sleeping well, you can boost your longevity by doing exercises like yoga and Pilates that help you maintain your flexibility.

“One of the most common reasons women end up in nursing homes is hip fractures,” Ashby says. “If you’re flexible, you’re less likely to break a bone.”

WEBSITE

Catching Health Issues Early If you’re a woman hitting the half-century mark, it may be time for some testing. Go to bmhsc.org/4at50 to learn the four screenings all women should have at age 50.

HOW TO BY STEPHANIE THURROTT

HOW TO

AVOID AN EMERGENCYAccidents happen. But not all of them have to. Here’s how to steer clear of common causes of emergency department visits

Take it from an expert: While there’s always the chance that the

unforeseen might happen, plenty of emergencies are avoidable. Roneet Lev, MD, an emergency medicine physician and the president of the Independent Emergency Physicians Consortium, sees common circumstances in many emergency department visits. She offers steps to help keep you and your family safe.

Watch little onesMost parents are vigilant

about childproofing the house with their first baby. But often, the sec-ond baby is mobile around the time

PHO

TO BY TH

INKSTO

CK

Be prepared, not worried.

FALL 201740

the first is playing with Legos, count-ing coins or coloring with crayons, and younger siblings can end up with little objects in their mouths, ears or noses. “I saw a little girl whose brother had a seed and he dared her to put it in her ear,” Lev says. “It got stuck, and it was quite a fiasco to get it out.”

For older kids, make sure they’re wearing helmets and other pro-tective gear when biking, skating, skateboarding and skiing.

If you drink, do so in moderation

Everyone knows about the dan-gers of drinking and driving. But alcohol can lead to other risks besides vehicle crashes. Lev sees injuries in people who have fallen and hurt themselves or gotten into fights when under the influence. And binge drinking can lead to alcohol poisoning.

Lev recommends talking to your teenage children about the dangers of drinking too much. “I work in a hospital surrounded by colleges, and every Saturday night I see girls and guys, well-dressed, completely unconscious, with vomit in their hair. They’re a total mess,” Lev says. “They went out to have a good time and ended up being miserable.”

Be careful at work

Two professions are especially dan-gerous when it comes to sending workers to the emergency depart-ment, Lev says: food service and healthcare. Food service workers risk lacerations from knives and broken glasses. “Stemware is prone

to breaking in the dishwasher or sink, causing cuts on the fingers,” she says.

Healthcare professionals need to be careful when lifting or moving people, because that’s a common cause of back strain. And they should follow protocol for handling needles at all times, as needle stick injuries happen frequently.

Mind your medications

Maybe you see your internist for your overall healthcare, an ortho-pedic specialist for a sports injury and a psychiatrist for anxiety. They might all give you different medica-tions, and “those medications might not work together,” Lev says. “You want to make sure they don’t cause interactions.” Drug interactions can create excessive sedation, weakness and dizziness; in some cases, they are life-threatening.

Lev recommends using your cell-phone to keep a list or a photo of your medications so you always have it at hand.

Take your timeOften, people end up in

the emergency department when rushing leads to a fall. (Falling is especially dangerous if you’re on blood thinners, because you may bleed too much, including inside your body. “If you fall and hit your head, even if you think it’s insignificant, you should be evaluated,” Lev says.)

It can be hard to slow down and take care when life is hectic, but it’s worth the effort. That’s especially true of driving, when being hurried or distracted can be fatal. �

FALL 2017 41

GO, EVEN THOUGH IT’S A PAINPeople tend to deny or downplay symptoms of two leading killers in the United States—heart attack and stroke—instead of getting the care they need. It’s natural to worry about the time and expense involved with going to the emergency department. But is it worth risking your life?

Beaufort Memorial board-certified emergency medicine specialist Luke Baxley, MD, recommends going to the ER if you’re having severe chest pain and any one of the following heart attack symptoms:

• Lightheadedness• Vomiting• Shortness of breath • Profuse sweatingCall an ambulance, Baxley says, if

you show any signs of a stroke, includ-ing slurred speech, a facial droop or severe weakness in the arms or legs.

WEBSITE

More Ways to Stay SafeThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers more tips for avoiding injuries, from hav-ing your vision checked to staying in the crosswalks. Visit cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety.

QUIZ BY STEPHANIE THURROTT

Yet again, you forgot to lift with your knees.

Just about everyone deals with back pain from time to time, whether it’s feeling a twinge with a twist or overdoing it with a

lift. But how do you distinguish pain that will ease on its own from pain that requires a doctor?

