f you have read the first two articles in this series, you know the general premise: outbreaks of strange or unusual symptoms for which medical science has no explanation. Hence the series’ name: “What the?”
You may have dismissed the incidents so far as easily explainable just looking at when and where they happened. The first episode we covered broke out in 1518. It was a dancing epidemic, of all things. People just could not stop “dancing,” although the term is used loosely: the movements were spastic, and the dancers seemed to be in joyless trances. Many people now, as they did 500 years ago, dismissed those affected as gullible, superstitious and uneducated, or even that the whole thing was the work of evil spirits.
Then, two weeks later came installment #2, an overview of an epidemic of laughter. Yes, laughter. In 1962, hundreds of people in a 100-mile radius started laughing and couldn’t stop for a full year. Schools were closed. Investigations were launched. Lawsuits were filed. I can solve that one, many a reader might have thought. Consider the location: Tanganyika, now known as Tanzania. Isn’t Africa famous for witch doctors and superstitions? Those people were probably under some kind of magic spell.
Well, the person who believes that might also believe people in Alaska live in igloos. But more to the point, can these strange episodes be explained away as happening to primitive peoples in faraway times and places? And what does Jell-O have to do with the subject? See page 3 for more.
It’s our
Things people hear...
We were sitting in the outdoor patio of a restaurant and after I used a salt shaker a lady at the next table smoking a cigarette told me that salt is bad for my heart.
I was in a band with people who shot heroin and smoked Camels, but gave me grief for eating burgers and not being vegan.
I used to drive a bus, and one of my co-workers always complained that the exhaust from other buses was destroying his lungs. He was a smoker.
I had a neighbor who complained that she couldn’t smoke on her deck because the smell of my fresh-cut lawn bothered her lungs.
On a trip we stayed at an old school drive-in motel. They told us that smoking weed was not allowed anywhere on the property, but cigarettes were no problem, inside or out.
I knew this lady who was very pregnant, and yet smoked. We got to talking and that subject came up. She said her doctor told her not to quit because the baby would experience nicotine withdrawal. I thought, “Um, what happens when the baby is born after 39 weeks of nicotine? No withdrawals then?”
I work with a lady who is a super-crunchy organic vegan and certified naturopath who smokes cigarettes and bleaches her hair.
Come celebrate with us!
PARENTHOOD
by Dr. Warren Umansky, PhD
You are totally confused about what guidelines to follow with your children relative to phones and electronics. In restaurants, you see whole families sitting at a table with their faces locked in on the screen of their phone or tablet. You don’t believe that is healthy for your family, but there is so much pressure to let kids have access to electronics. What do you do?
A.You want your kids to be well-rounded. Ask yourself how electronics can fit in to fulfilling your expectations for them.
B. You don’t want your children to be different from their friends. Having phones and game systems are important for children.
C. Allow access to electronics with guidelines: no phones at the dinner table; no phones or tablets in bed; homework, chores, and outdoor time come first. Set other guidelines that fit in with the family lifestyle.
D. Electronics have been a good way to keep your kids busy and allow you time to get things done.
If you answered
A. Having a well-balanced life is a good goal for your children. First, be sure your children are meeting their most important responsibilities: good behavior, good grades, plenty of exercise, kindness to others. If they are doing well in these areas and others that you think are important, electronics privileges can be offered. But be vigilant. Don’t be afraid to pull back if you notice changes in your children that you don’t like.
B. The most successful children are not usually the followers. They are the ones who have (with your help) a vision of success that is independent of all the noise around them. Research indicates that electronics, when used responsibly, can help to play a role in their success.
C. This is a fair approach. It requires that you think through the proposed guidelines (your observations at the restaurant were a good start!) and involve your children in coming up with what is in everyone’s best interests.
D. Once in a while, you need a good way for your children to be busy and safe while you get important chores done or while you work from home. The key words are “once in a while.”
Electronics shouldn’t be a babysitter. Ideally, you want your children to keep busy and enjoy doing things that will help them be successful in school: skills like reading, drawing and writing, building creative structures, getting along with their siblings, etc.
You should be guided in setting up rules for electronic use by your personal observations of how these devices affect your children’s behavior and learning. If there are frequent conflicts when it’s time to put down devices to eat or do homework or take a shower and get ready for bed or do chores, it’s time to re-evaluate your guidelines. When your kids have a hard time getting up in the morning because they took phone or tablet to bed, it’s time to re-evaluate. And remember, you are the role model for your children.
Set a good example. Electronics can be valuable tools when in the hands of responsible individuals.
Dr. Umansky has a child behavioral health practice in Augusta.
THOUGHTS ABOUT THOUGHTS THOUGHTS
THE FAMILIAR STRANGER: CAPGRAS DELUSION
Editor’s note: Written by local mental healthcare professionals, this series explores how people may think and act when affected by common and lesser-known mental health conditions.
James, a 67-year-old retired accountant, began acting strangely after a recent hospitalization for a minor stroke. He returned home insisting that the woman living with him — his wife of 42 years — was an imposter. “She looks like her, sounds like her,” he told his daughter, “but that is not your mother.”
He avoided his wife, locked doors at night, and became increasingly paranoid. Despite recognizing photographs of their life together, he maintained that the woman in the house was a near-perfect double, planted there for unknown reasons.
Eventually, James was referred for psychiatric evaluation and was diagnosed with Capgras delusion—a rare but serious misidentification syndrome.
What is Capgras Delusion?
Capgras delusion is a psychiatric disorder in which a person believes that someone close to them—usually a spouse, family member, or caregiver—has been replaced by an identical-looking imposter.
Named after French psychiatrist Joseph Capgras, who first described the phenomenon in 1923, this condition is classified as a delusional misidentification syndrome and is most often associated with underlying neurological or psychiatric conditions.
Signs and Symptoms
Individuals with Capgras delusion typically exhibit:
• A fixed belief that a loved one or familiar person has been replaced by an identical impostor
• Suspicion or fear of the “double”
• Emotional detachment or hostility toward the supposed impostor
• Social withdrawal or avoidance of the person believed to be replaced
• In some cases, belief that multiple people or even pets have been duplicated
Unlike hallucinations, the person is not “seeing” someone different—they recognize the face correctly but don’t feel the expected emotional connection, leading to the belief that something must be wrong.
What Causes Capgras Delusion?
