- Men's Health, Senior Care, Women's Health, PediatricsGeneral Page Tier 3BlogThere’s an easy fix for the muscle aches, high fevers, sore throats, stuffy noses and headaches the flu causes: it’s the flu shot. While the shot has been around for many years, some people still don’t take advantage of it and suffer nasty flu symptoms. Now because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, it’s especially important to make sure you get your flu shot because underlying conditions can increase your risk for infection. Vaccines are an effective way to protect you from other serious diseases, including the flu. READ MORE: Don’t neglect your immunizations during the pandemic There’s no question the flu shot is the best defense against the flu, but there’s a lot of confusing information out there. Here are five common myths about the flu vaccine explained. Looking for a primary care doctor? Our services focus on prevention and screening as well as treating illness. Find a primary care doctor today. Myth #1: The flu shot gives you the flu. You can’t get the flu from the flu shot. But it takes about two weeks for the shot to start working in your body, so you may still catch the flu after you have the shot. While most people feel fine after the shot, some may develop a mild fever or feel tired for a day or two. After you receive the shot, your body works to protect you against the virus, which can make you feel tired. Myth #2: The flu shot doesn’t work. Is it still possible to get the flu after you get the flu shot? Yes. Is it much less likely to happen? Yes. The flu shot is not 100 percent effective, but it does greatly lower your risk of getting the flu. There are many different types of the flu virus. The shot doesn’t protect you against all of them. Each year, the World Health Organization identifies three or four types to include in the flu shot. These are the types most likely to be spread for that year’s flu season. Myth #3: You don’t need the flu shot if you had it last year. Because the flu virus changes, your body needs the vaccine each year to protect you against each year’s most common flu type. Myth #4: If you’re a healthy, young adult, you don’t need the flu shot. The flu is most life-threatening for people age 50 and older, pregnant women, children under age 5 and people with a chronic medical condition. However, healthy adults can still become very sick, hospitalized or even die. Each year in the U.S., more than 200,000 people are hospitalized and about 36,000 people die from the flu. Myth #5: If you wash your hands, eat healthy and get lots of sleep, you can prevent the flu. These are all important and improve your overall health, but they can’t stop the flu. Germs in the air cause the flu, which means when a sick person coughs or sneezes, those germs in the air can make you sick. Each year, five to 20 percent of people in the U.S. get the flu. If you want to increase your chance of staying healthy this winter, the flu shot is an easy step to take. Minor discomfort from the shot is much better than a serious illness and the effects that can follow. Getting vaccinated will not only help keep you healthy, but prevent you from getting others sick as well. Author By Lauren Parmer, DO, a primary care physician at AAMG Pasadena Primary Care. She can be reached at 443-270-8600. Originally published Dec. 16, 2015. Last updated Sept. 25, 2020.
- News & Press ReleasesGeneral Page Tier 3BlogNational Preparedness Month is an annual government campaign that encourages everyone to plan for emergencies and disasters. Led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and sponsored by the Ready Campaign, this year’s theme is “Disasters Don’t Wait, Make Your Plan Today.” We know emergencies can happen at any moment. They can catch anyone off guard. But if we stay prepared with basic needs, we can minimize their impact. Here are some safety suggestions for you and your family: Learn about the different types of emergencies that could happen in your area, and how to respond. Make a household plan. Practice it, and update it regularly. Create an emergency kit. It should include flashlights, batteries, water, toilet paper, sanitary napkins, non-perishable foods for you and your pets, medication, cash, battery-powered radio and clothing. Keep copies of important documents in a safe place. Those include birth certificates, deeds and insurance forms. Sign up for alerts in your community. Now is also a good time to test and check the batteries in your home’s smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Visit ready.gov to learn more about how you and your loved ones can stay prepared.
