Did you know that about 70% of people in the United States get eye cancer? Eye cancer mostly affects the outer part of the eye. It is uncommon for people to get the eye cancer every year. Having a friend with a type of eye cancer is hard. She loved to cheer and watch her brother play soccer but when she found out that she had a tumor behind one of her eyes, it was like the world had stopped. Through three surgeries and many doctors’ appointments over the summer, she was able to say that she was a survivor of cancer at the age of 17. She cheers for her high school and all-star team. She was told that she might not be able to see out of that eye ever again and might not be able to have the chance to cheer again. But as of today, she has 50% of her vision in the eye and can do little cheerleading to just get her back into the flow of things. She had to miss her first day of school this year due to being in the hospital but some of her friends came and checked on her after school let out and got “first day of school” pictures with her. Her survival rate is 85% especially because they caught the tumor before it was able to spread to her brain. She still must do radiation therapy to help keep the eye doing good but that doesn’t keep her from going and watching her brother play his high school senior soccer season. There could be a chance that a tumor could come back in either eye. There are 7 stages of the cancer and she was lucky to have the lowest stage.

Did you know that Alzheimer’s is one of the top ten causes of death in the United States? It is the 6th leading cause of death. 1 in 3 elderly die from Alzheimer’s every year, that more than any kind of cancer. My great-grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease. It was hard for the family because as days went on, she couldn’t remember most of us. We did everything to help her remember us and help her keep doing what she loved. She loved to cook and sit outside on the porch in her swing. Even though I was young when she passed away, I still have many memories of her. I would go over there with my mom after school and always sit on the swing and listen to my grandmothers’ stories and tell her about my day at school. I would sit in the living room with her and watch her sew. Her plan was to teach me how to sew when I had gotten older, but we never got around to it. Alzheimer’s can mostly be seen in people 60 years old and can get worse as they get older. Some signs of Alzheimer’s are: trouble talking, trouble handling money, difficult doing task at home, and not being able to remember who someone is or where they had misplaced something. People who have had family that had Alzheimer’s is at a greater risk at getting it than someone who doesn’t have family history. Every year in most states, there is an Alzheimer’s walk to raise money to hopefully end Alzheimer’s. Some ways that someone could get treated with Alzheimer’s are: taking medicine, therapy, or alternative treatments. The earliest that some could get Alzheimer’s is in their 40s. Even if someone might not know a person with Alzheimer’s, there is always some way to help the ones who do and many people help strangers just so they could maybe keep their loved ones around longer.

Did you know that depression is an illness? It is common but could be very serious for some. Depression can cause someone to lose lack of interest in many things. Having depression can keep people from doing what they love to do and keep them from hanging out with friends. People who have depression can have a crazy eating and sleeping schedule. Having depression can be bad because some may not know you deal with depression and think that you are just being rude, but you are depressed. Most people can be depressed when they lose one of their most important family members and then the family just floats apart. Some who have depression can end up doing suicide. I had a friend that was very active in sports and absolutely loved his niece and nephew. He was on my high school cheer team and was able to travel to Walt Disney World with us to compete for High School Nationals even though he had a torn ACL, but still competed. He was bullied at school and at sports practices, but we tried our best to do whatever to make sure nothing goes wrong. One day in March, something happened, and his sister and brother-in-law came home and found him. I can remember that day very well when I found out about it. They made all the cheerleaders meet at a coach’s house to grieve together and share memories. It felt like it was hard on me because my dad is a paramedic and he just so happened to be working that day. He said he recognized the boy but didn’t know where he knew him from until he happened to look at an envelope on the table. To this day we always have a one-year memorable for him. I keep in touch with his sister, niece, and nephews. His sister had found out she was pregnant just a couple days after he passed, so in memory of him his sister made the nephews have the first name of her brother as his middle name.

Gestational diabetes is a form of high blood sugar affecting pregnant woman so that is why having an insulin pump is important, so you don’t get major lows while being pregnant because that can be dangerous for both the mom and the baby. Gestational diabetes can be found by doing tests, which sometimes the results can be false the first time so the doctors can make you come back to take another test. Diabetes can last for months or years, even after you have had the baby. Gestational diabetes can be treated with a healthy diet and exercise along with pricking your finger at least four times a day. Out of 100 pregnant women, 3 to 5 have the disease. One way you may more than likely to get the disease is if you have a parent or sibling that has type 2 diabetes. With your body releasing hormones to help your baby grow, your body can have a hard time making or using insulin. Pregnant women can be affected by gestational diabetes when they have more than one pregnancy. They can get the disease in the third trimester which is 24 to 28 weeks. The baby can grow larger than normal in the mom’s stomach which can affect the mom by gaining weight. More than 200,000 women are affected every year in the United States. If gestational diabetes does not go away after pregnancy, then it can become type 2 diabetes and the mom can more than likely have it for the rest of her life. But getting tested 1 to 3 years after giving birth can help decrease the risk of getting type 2 diabetes. There are many steps that you can take while pregnant with gestational diabetes that can help keep you and the baby healthy and safe.