Capgras delusion is often linked to disruption in the brain regions responsible for facial recognition and emotional processing. This includes the fusiform face area (which helps identify faces) and the amygdala (which attaches emotional meaning).
Common underlying causes include:
• Traumatic brain injury
• Stroke or neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Lewy body dementia
• Schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders
• Rarely, it may occur alongside severe depression or bipolar
disorder with psychotic features
In these cases, the visual recognition system remains intact, but the emotional “tag” associated with that face is absent, resulting in the experience of a familiar stranger.
Treatment and Management
Treatment for Capgras delusion focuses on addressing the underlying cause and managing symptoms:
• Antipsychotic medications (e.g., risperidone, olanzapine) are commonly prescribed, especially when psychosis or schizophrenia is involved.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) may be useful to gently challenge and restructure delusional beliefs, though results vary.
• Neurological care is crucial when the delusion arises from brain injury or neurodegeneration.
• Environmental adjustments (e.g., reducing overstimulation, simplifying routines) may reduce stress and improve recognition in dementia-related cases.
Family education is vital—explaining the delusion in compassionate terms and guiding loved ones on how to respond calmly and consistently.
Prognosis
The prognosis depends heavily on the root cause. In cases linked to psychosis, symptoms may improve significantly with medication and therapy. For those with degenerative neurological conditions, symptoms may persist or worsen over time, though supportive care can reduce distress.
Importantly, early recogni-
Please see THOUGHTS page 3
24/7, free, confidential mental health hot-line that connects individuals in need of support with counselors across the United States and its territories. People do not have to be suicidal to call. Reasons to call include: substance use disorder, economic worries, relationships, culture and identity, illness, intimate partner violence, depression, mental and physical illness, and loneliness. +
WHAT
THE? from page 1
As alluded to on page 1, it’s very convenient to dismiss strange phenomena by contending such a thing would never happen in our enlightened and modern day and time. (Note: every year, including 1518 and 1962, is, at the time, the latest, greatest, newest, most modern year on record.)
We can and probably will supply a number of “modern” episodes in upcoming issues to debunk that idea, starting here with The Jell-O Brick Road.
By itself, that road has nothing to do with our story; the event we’ll be looking at just happens to be in the same town where Jell-O was invented and first manufactured. That town was once the scene of a strange outbreak of bizarre symptoms — Tourette’s-like verbal outbursts, facial tics, seizures, and speech difficulties — that no one could explain.
Did this happen in the early 1700s? Maybe during the 1800s or even a century or ago? Actually, it happened in 2011 in western New York state.
One 16-year-old girl started experiencing involuntary twitching and clapping and other odd behaviors that she couldn’t stop or control.
THOUGHTS
from page 2
tion and treatment improve outcomes and reduce the risk of relationship breakdowns or potential harm.
Debunking Misconceptions
Capgras delusion is often misunderstood as simple confusion, or part of regular aging. In reality, it is a specific, diagnosable condition rooted in brain dysfunction. It’s also not simply a symptom of
Whatever it was spread from there to more than a dozen other students at LeRoy Junior-Senior High School.
The case drew national attention. A number of the affected girls were interviewed on national news and talk programs. The New York State Health Department arrived to investigate. Environmental activist Erin Brockovich launched her own probe.
Something curious happened as the weeks went by: the more intense the media scrutiny, the worse the symptoms became, but when the spotlight started to fade, so did the outbreak. In the end, only one girl ended up with a confirmed medical diagnosis and any continuing symptoms.
The health department initially withheld information on the cause. That action intensified fear and fueled the rumor mill, making the mystery illness worse.
Although that result was unintentional, it helped confirm the correct diagnosis: the entire episode was an instance of mass psychogenic illness (MPI), in plain English, mass hysteria. Sound hard to believe? Tune in next issue for more information.
+
memory loss—it involves a breakdown in how familiarity and emotional recognition are processed.
Another myth is that those with Capgras delusion are always dangerous. While delusions can cause fear or agitation, most individuals are more confused or distressed than violent. However, clinical evaluation is essential to assess risk.
Need support?
IPS provides comprehensive behavioral health services including assessment, medication management, and therapy for individuals and families navigating complex mental health and neurological conditions. To schedule an appointment, call 706-2041366 or visit integratedpsych. care.
HAVE YOU HEARD?
HEARING
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HOW CAN I FIGHT BURNOUT?
It is no accident that burnout is a growing phenomenon, and not just in the field of healthcare. It is actually a function of the structure of today’s society and culture.
Consider that many people are “plugged in” every waking hour, and maybe even 24 hours a day. There is the normal workday, of course. That’s a given. But some jobs require employees (some or all) to be on call during off hours. Some bosses send out texts and emails during evening hours or on weekends — or to individual employees who are on vacation — and expect answers. Immediately.
We can lay the blame for those issues at the feet of employers, but many people inflict at least the risk of burnout upon themselves by the aforementioned plugging in at all hours. In effect they have no downtime. It isn’t that endlessly swiping away at Instagram screens is particularly stressful; it’s more that someone else is always streaming content into their mind. If it isn’t a computer screen it’s a phone screen; if it isn’t a phone it’s a television. They never have a moment to simply unwind and decompress in peace, alone with their own thoughts.
If that previous sentence seems more on-point to half of the reading audience, it’s not your imagination, ladies. According to a 2019 University of Massachusetts study, women report higher levels of burnout than men due to experiencing “greater workfamily conflict.” As the old adage goes, “a man works from sun to sun; a woman’s work is never done.” It’s still true.
The causes of burnout suggest ways to prevent or reduce it. Establish phone-free zones in your home: if your phone is on charge overnight, use a plug in the garage, not in your bedroom. Establish phone-free zones in your life: during mealtimes is a great start; weekdays from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. might be another. In some work environments, deadline pressure is the cancer that eats away at sanity over time. One solution: as much as possible, tackle the toughest jobs early in the day so the day gets progressively easier, not harder. Resist the urge to relentlessly attack the day’s to-do list. As we all learned in first grade, breaks are important. We don’t call it recess as adults, but the principle still applies. Taking breaks improves mood, energy, performance, production, satisfaction and enjoyment. +
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Who is this?
Please meet Julio Palmaz, a vintner and vineyard owner from Napa Valley, California. His family operation, Palmaz Vineyards, encompass 640 acres, spanning various elevations and multiple soil varieties, leading to microclimates that enable production of various red wines (Cabernet sauvignon, merlot, among others) as well as a selection of white wines (chardonnay, Riesling and muscat).
The vineyard’s wines are stored and aged in a natural cavern extending some 18 stories down into the earth.
It’s all pretty amazing for a guy from Argentina who really had no background in cultivating grapes or producing wine. In fact, his first career was interventional cardiology.
But then, that career probably made his second career possible. After all, Napa Valley real estate does not come cheap.
That first career led to an invention by Palmaz that is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC He is in the National Inventors Hall of Fame, a member of the National Academy of Inventors, and was awarded the Gold Medal of the Society of Interventional Radiology. He is a fellow and Distinguished Scientist of the American Heart Association and fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and Society of Interventional Radiology. And that’s just the shortlist of his many honors and awards.
What did he do to deserve all that?
Well, it all started innocently enough one day when he picked up a discarded piece of metal that was on the floor of his garage in La Plata, Argentina.
That chance event, in an improbable one-thing-led-toanother scenario, resulted in the invention of the balloonexpandable stent. The Palmaz Stent was the first of its kind, an expandable intravascular stent that can be inserted in places where normal blood flow is blocked and needs to be restored. You may have one or more inside you this very moment. If so, you are one of millions so equipped, and the man you can thank is pictured above.
Speaking of millions, stents have made it possible to prevent millions of bypass surgeries that otherwise would have been required.
It took a combination of ingenuity and determination to go from that garage floor scrap to a sophisticated medical device, but Palmaz was up to the challenge, overcoming obstacles and working out kinks for a decade before the FDA approved the device for peripheral arterial use in 1991 and for coronary use in 1994.
What was once considered a revolutionary concept is now the very real centerpiece of more than a million surgical procedures around the world every year. No wonder Intellectual Property International magazine listed the Palmaz Stent as one of “Ten Patents that Changed the World.”
Proceeds from the sale of his patent to Johnson & Johnson have no doubt helped underwrite the Palmaz winery (he holds some 60 additional patents), but Dr. Palmaz continues to practice medicine at the University of Texas Health and Science Center at San Antonio. +
Middle Age
BY J.B. COLLUM
I had an odd thing happen to me recently. I know that isn’t shocking for my regular readers. All eleven or twelve of you know that weird things just happen to me, and I haven’t even told you half of them.
Anyway, I’ve had a long “honey do” list I’ve been trying to whittle down for the past few weeks (ok, years). The tasks weren’t the most strenuous I’ve ever faced, and the weather was pretty nice, but even so, I got tired faster, had chest pain, dizziness, my heart fluttered.
I was concerned but didn’t want to worry people too much, so at first I hid it. Bad idea, plus I’m not very good at hiding such things. It all came to a head after I couldn’t even put in a good hour’s worth of work last weekend. I had to sit in the shade and guzzle sports drinks and water. I was put on Freyjawatching duty while my wife Lorie, daughter Kate, and two very good friends who showed up to help, kept working on the project. It turned out that even watching Freyja, our seven year old special needs granddaughter, was also too strenuous for me. After I while, I begged off of that too and went inside. I was soaked with sweat so I didn’t want to lie down on a piece of furniture or the carpet, but the cool kitchen floor beckoned me, so I put my drink and phone on the floor and then laid myself down on it too. With my back on the floor, I could feel the heat streaming out of me.
About ten minutes later, Lorie walked in and thought I had fallen. It took me ten minutes to convince her that I hadn’t fallen. That’s my fault because I have fibbed about that plenty in the past.
On the Monday following this, I was preparing my pill caddies for the upcoming week and I noticed something. I was missing one of my medicines related to chest pain, blood pressure, and a few other things. I couldn’t figure out why at first because I always just open my pharmacy app and order refills whenever one runs out. I trust the app and don’t worry about it.
Even if there are no more refills, they automatically contact my doctors and get the prescription(s) refilled. It’s usually a well-oiled machine. It would be the textbook
definition of stupidity for me to trust my memory on things like this, so I depend on the app to keep me straight. However, as I looked for the refill option for the medicine I was missing, it wasn’t there. Somehow it had disappeared from my options. I’ve never had that happen before.
I called the office of my heart doctor (Dr. MacDonnell) and got the awful news that he had passed away about a month prior to my call. I truly hated to hear this. He was one of the kindest and most humble physicians I’ve ever met. Perhaps the ultimate in both of these categories. He always spent extra time with you if you needed it and didn’t talk down to you.
Even with this bad news to process, I still had to get my medicine and heart doctor situation ironed out, so they booked a new appointment with another doctor and sent a refill to the pharmacy to get me by until that appointment. I assume that with all of the turmoil of Dr. MacDonnell’s death, the prescription either fell through the cracks, or it just couldn’t be done until I had a new heart specialist assigned to me. In either case, it is completely understandable, but for my pharmacy app to not notify me and to just drop the option of even seeing that the prescription had expired and couldn’t be refilled could have been tragic for some people and some medicines. Especially if their brain is as cluttered and disorganized as mine.
The moral to the story is; make a list of your medications and check it off when you are filling up your daily/weekly pill caddies. If something is missing, look into it right away, and don’t rely on an app to handle this properly.
Before I sign off, I want to ask a favor. I have started a new regular column in this salubrious journal. It is about raising a special needs child and so, appropriately, it is titled, Special Forces Parenting. This is because I sometimes feel like I am in combat mode when dealing with the unique challenges Freyja presents. I say I but it’s really we. The reason for that is covered in the new column, so please give it a look. Thank you in advance.
Special Forces Parenting
The word “special” has varied meanings. We use the word when referring to something that is above average, like “special edition” cars, for example. That means something is highly prized and typically costs a lot more than your run-of-the-mill editions. When something is incredibly difficult, like folding fitted sheets covert warfare or, we tend to throw the word “Special” in the description. The term is used for advanced warriors who meet nearly impossible standards and then take on equally impossible missions.
As a “special needs” parent, I can attest to our job being nearly impossible, just like those special forces warriors, and I can attest to how special these little souls are. Unlike most children, these are likely to be with you for your lifetime. Though each individual is different, their maturity level and capabilities will plateau at some point, and this presents challenges,. On the other hand, they can be the sweetest and most loving of kids.
You might say that we have already scouted ahead on this trail for a few years now, and are back to help you navigate these treacherous waters ahead. Perhaps you too could be considered a pioneer on this trail and you may be far beyond us in this regard. In that case, we welcome your input as well.
