Pain

Hernias are a common ailment among Americans; more than 4 million people develop the painful condition. And although both men and women develop hernias, female patients may be harder to diagnose. Doctors and patients may not realize the abdominal pain a woman is feeling is because of a hernia. Dr. Hien Nguyen, assistant professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said the pain can be mistaken for other conditions with similar symptoms, such as adhesions from prior surgery, endometriosis, fibroids and ovarian cysts.

Left-hander Wei-Yin Chen is hoping that the pain in his right side that caused him to leave Sunday's 6-0 Orioles win after five shutout innings was a simple cramp and not a right oblique strain as it was initially diagnosed by the team. If it's just a cramp, Chen, who will be re-evaluated Monday in Baltimore, would likely make his next start. If it's the dreaded oblique strain, he likely will be heading to the disabled list for the first time as a big leaguer. “I don't think [a DL stint]

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently received a gag gift of protective headgear after she suffered a concussion and blood clot near her brain after a fall. While Clinton can now make light of the injuries, a blood clot can be a serious health risk that can lead to death. Dr. James L. Frazier, III, a neurosurgeon at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, talks about the dangers. What causes a blood clot to form in the brain? A blood clot or thrombus can form in the arteries that supply blood to the brain.

The Boston Marathon resonates deep within my memory. I don't know when, exactly, it got there. My older brother ran distances, gliding around the streets of Atlanta in the days when that meant regular harassment from motorists, long before anyone had heard of the word "jogger. " Few of them knew we had a marathon in Atlanta - it was 10 laps around a golf course - but most had heard about the one in Boston. My brother and I watched delayed coverage on "Wide World of Sports," with Jim McKay telling us of the challenges of Heartbreak Hill.

Up to half of sexually active young people will get a sexually transmitted disease by the time they are 25, yet many don't seek testing because it may be difficult, costly or embarrassing. Public health officials nationally and in particularly affected cities like Baltimore, however, say they've found a method that seems to address the major hurdles — a website that supplies free in-home testing kits for three of the most commonly reported STDs. "The highest prevalence is in young adults, and we knew we had to reach these kids," said Charlotte A. Gaydos, a professor of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

The pain is still fresh, but Mary Ida Vandross has to find a way to face the music. A year after burying the last of her four children, the great song stylist Luther Vandross, the Philadelphia resident can hardly bear to hear recordings of her son's famed champagne tenor. "I'm getting a little adjusted to listening," she says. "Before, I just couldn't do it. It's one day at a time." She's promoting The Ultimate Luther Vandross, a posthumous best-of collection with two previously unreleased songs.

Dr. Carol Cooper has taken an alternative path to healing the sick and the weary. A graduate of University of Maryland School of Medicine, Dr. Copper has been practicing family medicine for over 20 years. But sensing a frustration in her patients and a need to explore her interest in alternative medicine, Havre de Grace resident Dr. Cooper recently completed an additional 300 hours of training in acupuncture in order to narrow her field of practice to medical acupuncture. “About 15 years ago, I had a back problem and I went to a doctor who practiced acupuncture.

I am sure I will take some flack for this. But here goes anyhow. Our elected leaders are mostly talk and no action. Why? Because they know we as a country are short of the cash it takes to get things done. Remember it is always the money. The rest of us are just whining, and hoping somebody else will fix the problems. So here's an idea. Add a $1 tax to all the gasoline sold in this country for one year. Let the individual states collect it, keep half, and send the rest to the federal government.

Researchers at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, are out with a new study that they say indicates that crabs feel pain. Or at least the shore crab ( Carcinus maenas ) does. The experiment, designed by Barry Magee and Robert W. Elwood, introduced crabs to a new environment that included two shelters, one benign and one that gave out mild electric shocks. When the crabs were reintroduced to the environment, they pretty much did whatever they did the first time. But the third time they went in the tank, they tended to steer clear of the shock-giving shelter.

Twenty-two birdies. That's all Ken Green wants out of his teammate this week. "I don't think I've made 22 birdies in my last four tournaments combined," Mark Calcavecchia said Wednesday. "We'll have fun either way. " Green and Calcavecchia are paired at this week's Legends of Golf, a partnership they sometimes discussed in the days before they hit the Champions Tour — "when I was actually normal," Green said. That was before Green lost his lower right leg in a fiery 2009 RV accident.