Some symptoms are signs that you might need treat-ment, says Nathan Wei, MD, a fellow of the American College of Physicians and of the American College of Rheumatology. He helps us assess back pain scenarios.

PHO

TO BY G

LOW

IMAG

ES

FREAK OUT OR CHILL OUT?Ow! Your back! Should you reach for an ice pack or get medical attention?

FALL 201742

VIDEO

Stop Back Pain Before It StartsCore-strengthening exercises can help prevent painful back injuries—but only if you do them correctly. Watch videos and learn the proper form for these and other exercises at cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/videos.

Q Your home run led to your soft-ball team’s victory last weekend, but you’re still sore and stiff two

days later.Is it: Muscle strain or a muscle tear?

PROBABLY MUSCLE STRAIN. Wei says you can experience general stiff-ness and soreness for 24 to 48 hours after overexertion. “It can range from mild to excruciating if you’ve really done a number on your muscles,” he says. He recommends over-the-counter anti-inflammatories, ice and rest.

If the pain lasts longer than 72 hours, you might want to contact your doctor to see whether you’ve torn a muscle. Muscle tears could require physical ther-apy, massage, chiropractic treatment, cryotherapy or heat treatment.

Q You’re youngish—only 40!—but when you wake up in the morning, your back is stiff.

Once you get moving and take a shower, it feels more flexible. Is it: Arthritis or something more serious?

PROBABLY ARTHRITIS. “Around age 40 is when you can begin to deal with degenerative diseases like osteoarthri-tis in your lower back,” Wei says. With arthritis, the stiffness eases within 15 to 30 minutes on its own, or with ice, moist heat or an occasional over-the-counter pain reliever.

If it’s getting worse in duration or intensity, or if you’re younger than 40, especially if you’re male, you might be showing signs of a condition called anky-losing spondylitis, a type of arthritis that targets the spine. In that case, see your doctor. Medication and physical therapy could help.

Q Cleaning up after dinner, you pivoted and bent down to place a spoon in the dishwasher. Pain

shot through your back and down your leg. Over-the-counter pain relief helped, but you’re still feeling it.Is it: Muscle strain or sciatica?

SCIATICA. Sciatica can strike after a relatively simple motion, especially if you’re approaching middle age or older. If the pain starts in your back and travels down your leg, that’s usu-ally a sign of nerve pain, or sciatica. You can treat it at home with rest, ice, and over-the-counter pain relievers or anti-inflammatories. If the pain doesn’t dis-sipate in two to three days, or if it gets worse, see your doctor. Any bladder or bowel incontinence could mean that your spinal cord is compressed, which is an emergency and requires treatment right away.

Q You’re running a fever, battling chills and aching all over—especially in your lower back.

Is it: Flu or a kidney condition?

COULD BE A KIDNEY STONE OR KIDNEY INFECTION. You should see your doctor, as it can be difficult to separate flu symptoms from those

stemming from a kidney stone or infection. “If the fever remains high and pain in the back becomes more intense, that is a warning sign,” Wei says. Kidney stones might need medi-cation, treatment to break them up or surgery. Kidney infections usually require intravenous antibiotics.

Q You’re a woman who has experienced menopause and suddenly you feel excruciating

pain in your midback.Is it: Osteoporosis or cancer?

MORE LIKELY OSTEOPOROSIS, BUT GET HELP. Whether it’s osteo-porosis or cancer, you’re probably experiencing a compression fracture, a vertebral break that occurs when the bones are weak and fragile rather than from trauma. A compression fracture is a medical emergency. If it’s osteoporo-sis, cement injections can help expand the collapsed vertebrae, ease your pain and help you maintain your posture and avoid a hunched appearance. You may also need a bone density scan and medi-cation to help build your bone strength. If it’s not osteoporosis, it could be a type of cancer called multiple myeloma, which is more likely if you’ve had lung or breast cancer. n

FALL 2017 43

AT A GLANCE BY JEANNIE NUSS

SURGICAL SPECIALTIES A look at some of the types of surgery performed today

Ever have someone tell you he’s having surgery soon? If he doesn’t off er any details—and, of course, it’s rude to ask—you really have no idea what’s going to happen in

the operating room. After all, we use the term “surgery” to mean so many procedures.

