Chronic Bladder Disorder
There are few telltale signs of what Shelly Gregory copes with on a daily basis. On closer observation, one may notice the odd way she holds the right side of her abdomen when she walks or the way she tilts her body to the side when she sits on a chair for too long.
To people around her, Gregory, a 35-year-old mother of two daughters, may pass as healthy. But only those in her inner circle, including her husband and children, truly understand the pain she has to endure.
“When I’m having a really bad day, it feels like there is glass in my bladder and it’s bleeding and there’s nothing I can do to stop it,” Gregory said. “It hurts so much that it makes me think that my heart is going to explode.”
Gregory is one of the more than 700,000 people in the U.S. – 90 percent of them women –who is battling interstitial cystitis, a chronic disorder characterized by inflammation of the bladder that causes urinary frequency and urgency and pelvic pain.
There has been relatively little advancement made on this condition since the first written reference to interstitial cystitis was made in 1836. More than a century later, there are still few clear answers to what causes this multifaceted disease or how to treat it effectively.
According to epidemiological studies conducted in 1997, the disease typically afflicts white, educated women in their early to mid-40s. The spectrum of symptom severity, however, can vary from person to person. Some people experience the urge to urinate (up to 70 times per day), while others endure bladder pressure or, in severe cases, unremitting bladder pain.
When doctors perform a cystoscopy – a procedure that involves inserting a thin scope inside the bladder – on certain interstitial cystitis patients they can see evidence of the disease: mucosal hemorrhaging or Hunner’s ulcers that bleed when the bladder is filled beyond capacity. People with IC have small capacity bladders that hold less than 300 ml, or approximately 1 cup.
Gregory said her bladder pain started in 1992 when she developed a blood clot after giving birth to her daughter. Five years later she found out that interstitial cystitis, not the blood clot, was the culprit.
Dr. Robert Moldwin, a national expert on interstitial cystitis and director of the Interstitial Cystitis Center at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Hyde Park, N.Y., said despite its prevalence, doctors often misdiagnose interstitial cystitis because patients can perceive pain in one or more areas of the pelvis.
- Mrs. Dawson wants the healthcare team to do everything they possibly can to save her husband and live at home with him. The health care providers are divided; some of the members believe that he will recover and some believe additional treatment is prolonging the inevitable and perhaps causing Mr. Dawson more suffering.
Urinary Tract Infection, also known as UTI, occurs in two common locations, the bladder and kidneys. The kidneys are important organs that aid in filtering out waste products from blood and maintaining water distribution throughout the body. The waste products are filtered out via bladder, which is the reason of the bladder being the second site for the infection. A normal human being has two kidneys, one on left and right side, a bean shaped organ, and is located at the back of the abdomen. “Each kidney is about 11.5 cm long, 5-7.5 cm broad, 5 cm thick, and weight about 150 grams” (HealthInfoNet, Paragraph 2). Furthermore, a bacterium named Escherichia coli lives in both the kidneys and the GI tract. E. coli is part of the human body and produces
John Rawls’ theory of justice is one of the most interesting philosophies to have emerged in modern times. It was introduced in the 1970s when A Theory of Justice was published. It was revised several times, with the most recent done in the year 1999. Essentially, the Rawlsian philosophy approaches justice according to the idea of fairness. The idea is that justice is a complex concept, and it could differ according to individual circumstance. Rawls contended that all of us are ignorant about ourselves and about others and, hence, we are not in a place - in such condition - to determine or apply the principles of justice. These positions allowed Rawls to address two contemporary issues that are equally important, but also tend oppose each other’s views: freedom and equality.
Dayson, D., Johnson-Sabine, E. & Reiss, D.(1992). Bulimia Nervosa: A 5-Year Follow-Up Study. Psychological Medicine, 22(4), 951-959.
Out of all mental illnesses found throughout the world, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate. Anorexia nervosa is one of the more common eating disorders found in society, along with bulimia nervosa. Despite having many definitions, anorexia nervosa is simply defined as the refusal to maintain a normal body weight (Michel, 2003). Anorexia nervosa is derived from two Latin words meaning “nervous inability to eat” (Frey, 2002). Although anorexics, those suffering from anorexia, have this “nervous inability to eat,” it does not mean that they do not have an appetite—anorexics literally starve themselves. They feel that they cannot trust or believe their perceptions of hunger and satiation (Abraham, 2008). Anorexics lose at least 15 percent of normal weight for height (Michel, 2003). This amount of weight loss is significant enough to cause malnutrition with impairment of normal bodily functions and rational thinking (Lucas, 2004). Anorexics have an unrealistic view of their bodies—they believe that they are overweight, even if the mirror and friends or family say otherwise. They often weigh themselves because they possess an irrational fear of gaining weight or becoming obese (Abraham, 2008). Many anorexics derive their own self-esteem and self-worth from body weight, size, and shape (“Body Image and Disordered Eating,” 2000). Obsession with becoming increasingly thinner and limiting food intake compromises the health of individuals suffering from anorexia. No matter the amount of weight they lose or how much their health is in jeopardy, anorexics will never be satisfied with their body and will continue to lose more weight.
