by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 28, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
This is an elderly woman who developed a confirmed Influenza A infection back in February. Her husband says that these painful leg lesions began almost immediately after starting Oseltamivir (Tamiflu®). She was referred to me five months later, and the husband was...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 26, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, The Patient's Voice
My wonderful Dad, a WWII and Korean War veteran, and probably the closest thing to the real Indiana Jones, died a few years ago after a series of terrible strokes. He had undergone neurosurgery in Houston at the hospital where I was on staff and when he suffered a...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 24, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
I love what I do in part because it is so visual. We can watch things get better. And because non-healing wounds are the manifestation of practically every known disease, if it is in the Merck Manual of rare diseases, it’s in the wound center waiting room. Every...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 20, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
Here’s a young transplant patient with edema of her foot. We’ve talked about appropriate footwear but diabetic shoes are ugly . . .She asked me if she ought to be worried about the rash on her toes. She’s got petechiae which, of course, are caused when capillaries...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 17, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
The Houston Chronicle has a feature article raising awareness about chronic wounds. I interviewed my friend Kevin who is mentioned in it. It came out just as he was being discharged home following a lengthy hospitalization to manage complications from a recurring...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 13, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema
“Blue Monday” was a Victorian expression about wash day in the era before the washing machine when doing the laundry required back breaking manual labor. Our understanding of lymphatic function is still stuck in the Victorian era, but I hope it won’t be for much...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 12, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
It doesn’t look like much is going on in this photo, but you need to know the back story. The patient in the total contact cast (TCC) on the right had refused to try one for his refractory diabetic foot ulcer for more than a year — and for very understandable...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 6, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
Here they are, boxed and ready to go – 2 patient chart audits for Palmetto, courtesy of Dr. Helen Gelly. The hidden costs of chart audits are immense. When ALL records are requested for a one year period (notes from all the providers and all the laboratory and...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 5, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
A very special thanks to Dr. Rafael Rafos, MD for today’s guest post. He sent me this case, and it was so interesting that I asked that he guest blog it for us. Always trust your instinct! Whenever a wound bed looks “off” or something feels “just not right”,...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 29, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
This is a retired healthcare professional with insulin dependent diabetes. The ankle lesion she has this time doesn’t look too bad (see above), and she has a normal arterial supply, based on skin perfusion pressure assessment. However, I’ve taken care of her...