The American College of Surgeons recognizes 14 surgical specialties:

• Colon and rectal surgery• General surgery• Gynecologic oncology• Neurologic surgery• Obstetric and gynecologic

surgery• Ophthalmic surgery• Oral and maxillofacial surgery

• Orthopedic surgery• Otolaryngologic surgery• Pediatric surgery• Plastic and maxillofacial

surgery• Thoracic surgery• Urologic surgery• Vascular surgery

These specialties cover everything from heart surgery (part of thoracic surgery) to cataract surgery (part of ophthalmic surgery). And as technology has transformed medicine over the past century, many of the specialties now include additional subspecialties, says Frank Lewis, MD, executive director of the American Board of Surgery.

“The procedures that are common to a given specialty have gotten increasingly sophisticated over time, and the level of experience and training needed to perform them competently has gotten even more complicated,” Lewis says.

Read on to learn about some of the ways to operate.

WEBSITE

Surgery Glossary Learn more about the basics of surgery and fi nd a guide to surgical specialists at medlineplus.gov/surgery.html.

FALL 201744

GENERAL SURGERYGeneral surgeons are the jacks-of-all-trades of the surgical world. They take out gallbladders and appendixes. And they’re trained to handle medical conditions in most parts of the body, from the head and neck down to the feet (plus a lot of stuff in between, including the abdominal wall, skin, and gastrointestinal and vascular systems).

OTOLARYNGOLOGIC SURGERYThis mouthful of a specialty (pronounced oh-toe-lair-in-GOLL-oh-jee) focuses on the ears, nose and throat. Otolaryngologists tend to everything from hearing loss and chronic sinusitis to swallowing disorders and diseases aff ecting the throat and voice box.

ORTHOPEDIC SURGERYIf you break a bone and need surgery to repair it, you’ll probably see an orthopedic surgeon. These doctors focus on the musculo-skeletal system, which includes bones, joints and muscles. The fi eld also includes a number of special interest areas, including foot and ankle orthopedics, hand surgery, joint replacement, oncology, pediatric orthopedics, spine surgery, sports medicine and trauma surgery.

OPHTHALMIC SURGERYHaving serious eye problems? You’ll probably see an ophthalmolo-gist, a medical doctor who can perform eye surgery, treat eye and vision problems, and prescribe glasses and contacts. Optometrists, on the other hand, cannot perform surgery, although they can give vision tests and prescribe glasses, contacts and medicines for certain eye problems.

NEUROLOGIC SURGERYYou probably know that neurosurgeons work on the brain. But they also tend to a number of other areas, including disorders of the spinal cord, pituitary gland and vertebral column. �

ILLU

STRA

TIO

N B

Y TH

INKS

TOCK

FALL 2017 45

IN THE MARKET BY LEXI DWYER

The sturdy eggplant, which is technically a fruit but gets prepared

like a vegetable, is an excellent sub-stitute for meat and carbohydrates in many vegetarian, gluten-free and Paleo dishes. It also has plenty of nutrients that make it worth incorporating into anyone’s weekly meal plan, regardless of lifestyle.

Eggplant contains magnesium, manganese and vitamins B6, C and K, says Vandana Sheth, a registered dietitian nutritionist, certified dia-betes educator and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. It is also low in calories (20 per cup) but, as Sheth says, “very satiating” because of its high fiber content. A study in the journal Toxicology reported that eggplant’s high levels of nasunin, a plant-based chemical, may help regulate blood flow in the brain. Deep-fried eggplant Parmesan might be this purple fruit’s claim to fame, but there are healthier options for the home cook as well. Here are three worthy suggestions.

2 MAKE TINY “PIZZAS” Have kids who love pizza? This lighter, Italian-style

recipe might just persuade them to try eggplant. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and slice a large eggplant into uniform rounds, about ¼ to ½ inch thick (one large eggplant should yield 10 to 12 slices). Arrange slices on a baking sheet coated with nonstick olive oil spray and drizzle with olive oil. Top with cheese and additional sliced vegetables such as tomatoes (if desired). Bake for 30 minutes or until cheese starts to brown, then broil on high for 5 minutes.

THREE WAYS TO COOK

EGGPLANTNutritious and distinctly flavorful, this glossy nightshade is suitable for more than heavy Italian dishes

PHO

TO BY TH

INKSTO

CK

1�GRILL ITSlice a large eggplant into rounds and brush one

side with olive oil. Grill slices, oiled side down, over a medium-hot charcoal fire or on a gas grill set to medium. After 5 to 7 minutes (you should see grill marks form-ing), brush the top side with oil, flip and grill for another 5 to 7 minutes. Allow eggplant to cool, and dice it into chunks. Grilled eggplant can be added to pasta sauce, salad or omelets.