Various events can affect your diabetes. Illnesses will often cause blood sugar to go sky high requiring extra insulin and longer recovery times sometimes resulting in DKA, Diabetic Ketoacidosis, which is why it is strongly encouraged for diabetics to get yearly flu vaccinations and keep pneumonia vaccine up to date. Excitement can sometimes cause blood sugar to go low as can sudden emotional changes. Careful monitoring of glucose levels can lower chances of sudden spikes or dips in blood sugar. A new device called a CGM – continuous glucose monitoring is applied to your body and constantly checks blood sugar sending readings to an insulin pump notifying you of the need of insulin increase need or need to suspend insulin delivery for a short period of time. The sensor is inserted under the skin and it is connected to a transmitter. It can help people not prick their fingers anymore to get the blood sugar. You can swipe the patch with a wireless device. That can help for parents with kids who have diabetes at a very young age, the parents can swipe the device to be easier to read the blood sugar, so they would have to fight with pricking fingers and dealing with a pump. The pump can cost up to $1,200 before insurance. A CGM can notify you of an upcoming low or high blood pressure before it fully takes effect. There are three kinds of CGMs that people can choose from. The three CGMs are Minimed 670G insulin pump system (which my mom has), guardian connect smart CGM, and iPro 2 professional CGM. I have a friend that uses one of the CGMs and it has saved him from having a low or high during school or during cross country practice. The product can be helpful for type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Did you know that there are about 200,000 cerebral palsy cases every year in the United States? Cerebral palsy can be detected while in a mother’s womb and will not progress over time. The brain can be damaged and cause the body to lose muscle movement. As of right now, there is no known cure for it and that it can be lifelong. One of the symptoms can be seizures, which means the person can be in the hospital for weeks. One of my friends has cerebral palsy and he is in the 1st grade right now. Even though he has cerebral palsy, that doesn’t keep him from doing what he loves, which is playing the drums and talking like Elvis. For Halloween this year, his parents are going to connect his drums to his automatic wheelchair so he can play them while trick-or-treating. He and his family have been able to travel to Disney world together because of his make a wish and he absolutely loved it. He has a younger brother that is in kindergarten and he loves to ride on the back of the wheelchair with him and they are still able to play together. Every time I see him, he always puts a smile on my face. He loves to give fist bumps, so every time that you see him, he will lift his hand to give you a fist bump. Seeing him do a lot of stuff that you wouldn’t think he would be able to do gives me hope and know to never give up. During October there is a day just for cerebral palsy to raise awareness and to show people that cerebral palsy patient numbers are still rising. With medications and supportive treatments, one can be better and learn how to talk and be able to walk for a little at a time.

Did you know there are 11 types of childhood cancer? Only specially-trained doctors can treat them and help the family with the knowledge of cancer. The child will have a multi-people team of pediatric physicians and specialists. The 11 types of childhood cancer are: Bone cancer, Brain cancer, Leukemia, Hepatoblastoma (liver cancer), Lymphoma, Neuroblastoma, Rhabdomyosarcoma, Retinoblastoma, Rhabdoid tumors, Sarcoma, and kidney tumors. Childhood cancers are more aggressive than adult cancers because the child’s immune system is still building up. Cancer and accidents are the two most common causes of childhood deaths. Some of the symptoms of childhood cancer are: unusual lumps, unusual swelling, easy bruising, and loss of energy. The most common cancer in children is leukemia and the youngest diagnoses can be age 6. 1 in 5 children diagnosed with cancer will not survive and the survivors are always still fighting because the cancer can always come back and sometimes it can come back even worse than before. One of the girls that I used to watch had Leukemia and she was 2 years old diagnosed. Five years later and she is still a survivor but won’t be considered cured until December 2020. She is so sweet and when cancer hit her, she fought her hardest and had some bad days but had some good days also. The whole community was behind her and there were some fundraisers to raise money for anything they needed due to there also being 3 younger girls in the house. She won the little miss pageant at LaRue county fair the year she was told she was a survivor of cancer. Now she gets to do some stuff she didn’t get to before with her 3 sisters and her friends. September is childhood cancer month. The oldest age that children mostly die from cancer is 14-years-old. One of the major child cancer hospitals is St. Jude in Memphis, Tennessee. The family doesn’t have to pay for anything while their child is in the hospital. St. Jude pays for the travel, hotel, and food for the patient and patients parents.

