Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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Hypothyroidism, the condition of the thyroid gland not making enough thyroid hormone, is a common hormonal disorder. Perhaps because hypothyroidism is common and its symptoms can be widespread and vague, misconceptions abound. Let’s cover the facts. Symptoms of hypothyroidism can include fatigue, dry skin, weight gain and hair loss. These symptoms can occur for many other reasons, so fortunately a very simple blood test can tell us whether an underactive thyroid is the culprit. If h...
I don’t know how you feel, but in my opinion, parenting is hard. Someone must have forgotten to hand me the instruction manual when my children came home. I have yet to meet a parent who wouldn’t appreciate one. New parents can count on getting lots of advice from well-meaning friends and relatives and, sometimes, even perfect strangers. Some of that advice is welcome and useful. Some, not so much. And sometimes that advice is downright dangerous. Many grandparents raised their own children at...
William H. Allen, 71, of Clarksdale, Mississippi, filed a waiver of appearance in Holt County court last week for shooting a turkey that was on private property, from the roadway, an offense that cost the man $1,249. He pleaded guilty to Count I, hunting without permission, and Count II, shooting from roadway, both Class 3 misdemeanors. He was fined $200 for Count I and $500 for Count II, assessed $500 in liquidated damage and $49 costs. Allen was cited April 22 by a Nebraska Game and Parks Commission officer near 485 Avenue and Lumber Road in...
Over the course of my career, I have performed countless pelvic exams on women of all ages from all walks of life. There are two common patient behaviors that I have observed. First, most women leave their socks on. This could be the fact that most stirrups are cold, but it also seems like one feels just a little less exposed when wearing at least one item of their own clothing. The other thing that almost every woman does in the exam room is hide her undergarments under her pile of clothes. It...
Tyler C. Bain, 39, of O’Neill appeared in front of the Honorable Kale Burdick in the Holt County courtroom in O’Neill on Tuesday, May 3, for bond hearings in two county court cases. Bain was represented in each case, for purposes of bond review only, by Holt County public defender Rodney Smith. Bain had appeared April 3, when he requested court-appointed counsel. After holding an indigency hearing, Burdick denied the request. In the first case, Bain, who is charged with third-degree domestic ass...
Campbell was represented by Ronald Temple of Norfolk. Crystal J. Diedrich, 35, of Grand Island, waived her right to counsel, pleaded no contest and was found guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor, operating a motor vehicle during time of suspension. Burdick fined her $100 and taxed $50 costs. Diedrich was cited April 1 in O’Neill. Erin Hanlin, 39, of Gregory, South Dakota, was allowed to plead guilty by waiver, to a charge of issuing a bad check to Ewing Family Foods on March 24, 2020. She was fined $250, taxed $50 costs and ordered to pay $207.84 re...
The act of breathing is essential to life and can be done with or without thinking about it. You can control your breath and vary it, but eventually, air must come in and air must go out. The breath of life and breathing exercises are an important aspect of many religions. In the book of Genesis, when God created man, he formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Several Eastern religions use controlled breathing in meditation and prayer, helping in...
Brooklynn Chipps, of Wayne State College, was named the Northern Sun Conference Women's Field Athlete of the Week, after her performance last weekend at the South Dakota Challenge in Vermillion. Chipps posted two NCAA provisional qualifying marks in the shot put and hammer throw. In shot put, Chipps threw 46' 1.5". That throw ranks fourth best in the NSIC this year. Chipps competed against several Division 1 throwers in the hammer throw. She finished second, hitting 197' 11". The throw set a...
From Babe Ruth to John Wayne, Americans have seen chewing tobacco in popular culture for over a century. Spitting chew has been a trademark of cowboys and professional athletes alike and chewing tobacco use continues at high rates in the United States. In 2018, a survey showed 2.4% of American adults used smokeless tobacco, with snuff or snus pouch use on the rise and chewing tobacco on the decline. Though smokeless tobacco use is not associated with lung cancer like smoking is, it has its own...
Skin is the largest organ in the human body, but it’s easy to take it for granted. Unless we notice pain or itching or funny spots, most people don’t give it much thought. However, the skin is critically important. It helps regulate our body temperature and fluid and electrolyte balance. It provides us critical information about our environment, and it protects us from invasion by the sea of germs we encounter every day. Some of the sickest patients doctors ever treat are those who have had sig...
Levi W. Bode, 19, of Burwell faced the Honorable Kale Burdick in the Holt County courtroom in O’Neill last week on seven misdemeanor alcohol and tobacco charges. A plea agreement was announced, resulting in Holt County prosecutor Brent Kelly reducing a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol, to reckless driving, first offense, and dismissing two counts of possession of false identification and a count of tobacco use by a minor. Bode pleaded no contest and was found guilty on Count I, reckless driving, Count II, minor in possession o...
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, was first listed as a medical diagnosis in 1980. However, it has been recognized and called by many different names throughout history. The first recorded description of PTSD is in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which dates back to 2100 B.C. In The Iliad and The Odyssey, Homer wrote about Trojan War soldiers exhibiting symptoms of PTSD. Shakespeare described a character in King Henry IV who suffered from post-traumatic nightmares. During the Civil War, the terms...