BOSTON - The steady season that Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy had defensively in 2012 - which was capped by his first career Gold Glove Award - hid the pain that Hardy played through from spring training to the final game of the postseason. After nearly every throw he made, Hardy would feel a sharp pain in his shoulder. Often, he'd shake his arm to get the numbness out, and over the course of the season he needed two cortisone shots to help alleviate the pain. The injury - a muscle imbalance that he's dealt for years with with varying degrees of discomfort - hasn't completely gone away.

Recently, I announced with a heavy heart the discontinuation of men's soccer and baseball at Towson University. The decision was made after an extensive review following the initial recommendation from athletics leadership and the majority support of an independent task force charged to resolve three critical issues facing the university: long-term financial sustainability and affordability of the athletics budget; compliance with gender equity requirements...

Ace, a youthful Labrador, bounds across his lawn, fielding tennis balls and hurrying them back to his owner. His tail wags. His coat is thick and shiny. He barks with enthusiasm. To the naked eye, Ace is a strapping example of dogdom. Who would guess that he's had work done? An eye job, in fact. Ace is one of thousands of dogs who've had plastic surgery. A little nip. A little tuck. Eye lifts. Nose jobs. Exactly the sorts of procedures people get. But unlike cosmetic surgery for humans, dogs and cats aren't doing it to look better at their high school reunion.

After bumping our heads on the debt ceiling, then teetering on the fiscal cliff, we are now threatened with something called sequestration. Had anyone even heard that word before a few months ago? Can anyone define it? Around these parts, it's all too real. Federal government workers and contractors wait nervously to see what these automatic spending cuts will mean in job furloughs and program trims. In Howard and Baltimore counties alone, tens of thousands of families owe their paycheck to the government.

There were two odd things about Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's presentation Wednesday at the Walters Art Museum to introduce "Change to Grow," her ambitious plan to put Baltimore's budget on a sustainable path, cut taxes and increase investments in infrastructure. First: the trivial. As her PowerPoint ended, music swelled in the background, specifically the opening guitar riffs to U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name," which includes the lines, "City's aflood/And our love turns to rust/We're beaten and blown by the wind/Trampled in dust.

There's a Starbucks and an Outback Steakhouse and a growing young tech company. Soon, a Harris Teeter grocery store and a Target will be built. All are helping to draw new residents to Canton. But where to park? "I don't know of any small part of Canton where there isn't a parking problem," said Darryl Jurkiewicz, president of the Canton Community Association. His organization has been pushing city officials for months to find solutions. The Boston Street corridor in Southeast Baltimore has become the latest ground zero for a familiar battle.

Domonique Foxworth conceded that his surgically repaired right knee is still troubling him and preventing him from being an effective cornerback. “I don't think I'm as good as I was,” Foxworth said prior to Thursday's practice. “I think towards the end of my first year here, I was playing really well and feeling really confident, and it's frustrating to be back and not feel as good as I want to feel to make plays. To have all of these great players depending on you to step up and play the way they know you're capable of and then to not be able to do it is frustrating.

Almost everyone will experience back pain at some point in life. In fact, back pain is one of the most common nervous-system complaints, second only to headaches. According to the National Institute of Neurologic Disease and Stroke, low back pain is one of the top causes of missed workdays, and its treatment costs about $50 billion each year. Dr. Marlís González-Fernández, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the medical director of the outpatient physical medicine and rehabilitation clinics at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, has some advice for back pain prevention: •Maintaining good physical fitness is the best way to reduce the possibility of injury.

I find it very difficult to compare children losing their playmates to parents being bound, gagged and stabbed to death by a neighbor ("A sister arrives at a different view," Feb. 10). Whether John Booth-El wielded the knife or not, he still participated in a vicious attack that resulted in the deaths of two people he knew, and he is therefore just as guilty of their murder. Peggy Alley, Baltimore Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Having succumbed at long last to a winter cold, I felt I would dedicate this Midweek Madness installment to my fellow sufferers. I suggest we all sing through our pain, with the help of Betty Boop and that profound ditty "I Got a Cold in My Nose. " (Her performance makes me want to dig out "Funny Lady" again to hear Streisand's fun version.) Grab a Kleenex and chime in: