Health Matters - Apple Magazine Health Matters Winter 2019 | Page 2

CALGARY AND AREA Your HealthMatters Health Matters is published by Calgary and area Primary Care Networks (PCNs) to give you information about the programs, services and health teams available to you through your family doctor. Founded more than 10 years ago, PCNs work with teams of other healthcare professionals, as well as offer programs such as Prescription to Get Active and Find-a-Doctor. Health Matters, Winter 2019 Issue publication team: Shelley Boettcher, Keith Bradford, Terry Bullick, Jessica Hone, Dr. Christine Luelo, Nicole Ouellet, Colleen Seto, Serena Shane, Brett Tiesmaki, Chrissie Worth, Shelly Wright Contributors: Dan James, Jimi Scherer, Colleen Seto, George Webber Cover photo of Stephen Nichol by George Webber We appreciate your feedback and article suggestions. Contact our editorial team at [email protected]. To find your PCN, visit mypcn.ca › Bow Valley Primary Care Network › Calgary West Central Primary Care Network › Calgary Foothills Primary Care Network › Highland Primary Care Network › Mosaic Primary Care Network › Calgary Rural Primary Care Network › South Calgary Primary Care Network two HEALTH MATTERS winter 2019 Continuity of care means your family doctor is with you every step of your care journey, working to do what’s best for your health. It prevents tests from being duplicated and allows results to be reviewed promptly with your health history in mind. It also means that you commit to seeing your doctor regularly. For 69-year-old Stephen Nichol, continuity of care probably saved his life. In early 2018, he went for his annual checkup with his family doctor, Dr. Chris Bockmuehl at Crowfoot Village Family Practice in Calgary. Nichol has had high blood pressure for a few years, but he’s an active person who takes good care of himself—walking and biking frequently. He appeared to have a clean bill of health. Still, Bockmuehl sent him for an ultrasound as proactive screening. The ultrasound revealed Nichol had an abdominal aortic aneurysm—a swelling in the aorta, the largest artery in the body. “The risk of an undetected aneurysm is that it can grow slowly and then suddenly burst, which would be a catastrophic life-threatening event,” Bockmuehl says. “We want to find it early and repair it before it gets too big.”