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Eye surgeon leaves the choice of anesthesia up to the patient

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: I’m 78 years old and in pretty good health. I walk 3 miles four times a week, bike 8 miles once a week, and lift weights twice a week. Besides eye drops for glaucoma, the only medication I take is 20 mg of lovastatin each day. Due to corneal edema, I’ll be having a partial cornea transplant. My surgeon has asked me to decide which anesthesia I want: MAC or LMA. Can you explain the difference between them? Any advice or insights regarding these two forms of anesthesia would be helpful. — C.W.S. ANSWER: MAC is monitored anesthesia care, which is used with a regional ...

Truths and omissions as US hits $40 trillion in debt

Columns

The U.S. national debt just crossed the $40 trillion threshold, doubling in less than a decade. Washington politicians have responded with their favorite fiscal game: blaming the other party. Democrats say Republican tax cuts are the culprit. Republicans say Democratic spending is the root cause. But both parties are responsible, with both hiding behind a lie of omission. And if we let them, they’ll keep driving us into the same wall together. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) recently called Republican tax cuts “the single biggest driver” of the debt across the last 25 years. The ...

Never trust a politician

Columns

The woman in the grocery store checkout line had an accent. While we waited for our items to be rung up, I asked her where she was from. “Argentina,” she said. “Is the inflation rate in Argentina under 100 percent yet?” I asked. She smiled, “ That’s what the politicians say, but I never trust a politician.” I laughed. What a wise woman, I thought. That sentiment is getting around. I immediately thought of the American politicians who defended former representative and former candidate for California governor, Eric Swalwell (D-CA). Some background for those with ...

Reader maintains that gabapentin altered parents’ mental states

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: You have commented on gabapentin before. This seems to be a miracle drug that they’re giving out to everyone for everything. However, I’m absolutely convinced that this drug made both of my parents crazy. Both were given gabapentin in the hospital, and I absolutely felt that it altered their mental state. For the record, both were in their 80s and were hospitalized after falls. — K.W. ANSWER: Gabapentin (Neurontin and others) is frequently used for several conditions. It’s only indicated by the Food and Drug Administration for a particular type of seizures and ...

Great Gatsby gathering

Letters to the editor

Matthew R. Clark Lock Haven If you missed the Fox’s Market House Restaurant Great Gatsby Gathering cosponsored by the Clinton County Economic Partnership, we’ll pass along some fun facts! Did you know Fox’s serves as many as 500 people a day? We named the recent event a gathering because our prominent building was constructed in 1868 to operate a farmer’s market. The building, completed in only six months and dubbed as The Gathering Place, became a “hub” of activity in the city’s early days. Farmers from the area leased inside spaces to sell provisions. Here are a ...

Dear Annie: How and when to unpack your baggage

Columns

Dear Annie: I have now been married and divorced three times, with a total of over 37 years of married life. Though I doubt I will marry again at this stage of life, I would like to find a woman interested in a lasting, serious relationship. In trying online dating services, thus far I have found most women run the other way or quickly giving me the brush-off when I tell them, in the spirit of being honest and upfront, about my being divorced multiple times, plus having been estranged by my three daughters. In sharing these facts of my past, the two options both appear to be doomed to ...