- Physical TherapyGeneral Page Tier 3BlogFalls Prevention Awareness Week is Sept. 21-25. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: One in four Americans ages 65 and older falls each year. Every 11 seconds, an older adult receives treatment in the emergency room for a fall. Every 19 minutes, an older adult dies from a fall. Falls are the leading cause of fatal injury. They most common cause of nonfatal trauma-related hospital admissions among older adults. As we age, our homes provide new challenges and obstacles. These challenges and obstacles remain unseen until a problem arises. Our bodies also undergo subtle (or not so subtle) changes that create a fall risk. Even in our own home. Our homes are our castles and should be places that are safe and comfortable regardless of any physical limitations. Most people prefer to stay in their homes as they age, but are unsure of how to make changes if/when needed. When faced with mobility or cognitive changes or decline, the preference to stay at home may not remain realistic without adapting the current living environment. Here are some tips and tools to reduce the risk of falling at home and improve your ease of mobility. Clear walking pathways: Remove cords, papers, shoes, pet toys and laundry from your walking paths. Also, be aware of slippery surfaces and spills on the floor. Clean up or cover up a spill immediately. Beware of uneven surfaces in your home: Changes in flooring surfaces and sunken living areas that are not highly contrasted are easy to miss. You may fall and trip on these surfaces. Highlight steps with lighting or color striping. Work with a contractor to eliminate transition strips from carpet to tile. Even throw rugs, if not secured, are enough of an uneven surface to trip you. Add good lighting inside and outside your home: Dark hallways, poorly lit closets, stairs without lighting, doors to enter/exit the home and outside walkways without lighting increase your risk for falling. Home improvement stores have many lighting options to resolve this problem. Add supports in the bathroom: Consider adding grab bars next to your toilets as you enter or exit your shower. There are many fashionable options available at home improvement stores and various online vendors. Make your stairs safe: If you must navigate stairs to enter/exit your home or within your home, please use a well-installed railing for the full length of the stairs. It is best to install two railings if possible and have stairs carpeted. Stairs that are chipped, crumbling or with loose railings are risky. Please get these repaired. Organize frequently used items at home within your reach: Remember what your “strike zone” looked like playing baseball or softball? This is the zone you should store your most frequently used items. Getting up and down from the floor or using ladders in the home can prove difficult so, if you are unsteady, make these changes ASAP. Read the AARP HomeFit Guide: AARP has an online and printed edition guiding you on a room-by-room, area-by-area home inspection to identify fall risks and provide solutions for these risks. Visit the AARP website for details. At Anne Arundel Medical Center, we have a specialized fall prevention program. We send specially trained clinicians to your home to provide feedback on how to optimize the safety of your home while preserving the components that you love. Next, we recommend a follow-up appointment in our outpatient clinics. At our outpatient clinics, we provide intervention to minimize the risk of falls. All steps are designed so you return home with a program tailored to your specific needs to continue to maintain a lifestyle to lower your risk of falls. Our goal is to help our loved ones age in place. This allows them to live their life in the home they love. Author Marilyn Pfeiffer and Jennifer Buchanan are physical therapists at Anne Arundel Medical Group (AAMG) Physical Therapy.
- News & Press Releases, Women's Health, Infectious DiseaseGeneral Page Tier 3BlogToday’s uncertainties with COVID-19 likely raise additional concerns in your mind as you prepare for your labor and delivery. Know that we hear you and so many others who are faced with similar challenges. Here are some of the most frequent questions we are hearing. As you know, things are changing rapidly. Keep checking our website for up-to-date policies and procedures that may apply during your stay with us. We will continue to add to these questions as we work together to explore ways to make your experience a good one despite these extraordinary times. How will the COVID-19 restrictions affect my routine prenatal care? Right now, we advise pregnant mothers to keep their routine appointments. Should this need to change, your provider will notify you. You may receive a call from us before your appointment to screen for any symptoms and exposures or to check your travel history. We will provide advice around these questions and assess whether to have you come to the office or schedule a telehealth visit. Can a support person come with me to my prenatal appointments? We realize that someone may bring you to and from your appointments and we ask that only you come inside the office for your appointment. Please have your support person stay outside of our waiting areas. In our office settings, we want to be mindful of social distancing. More people in our waiting areas makes it difficult to follow social distancing guidelines. The safety of you and your family is our priority. How will COVID-19 restrictions change my birth plan? While every birth plan is different, some of the updates we announced may have an impact on visitation during your stay. Visitors are limited to one consistent support person throughout the duration of your labor, delivery and postpartum care. Rest assured that your support