3 ROLL IT UP Slice a large eggplant into ¼-inch lengthwise strips.

Salt slices and brush them with olive oil. In a sauté pan over high heat, sear for about 1 minute per side (the slices should soften but not fall apart). Remove from heat and place a tablespoon of filling (such as crumbled feta cheese or grain salad) at one end before rolling up and serving. Rolled slices may be topped with cheese and a sauce (such as marinara) and baked in a shallow dish at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

FALL 201746

RECIPE

Eggplant GaloreVegetarian Times’ massive recipe data-base, vegetariantimes.com/recipes, includes classic Mediterranean-style eggplant dishes as well as preparations from Laos, Japan and other countries.

EGGPLANT EDTO SALT OR NOT TO SALT? To draw out

moisture, some cooks lay salted eggplant slices on paper towels (in a colander or pan) for 20 to 30 minutes before patting dry. This may help the eggplant absorb less oil during deep-frying, but this step isn’t necessary for most recipes.

HANDLE WITH CARE Although it feels firm, an eggplant lasts for only about five days in the refriger-ator. Look for ones that have bright green stems (indicating freshness) and smooth flesh that’s free of brown spots. Eggplant won’t freeze well unless it has been cooked down into a sauce or relish.

PUT DOWN THE PEELER Many of eggplant’s nutrients are found in the skin, which also provides extra fiber, so leave it on unless you’re making a dip.

AN EGGPLANT BY ANY OTHER NAME … It’s known as a brinjal in India, where it originated, aubergine in England and France, eggfruit in Australia, garden egg in West Africa and brown jolly (likely a variation on brinjal) in parts of the Caribbean.

GO BEYOND THE PURPLE The large, dark purple globe eggplant found in most grocery stores has a shape that works well for slicing into sturdy rounds. But smaller varieties include Thai (green and round) and Japanese (slender and light purple), both of which can be diced and used in curries and stir-fries.

Eggplant pizzas taste great and look cute, too.

FALL 2017 47

HEALTH BY THE NUMBERS BY ALLISON JARMANNING ILLU

STRATION

S BY THIN

KSTOCK

FALL 201748

States with the most hip and knee replacements:

CALIFORNIA, FLORIDA AND TEXAS

States with the fewesthip and knee replacements:

ALASKA AND HAWAIIMore than

7 million Americans have an artifi cial knee

(4.7 million) or hip (2.5 million).

1 million Americans have a hip or knee replaced each year.

90%of knee replacement

patients experi-ence dramatically

decreased pain along with considerable

improvement in their ability to perform daily activities.

50%of Americans older

than 60 are aff ected by arthritis of the knee.

JOINT IMPROVEMENTS

Sources: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons; National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

is the minimum expected life span for new joints; some make it longer. 10 –15 YEARS

NEWER METHODS FOR A BETTER RECOVERYAs newer strategies help people decrease both pain and recovery time, knee replace-ment recovery has evolved. At the Beaufort Memorial Joint Replacement Center, phy-sicians are finding success using simple techniques and a combination of medica-tions, says board-certified orthopaedist Edward Blocker, MD, of Beaufort Memorial Orthopaedics Specialists.

Traditional pain management often relied on a patient-controlled pump to deliver medications, which could cause side effects such as vomiting, urinary retention and constipation.

Now, BMH physicians are injecting the joint during surgery with a three-drug cocktail known as REK. It includes numbing medicine,

a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory and epi-nephrine to reduce blood loss.

Another option is to inject the site with a slow-releasing numbing medicine that dissolves over three days, Blocker says.

Patients can also be given non-narcotic pain medications intravenously. To reduce swelling, the patient’s leg is elevated and an ice pack is placed around the joint.

“We’ve seen a dramatic reduction in pain,” Blocker says. “It’s now common for me to walk into a hospital room after surgery and find a comfortable, happy patient.”

With the new regimen, patients can begin rehabilitation on the day of sur-gery and often are able to go home two days afterward.

WEBSITE

Do You Have Aching Joints?Don’t let failing joints keep you from loving life. Beaufort Memorial Joint Replacement Center offers today’s most advanced orthopaedic procedures. To learn more, visit beaufortmemorial.org.

With its highly trained medical staff and state-of-the-art technology, the Beaufort Memorial Pratt Emergency Center remains at the forefront of emergency medicine

READYWhen You Need It

PHO

TO B

Y TH

INKS

TOCK

FALL 2017 49

No one likes to think about having to go to the ER. But when you slice open your

fi nger or experience crushing chest pain in the middle of the night, you want to know there’s a team of highly experi-enced healthcare providers nearby ready to treat your medical emergency.