I usually write about things from my point of view, but raising our special needs grandchild, Freyja, is a tag-team effort. My wife, our daughter, and I do our best to corral, entertain, educate, protect, and most importantly, love, Freyja.
One of the benefits of helping to raise
Freyja is that she has provided me with a lot of material that would fit in with both the comedic and horror genres and this, to a writer, is worth a lot of sacrifices, especially when my wife and daughter make most of those sacrifices. Don’t hate me because I am skillful at avoiding work and responsibility. I have elevated laziness and procrastination to a science, if not an art, but I still end up with some monumental challenges and tasks that you likely will take great delight in reading about as you see me get my comeuppance from time to time. The principle of reaping what you sow will certainly come into play. Here is an example to whet your appetite for what is to come, and to also perhaps ruin your appetite immediataely. Recently, Freyja has started taking off her diaper and using her feces to paint, coat, and even sculpt. She is nearly eight years old and eats very well, so she usually has no shortage of her chosen medium to work with. We were told this has something to do with textures. Just in the past two weeks we have had at least three of what we call “turdnados.”
When it happens, it looks like a grenade has gone off in a latrine. Her art is in the carpeting, on her toys, her sensory swinging blanket, her beanbag, regular blanket, climbing wall, playhouse walls, and her. Two days ago, I happened to catch her just as she had gotten started, and it was only on her hands and one toy she was holding. Like a brave soldier, I ran into her playhouse, grabbed her by both wrists, rose her up and away from anything else that might get tainted, and then, well, I screamed for my wife. I’m not proud of it, but at least I did catch her in the act and stop it from spreading. At my wife, Lorie’s direction, I carried Freyja by her arms to the bathtub where Lorie met me with instructions to go back and make sure it didn’t get on anything else.
I was glad to get away from the smell and Lorie because with the look on her face, I feared I might receive collateral damage in this engagement whether it be flying fecal matter or a stray punch or kick in my direction as she furiously cleaned Freyja up while keeping her from touching anything in the bathroom. Lorie’s hands were a blur as she would quickly interrupt her cleaning to reach out and stop Freyja’s hand or foot from spreading the vile material onto the shower curtain, or faucet, or anything else within her reach.
Please see SPECIAL FORCES page 6
Who is this?
Not everyone in healthcare can be Florence Nightingale, right? Despite the long-running series on page 4, there are clunkers in medicine, and we will examine some of them in this brief series that should be briefer. Unfortunately, there’s enough material to keep this going for a while.
Unfortunately, this side of the page demonstrates that the depths of human depravity know no bounds. After all, installment #9 profiled a serial killer whose victims were all nursing home residents; the youngest of them was 80.
This perpetrator’s victims were at the extreme opposite end of the defenseless scale: she is suspected of killing up to 60 infants.
The tragedy that is Genene Jones, as in many cases like this, are all the warning signs that were missed, or even worse, ignored, and deliberately at that.
She graduated from a vocational nursing school in San Antonio in 1977 and after a couple of short-term stints she found her ideal job, working in the pediatric intensive care unit of Bexar County Hospital in San Antonia, Texas. Her first day on the job was October 30, 1978, and she would remain there for 41 months, much of it on the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift. From the beginning, she was a force to be reckoned with, taking charge in sometimes pushy ways that ruffled the feathers of those far more experienced than her, including RNs, who looked down on vocational nurses (LVNs) in the hierarchy of nursing care.
Jones’ knowledge and clinical skills were not imaginary, but her abrasive personality sometimes overshadowed her medical talents. That was significant, because when “unexpected events” — deaths and sudden complications among previously healthy babies — started happening in the PICU with increasing frequency, and nurses reported to their superiors that every case seemed to be connected to Jones, hospital officials dismissed the suspicions as a jealous catfight among the pediatric ICU nurses.
Further investigations continued to point to Jones, but it was all innuendo and suspicion without solid proof. Fearing bad publicity and lawsuits from patients and employees alike, hospital administration decided to upgrade the department to an all-RN staff. All the LVNs were offered other jobs within the hospital or good recommendations elsewhere in order to quietly eliminate one person: Genene Jones.
After she was not offered a pediatric position, Jones took a job with a new pediatrician opening a practice an hour’s drive northwest of San Antonio. The second patient on the practice’s opening day, 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan, died at Jones’ hands on a subsequent visit, the first of many babies whose lives were ended or nearly ended by Jones “intentionally and knowingly” injecting them with drugs like blood thinners and muscle relaxers.
Jones maintained her innocence, telling one interviewer, “If I had to spend 99 years in solitary, I could live with myself because I didn’t do anything.” 99 years was in fact her 1985 sentence, although a law designed to address prison overcrowding had her scheduled for release in 2018. A new district attorney indicted her on fresh charges, and in January 2020 she pleaded guilty to the murder of 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer in 1981. Jones will not be eligible for parole until 2037, when she will be 87 years old.
GOOD DIRECTIONS, PLEASE
by Ken Wilson Steppingstones to Recovery
Years ago, before cell phone towers were as prevalent as they are now, my signal faded out in the mountains and I had to get directions from an old man at a country store dressed in overalls with no shirt on underneath and who was playing solitaire on a bench as old as he was. I questioned him in my best southern drawl, “A sign back there said Salem was to the right up here, then another sign said it was to the left. Does it matter which road I take?”
He replied in a southern drawl that bested mine, “Not to me it don’t,” just as flat as that!
Oh well. I asked for that one! As an addiction treatment professional, I’m reminded of that old man when people ask me for direction in getting help for a loved one – knowing I can’t be that flippant. The correct answer to “Can you recom-
mend a rehab for me?” isn’t that simple.
In a previous column I addressed the different levels of care for treatment. This time I’ll address the question of who does the counseling. Can it be just anybody? What does the alphabet after a counselor’s name refer to?
When I started out in this field 38 years ago, in the state of Georgia there was only one designation for a professional who had demonstrated competence in addiction counseling to an examining board: Certified Addiction Counselor (CAC). Today there are 7 designations! (Go to gaca.org to read about each one, or to the other organization that certifies addiction counselors nowadays – the Alcohol & Drug Abuse Certification Board of Georgia – adacbga. org – I’m personally certified by both boards and testify to their legitimacy).