Having a family member or yourself diagnosed with severe migraines is hard. Some of the ways someone can get a migraine are: smells, light, sound, and stress. Sometimes people can get migraines while at school or work due to the stress of all the work and the sound of a lot of people talking. I was diagnosed with migraines when I was five years old and one of the major effects for me was smell, bright lights, and loud noises because I was an all-star cheerleader. My migraines have been bad to where I couldn’t focus good in school or even be able to drive because the lights where to bright or the sun was too bright, even with sunglasses on. Along with school, doing two sports could be hard to handle because sometimes the migraines can be bad to where you can’t go to school or to the sports practice, so you miss out on anything they do. Some of the symptoms can be dizziness, numbness, distorted vision, nausea, and vomiting. The headaches can be between frequent and throbbing. Some ways that you can relieve a headache are: heating pads, hot showers/baths, taking Tylenol, and having a cold rag on your forehead. Having migraines can cause you to miss so much in life and not be able to do a lot of stuff that a kid, teen, or adult would do that doesn’t have migraines. Getting it treated early can help you realize what to do and try to stop one from happening. Sometimes when you go to get treatment, they can give you medication to help relieve the pain and help to prevent one. Two ways that can be useful to not get a migraine is getting enough sleep and trying to stay away from any stressful situations. Some people don’t realize the difference between a migraine and a headache. The difference is that migraines is a throbbing headache that affects one side of head and can cause nausea to the person and a headache is where the pain is in any part of the head and it can occur in one or both sides of the head. So sometimes when people say they have migraines, they really mean that they have a headache. Knowing the difference can be helpful when you are with someone and you can help them take the medication they need, transport them where they need to go, and help them not be so stressed and stay calm.

One type of cardiovascular disease is hypertension, also known as high blood pressure. More than 3 million Americans are diagnosed with high blood pressure per year; it affects 1 in 4 American adults most commonly over 40 years of age. Hypertension requires a medical diagnosis by a doctor either by lab work or routine blood pressure readings. Even though there are several different types of hypertension the most common type is essential hypertension; essential hypertension affects 95% of people with high blood pressure. There is no single identifiable cause for high blood pressure; high blood pressure occurs because of high salt intake, smoking, being overweight or obese, lack of physical activity, excessive alcohol consumption, stress and genetics. Most of the people are symptomless; but may experience frequent headaches, tiredness, dizziness, or nose bleeds. High blood pressure can last for a few years or a lifetime. High blood pressure makes the heart work too hard and if left untreated or uncontrolled, it makes the walls of the arteries hard. High blood pressure increases the risk of heart disease, heart failure, stroke, kidney disease and blindness. Going to regular appointments with your personal care physician or a specialist like a cardiologist and following their treatment regiment, like taking medicine, monitoring your diet, reducing your salt intake, quitting smoking, relaxing in order to reduce stress levels and doing normal physical exercise can help lessen the risk of high blood pressure. My dad has high blood pressure; it’s hard for him because with him being a paramedic, being in a fast pace work force, working three days in a roll, and maybe only having one day off a week. He takes regular blood pressure readings and sends to his cardiologist to assist in keeping his high blood pressure under control. In conclusion, though hypertension can be caused by family genetics, a change in lifestyle is just as important to control your high blood pressure.

Did you know that colon cancer is the #1 most curable cancer if caught early? There are many symptoms and signs of colon issues. My grandfather had colon cancer, but he ignores his symptoms until too late. The cancer had metastasized into his liver; pancreas; stomach; lung; bone; and brain. Metastasized is where cancer spreads to different parts of the body from where it began. By the time my grandfather agreed to start treatment, the cancer had already metastasized, so it was too late. Some of the symptoms of colon cancer are: pain in the abdomen, blood in stool, change in bowel habits, constipation, narrow stools, passing excessive amounts of gas, anemia, fatigue, abdominal discomfort, or weight loss (Simon). 1 in 5 people who get colon cancer also had a family member that had it also. If people get screened for cancer, then that could help them get it treated early enough. Some treatments that can help could be a colonoscopy along with surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy. 9 out of 10 people who catch the cancer early and get treatment survive 5 more years so with the average risk age starting at 45, they could live until they are 50 or older if treated correctly. Sometimes the symptoms can show up after the cancer has already moved throughout the body.

My grandfather actually knew he more than likely had the cancer, but he didn’t want to tell the family to hurt us. We noticed that something was wrong when on the cruise fall break 2016, his room was as hot as a sauna, didn’t come to dinner the last two night, and he didn’t come to my house for Christmas dinner and he is always there. He passed away in January 2017, I didn’t go to school for two weeks because he was my best friend, we did everything together but the one thing we hadn’t gotten to do yet was to go to the tractor pull and go to some more horse shows. My advice to people is that if you know someone that is having the symptoms or have family history, force then to go get a scan done, better now than never.