“No matter their plight, people have the expectation they’ll receive excel-lent care in the ED,” says Kevin Kremer, director of the Beaufort Memorial Hospital Pratt Emergency Center. “To be able to handle the gamut of issues we see requires an incredible amount of training and education.”

Some 56,000 patients will be treated this year in the hospital’s emergency department. Caring for them is a staff of 11 board-certifi ed physicians—eight specializing in emergency medicine, two in pediatrics and one in family medicine.

They’re aided by a team of physi-cian assistants and nurses certifi ed in advanced cardiac life support, advanced pediatric life support and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale. A number of the RNs have also received

training in advanced stroke, burn and trauma life support.

“I’ve seen these people do amazing things,” Kremer says. “One day, we may have a doctor opening a patient’s chest and performing cardiac massage. The next day, we’re delivering a baby in a car in the ED’s carport.”

On the Cutting Edge of CareIn the past fi ve years, the number of patients treated in the hospital’s emer-gency department has increased more than 27 percent. On average, about 155 patients are seen each day.

To meet the growing demand for emergency services, the ED was reno-vated and expanded in 2013, doubling its size to 20,500 square feet. Treatment space was increased to accommodate up to 40 patients. Most days, it stays full.

As part of the renovation project, BMH also invested in new medical equipment and technology designed to improve patient care. The ED now has the latest devices to open up airways, along with mobile units that allow staff

to perform lab testing and ultrasounds at the bedside, expediting results.

One of the most important advance-ments has been the introduction of telemedicine for stroke and pediatric care. Using a special cart equipped with an oversized computer screen and remotely adjustable video camera, BMH Emergency Department physicians are able to consult on a moment’s notice with specialists at Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Health in Charleston.

More than 99 percent of patients who come into Beaufort Memorial’s emergency department can be treated on-site. But should more advanced care be required, BMH can arrange for prompt transport by ambulance or helicopter to MUSC Health or another tertiary-care hospital, like the JMS Burn Centers in Augusta, Georgia. In those cases, Beaufort Memorial physicians coordinate with staff members at the receiving hospital to ensure they’re pre-pared to treat the patient immediately upon arrival.

Faster and Better CareRecognizing the importance of deliver-ing the right care quickly, the ED staff runs practice drills regularly, often with local fi rst responders and disas-ter preparedness managers. Evidence-based protocols have been established for virtually every kind of emergency, from those for patients requiring mas-sive transfusions to those for patients suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus.

BMH also has seized on advance-ments in information and commu-nication technology to speed up and improve emergency services.

Kevin Kremer in one of the emergency department’s two well-equipped trauma rooms.

FALL 201750

CRITICAL CARE SAVES THE LIFE OF YOUNG STROKE PATIENTIt started out like any other day for Stuart Voska. The 29-year-old Marine got up at6 a.m. and headed to the bathroom to take a shower.

“I felt a pop in my head and started to experience vertigo,” Voska says. “My equi-librium was messed up.”

Over the next several hours he lost hearing in his right ear, his right eye became extremely sensitive to light and he felt a tingling in his right arm and leg. By 1:30 p.m.,he was vomiting every few minutes. His wife, a postpartum nurse at Beaufort Memorial, called 911.

“When the ambulance arrived, I could still communicate and walk with help,” Voska recalls. “By the time we got to the hospital 10 minutes later, I was convulsing and couldn’t talk.”

As they rolled him into the trauma room, Voska began foaming at the mouth.“He had all the signs of a posterior circulation stroke, a very uncommon type of

stroke,” says Luke Baxley, MD, the emergency department physician who examined him. “He was neurologically devastated.”

A clot was blocking the blood supply to Voska’s brain stem and cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls muscular activity.

“I told his wife to prepare for the worst,” Baxley says. “I didn’t think he was going to make it.”

Baxley ordered a CT scan to determine if there was bleeding in the patient’s brain. As soon as he saw the images, he called a Stroke Alert, initiating a telemedicine con-sultation with a stroke expert from MUSC Health.

“The neurologist was waiting online when we got back from the CT scan,” Baxley says. “She confi rmed the diagnosis and told us to airlift him to MUSC immediately.”

While the helicopter was en route to Charleston, the MUSC neurointerventional team was prepping for surgery. Minutes after Voska arrived, the surgeon inserted a catheter in his femoral artery, ran it through his body to the back of his brain and sucked out the clot, restoring blood fl ow.