And prior to establishing CAC, there was no licensing/certification process
at all. To be an addiction counselor you just needed a GED, 2 years of abstinence, and good spelling habits for charting. There was no ultimate accountability, standards, or measure of competence. “Treatment” back in the day was the Wild, Wild West of healthcare! In most cases though, patients did get well thanks to the tried and true 12-step model that most programs used as treatment structure.
and are not for “treatment” (that is, a facility that identifies life problem areas and addresses each one with weekly staff meetings and updated progress notes in a chart written by a certified/licensed professional is usually not found in a sober living facility alone).
When looking for a healthcare provider for addictive diseases in the year 2025, you would be well advised to start by finding a program with “certified” or “licensed” counselors (in Georgia, “certification” is synonymous with “licensed” after a 1993 law declared the same). If a certified/licensed counselor only recommends a sober living facility (aka “halfway house,” or “recovery residence”), you need not be as concerned about licensure since those facilities are usually long-term (6-12 months)
So, who makes such a “recommendation”? An old man with overalls at a country store? A pastor? Someone in recovery but not licensed? A medical doctor? Who, pray tell?
In an ideal world, someone with competence in the field of addiction recovery and who utilizes a standardized/accepted patient placement tool, such as the one developed by the American Society of Addiction Medicine, ranging anywhere from low-level 12-step self help meetings, or outpatient counseling, or Intensive Outpatient Treatment (very popular and widely used), Inpatient Treatment (get out your checkbook!), or a
long-term halfway house. Not just a roll of the dice but using a tool developed using the history of success and failure of many patients over many years. Thanks to the American Psychiatric Association for this tool.
Oh my, out of space again and only halfway through the subject! Finish up next time, ok?
By the way, it turned out that both roads led to Salem. One was the longer scenic route, the other a straight shot. The old man and the signs were right! But I don’t think I would’ve taken healthcare advice from him, though.
SPECIAL FORCES from page 5 +
Once I had evacuated the engagement zone, I went back to the scene of the crime and used my flashlight and my nose as I got close to the floor and sniffed and then I sniffed all of the items anywhere near where I had caught her in flagrante delicto. It turned out the area was clean.
As I meticulously went through it though, I felt sort of like the bomb squad making sure there are no hidden gotchas left around for us to discover later.
Once things settled down, I found a site to order clothing made just for this situation. The brand we ended up buying is called “Naked-No-More.” They have sizes up through children’s size 14 and, as the name tells you, it is clothing designed to range from difficult to practically impossible for them to remove.
When the order arrived, it took Freyja only a couple of hours to show us the folly of our belief in such a simple solution. She somehow got her arm inside the outfit, reached down and pulled her diaper off and out the arm hole to get her favorite “sculpting clay.” I can only imagine her saying something like “abracadabra” or “voila” as she pulled off this feat, or at least she would if she could talk.
After that, we found out that putting some shorts over the diaper and then putting the Naked-No-More outfit over that could stop this from happening — at least until she figures out her next tactic.
It’s like Spy versus Spy or the Road Runner versus Wile E. Coyote, but we’ll keep working at it, and we hope you will come along for the ride. +
by Kim Beavers, MS, RDN, CDCES
Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Chef Coach, Author Follow Kim on Facebook: facebook.com/eatingwellwithkimb
GREEK POTATO AND ARTICHOKE SALAD
Steamed potatoes and green beans are tossed with marinated artichokes, red bell pepper, and capers to give a fresh twist to an old favorite
Ingredients
• 8 oz red potatoes cut into ½-inch cubes
• 4 oz fresh green beans, trimmed, cut into ½-inch pieces
• 1 jar (6 oz) marinated artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
Steam the potatoes and beans for 7 to 8 minutes, or until just tender. Drain in
a colander and run under cold water to cool. Drain well. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir together the remaining ingredients. Add the potatoes and beans. Toss gently. Let stand for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to blend.
As our society ages, medicine is confronted with ways to diagnose, manage, and adjust to changing mental acuity. Our government leaders suffer with the same disorders that you and I do. Just look around Washington and see how many of those octogenarians in Congress could even manage a roadside fruit stand.
We all get older, but I prefer the term “advanced maturity.” It sounds less ominous. I’m not old enough to be old yet, even though I was born before World War II.
When we have our annual medical check-up, several questions are usually asked to ascertaining one’s mental functionality. Japanese sudoku puzzles, not only test, but measures our degree of advanced maturity. Sudoku books are cheap. I do two puzzles each morning during
Bad Billy Laveau
breakfast. A $6 book lasts me about two months. I don’t cheat by looking up the answers in the back. But maybe I will start cheating soon. Sarcasm is another, cheaper, and more fun way of keeping intellectually sharp. It costs nothing. Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory is an intellectual genius, but fails to understand sarcasm. Here is how sarcasm works: In a given situation, you think of something to say. Then you must relate it in such a manner that it could be taken in at least two ways. This forces you to
think. This forces your listener to grasp the sentence you uttered and decide which way it should be taken. It also allows both of you to indulge in the humor associated therein.
Here’s an example: you encounter someone with a new dog they rescued from the city dog pound. The poor dog has near indescribable features, but manners dictate that you should say something nice. So you smile and say, “Let me tell you, that dog is special.”
Let the mental gymnastics begin. Was that a complement? An insult? Or just a comment? If the dog owner is a pretty woman, most likely it was a compliment. If an older fishing buddy, it is a humorous insult. And if you don’t know the person much at all, it was just a comment designed to keep you out of trouble. Now, the listener has to run through the very same gymnastics to determine whether to slap you, comment on your mother’s morality, smile and say, “thank you,” or ignore you as a troublesome twit who is semi-stupid.
“Her face is highly memorable. Really stands out in a crowd.” Is she beautiful? The
Wicked Witch of the West?
Maybe a wart on her nose? Has green eyes — with hair to match? Has a facial tattoo that says Don’t Read This?
Some college friends set me up on a blind date. “She has a great sense of humor. All the girls like her. She cooks. She sews her own clothes. She has high grades. Clear complexion.”
All very true, they assured me.
I believed them.
Girls liked her because she was too homely to steal their boyfriends. She sewed because clothing stores don’t carry dresses that big. She cooked because no one wanted to be seen in public with her. She laughed at herself because everyone else did. She had good grades because nobody socialized with her, so she read books. (Kama Sutra was not one of her books.) I was not sure about her complexion. We never went out in the daytime. Said she was allergic to the sun.
I never believed the vampire rumors.
