Page 26 - Senior Times South Central Michigan - June 2016 - 23-06

Page 26
Senior Times - June 2016
Now Serving Athens, Union City, & Tekonsha
✓ Newly Constructed Facility ✓ On-Site Banquet Space
✓ Handicap Accessible
✓ Competitive Pricing
✓ Pre-Planning & Monuments
✓ Cremation & Pet Cremation
✓ You Can Transfer Your Pre-Plan
To Lighthouse Free Of Charge
Tate C. Goodwin, Director / Mgr.
Lighthouse Funeral &
Cremation Services, LLC
1276 Tate Trail, Union City, MI 49094
517-741-4555
wWwWwW..lLigIGhHtThHoOuUsSeEFfuUnNeERrAaLl.CcOoMm “Guiding You In Your Time Of Need”
NO ONE EVER EXPECTS TO NEED A NEUROSURGEON
Then again, no one ever expects
to have a brain tumor. Today, nearly 700,000 people in the United States
are living with a primary brain tumor, and approximately 78,000 more will be diagnosed in 2016. Brain tumors do not discriminate. They affect men, women and children of all races and ethnicities.
What is a brain tumor?
A brain tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue in the brain or central spine that can stop your brain from working the right way. They can be cancerous (malignant) or not (benign).
Risk Factors
• Age: Most brain tumors occur in
people age 65 years or older, but
they can occur at any age.
• Family history: About five percent
of brain tumors may be linked to
genetics.
• Gender: In general, men are more
likely than women to develop a brain tumor; some specific types of brain tumors, such as meningioma, are more common in women.
• Lifestyle choices: Tobacco use and/ or alcohol use.
Sign and Symptoms
People with a brain tumor may expe- rience many signs or symptoms. They can vary based on the tumor location. These symptoms may be caused by something else.
• Headaches, which may be severe and worsen with activity or in the early morning
• Seizures
• Personality or memory changes
Surviving
• Nausea or vomiting
• Fatigue
• Loss of balance and difficulty with
fine motor skills
• Vision changes
• Difficulty swallowing, facial weak-
ness or numbness, or double vision • Altered perception of touch or pres-
sure, arm or leg weakness on one side of the body, or confusion with left and right sides of the body
If you have one or more signs on this list, please talk with your doctor. Your doctor will ask how long and how often you’ve been having them and will help find out the cause of the problem.
Quality of Care
If you or a loved one has a brain tumor, it’s important to be cared
for by an experienced, high-quality team. When it comes to neurosurgery, Bronson leads southwest Michigan in surgical procedures that treat disorders affecting the entire nervous system. Bronson Methodist Hospital has been ranked by Healthgrades among the
top 5% in the nation for neurosurgery for the past four years. The area's only neurosurgeon fellowship trained in both pediatric and skull base neurosurgery. Bronson neurosurgeons specialize in complex neurosurgery cases and are specially trained to perform minimally invasive procedures.
For more information about neurosci- ences at Bronson, visit www.bronson- health.com/neuro.
Alain Y. Fabi, MD, neurosurgeon and medical director of neurosurgery
at Bronson, is board certified in neuro- logical surgery. He completed his medi- cal residency and internship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.
Bronson Health
UPDATE
By: Alain Y. Fabi, MD, Neurosurgeon
The Village of
Mill Creek A SENIOR LIVING COMMUNITY A Mission of Presbyterian Villages of Michigan
 NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS
• Services and programs tailored to provide
the best in affordable senior living.
• Finely-crafted, new, three-story building with an equally impressive interior.
• Wall to wall carpeting, individually controlled heating and cooling systems, and fully equipped kitchens.
• Personal 24-hour emergency call system
• Wellness room
• Library/computer room
• Central laundry room
• Community room
• Planned monthly resident activities
• Pet friendly
• Security cameras throughout the property
• On-site maintenance
• Barrier-free apartments available
Embrace The Possibilities
300 Carl Avenue, Battle Creek, MI 49037
PH: 269-962-0605 • FX: 269-965-2285 • TTY: 800-649-3777 • www.pvm.org
Looking For A
Low Cost, Legal Alternative To Bankruptcy?
Are you a Senior, Veteran or Disabled person living on Social Security, Disability, Pensions or Veteran’s Benefits?
Federal law protects your income from creditor garnishment. Debt Counsel for Seniors, Veterans and the Disabled (DCSD) can protect you from creditor harassment. If you can’t pay your credit card or medical bills or your student loans, you can stop paying them without filing for bankruptcy.
We are celebrating 16 years of helping seniors with their debt without filing for bankruptcy and protecting them from letters and calls from collection agents. You too can live worry-free as thousans of our clients do.
Call Debt Counsel for Seniors and
the Disabled For a Free Consultation
at 1-800-992-3275 Ext. 1304
Jerome S. Lamet
Founder & Supervising Attorney, Former Bankruptcy Trustee
www.debtcounsel.net • info@lawyers-united.com
Mark Barnum, of Grand Rapids, has always had a positive outlook on life. But these days, he makes a special effort to take each day as it comes and be more appreciative of the important things in life.
Mark has always loved staying active: playing golf, traveling and spending time with his wife and family. So when he was playing a round of golf and couldn’t see where his ball landed, he decided to get his eyes checked out by his local ophthalmologist. Although he believed it to be glaucoma, Mark’s eye doctor suggested he get a CT scan at the local hospital.
However, when Mark got the results of his scan back, the problem was not glaucoma. Just before Thanksgiving, Mark was diagnosed with having a large tumor on his pituitary gland - located
on the back of his neck. With this sud- den news, Mark was referred to a local endocrinologist in Grand Rapids with the hopes of being treated with drug therapy. After running a variety of tests, it was determined that the type of tumor Mark was suffering from could only be treated by surgery.
The news of his tumor was very scary for Mark and his family. “Brain surgery is a big deal. We didn’t know what to expect,” explained Mark. He and his wife did a lot of research to help make the best decision on where Mark should have his surgery. They learned that the wait time for this type of sur- gery can be quite long, and not very many doctors in Michigan perform it.
It was when he was talking with a friend in Kalamazoo that he learned about Dr. Alain Fabi.
On December 24, less than a month after his diagnosis, Mark checked
into Bronson Methodist Hospital. Dr. Fabi, along with Dr. Steven Szeles of Bronson ENT, Head, Neck & Throat Specialists, performed the surgery. Mark was discharged the next day.
“Bronson did a great job with my surgery and certainly took care of the problems I was having,” explained Mark. “Both doctors had a different approach to describing my case. Dr. Fabi would show me lots of pictures and diagrams to show me what he was going to do, or what I needed to do. Dr. Szeles was very verbal and did a really good job at explaining everything to me in a way that was easy to understand.”
Just a few months after his surgery, Mark is getting back to his normal life. Mark said. “I am able to drive, work full time and travel for work again,” Mark says. “I am excited to be able to get back to the golf course soon!”
A Brain Tumor