If you’ve been thinking about getting laser eye surgery or LASIK surgery, you may want to know about any risks or complications that may occur. Although many people report good results, some problems may not show up until later. And the results, good or bad, of your surgery may not show up for several months. So it’s good to know what risks there are before you get LASIK surgery.

These are a few of the things to think about:

Some employers will not hire you if you’ve had refractive surgery (RK, PRK, and LASIK). So check with your employer or professional association first to make sure it won’t interfere with your job or future employment in your field. If you’re in the military or planning to join, check with the military also.

You probably know that most medical or health insurance plans won’t pay for LASIK or other refractive surgery. LASIK surgery is cheaper than it used to be but insurance companies still won’t pay.

Make sure to discuss what is called refractive stability with you eye surgeon. If you’re in your early twenties or younger or have hormones that are unstable due to diabetes or other diseases, you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, you may be considered unstable for a LASIK procedure.

And some medications such as those containing retinoic acid and certain steroids may delay healing after your surgery. You need to tell your eye surgeon about all the medications and over-the-counter medications you take. Any one of these may cause fluctuations in your vision and interfere with the outcome.

If you participate in contact sports such as boxing, the martial arts or wrestling you may not want to get LASIK surgery.

If you’ve had certain eye diseases make sure you tell your eye surgeon if they don’t already know. Perhaps another doctor treated you. This would include herpes simplex or shingles that involve the eye or the region around the eye, glaucoma, or elevated blood pressure in the eye, uveitis, iritis, keratoconus. and any eye injuries.

Other possible risks could include any current inflammation of the eyelids, which could cause problems after refractive surgery, such as infection in the cornea. Having thin corneas or dry eyes may cause problems after surgery.

If you have diseases such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes or HIV you would not be a good candidate for laser eye surgery.

LASIK surgery can sometimes require additional surgery. Since LASIK and other laser eye surgeries are elective surgeries, you many need to consider the cost before you decide.

After surgery you may find you still need reading glasses. The long-term effects are still not known. Some people have lost some or all of their vision after surgery. Some patients have had problems with glare, halos, starbursts etc. Some patients have found night driving to be difficult. If you have dry eyes now you may find your condition worse or worsening after surgery.

These are just some of the risks and things to think about before you decide on LASIK surgery.

Learn all you can before you decide on or get LASIK surgery or any other eye surgery. Make sure you discuss all of this with your eye doctor and eye surgeon before you go ahead. Get a second opinion if possible. You want to make sure you know all the risks and complications that can occur during and after surgery.

For more information on LASIK eye surgery and cost of laser eye surgery visit Helen Hecker R.N.’s http://www.VisionNurse.com which offers tips and resources, including information on travel and low cost LASIK eye surgery, discount contact lenses, sunglasses, eyeglasses and laser vision correction

If you’re thinking about getting lap band surgery or an adjustable band surgery or any type of weight loss surgery, you’re probably wondering what it costs and how you’re going to finance or pay for it.

First, if you’re insured now or have a health insurance policy either through your private health insurance company or through your employer, contact them and ask if weight loss surgery is covered. If it is you want to know what your co-pay costs will be or what other costs you’ll be responsible for or what your deductibles will be to prepare and in case you need to arrange financing for it.

Keep in mind there may be complications and there may be more hospitalizations than you planned, more follow up appointments, diet changes, etc. So keep this in mind.

Assuming you don’t have insurance and need to finance your weight loss surgery there are a few options to consider. If possible, save up cash to pay for your out-of-pocket expenses, to reduce the amount that you’ll need to finance.

Weight loss surgery, lap band surgery and other adjustable band surgeries are expensive. Costs can range from $10,200 to $30,500 depending on your situation, your geographical location (in some cities it can cost more), and whether or not you need extensive follow-up care.

Now you want to find the best source of financing with the cheapest interest rate. If you own your home you may be able to get a home equity loan to pay for it. A loan can also be secured by your checking or savings account or any certificates of deposit you might have.

A few finance companies specialize in giving loans for medical purposes such as weight loss surgery and other elective procedures. There are medical financing companies that specifically finance lap band surgeries only. Ask your bariatric (weight loss) surgeon for some recommendations. He or she may be able to recommend a particular company or may have a list of medical financing companies.

Credit unions and the bank you do business with are good sources for medical or personal loans. Consider a personal loan if you’re not able to arrange a medical loan. They offer secured and unsecured loans, home equity loans and lines of credit. I wouldn’t use a line of credit unless you know you’ll have enough money in a short time to pay it back.

Then there is the almighty credit card. Yes, people have used one or more credit cards to finance surgery. Make sure you’re in a situation where you can pay it back on time however.

If you have to take out a loan that carries a high interest rate, you may be able to refinance the loan later at a much lower rate by transferring the balance depending on the market.

In some cases, people have traveled out of the United States to have weight loss surgery in Mexico, Brazil or other countries. Yes, it may be a lot cheaper but you may have a problem finding a surgeon in the U.S. to do follow-up care and if you have complications, it may be a problem.

