Archive for category: Adult Medical

By Patricia Fowler, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, Family Nurse Practitioner at Health Partnership Clinic

With summer upon us, it is a great time to begin preparing for the next school year to start! One consideration all of us parents should have for the summer schedule is when we can get our kids into the doctor’s office for next year’s school physical. While it may seem redundant to have to go back for another physical year after year, it is an important part of managing your children’s health and setting them up for success each school year.

School Physicals Key to Learning and Success

School physicals might feel like another thing on your to-do list, but really, it’s an important piece to the puzzle of each school year. Children seem to grow in the blink of an eye, and their needs are constantly changing. At the annual appointment, the provider seeing your child will have a chance to obtain updated measurements, screen for vision and hearing changes, and get an overall picture of where your child is developmentally. All pieced together, these factors contribute greatly to the success each child will have throughout the school year!

As a parent or guardian, it also gives you the chance to ask pertinent questions about what to expect over the next year of your child’s development. It opens doors to conversations that are crucial to understanding what to expect next for each individual child. These conversations and the overall physical exam will best determine what needs, if any, your child might have as they enter the next school year.

Sports Physicals Key for School-Aged Athletes

A sports physical is a separate type of visit, although depending on when it is needed, your provider may complete it along with the school physical. To participate in sports at a certain level in the state of Kansas, a child must have completed a comprehensive evaluation for full participation. The sports physical takes an in-depth look at the patient’s history as well as the family history. Many problems and health conditions can be caught during these evaluations that can help reduce morbidity and mortality through organized activities. When left unaddressed, your child is at a greater risk of major health problems and concerns related to participation in strenuous activity. Not only is it necessary to have this done for the school, but it is also imperative this full assessment of a child is done for their own safety.

Healthcare Close to Home and Affordable

At Health Partnership Clinic, there are a variety of providers available to see patients for their annual school physicals and sports physicals, as well as all ailments that come up in between. A variety of practitioners are in place with multiple different focuses within our four locations that can see not only your child but the rest of the family as well.

At the Paola clinic, we strive to provide a welcoming environment and maintain a community feel while also respecting the individual care that you and your family need. To schedule an appointment, call 913-294-9223 and speak with one of our patient representatives. Same day appointments are available in each of our clinics.

Don’t wait – get a head start on the 2024-2025 school year so you can make sure your child goes into the next grade well prepared for another successful year of learning!

By Edward Karanja, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, Family Nurse Practitioner

The top conditions that pose the greatest health risks in males include heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, liver disease and accidents. A healthy lifestyle and lifestyle modifications can help prevent some of these conditions. Staying active and keeping up with a healthy diet is the first step one can take toward the prevention of some of these conditions.

Annual Wellness Check

Visiting a healthcare provider for an annual wellness check is an important step to staying up to date with preventative measures. This will help to detect some conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes at the initial stages. Most people are unaware that they have conditions such as high blood pressure because most of the time there are no major presenting symptoms. Diabetes is another condition that may not have major symptoms at first stages. Annual wellness visits can help detect some of these conditions during the first stages and help prevent complications.

A Healthy Lifestyle

Lifestyle modification is another major step to take to stay healthy. This includes a healthy diet and staying active. Most men tend to gain weight as they get older, extra weight especially around the waist is a risk factor of developing conditions such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome. This can be avoided by taking part in physical activity including cardio and resistance training for at least 30 minutes a day three to five days a week as tolerated. Increasing fruit and vegetables in your diet and consuming a low sugar, low salt and low-fat diet is also recommended. Other lifestyle modification factors to protect your health include—avoid or quit smoking, avoid or decrease alcohol intake and make sure to practice safe and protected sex.

Protecting yourself from accidents and injuries is also important. This can be achieved by using a seat belt in the car, keeping guns locked in a safe, using a ladder and protective equipment including helmet while riding a motorcycle.

Mental Health

Mental health is a topic most men avoid talking about. Depression and anxiety are more likely to go undiagnosed when it comes to men as compared to women. Most men believe that mental health and illness only affect women and may be hesitant to bring up the topic because they’ll be seen as weak. This makes it hard for men to access mental health providers and receive the care they need. Some men end up self-treating with alcohol and recreational drugs. It is important to educate men that mental health is as important as physical health and encourage them to talk about it with family or healthcare providers.

Routine Screening

Routine preventative screening is recommended as we age. Testosterone levels start decreasing after age 40. Low testosterone levels may mimic depression, weight gain and is also associated with low sex drive/erectile dysfunction. It is recommended to have testosterone levels checked after age 40. Screening for prostate cancer, colon cancer and lung cancer, especially for those with history of smoking, is recommended according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Staying up to date with immunizations and vaccines are also important to your overall health.

If you are due for your annual wellness check, make an appointment at Health Partnership Clinic by calling 913-648-2266.

By Kare Lyche, MD, Family Physician

Maybe the last time you came to the clinic or medical practice, your provider asked you if you wanted to be screened for colorectal cancer. Then maybe they talked about the options–having to fish around in the toilet for some of your stools or going to see a specialist and having a tube inserted into your rectum. Doesn’t sound like much fun, does it? Why is it such a big deal?