We dated a long time. I gained 15 pounds. She dropped me, saying my IQ was incompatible with hers. (I was not sure exactly how to take that.)
If someone insults you, say, “I resemble that incineration.” They must fight through the complexity of your utterance. Did he misunderstand me twice in one sentence? Is he stupid? Or does he think I am stupid? Regardless of what he says next, You say, “I understand how you feel.” It does not mean you agree, disagree, or even care what he thinks or said. He is the butt of the joke, not you.
After the Civil War, General Sherman said, “If I owned Texas and hell, I’d rent out Texas and live in hell.”
Exactly what did he mean? Was he saying Texas was a bad place and hell was a good place? Or was he saying, as bad as hell is, Texas is worse in the summertime during the heat waves and violent hail storms?
Practicing sarcasm slows the long, slow slide down the slopes of “advanced maturity.” Sarcasm is fun … unless your friends are straightlaced with a lame sense of humor. Then, maybe you should practice your new sense of sarcastic humor from a more-than-armslength distance.
After all, nose jobs cost a lot these days.
EVERYONE HAS A STORY
WHAT IS OSTEOPOROSIS?
That is the question I asked myself recently when I was diagnosed with the condition.
According to MedinePlus. gov (National Library of Medicine) osteoporosis is “a disease in which your bones become weak and likely to fracture (break).” It is usually not detected until a bone is broken or fractured. The most commonly affected bones are in the hip, the vertebrae of the spine, and the wrist. Although men can suffer from osteoporosis, it is most common in women over 65. You can locate more information on the website above.
The focus of this article is based on personal experience and concentrated research.
I am in pain and no stranger to chiropractic care in years past. At present, the pain is in my neck and shoulder on the left side and in my mid to lower back.
Two friends suggested a practice with which they were pleased. I went to the company’s website and saw many exemplary reviews by patients. I was also impressed with the wealth of
information contained on the site.
I telephoned the practice and made an appointment. On the first visit, I filled out paperwork, and a bone density x-ray was taken of the spine.
My insurance company is paying for treatments. I only have a small co-pay.
On the next visit, the chiropractor showed me the results of the scan and explained what we were seeing. With age, the cushions, a jelly-like substance (shock absorbers) between the vertebrae begins to deteriorate. When there is bone against bone, it affects the nerves. I could see several places where this damage was happening.
The trained, licensed Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) then performed a treatment on me so that I would know what is involved. It was different from other chiropractors I had experienced.
Although some manual manipulation was used, the focus was on an “activator.” I found this process gentler than that based only on the manual manipulation process.
Wikipedia.org gives the following definition of activator as “a small handheld spring-loaded instrument which delivers a controlled and reproducible tap to the spine or other body part. The aim is to produce enough force to move the vertebrae, but not enough to cause injury.”
The chiropractor clicked the activator up and down on the problem areas. The treatment lasted about 5-7 minutes. With a short wait after arriving, I was finished within 20 minutes.
Calcium and Vitamin D help to strengthen bones. Calcium is found in milk products, green leafy vegetables, nuts, salmon, etc. If you are lactose intolerant, there are lists online of foods high in calcium.
You might check with your doctor about having a bone density test done.
Living a healthy lifestyle is my responsibility. I eat nutritious food, read food labels, manage my weight, avoid smoking and drinking, and exercise.
I will be 82 years young in 3 weeks. I neither look nor act my age.
When life hands me lemons, I often make lemonade. However, during the past 2 years, the lemonade has needed more sugar.
— Dolores Eckles Evans, Georgia
Thank you for reading
CRASH COURSE
No, you really do. You have to love them.
And you have to show that love in concrete ways, because if you don’t, well, bad things can happen.
Teenagers, bless their exuberant hearts, are rip-roaring ready to really live life. They are shiny new almost-adults, and they have wings they are dying to spread.
But since they can’t literally fly, they drive. It’s the next best thing to flying. And all too often, teen driving includes a bit of flying (a euphemism for speeding, a favorite teen driving pastime).
There are reams of additional facts and figures we could fill up space with here, but pretty much everyone already knows teen drivers are more at risk than other groups.
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Teenagers.
You gotta love ‘em.
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It is a sobering fact to consider that seven teenagers who woke up this morning full of life and energy will not live to see tomorrow. They will die today in traffic accidents, and hundreds more will be injured, some with lifelong consequences.
Yes, that is one day’s statistics from the yearlong total (for 2018) of almost 2,500 teens in the United States aged 13–19 killed, and about 285,000 treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor vehicle crashes. These tragedies are preventable because they are foreseeable. Parents know teen drivers are inexperienced (teen drivers themselves are not as aware of their own shortcomings). Various driving skills that might be automatic for older drivers are still being learned by teens. Accident data for 2016–2017 found that the crash rate per mile driven is about 1.5 times higher for 16-yearolds than for 18–19-year-olds. So the learning curve can be relatively short. Teens also have that sometimes endearing sense of invulnerability. Sadly, it proves to be a mirage all too often. Another relevant and revealing statistic: Among teen drivers and passengers 16–19 years of age who died in car crashes in 2018, nearly half were not wearing seat belts at the time of the crash. Even if they don’t get involved in a traffic accident, driver studies usually put teens at the very bottom of the barrel when it comes to seat belt compliance.
So let’s devote the rest of this column to ways they can be helped. If you gotta love ’em, exactly how do you show it?
Start with the decision to not simply throw them the keys once they have a license. Parents should begin long before that, even before they get their learner’s permit, to help them understand the serious responsibilities that come with driving. Failing to acknowledge those can lead to hospitals, wheelchairs, jail cells and cemeteries. Enrolling in formal driver training is a great idea. The cost is well worth it (and might even result in significant insurance savings).
Establishing and clearly communicating house rules about driving privileges is essential. Even matters as simple as not playing the radio while driving should be addressed, but texting while driving should be at the top of your Thou Shall Not list. Ditto for drinking and driving. Parents, don’t be naive enough to think your perfect little angel would never do such a thing. Make sure they remember that it is against your house rules and against the law. And it’s also stupid and reckless.
Speaking of naiveté, let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that sitting Junior down for a rules of the road discussion will be the prevent-all and cure-all for any potential driving indiscretions. It would be nice, but that’s not the real world.
Knowing that, many parents use an app called Life360. It’s free and can be upgraded to additional plans at low cost. It tracks things like location, speed, hard braking, rapid acceleration, texting while driving, and even collision detection and notification.
