This website invites you to converse with John Reginald Dykers Jr., M.D., who practices medicine in Chatham County, North Carolina, grew up in Jacksonville, Florida (where he played football and tennis at the Bolles School), graduated from Davidson College and then from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine.
After decades of practicing medicine, he's learned a few things. This site's main feature (below) is his blog, where John says what he thinks. He's willing to change his mind if you have a better argument. As he says, "Learning something new requires recognizing that what you used to know ain't so!"
In Fall 2009, John is concerned about health-care reform.
Click here to read the Medical Care Reinvention Act he wrote 10 years ago.
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| JRD in Santa Cruz |
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H1N1 Flu advice:
As the 2009 flu season nears, and children & young adults return to school, fewer of us will get the flu if we get adequate sleep and eat properly every day. Flu viruses can remain infectious on surfaces for hours after someone with droplets on their hands touches a doorknob or chair arm or stair railing. So wash hands & clean surfaces. Carry alcohol-based hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes.
Another key is to get flu vaccine EARLY. I ask my patients to come for a vaccination before Halloween. Remember: if you were vaccinated last year but got sick, you likely needed flu vaccine to boost your immune system. Since flu viruses mutate, we can't predict how serious this fall's flu will be. For now, most cases are handled by sufferers' immune systems. Although many U.S. residents (including kids at camp) got flu this summer, most got well. Their immune systems beat the virus.
Help yourself -- and everyone else-- if you get flu. If you feel ill, quickly take your temperature. If you have a fever, ISOLATE yourself. Stay away from other people until a FULL 24 hours AFTER your temp returns to normal. Diagnosis is easy: You have a fever (even a small one), muscles ache, you may have a headache and sore throat, perhaps diarrhea or vomiting (not everyone gets these last 2 symptoms). You probably sneeze and cough.
Don't take ibuprofen or Tylenol until you take your temp to determine if you have fever. DO NOT rush to a doctor or ER! That risks infecting others, including the doctor and nurses. STAY AWAY from family and friends. The virus is contagious. We have no cure. Vaccine is to prevent acquiring a virus. Vaccine is NOT a cure if you get a virus. The "cure" is time, sleep, liquids (lots of water and soup).
However, IF you have a hard time BREATHING, a fever of 103 or higher, or cough up yellow-green sputum, GO to a doctor. You may have treatable complications -- such as pneumonia or a bacterial sinus infection.
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All work here, unless otherwise noted, is original work by Dr. John R. Dykers Jr. All Rights Reserved. 2009.
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