Cancer is the Second Leading Cause of Death

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2021 cancer was the second leading cause of death in adults, claiming 604,553 lives. Among the different kinds of cancer, colorectal cancer is the fourth most common kind and also the fourth most deadly after lung, breast and prostate cancers. During the years 2016-2020, when colorectal cancer was found, about 33 percent of cases were localized to the colon itself, 38 percent were regional (had spread to nearby tissues and lymph nodes) and 22 percent had spread distally (to other parts of the body).

The importance of the cancer location is linked to survival. If colon cancer is localized when it is found, the survival rate in five years is 88 percent. This drops to 71 percent if the cancer is regional and then down to 16 percent if it is distant. Your healthcare provider recommends screening for colorectal cancer so it can be caught while it is still localized and gives you the best chance to do well.

Two Most Common Types of Screening

The two most common types of colorectal cancer screening at Health Partnership Clinic are stool cards and colonoscopies: with a stool card, you take a small sample of your stool from the toilet, put it on a card and mail it back to the laboratory. This is a test for hidden blood.

A colonoscopy involves a day of preparation in which you take medicines to clean out your intestines, then you go either to an office or to a hospital where you are given medicine to make you drowsy and then a tube with a camera is inserted into your colon through your rectum.

The advantages of a colonoscopy include that if anything is found, it can be removed immediately, and the time between colonoscopies can be up to 10 years if nothing is found. The disadvantages are that you need to be able to use the toilet frequently the day before your procedure, you might need to take time off work for the procedure and someone else must take you and pick you up. Very rarely bleeding might occur (especially when a polyp is found and removed), or the instrument could put a hole in your colon.

Advantages of the stool card are that it is quick and relatively easy to perform, that you do not need to do anything to prepare, and you do not need to take time off to complete the test. The disadvantages are that you have to interact with dirty toilet water, the test must be done every year, and if it is abnormal, you will need a colonoscopy anyway to find out where the bleeding is coming from. Some people are not candidates for the stool card, especially people with a hereditary condition putting them at risk for colon cancer, or people who have already had polyps.

If you are 45 or older, you should be screening.

The U.S. Preventive Task Force recommends that all adults between the ages of 45 and 75 be screened for colorectal cancer. If you are between 75 and 85, talk with your provider to see if screening might be appropriate for you. Do yourself a favor and bring up colorectal screening at your next visit!

To learn more about Colorectal Cancer, watch our video!

By: Whitney Venegoni, APRN, FNP-C, Family Nurse Practitioner

May is National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month.

For many, May will be when symptoms are the most severe, so it is a great time to shed light on both. Allergies and asthma have a wide range of symptoms and severity, and they are experienced differently by every patient. They cannot be cured, but they can be controlled by avoiding triggers and using appropriate medications. Over 100 million Americans experience allergies each year, affecting as many as 30 percent of adults and 40 percent of children. Over 25 million Americans have asthma. In Kansas, a higher percentage of our population suffers from asthma compared to the rest of the US.

Allergy symptoms can be intermittent with symptoms only half of the time or for less than four weeks total. Other patients will experience symptoms more frequently, sometimes impairing sleep or daily activities. In the most severe cases symptoms are life threatening. No matter the frequency allergic reactions happen when our immune systems have an abnormal response to something we are exposed to.

Many common triggers include pollen, dust, animal dander, mold, food, insect stings and certain medications. For some symptoms are a runny nose and sneezing during springtime. We use allergy medications to help decrease the response our body has to these triggers and alleviate symptoms. For others exposure to certain allergens will cause a life-threatening reaction. Symptoms for these patients can include flushed skin, an itchy feeling in the mouth, difficulty breathing or speaking, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and vomiting or diarrhea.  This requires an injectable, life-saving medication as soon as they realize they’ve been exposed along with emergency evaluation.

Allergies and asthma are related, and some patients suffer from both.

Asthma is more likely in people who have allergies. Family history of asthma, low birth weight, prematurity, exposure to tobacco smoke and pollutants, respiratory infections, and being overweight increase the risk of developing asthma.  Much like allergies, asthma symptoms also tend to start after a trigger. These triggers can also include pollen, dust, and mold but expand into other things like tobacco smoke, perfumes, and other irritants.  Some patients can experience symptoms when they begin to exercise. The trigger causes inflammation and irritation in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe. This is called and “asthma attack.” Patients can feel short of breath and start to cough or wheeze.

Many people describe the feeling as a tightness in the chest, restriction, or weight on their chest. These symptoms can sometimes resolve if the patient can get away from the trigger, but more often it requires the use of medications. Inhalers are most often used to treat asthma and can be used to either help prevent symptoms or to manage them once they begin.  Similar to allergies, symptoms can be mild and intermittent, persistent, or life threatening.

Allergies and asthma can both be managed with the help of your primary care provider. It is important to focus on awareness of these diagnoses so all patients experiencing symptoms know that help is available. In America, complications and death associated with asthma are higher in patients experiencing poverty and with less access to education and health care. For some, there is also stigma associated with inhaler use and seeking treatment.

For patients suffering from symptoms, treatment is so important. If you think you might be suffering from allergies or asthma, contact your healthcare provider to discuss. You can make an appointment at Health Partnership Clinic by calling 913-648-2266.

For additional information, visit Allergy and Asthma Federation of America at aafa.org.