By Matt Sloane
CNN Medical Producer
Embedded at Tulane Medical Center, New Orleans

Sitting here at Tulane Medical Center, looking out the window, the blowing palm trees are the only indication that Hurricane Gustav is overpassing us as I type this.

The lights are still on. The phones are still working. Even the internet is up and running.

There are still patients here at the hospital, although very few remain after mass evacuations yesterday. The emergency room remains open and ready to accept patients, but the only people I’ve seen walk through the door are the paramedics waiting to respond to any emergencies.

So for now – we wait and hope for the best.

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Matt Sloane
CNN Medical Producer

If you've ever had a chance to look at my future mother-in-law's brain scan, which oddly enough I have, you can't help but notice a giant starburst in the middle. It's not radio receiver or an implanted cell phone. (That would be cool though). It's a titanium coil.

Janice's brain scan shows a starburst-like image where the coil is placed

Why does Janice have a metal coil in her brain? It’s not to make her smarter. (If it were, I’d get one put in too!). The coil is the latest minimally invasive treatment for a ruptured aneurysm, and much like a cardiac stent, it is passed through veins in the groin, all the way up into the brain. Think of it like plugging a tire that has a blowout.

The truth is though, not many people have this coiling done, because not many people survive a rupture. According to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, only 50 percent of people actually make it to the hospital alive after a rupture, and 50 percent of those who do won’t live through surgery.

Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden was lucky enough to identify two aneurysms and have them removed before they ruptured. (One had started to leak a bit). Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones was not so lucky. She passed away just last week after her aneurysm burst.

These are grim statistics for a condition that most people don’t even know they have until it’s too late. So what can you do to protect yourself?

First, know your family history. My fiancée, Amanda, is seriously considering having a scan to see if there are silent aneurysms growing in her head.

Second, get the right scan. An X-ray won’t show it, nor will a CAT scan nor an MRI. One of the only scans that can detect an aneurysm is what’s called an MRA, or Magnetic Resonance Angiography. It’s similar to an MRI, but looks at the blood vessels in the brain, rather than the anatomical structure. Most insurance companies won’t cover MRAs simply because of a family history of aneurysms, but in Amanda’s case, I think it would be worth the $1,000 to know she is safe.

Third, know the symptoms. There aren’t many, but if you can recognize them quickly, it can mean the difference between life and death. Sudden, severe headache is the most common one, along with light sensitivity, nausea and unexplained vomiting. Janice told me it felt as if someone had slammed her in the back of the head with a baseball bat.

September is Brain Aneurysm Awareness Month, so make sure you pass this article along to your loved ones.

Today Janice looks at her starburst as a badge of honor, but I'm sure it's one she'd rather not have.
Do you know someone who’s had a ruptured aneurysm? What kind of symptoms did they have?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Matt Sloane
CNN Medical Producer

I hate spiders. I have always hated spiders, and until last week, I thought I always would hate spiders. But then, in a building reminiscent of a 1970s government office building, I had an experience with spiders that I won't soon forget.

As I walked into her office at the University of Georgia, Dr. Nancy Hinkle, a veterinary entomologist, started to quiz me about the spiders she had sitting on the window ledge in petri dishes. "Which one is the brown recluse spider?" she asked. Being a novice, I picked the biggest, nastiest, hairiest-looking one and said "that's it!"

"You picked the same one as my grad student did,” Hinkle said. “So congratulations, but you're not correct."

Matt – 0, Spider Lady – 1.

Dr. Hinkle gave me a hint about the brown recluse, "They call it the fiddleback spider, because it has fiddle-shaped marking on its abdomen.”

She challenged me again. This time I picked out the wolf spider, which has a banjo-shaped marking on its back (remarkably similar to a fiddle, I might add, on a spider that small).

Matt – 0, Spider Lady – 2.

What I came to find out in that next hour was that the brown recluse was not much scarier looking than your common house spider. The brown recluse is the subject of urban folklore, and for good reason: Its venom, pound for pound, is one of the most toxic substances known to man. But, true to its name, the spider is reclusive. As Hinkle put it, "If you actually see a spider, chances are it’s not a brown recluse."

Very comforting.

In addition to the brown recluse spider being reclusive, it's only found in a few areas of the country, primarily in the midwest, spreading into parts of the southeast. Oh, and one other thing. The brown recluse takes months to make enough venom to kill its prey, so chances are, it won’t waste it on you – something way too big for it to kill – because it would go hungry for a few months.