These are just a few of the ways you can finance weight loss surgery including lap band surgery and other adjustable gastric band surgeries. Take time and do a lot of research and you can save yourself a lot of money. Make sure you understand weight loss surgery and all it entails in terms of complications and risks and have your financing all in place before you commit.

For more nurse’s tips and info on lap band weight loss surgery and lap band surgery risks go to http://www.Lap-Band-Surgery-Info.com for tips on lap band surgery, adjustable gastric band surgery, medical travel for low cost lap band surgery and cost of lap band surgery

If you’re experiencing knee pain and don’t know the cause you may not know there is something you can do about it. Most knee injuries occur during some kind of exercise, whether intentionally exercising or just using your knee or knees.

For many years, knees and knee pain have been the source of many studies and research. It’s a common exercise injury causing millions of people to suffer with knee pain. The pain might be burning, stabbing, crackling, popping or there may be noise at all. The conclusion of all these studies is that lack of hip strength causes knee injury.

If you have a non-serious knee injury, you may want to try the following exercises to build up your hip strength. These three are the best knee exercises and are done with a resistance band. Try to do these exercises daily. These are called the Swing to the Side, the Kick in Front and the Sitting Rotator.

All three exercises are easy to do and can be done in minutes. If you’re having any kind of knee pain, you might try these exercises to build up your hip strength. If you feel any hip or knee pain while doing the exercises then make sure to stop. In addition, you should check with your doctor before starting any new type of exercise program, workout or fitness routine.

If you have arthritis knee pain, strengthening the hips should help your knees also giving you more mobility, especially if you’re finding yourself not moving as much because of your knee pain.

The first knee exercise is called the Swing to the Side. Take the resistance band and anchor it. Anchor it on the left side at floor height and loop it around your right ankle. Hold on to something until you’re more comfortable with this exercise. Balance on your left foot. Then raise your right leg out to your side and then lower it.

The second knee exercise is called the Kick in Front. Anchor the resistance band behind you. Wrap it around your left ankle while flexing your foot. Swing your leg forward in front about 12 inches or so. Keep it as straight as possible. Then return to the starting position.

The third exercise is called the Sitting Rotator. Sit in a chair. Anchor your resistance band to the right side. Wrap it around your left ankle. Then cross your ankles. Keep your knees together. Now rotate or swing your left leg out about 12 inches or so towards the anchored side. Then return to the starting position.

Do these three knee exercises daily to build up your hip strength. Once your hips are stronger you should get knee pain relief. Know the cause of your knee pain first however.
Make sure to check with your doctor before starting any new exercise program. Add these to your current workout and fitness routine. There is a lot you can do naturally, without drugs and medications, to get knee pain relief besides doing hip strength exercises. You don’t have to suffer.

For a nurse’s pain relief and knee pain relief secrets, some your doctor doesn’t know, go to http://www.PainReliefFast.com for natural pain relief and for how a nurse cured her arthritis and secrets for arthritis pain relief and treatments go to http://www.FastArthritisPainRelief.com

If you’re suffering from chronic lower back pain and are looking for exercises or some way to treat it without medications or want to find some way to get pain relief and quit taking any drugs, a new study may help you. The NIH, the National Institutes of Health, funded the study designed to compare pain medications with a particular style of yoga for treatment of lower back pain.

As you may know if you’re having chronic pain or chronic lower back pain or any pain in the lower back it can cause you to be depressed. Depression just seems to go along with it and for good reason, but in this new study, depression is also relieved in the course of treatment.

The people in the study were divided into two groups. One group was taking the usual pain medications and the other group practicing yoga two times a week for about six months. The type of yoga was Iyengar. Created by using particular movements of the muscles Iyengar yoga focuses on body alignment. It differs from other styles of yoga because it uses wall ropes, chairs and blocks.

These supports are used to help support the body during postures, otherwise called asanas. They help decrease any pain in the muscles and joints. For people new to Iyengar yoga the supports make yoga easy to learn.

At the end of the six months, the people in the Iyengar yoga group had reduced pain and greater function and significantly reduced their symptoms of depression more so than those who took pain medications. And amazingly, after another six months after the study had ended they continued to reap the benefits!

Once you take a class in Iyengar yoga, you can do most of the postures at home with your own supports. If you’ve been suffering from chronic lower back pain, it’s certainly worth a try. It’s always good to find alternative treatments for chronic lower back pain to help reduce or stop pain medications if you’re taking them and avoid possible dependence or addiction.

Iyengar yoga is easy to learn and can be done at home. In this study, just the twice a week sessions over the six months showed significant improvement so it’s well worth the effort.

Why not try Iyengar yoga and experience the benefits yourself. Also, there is a lot you can do to reduce, diminish or stop chronic lower back pain besides medications and in addition to Iyengar yoga. Many have done it and no longer suffer. Make sure to check with your doctor, whether you know the cause of your pain or not, before starting any new exercise or treatment program. Think alternative treatments and treatments without drugs whenever you can to avoid the risks that all drugs bring.