person can be with you in the delivery room and spend the night with you and your baby the entire time you are with us. This policy change protects you and your baby and protects the health and safety of our workforce. Caring for our frontline staff is a high priority so that they can continue to work to deliver our babies and care for our families now and in the weeks ahead. Will I be tested for COVID-19 before my delivery? If you are being admitted for delivery, we have universal COVID-19 testing procedures in place, documented here in English and Spanish. If I test positive, will my baby and I be separated after birth? We are no longer advising separation if the mother tests positive, based on new recommendations and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and others. You may choose to keep your baby in the room to maximize the benefits of direct newborn care. We ask that mom and baby stay spaced six feet apart and that mom wears a mask and practices good hand hygiene before breastfeeding or other direct newborn care. If you prefer, we can arrange to care for your baby in our NICU to reduce the risk of transmitting COVID-19 to your baby while in the hospital. If mom chooses temporary separation, we will gladly provide a hospital-grade breast pump for breastmilk expression during admission. Does my support person have to be the same person throughout my entire stay? If that initial person leaves, can someone else take their place as the one visitor? We ask that you have the same support person throughout your stay. This person should limit coming and going from the hospital to reduce the chances of exposure. Can my doula accompany me during my stay, along with my support person? Yes, we welcome doulas back into the hospital as part of your care team, along with one family member/support person. Your doula may be present with you through labor and delivery and postpartum. We do not consider doulas visitors. Rather, they are part of the care team. Attending doulas are not interchangeable with an additional family member/support person. One person may be present with patients delivering in an operating room. The support person selected to be present is the choice of the mother. In addition to our general health and safety guidelines around PPE use and hand hygiene, we also ask doulas to check in with the charge nurse upon entry to the unit and provide identification, a copy of their formal patient agreement and their doula certification. How long will these restrictions be in place? We cannot determine when we will lift restrictions until COVID-19 infection rates decline. There are many experts looking at our nation’s infection rates to understand when we might begin to experience a decline in COVID-19 cases. We will continue to do what is best to keep you, your baby and our staff safe. Our healthcare providers are ready with knowledge and support. They are resilient. They are not skipping a beat when it comes to caring for our patients and families safely. While these are extraordinary times, we are dedicated to continuing our compassionate care for new life, for our mothers, for our families and for each other. Originally published March 23, 2020. Last updated Sept. 22, 2020.
- Orthopedics, Senior CareGeneral Page Tier 3BlogRaking leaves is a chore many homeowners dread every fall. Not only is it hard work, it can also be a literal pain. The repetitive motions involved in raking can stress your body, leading to a musculoskeletal injury, or injuries that affect your ability to move. It can be especially risky for anyone who has a history of problems related to the heart, lungs, bones, joints or spine. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), doctors treated more than 42,000 raking-related injuries in 2014. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons says herniated discs in the neck or low back are common, as are muscle strains in the back, arms and legs. Most of these injuries are from poor technique or overdoing it – especially if you aren’t used to strenuous exercise. Follow these tips to help prevent injuries while raking leaves this fall: Use a comfortable rake. Wear sturdy, slip-resistant shoes. Stand up straight as you rake. Bend from your knees. Switch your arm and leg positions, trading sides every few minutes. Be careful on slippery, wet leaves. Lift only as much as you can comfortably carry. Don’t wrench or twist too severely. Go slowly. Take several breaks as you work. Stretch for 10 minutes after you’re done. If you’re using a leaf blower instead of a rake, check the equipment before you use it for the first time, and get any necessary repairs. You should also be careful if you’re planning to clean out your gutters this fall. There were more than 500,000 ladder-related injuries in 2014, the CPSC says. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons has these safety tips for gutter cleaning: Inspect the ladder for loose screws, hinges or rungs and clean off any mud or liquids. Place the ladder on a firm and level surface. Look out for spots that are soft or muddy. Follow the 1-to-4 rule. Keep the bottom of the ladder one foot away from the wall for every four feet that the ladder rises. Wear the right clothes and shoes. Avoid shoes with leather soles, because they can be slippery. Don’t wear pants with legs that are too wide or too long. Avoid using a ladder outside if it’s rainy, windy or there are other weather conditions that could increase the risk of slipping and falling. Stay in the center of the ladder as you climb up, and be careful not to lean too far to one side when you are working. By following these tips, you can help avoid injuries and accidents and make sure your fall season remains full of happy memories instead of painful ones.
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