The drawback is that your child has to have their cell phone with them. Oh wait, they have their cell phones 24/7/365. Problem solved!
HOW TO CUT UP A CHICKEN
Ho hum, you say, I already know how to cut up a chicken. But this is no ordinary bird. This is a large, Costco loss leader, rotisserie hen baked and basted to a delicious, juicy turn for only $4.99!
As one nears the rotisserie counter at Costco, the fragrance of baked chicken wafts toward you as you lean on your large shopping cart and sniff the air. Resistance is futile. Into the cart the hot package goes.
Heading home in my car, I could still smell the hot chicken tempting me and making my mouth water. When I got home, I ate two wings and a drumstick. (No, I did not eat it in the car.)
But I had a bigger plan for this chicken. The next day at lunch, I enjoyed a sliced chicken sandwich after which I began to “dismantle” that juicy basted hen to make enchiladas for a dinner party.
I saved the scraps and bones and started a pot of chicken soup with veggies from the fridge. Small scraps were given to my porch cat; he loves chicken too!
There was still some white meat left so I made chicken salad for me and saved the rest for Lemon Chicken Pasta later in the week. None of these dishes were made due to my being frugal (although I am), but who doesn’t like chicken and what a versatile meat it is!
So, the next time you bring home a rotisserie chicken, think of all the delicious meals you can make and…you will be able to spell “rotisserie!”
by Pat Tante
DIAL NOW!
The blog spot
3 REASONS WHY PATIENTS ARE UNHAPPY
When I’m working in the hospital, I always find it interesting talking to patients about their medical history and experiences with outpatient physicians. The state of our primary care system is reflected in the comments I receive from patients. Despite the best efforts of an amazingly dedicated number of doctors, it’s often an impossible job in today’s health care system. Interestingly, I rarely hear patients complain to me about costs or that a certain test or procedure may not be covered by insurance. It’s always about their experiences with the health care system on a human level.
It’s aboutrarelycost
Here are the top 3 reasons I hear for why people are unhappy:
1. My appointments are either impossible to get or too rushed. Faced with enormous demand on outpatient clinics and ever-increasing bureaucratic requirements, doctors everywhere are finding it extremely difficult to spend adequate time with patients. Sadly, this becomes an even bigger problem when dealing with aging and more medically complex patients. There’s no easy answer if there’s simply not enough supply of doctors or incentives for graduates to go into said specialty. But the doctors that are left to see patients have to find a way to make the most out of the time available. We always need to utilize good communication skills such as ensuring adequate eye contact (assuming in-person visits, which patients overwhelmingly prefer post-COVID) and empathetic active listening techniques. No staring at the screen when we should be looking at our patient!
2. I keep seeing a different clinician. This is one of the saddest things I keep hearing, especially from patients with a long list of medical problems. They are “officially” assigned to one doctor, but each visit will see a different doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant. They desperately need one go-to clinician to be the captain of the ship. But resources are scarce, and this isn’t possible. Hence what I call a merry-go-round of new doctor encounters with the same patient. This is very easy for me to spot on the electronic medical record and is suboptimal to good clinical care.
3. My doctor doesn’t seem to care, and the office rarely returns my calls. Whenever I hear this, it always hits me hard. To be clear, it’s a very small number of people who say something like this—but it’s one of the worst things any patient can think. Of course, I don’t know the backgrounds, but I do see people who seem like very reasonable folks give this feedback. If that truly is what any patient thinks, I only have one piece of advice for them: Find another doctor ASAP! In fact, I often go further than that, and even I hand them contact information for other doctors in the area. Your health is simply too important for you to feel like your doctor is not on your side.
I believe that all the problems we face within our health care system are all right there beneath the surface. They are a simmering volcano waiting to erupt as soon as we come out of the pandemic. There is a shortage of physicians, a lack of focus on primary care and prevention, mind-numbing bureaucracy, and the pain of dealing with 3rd parties.
The nation’s overall health continues to decline while the costs of the system continue to escalate. It doesn’t take an Einstein to work out that those two things are incompatible, and the system will reach a complete breaking point in the not too distant future.
+
Suneel Dhand is an internal medicine physician
by Dan Pearson
1. Eyeglasses, informally
6. Swelling
11. Dr. of rapology
14. Unit of weight at Windsor Fine Jewelers
15. Wanderer
16. Like a bad deal
17. Express opinions
18. _____ off (like 17-A)
19. Press into service
20. Element number 73
22. Equine sounds
24. On sheltered side
25. Swiss capital
26. Old type of radio
30. “Super Trouper” group
34. Break into a data system
35. Norse goddess
36. Academic administrator
37. Folklore fiend
38. Washington of Hollywood
40. Pole on a boat
41. Psychic
42. Mimic
43. Colored part of the eye
44. Vegetable like taro
45. Unnecessarily
49. Exhort
51. Torn clothing
52. Queasiness
55. Of tears
59. Atmosphere
60. Braves player who scored the winning run of the 1992 NLCS
62. African plague
63. Kissing in public, for ex.
64. The main artery
65. Kettering partner
66. Snakelike fish
67. Flowers with thorns
68. Inward feeling
The Mystery Word for this issue: ICENETEPR
Simply unscramble the letters, then begin exploring our ads When you find the correctly spelled word HIDDEN in one of our ads — enter at AugustaRx.com
We’ll announce the winner in our next issue!
M I N E R S U D O K U
DIRECTIONS: Every line, vertical and horizontal, and all nine 9-square boxes must each contain the numbers 1 though 9. Solution on page 14.
DOWN
1. Native of Scotland
2. Dad
3. Ireland
4. Quarrelsome
5. Fast runners in baseball often rack these up
6. Follows
7. It pairs well with gloom
8. Large flightless bird
9. Polite
10. Venomous snake
11. Medicine
12. Like an impulsive decision
13. Female sheep
21. Wreath of flowers
23. Not allowable in court
25. An Afrikaner
26. The ones over there
27. Stormed
28. A large farm is many-
29. Number of Stooges
31. George Hallas team
32. Culinary herb
33. Restless; on edge
38. Leaping marsupial
39. Fencing sword
46. Stage plays
47. Resin used in varnish
48. Exit
50. Rods used to reinforce concrete
52. Neck back
53. Helper
54. Mountain range and river that share the same name
55. Of ______ (recently)
56. Earth’s satellite
57. Exclamation of sorrow or regret
58. Bicycle _____
61. Trauma pt. destinations
DIRECTIONS: Recreate a timeless nugget of wisdom by using the letters in each vertical column to fill the boxes above them. Once any letter is used, cross it out in the lower half of the puzzle. Letters may be used only once. Black squares indicate spaces between words, and words may extend onto a second line.