For a nurse’s painkiller and pain relief secrets, some your doctor doesn’t know, go to http://www.PainReliefFast.com for treatments, techniques and natural pain relief and for my tips, secrets and help for pain killer addiction go to http://www.Pain-Killer-Addiction.info

If you’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer, it may have been suggested you have a single mastectomy in the other breast or a double mastectomy, but is this the best approach? I was diagnosed more than a decade ago with infiltrating intraductal breast cancer and I turned down all conventional breast cancer treatment including chemotherapy, radiation and surgery and chose an alternative route. No single or double mastectomy either. And I’m still in excellent health today.

The trend is alarming as more and more women are removing healthy breasts because they are panicked, are in fear of breast cancer returning or migrating to the other breast.

I’ll discuss a recent study showing why mastectomy is not saving lives in a moment. However, what is alarming to me is that there is still breast tissue left in the chest wall and by removing healthy breasts there is still tissue that could already contain cancer cells or be available to them.

There is very little evidence that proves that women live longer or survival rates increase by removing their breasts after a diagnosis of breast cancer. A recent study of statistics published in a national medical journal read by doctors found that 5000 women in one state, between 1995 and 2005, who had cancer in one of their breasts, chose to have the other breast removed. These women already had breast cancer. They were not women who tested positive for the BRCA-1 or BRCA-2 gene mutation type of breast cancer, where prophylactic removal is more common.

This trend is disheartening. Especially because there is absolutely no data, or no evidence that mastectomy or removing one or both breasts in a breast cancer patient, improved survival rates or helped them live longer. It appears that many women are doing this in panic mode. A cancer diagnosis creates panic and fear.

The statistics show that there is only a 10 percent to 15 percent chance of developing cancer in the other breast in the upcoming 20 years following the diagnosis. In addition, because one has already been diagnosed with it, breast cancer would likely be caught very early. So why remove a healthy breast?

I chose not to have any chemotherapy, radiation or surgery. They wanted to remove some of my lymph nodes and give me aggressive chemo and radiation. In addition, this was to be followed by five years of the drug Tamoxifen.

I turned it all down! Of course I immediately changed my lifestyle and radically changed my diet. And I felt healthier in the month and months and years to follow and ever since then – more than ten years ago. If you’ve had a breast cancer diagnosis and are considering mastectomy either single or double, please do plenty of research before you commit. Based on the studies, research and data today there doesn’t seem to be a good reason to do it.

For more of my info on breast cancer and alternative breast cancer treatment and curing myself naturally see http://www.RawFoodDietCure.com and http://www.MyNaturalBreastCancerCure.com

If you suffer from sinus headaches or wonder if the cause of your head pain is due to the sinuses there are a few things you may want to know. These headaches are sometimes confused with migraines or tension headaches. However, the symptoms of sinus headaches are quite different.

Sinus headaches cause a deep and constant pain in the area of the cheekbones, forehead or bridge of the nose and sometimes on one side of the top of the head. This pain gets worse with sudden head movement or straining of the head. Along with a sinus headache, you may have nasal drainage or discharge, a feeling of fullness in the ears and facial swelling. Sometimes people get a fever if they have a sinus infection, although a fever does not always accompany a sinus infection.

Allergies are often to blame for a sinus headache but allergies don’t cause sinus headaches. They may cause sinus congestion, which can cause headache pain however. In this case relieving your allergies may not relieve your headache pain,

Symptoms may include pain, pressure, a tightness or fullness in your cheeks, forehead or brow. If you bend forward or lie down your pain may get worse. You could have yellow-tinged or yellow-green tinged nasal drainage or discharge which would indicate you have a sinus infection.

You could have a slight sore throat, which indicates irritation by sinus drainage, a cough from the irritation that doesn’t involve your lungs and fatigue or a general feeling of tiredness. A sinus infection affects the whole body not just the sinuses so feeling tired or weary and suffering from a headache can certainly indicate one.

A sinus headache can last a day or over several days if you have a sinus infection. Clearing up the sinus infection will get rid of the headache. One-day headaches are a lot more common than was originally thought.

You want to keep your sinuses healthy to avoid sinus headaches. Avoid dust, pollen, smog, dirty air and smoke. Remove all the mold in your bathroom, kitchen, and any other damp areas. Fungi cause many sinus infections. Generally doing what you can to avoid sinus infections will be the same measures used to prevent sinus headaches. There is a lot you can do to prevent them and treat the headaches naturally without any drugs. Try not to take drugs for sinus headaches, which can make your symptoms worse.

To find out more about how I cured myself of chronic sinus infections naturally forever go to my nurse’s website http://www.SinusCureReport.com for tips, treatments, natural treatments, causes and remedies and info on symptoms, surgery, nasal irrigation, sinus headaches and more!