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Man seeks a new treatment for a case of an overactive bladder

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am in relatively good health for an 82-year-old male. For the past six years, I have been having trouble with an overactive bladder. I need to urinate at least every two hours. Often there is a sudden urge, and I can barely make it to the bathroom. In the morning when I wake up, I generally have to urinate in small amounts two or three times during the first hour of waking up, even though I had to go at least three times during the night. It could probably due to the pills wearing out. My family doctor started me on oxybutynin. This did not work, so a urologist ...

Both sides now: The cons and pros of ‘Operation Epic Fury’

Columns

A young lawyer once asked an old Washington hand what to expect when he went down to work for a U.S. Senate committee. The old hand, who’d worked in the Capitol for years, reflected. “Here’s the thing, son,” he replied. “Things ain’t all on the level down here.” The point was reconfirmed last week, after the Trump administration launched a military campaign against the Iranian regime in conjunction with Israel, which America dubbed “Operation Epic Fury.” The president who derided former President Joe Biden for “getting us into” Russia’s war against Ukraine by ...

Choosing my next chapter

Columns

Dear Annie: My children are trying to move me into assisted living, and I feel like I’m being slowly erased. I am in my early 80s, and I still live in the home where I raised my kids. It is not fancy, but it is mine. I know every creaky stair. I know which window sticks in the winter. I have neighbors who check in on me, a routine that keeps me grounded and a life that feels familiar and dignified. Here is the part that makes me feel misunderstood. Last Sunday, I hosted what I have hosted for years, coffee and banana bread after church. Nothing glamorous. Just a few neighbors at my ...

Continuous symptoms after COVID point to a bacterial infection

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am a 49-year-old woman who recently had COVID. When I was sick with it, I lost my sense of taste and smell. I no longer have COVID, but I still have a stuffy nose with no sense of taste or smell. Then one day, out of nowhere, I smell this horrible smell, like an infection. I went to the doctor and was told that it was a sinus infection. I was given 14 days of antibiotics. I took my meds, and then when I thought all was better, nope! I was smelling this horrible smell again, only to be accompanied with some awful drainage. I blow my nose just to get milky lime-green ...

Remembering the history of regime change

Columns

“If you don’t remember history, you are condemned to repeat it.” Are we on the verge of repeating it once again? The drumbeat between the United States and Iran has grown louder in recent weeks. American carrier strike groups have repositioned in the Persian Gulf. Additional air and missile defense systems have been deployed across the region. Iranian-backed militias have intensified proxy activity from Iraq to Syria. Israeli strikes on Iranian assets have escalated, and Tehran has responded with threats of retaliation against not only Israel but also American interests ...

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled Iran with defiance and brutality for 36 years. For many Iranians, he will not be revered

Columns

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader for 36 years, has been killed in US and Israeli airstrikes on his country, Iranian state media reported. As one of Iran’s longest-serving leaders, Khamenei was almost as ubiquitous in Iranian society as his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979. And despite the fact Khomeini authored the Iranian Revolution, some say Khamenei was actually the most powerful leader modern Iran has had. In more than three decades as supreme leader, Khamenei amassed unprecedented power over domestic ...