I enjoy visiting with my colleagues who are medical specialists. We dive in and explore the depths of a particular condition. However, there is something to say about the breadth of knowledge that a family medicine physician is expected to have. Your family doctor can run through the alphabet of conditions from acne to the zika virus. A 2004 study in the “Annals of Family Medicine” found that a family medicine physician managed an average of 3.05 problems per clinic visit. For patients over 65...
Since ancient times, marijuana has been used for medicinal and recreational purposes in many cultures. In the United States, it became illegal during prohibition, like alcohol. Later, under the Controlled Substances Act in the 1970s, the federal government classified marijuana a Schedule 1 drug. This classification includes heroin, LSD and ecstasy, all deemed to have no safe, effective medical use and a high potential for abuse. This Schedule 1 status imposes bureaucratic and legal barriers,...
Michael J. Long, 32, of O’Neill was recently bound over to the Holt County district court when he faced the Honorable Kale Burdick in the Holt County courtroom on several felony charges in two separate cases. Long waived his right to preliminary hearing and was bound over March 15, on three felonies alleged June 5, 2021, two Class 4 felony counts of possession of a controlled substance, (methamphetamine and a sedative, eszopiclone) and first-degree false imprisonment, a Class 3A felony. He is also charged with two infractions, possession of m...
Life expectancy is a measure commonly considered when it comes to the overall health of a population. In this day and age, when most of us think about which medical interventions are most important to increase life expectancy, we probably think about things like treatment of cancer, interventions to treat heart attacks or surgeries for life-threatening illnesses. While those things are all important, their overall impact on a population’s life expectancy pales in comparison to the prevention o...
Lately my teenager has been fascinated by medical dramas. Although my “doctor self” is usually rolling my eyes throughout the program, it’s often a good conversation starter. One recent show featured a pregnant woman who experienced one medical crisis after another. Her kidneys, liver and lungs failed in succession as the team raced to identify the underlying obstetrical problem and find a treatment. At the climax of the episode, her heart stopped. Of course, being television, the correct diagn...
The saying goes “time heals all wounds”, but what happens when a wound does not heal? Wounds go through many stages while healing and complications at any step can prolong the process. The first step is stopping the bleeding. For people who are taking blood thinners like aspirin or warfarin, it may take longer for the bleeding to stop or clot. The next step after the blood starts to clot is forming a scab. This happens when blood vessels around the wound narrow and platelets in the blood clump t...
Perhaps this has happened to you: Your recent cough kept you up for another night, so you went to the doctor. The nurse took your vitals, the doctor asked you some questions, listened to your lungs, maybe looked at your ears and your throat, and recommended rest, fluids, over the counter treatments and time. It all seemed fine until you got home and realized the doctor did not “do anything” for you. Why didn’t the doctor prescribe an antibiotic? What could it hurt? The use of antibiotics has bee...
Cancer is a broad term which encompasses many different diseases and each type of cancer has different patterns and tendencies. But at its core, cancer means a group of cells which is growing uncontrollably, due to one or multiple genetic mutations. Cancer prevention is a topic we see frequently in the media and it can be hard to separate fact from fiction. Truthfully, many cancers occur at random, and even modern science does not yield any clues as to how to prevent such cancers. Supplements...
When you watch a medical drama on television, the main characters are generally doctors, nurses and patients. We rarely learn about the many extras in the background. In an actual hospital, patients are cared for by their doctors and nurses, along with a large supporting cast and crew. Many of these people on stage and behind the scenes rarely get their name in lights. I would like to introduce them now. Before a patient arrives at the hospital, we often rely on emergency medical technicians...
Lisa M. Dugal, 56, Neligh, appeared in front of the Honorable Donna Taylor in the Antelope County courtroom in Neligh on Feb. 2 for pretrial conference on a Class 1 misdemeanor, false reporting. Dugal changed her plea to no contest, pursuant to a plea deal. In return, Antelope County prosecutor Joe Abler agreed to file no additional charges in the case and recommended a probation sentence. Taylor sentenced her to an eight-month term of probation, including related fees totaling $280 and $50 costs of prosecution. The charges stemmed from...
After a two-years hiatus from ice, the Royal Volunteer Fire Department Ice Fishing Tournament returned with a large group of competitors. Forty-one teams entered the five-hour event, Sunday, at Grove Lake. Royal Fire Chief Gary Ober said it's "great" to have a large number of teams participate and be back on the ice. Now in its 39th year, Ober said the tournament hasn't been held nine times, either due to weather conditions or, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. The event brought anglers...
Did the groundhog see his shadow this year? Every year on Feb. 2, people gather in the small town of Punxsutawney, in western Pennsylvania, to observe the annual Groundhog Day ceremony. If the groundhog does see his shadow, he may retreat to his den and winter will last another six weeks. If he does not see his shadow, spring may arrive early. This tradition is nearly 140 years old. Organizers claim, for the sake of folklore, that the original groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil is still alive today,...
William “Duke” Hobbs 1946 - 2022 A funeral Mass for William L. “Duke” Hobbs, 75 of O’Neill, formerly of Ewing, was Monday Jan. 31, at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Ewing. Burial followed in St. Peter’s Catholic Cemetery in Ewing. Duke died Wednesday, January 26, 2022, at his home. Memorials may be directed to the family for future designation. Arrangements were entrusted to Biglin’s Mortuary of O’Neill. ~~~ William Lee “Duke” Hobbs was born Feb. 10, 1946, to William A. and Arlene (Schiffbau...