As defined by the National Eating Disorders Association, “Anorexia Nervosa is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss.” (NEDA). The term “Anorexia Nervosa” literally means “neurotic loss of appetite”, and could be more generally defined as the result of a prolonged self-starvation and an unhealthy relationship regarding food and self-image. It is characterized by “resistance to maintaining body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height”, “intense fear of weight gain or being “fat”, even though underweight”, “disturbance in the experience of body weight or shape, undue influence of weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of low body weight”, and “loss of menstrual periods in girls and women post-puberty.”(NEDA) Among women on a range of 15 to 24 years old, AN has been proved to have 12 times the annual mortality rate of all death causes, and from premature deaths of anorexic patients, 1 in every 5 is caused by suicide, which gives a rise of 20% for suicide probability. (EDV)
Additionally, AN has the highest level of mortality among the psychiatric diseases and the continuing result of this morbidity is immensely detrimental for the person with the disorder along with their close family and friends (EDC, 2014). Eating disorders are factual, multifaceted, destructive, and overwhelming conditions that ultimately have serious consequences for the individual’s health, productivity, and their relationships (NEDA, 2014). The grave effects imposed on the families battling anorexia nervosa presents an essential need for successful treatment to aid in defeating the individual’s illness, receiving proper health care, and to have an overall improved life. This paper will analyze a case study involving an anorexic family and will determine what would be the best therapeutic intervention to reconstruct thi...
Anorexia nervosa usually begins in adolescence, but can develop at any time throughout one’s life. It...
In 1978, Brunch called anorexia nervosa a 'new disease' and noted that the condition seemed to overtake ?the daughters of the well-to-do, educated and successful families.? Today it is acknowledged and accepted that anorexia affects more than just one gender or socio-economic class; however, much of the current research is focused on the female gender. ?Anorexia nervosa is characterized by extreme dieting, intense fear of gaining weight, and obsessive exercising. The weight loss eventually produces a variety of physical symptoms associated with starvation: sleep disturbance, cessation of menstruation, insensitivity to pain, loss of hair on the head, low blood pressure, a variety of cardiovascular problems and reduced body temperature. Between 10% and 15% of anorexics literally starve themselves to death; others die because of some type of cardiovascular dysfunction (Bee and Boyd, 2001).?
Anorexia nervosa is a specific disorder defined in DSM IV. Several classifications must be met for a diagnosis of anorexia to be made. There must be a refusal by the patient to maintain a healthy body weight for their age and height. This behavior must eventually lead to a weight loss in which the body weight falls to less then 85% of the persons ideal body weight. Or the patient can refuse to gain any weight during periods of growth. In wome...
In “A Theory of Justice” we are confronted with the position of “justice as fairness” and Rawls’s argument toward a more just society where everyone has equal opportunity. However, Rawls has difficulty realizing in his argument that the modern liberal society, to which he is applying his principles are in fashion gender-structured. Rawls has taken this tradition of sexism for granted, and fails to consider how his theory of justice is to apply to women, and the ‘family’. In this essay I will critique John Rawls on gender and the family, I will look at aspects of Rawls’s theory, and the difficulties that arise in regard to gender and family, because of his ambiguous language, and why they must be corrected.
Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) Symptoms, Causes, Treatment - What is a urinary tract infection (UTI)? - MedicineNet. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2016, from http://www.medicinenet.com/urinary_tract_infection/page2.htm
Sue, 36, and Tom, 39, present for an initial consultation along with their two children-- Alice, 15, and Ted, 7. Sue does most of the talking, while Alice sits slumped in her chair with a sullen look on her face. Ted looks anxious and stays close to his mother. They have come because Sue is concerned about her children. Alice’s
The American Academy of Family Physicians. (June 2003). Anorexia nervosa. Retrieved April 18, 2005, from http://www.familydoctor.org/063.xml
Cystitis is the medical term for inflammation of the urinary bladder. Most of the time, the inflammation is caused by a bacterial infection, and it’s called a urinary tract infection. A bladder infection can be painful and annoying, and it can become a serious health problem if the infection spreads to your kidney.