Still worried that a recluse will come after you? Consider this - the chances of the "fiddleback" spider being in your home, coming out of hiding, biting you, and injecting venom into you are slim. Even if it did, experts say about 95 percent of brown recluse bites go away without complications. But, if you are one of the unfortunate few who do have a bad reaction, you should go to a doctor immediately. Brown recluse venom can cause major damage to tissue surrounding the bite, as well as tissue along the path the venom takes through your body. If it makes its way into your bloodstream, it can cause a condition called hemolysis, where red blood vessels actually burst. The condition can become life threatening.

All in all, I'm still afraid of spiders, but a little less so than before I met Hinkle. Have you had a run-in with a brown recluse?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Matt Sloane
CNN Fit Nation Producer

As I mentioned a couple of months ago (Full Story), there was a storm brewing on the Louisiana Gulf Coast over the weekend – a storm of volunteers, that is, ready to build an amazing new playground in just six hours.

Pontiff Playground at 9 am

When we first arrived at Pontiff Playground in Metairie on Saturday morning, I still didn't believe it was possible.  There was 200 cubic yards of mulch sitting in the parking lot - it stood about 20 feet tall - 10 tons of concrete waiting to be mixed by hand, and a TON of playground equipment sitting in boxes and bubble wrap.  That was at 8:30 a.m.

"Mulch Mountain" around 10 am

By 2:30 p.m., I was absolutely proved wrong (Watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta's report from Metairie here).  Children who still remember what the park looked like under 5 feet of water after Hurricane Katrina were painting hopscotch on the sidewalks, making tile mosaics and working on a huge mural.  In those same six hours, 250 adult volunteers managed to install a 9-foot-high tube slide, a rock-climbing wall, a sandbox with dinosaur bones at the bottom ready to be "discovered," a 90-foot walking path, a handicap-accessible playhouse and scores of other playthings. 

250 volunteers completed the new Pontiff Playground around 2:30 pm

A park had been reborn, and a dream that started with crayons and a piece of paper just two months earlier became a reality.

For me, it was more than just a service project.  It was the culmination of an eight-month-long process to bring KaBOOM! on as a new partner in the CNN Fit Nation fight against childhood obesity.  It was an important step in our efforts to make a difference at the community level.

How have you been a force for change in terms of health and fitness?  Have you ever been involved in a KaBOOM! project?  If so, we'd love to hear about it!

If you want to help KaBOOM! reach its dream of building a playspace within walking distance of every child in America, go to www.Kaboom.org

Editor's note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Matt Sloane
CNN Medical Producer

I had one of the most rewarding experiences of my CNN career Wednesday, and it involved 40 children, about as many parents and some homemade jambalaya at a senior center in Louisiana.

"It starts with a playground" is the slogan for KaBOOM, a national non-profit organization that builds playgrounds. KaBOOM is our newest partner in the fight against childhood obesity. For those 40 kids, and even the parents in the room, it really does all start with a playground.

These children have been through more than most their age. Many of them are old enough to remember Hurricane Katrina just three years ago; and if they can't remember, the 5-foot-high water line on the trees at their local park still serves as an indicator of the storm's wrath. Wally Pontiff Jr. Park, known as Metairie Park before the storm, sat under 5 feet of water for close to two weeks. It sits just a few miles from Lake Ponchartrain, and a few hundred yards from the Mississippi River, putting it squarely in the flood zone.

That's where CNN Fit Nation comes in. For us, it started with a phone call to KaBOOM, and six months later I found myself sitting at this senior center, watching the kids draw their dream playground with crayons. From those drawings, the parents and I sat with KaBOOM staffers and picked the playground equipment that best fit the kids' drawings. Two months from now on June 28, we'll all meet in Metairie to build it, in a shade under 6 hours.

As the parents and adults thanked me for CNN's contribution to their community, I asked all of them for something in return – to use this new playground and to get their children moving and to teach them how to stay healthy well into adulthood.

Whether you're talking about keeping these kids healthy, revitalizing damage left in the wake of a tragic storm or the beginning of a great partnership with a non-profit organization – it really can all start with a playground.

KaBOOM's mission is to build a playspace within walking distance of every child in America. Do you want to help? Get information at www.KaBOOM.org, or check out www.CNN.com/Fitnation.

Editor's note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.