When he woke up a couple of hours later, Voska could speak and move his limbs. He was back to work the following week.

“I feel very blessed,” Voska says. “If Dr. Baxley had delayed getting me to MUSC just one or two minutes, I wouldn’t have made it. His quick thinking saved my life.”

WEBSITE

Online ED Check-inTo schedule an appointment time in Beaufort Memorial’s emergency department, visit beaufortmemorial.org and click the “Online Check-in” tab at the top of the page.

It typically takes about 30 minutes for patients with non-life-threatening conditions to be seen by a physician in Beaufort Memorial’s emergency department—the same average wait time experienced in most hospitals as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To reduce the time patients spend in the waiting room, BMH recently launched an online ED check-in service. You can reserve your spot in line using your computer or smartphone, allow-ing you to wait at home rather than in the ED. Should it become necessary to move your time, you’ll receive an elec-tronic notice.

The hospital is also pursuing several other initiatives to ensure the con-sistent delivery of high-quality care. BMH will be applying for The Joint Commission’s advanced certifi cation for the treatment of chest pain, as well as for a stroke certifi cation developed by The Joint Commission in collaboration with the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

In addition, the hospital is working to become a “senior friendly” program.

“The improvements we have seen in emergency medicine in the last fi ve years have been astonishing,” Kremer says. “It’s all to give patients quicker and better care.” �

FALL 2017 51

M uch as he looked forward to leav-ing Pennsylvania and retiring to Beaufort, 62-year-old Kip Leming worried he wouldn’t fi nd a doctor

experienced in treating an inherited chronic con-dition that puts him at high risk of heart attack, stroke and vascular disease.

Passed down in the genes of his parents, Leming has high lipoprotein(a), a type of cho-lesterol that can cause blood clots and plaque to build up in the arteries. Although 1 in 5 people has elevated Lp(a), most don’t know it because

For this active Beaufort retiree, partnering with a primary care physician is key to managing a chronic health condition

PRIMED FOR LIFE

Kip Leming is making the most of his retirement, taking classes,

fi shing and tinkering with his 102-year-old Ford Model T.

FALL 201752

it’s not measured in standard choles-terol screenings.

It wasn’t until Leming had a heart attack at age 50 that he discovered he had the genetic disorder.

Active and fi t, Leming had none ofthe common risk factors for coronary heart disease. With his cholesterol level and blood pressure normal, his primary care physician suspected the culprit was high Lp(a).

CONTROLLING A CHRONIC CONDITION

A simple blood test confi rmed the diag-nosis. Leming’s Lp(a) was 300 milli-grams per deciliter—more than 10 times the normal level.

His primary care physician referred him to a lipid disorders specialist at the University of Pennsylvania. Leming was put on Plavix to prevent blood clots and Niaspan to lower his Lp(a). On the pre-scribed drug regimen, his lipoprotein(a) dropped to 150 mg/dL.

But the condition would require aggressive management to prevent another heart attack.

When Leming retired in 2016 after 30 years as an auto shop foreman and

moved south, he had doubts he’d be able to fi nd a doctor in Beaufort who was knowledgeable about high Lp(a) and the treatment required to control it.

That was until he met Robert Vyge, MD, at Beaufort Memorial Lady’s Island Internal Medicine.

THE NECESSARY KNOW-HOW“Not only does Dr. Vyge know

about Lp(a), he studied it early in his career,” Leming says. “Having him as my doctor really put my mind at ease that my wife and I had made the right choice to move to Beaufort.”

A board-certifi ed internist, Vyge has a particular interest in treating patients with chronic conditions, where improve-ment often comes incrementally and over time. Such is the case with coro-nary artery disease.

“One in three patients I see is on statins,” Vyge says. “The goal is to get their HDL (good cholesterol) to 60 or higher and their LDL (bad cholesterol) below 100.”

In addition to prescribing cholesterol-lowering drugs, Vyge encourages his patients to make lifestyle changes that can improve their overall cardiovascular

health. He recommends exercising 30 to 60 minutes a day, eating lots of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and limit-ing sweets and foods high in trans fats.

STEPS TO GOOD HEALTH With Lp(a), it’s especially

important to monitor lipid levels regu-larly and make changes in medications as needed.

“There’s no drug available today to specifi cally lower Lp(a),” Vyge says. “But promising new drugs are coming on the market.”

In the meantime, Leming is mak-ing the most of his retirement. He took classes at the Technical College of the Lowcountry to earn his real estate license and is now working on his resi-dential electrician’s certifi cate.