Solution on page 14.
THEBESTMEDICINE
ha... ha...
Apeanut, a raisin, a chocolate chip and some oats decide to order drinks, but the bartender refused to serve them.
“What do you think this is?” he asked, “a granola bar?”
In his sermon, the minister preached about God’s love for each of us despite our insignificance, “for we are all but dust,” he said.
A little boy tugged on his mother’s sleeve. “Mommy,” he asked her, “what’s butt dust?”
Moe: My girlfriend thinks I’m a stalker.
Joe: For real?
Moe: For real. I mean, technically she’s not my girlfriend yet, but...
Moe: Weirdest thing ever happened on our vacation.
Joe: Do tell, do tell.
Moe: Well you know we went to New York, right? So we’re driving along and we get to an area where they were having wildfires.
Joe: Right, I heard about that. Used to be only in California. Not anymore.
Moe: Exactly. The whole area up there
was dry as toast, and we could see billowing clouds of smoke a few miles ahead.
Joe: I’m with you so far. What was so weird?
Moe: We’re driving along minding our own business when up ahead I see a whole bunch of sheep munching on the dry grass alongside the road. It was out in the country, so I’m like, ok, it’s a little unusual... but here was the really weird thing: there was fire truck pulled over too, and a whole crew of firefighters were tending the sheep.
Joe: That’s odd. Wonder why they did that?
Moe: That was my question too. So I pulled over and walked up to the first fireman I saw and asked him, What’s the deal with all these sheep? And while I’m at it, why no rams?
Joe: What did he say?
Moe: He said only ewes can prevent forest fires.
Moe: How many men does it take to change a lightbulb?
Joe: A bunch.
Moe: Why do you say that?
Joe: Many hands make light work.
Moe: Hey, you want to hear a joke told backwards?
Joe: Sure, go for it.
Moe: [silence]
Joe: Well?
Moe: I was waiting for you to laugh.
Moe: I got a rash from telling bad jokes
Joe: I’ve never heard of such a thing.
Moe: You’ve never heard of joke itch?
Staring at my phone all day has certainly had no Effect on ME!
By popular demand we’re making at-cost subscriptions available for the convenience of our readers. If you live beyond the Aiken-Augusta area, or miss issues between doctor’s appointments — don’t you hate it when that happens? — we’ll command your mail carrier to bring every issue to your house!
NAME ADDRESS CITY STATE ZIP
Choose six months for $24 or one year for $46 . Mail this completed form with payment to Augusta Medical Examiner, PO Box 397, Augusta GA 30903- 0397
Dear Advice Doctor,
The Advice Doctor
There are so many problems in the world I’m sure you’ll never run out of subjects to give advice about. That’s why I’m writing. I recently inherited a sizeable sum of money. I know it’s a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things, but I’m willing to use all of it if it will make a difference somehow. How can I best take the pulse of our community and determine where I can be of the most help? — May I help you?
Dear May,
I applaud your desire, and I want to assure you that this should be a fairly simple matter.
That’s because there are so many convenient places where the pulse can be taken. Wherever an artery travels near the surface of the body — and there are many such places — can be a good place to take the pulse.
My personal favorite for ease of touch is the carotid artery, which can be felt (or “palpated”) a little to the left or right of the vertical midline of the front of the neck. Other sites include the wrist, the inside of the elbow, and the back of the knee.
There are many reasons to take our pulse, and it can provide a surprising amount of information — starting with “Is this person alive?” Emergency responders check it immediately if a person is unresponsive. The standard measure is beats per minute (bpm). “Normal” bpm when a person has been resting for at least ten minutes ranges from 60 to 80, with variations beyond those broad limits for different age groups. A very rapid pulse (known as tachycardia) can indicate the possibility of dehydration, infection, cardiovascular issues, or sheer terror. An abnormally slow pulse (bradycardia) could be a sign of misfires in the heart’s electrical system, a drug interaction, or perhaps that the patient is a serious athlete: during his career professional cyclist Miguel Indurain reportedly had a resting heart rate of 28 bpm.
As mentioned, lots of information can be gleaned from taking the pulse. For example, it can reveal the existence of an irregular heartbeat, alternating between fast and slow; another valuable clinical indication is provided if the pulse is strong on one arm and weak on the other; a weak pulse might mean low cardiac output, and indicates the need for further investigation. And it isn’t all about detecting trouble: runners and exercise walkers measure pulse to gauge the intensity of their workout.
Do you have a question for The Advice Doctor about life, love, personal relationships, career, raising children, or any other important topic? Send it to News@AugustaRx.com. Replies will only be provided in the Examiner.
THE MYSTERY SOLVED
The Celebrated MYSTERY WORD CONTEST
...wherein we hide (with fiendish cleverness) a simple word. All you have to do is unscramble the word (found on page 12), then find it concealed within one of our ads. Click in to the contest link at www.AugustaRx.com and enter. If we pick you in our random drawing of correct entries, you’ll score our goodie package!
SEVEN SIMPLE RULES: 1. Unscramble and find the designated word hidden within one of the ads in this issue. 2. Visit the Reader Contests page at www.AugustaRx.com. 3. Tell us what you found and where you found it. 4. If you’re right and you’re the one we pick at random, you win. (Winners within the past six months are ineligible.) 5. Prizes awarded to winners may vary from issue to issue. Limited sizes are available for shirt prize. 6. A photo ID may be required to claim some prizes. 7. Other entrants may win a lesser prize at the sole discretion of the publisher. 8. Deadline to enter is shown on page 12.
WORDS BY NUMBER
The
— Henry Ward Beecher
PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
ACUPUNCTURE
Dr. Eric Sherrell, DACM, LAC
Augusta Acupuncture Clinic 4141 Columbia Road
706-888-0707
www.AcuClinicGA.com
CHIROPRACTIC
Jason H. Lee, DMD 116 Davis Road
Karen L. Carter, MD 1303 D’Antignac St, Suite 2100 Augusta 30901 706-396-0600 www.augustadevelopmentalspecialists.com