He enjoys riding his Harley around town and bought a small motorboat for fi shing. Formerly a bass player in a hard-rock band, he has plans to put together a garage band.

And when he has nothing else to do, he likes to tinker with his 102-year-old Ford Model T.

“I’m always doing something,” he says. “I just keep moving.” �

UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHOLESTEROL NUMBERSHigh cholesterol is one of the primary risk factors for heart disease. But it’s not just your total cholesterol level you need to keep in check. Here’s a breakdown on the numbers in a complete cholesterol screening:

3Total cholesterol—It provides an estimate of your risk for heart disease. Less than 200 is a healthy number.

3HDL—This “good” cholesterol helps remove excess cholesterol from your coronary arteries. Aim for 60 and above.

3LDL—It’s known as the “bad” cholesterol because too much of it can lead to block-ages in your arteries. Should be less than 100.

3Triglycerides—High levels of this lipid can raise your risk of heart disease. Should be less than 150.

The American Heart Association recommends having your cholesterol measured every four to six years starting at age 20.

WEBSITE

Need a Primary Care Doctor?Beaufort Memorial Hospital has primary care practices in Beaufort and Bluff ton and on Lady’s Island. To fi nd a primary care physician, visit our website at beaufortmemorial.org.

FALL 2017 53

FOUNDATION-BUILDING

During her 21 years as administrative assistant to Beaufort Memorial Hospital pathologist and lab director

Brad Collins, MD, Sue Fillmore has seen countless tissue samples and pathology reports. But noth-ing prepared her for the day in July 2015 when she learned the results of her own biopsy.

Her breast tissue sample was positive for cancer, though not just any cancer: The sample revealed a mutation local pathologists had not previously encountered.

Doctors and staff were quick to research the mutation, provide answers and discuss treatment options. Genetic counseling helped Sue determine the best plan of care.

“The staff was outstanding,” she recalls, look-ing back on her cancer journey. “They respected my privacy, kept me informed about what to expect with each stage of treatment, and were always there to listen when I was having a bad

YOU CAN COUNT ON ‘MS. DEPENDABLE’ Longtime BMH employee and Foundation supporter now has a more personal reason to give

FALL 201754

Treatment at BMH helped Sue Fillmore beat cancer, allowing her time to enjoy her twin grandchildren.

GIVE

A Multitude of Ways to Give To support Beaufort Memorial Foundation, call 843-522-5774 or visit the Foundation page at beaufortmemorial.org.

day. Their encouragement and profes-sionalism were such a comfort.”

Also comforting were the concern and support of her co-workers, who even threw a party to celebrate her last can-cer treatment.

From the day of diagnosis on, Sue never stopped working, and that helped, too.

Her daughter’s wedding was coming up a few weeks after her treatment, and Sue is grateful that she was diagnosed and treated in time to take part in and enjoy the ceremony to the fullest.

As a longtime supporter of the BMH Foundation, she helped to make Keyserling Cancer Center a reality, fur-nish the lab and purchase imaging equip-ment used to diagnose her disease. She’s grateful for that equipment as well. “Without Beaufort Memorial’s 3-D mammography technology, my cancer might have been missed and would have been much more advanced before it was found,” she says.

“Sue should be named ‘Ms. Dependable,’�” says Alice Moss, the Foundation’s executive director. “She has volunteered at 15 Valentine Balls and at least 10 Duke Symphony Orchestra concerts, and she’s played a leadership role with the Foundation Employee Giving Committee. She’s always ready to promote blood drives or help organize a BMH team for a health charity event. You name it, Sue is the dependable one, but not only in her actions. She has also been very generous in her personal giving to the Foundation.”

A supporter at the Milestone Club giving level, Sue was honored with the Foundation board’s 2011 Spirit of Giving

Award for her eff orts to promote philanthropy at Beaufort Memorial.

Sue now sees BMH through new eyes: those of a cancer patient. She knows that her future has been forever changed by “her” hospital.

“Because of Beaufort Memorial, I have a job I love, but also I have the health I need to enjoy time with my twin grand-children,” she says. “I am excited to say that I am cancer-free. I am a survivor.” �

FALL 2017 55

FOUNDATION-BUILDING

IT’S EASIER THAN YOU THINK With a legacy gift, you can continue to do good

Karen Peluso and Clint Campbell received the Spirit of Giving Award from BMH in 2014.

PLANT PH

OTO

BY THIN

KSTOCK

The late Clint Campbell and his wife, Karen Peluso, made sure their legacy would live on at Beaufort Memorial. Clint was a longtime BMH volunteer and Foundation supporter, a man who was continually doing something good for someone. Karen continues to volun-teer today, regularly helping behind the scenes in the Foundation offi ce. Together, they were committed donors to and advocates for their commu-nity hospital.

To perpetuate his giving, one day Clint named the BMH Foundation as benefi ciary of one of his retirement accounts. Little did he or Karen or their BMH friends know that Clint, who died last December, would live less than two years from that day. He is greatly missed, but Karen and other loved ones take comfort in knowing he contin-ues his support through his generous estate gift, which is now part of the Foundation’s Endowment Fund.

If you want the satisfaction of helping others now and in future generations, there is an opportunity for you to do so. Endowment and legacy gifts to con-sider include:

3Bequests: Give a specifi c amount or a percentage of your residual estate to Beaufort Memorial Hospital Foundation.

3Life income arrangements: Make a charitable gift and receive income for life.

3Benefi ciary designations: Name the BMH Foundation as benefi ciary of life insurance proceeds, retirement plans or other accounts.

3IRA charitable rollover: Individuals 70½ years or older may tap their IRA account tax-free to convey funds to the BMH Foundation.

3Gifts of cash or securities: Outright gifts of cash or appreciated stock can be directed to the BMHF Endowment Fund.

Consider a lasting legacy of your own to help Beaufort Memorial pur-sue its mission. Clint did. Call the BMH Foundation at 843-522-5774 to learn more.

The BMH Foundation encourages you to consult your professional advi-sors in all matters of fi nancial and estate planning. �

Do you dream of leaving a legacy, of making a lasting mark for the good of many?

Often, we fail to make that dream a real-ity: We wait for the day we have more time or more money or whatever we think will be the perfect occasion for setting our aff airs in order.

The truth is, you don’t need to wait for the perfect time. It’s easier than you think to make a lasting impact.

FALL 201756

The BMH Foundation gratefully acknowledges the following tribute gifts received between February 24 and April 30, 2017. To make a tribute gift, please call 843-522-5774 or visit the

BMH Foundation page at beaufortmemorial.org.

TRIBUTES

IN HONOR OF BMH Radiology Department Mr. Robert Steinmetz and Ms. Patricia AshtonMr. Harry E. Duncan

Ms. Tracy O. LovettMs. Dominique Fields

Mr. and Mrs. Michael SterculaMs. Kaylin Hampton

Mr. and Mrs. Michael SterculaMr. Rick Toomey

Dr. Mark Dean Mr. Hugh Gouldthorpe Terry Murray Mr. and Mrs. Gerald H. Schulze

Mr. Charles Holley Anonymous

Dr. Andrea Hucks Mr. Donald Nesbitt Ms. Elise Wiseman

Ms. Kerri Lewis Mr. Donald Nesbitt

Mr. Ron M. Lewis Palmetto Pulmonary Medicine, P.A.

Dr. Jeff ery Reuben Mr. and Mrs. Robert Rosenfeld

Spring Island Friends of BMH Mr. and Mrs. Tom Simons

Ms. Julie White Mr. and Mrs. Michael Stercula

IN MEMORY OFMrs. Patricia Foulger

Ms. Helen F. Aylmer Mr. Dennis Bailey BMH Medical Staff Dr. Majd Chahin Ms. Dawn Crawford Dr. Mark Dean Dr. Kurt Gambla Mr. Hugh Gouldthorpe Howell, Gibson & Hughes, P.A. Mr. and Mrs. Tad Martin Mr. and Mrs. Thomas McFadden Mr. Richard Morgan Terry Murray Mrs. Chris Nietert Dr. H. Timberlake Pearce Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Schulze Mr. Marlin Shughart

Mr. Robert Griffi th Mrs. Jane Griffi th

Mr. Robert Gunderson Mr. Christopher Gunderson

Mr. James McCornock Mr. and Mrs. James M. Fargher

Mr. Gene McCue Mr. and Mrs. William J. Tobin

Mr. Clint Campbell Photography Club of Beaufort

Mr. Clayton Rice Mr. and Mrs. William A. Collins, Jr.

Mrs. Jane Scher Mr. and Mrs. James M. Fargher

Beaufort Memorial is the only areahospital to receive the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for hip and knee replacement. We’ve been recognized for our exceptional outcomes and high patient satisfaction. To us, there’s no better feeling than helping our patients get back to the lives they love.

BEAUFORTMEMORIAL.ORG

ANOTHER GOLD STAR.