Hello and welcome to living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, and I'm Grover Silcox.

This is a special end of year episode of living in the Lehigh Valley.

That's right.

As another year comes to a close, we are looking back at a few of the health and wellness stories we shared with you.

These are the videos that received the most views on our PBS 39 YouTube channel.

And before we start, I just want to encourage you to check it out at YouTube.

Backslash, PBS 39, and watch some of the incredible stories of perseverance and recovery that our friends and neighbors have shared with us right here on living in the Lehigh Valley.

And while you're there, take a second to subscribe to our channel.

It's a quick and easy way to support public media.

First up, a story about strep infections in kids that can lead to neuropsychiatric conditions.

Yeah, the two related conditions can cause sudden and significant changes in a child's mental and behavioral health.

This is a tale about a mother who would stop nothing to figure out what was ailing her son, and the doctor who finally provided some answers.

Oh, basically, you are an island with 100 players, and the goal is to be the last one standing.

Like many 12 year old boys, Matthew Blaine loves gaming.

So now I'm just going down here and I'm trying to get guns.

In fact, many of the Nazareth preteens interests and behaviors are typical for a kid his age.

I like video games, soccer, hockey.

I like watching TV.

I like going forwards.

I like just going in my room and playing around my Legos.

Very smart, very funny.

Silly.

He just wants people to laugh all the time.

He's very trusting.

He's very honest.

This was when, right before he first got his glasses.

But a few years ago, Matthew's mom, Nicole, noticed her oldest son acting not so typical for his age.

Everything started at like, around five.

We started noticing some things, like the infections and like little things, that he wasn't listening that well.

So it wasn't really a big deal until he reached fourth grade.

That's when I was like getting phone calls from the school all the time for behaviors and, like the separation anxiety was really bad.

I just get really mad sometimes and it's hard to remember things.

A lot of the times, and I don't like it at all.

Matthew, what do you want for dinner, honey?

Chicken nuggets.

Look, I don't know what's in his control.

And what's out of his control.

Like, when he's not listening and stuff.

Like, sometimes he has no memory of what happened.

I could be crying.

And there were times when he.

Where he was, like, spitting and just acting out of control, but he doesn't remember sometimes after it.

The mom of three knew something was off, so she set out to get some answers.

I got this one for Christmas.

She was diagnosed with ADHD, od anxiety.

Social pragmatic communication disorder and a tic disorder.

He was on 4 or 5 different medications for that stuff and nothing helped.

The behaviors persisted, but so did Nicole.

She scoured the internet and found information about two neuropsychiatric disorders referred to as Pans and pandas.

And I read all of the symptoms and I was like, well, this fits.

So I had to go to the pediatrician and tell him that I wanted all the bloodwork.

He argued with me about it, but he did eventually order it.

Matthew's bloodwork came back high for strep.

He would always get like strep skin infections.

He never actually got the strep throat.

He would always get like raw, open infections on his skin.

It's like a rash, but I don't really feel it at all.

The family was finally getting some answers.

A specialist Nicole found in Long Island diagnosed Matthew with pandas, then referred him to a doctor closer to the Lehigh Valley.

Pandas now stands for Pediatric Acute Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome, and that can be caused by both viruses and bacteria.

Some of the more common ones are mycoplasma, which is the germ that causes walking pneumonia, the flu, Covid, and strep.

When the condition is triggered by strep, it's called pandas.

So pandas is actually a subset of Pans.

And Pandas stands for pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcal infection.

Doctor Angela Camacho is Matthew's pediatrician from the Woodlands Healing Research Center.

I focus on complex chronic medical problems like autism, pans and pandas, ADHD, Lyme, Bartonella, tick borne illnesses, that sort of thing.

The mission of the Quakertown nonprofit is to treat people with chronic medical illness.

In addition to providing primary care for all ages, we are similar to conventional medicine and that we do take insurance, but we are different in that we are looking for root causes of illness and using some integrative and holistic methods to try to heal the person's body.

Camacho says pans and pandas are two types of inflammatory brain conditions that occur when an immune response gets misdirected.

So instead of targeting the infection, it causes inflammation in the brain, which causes psychiatric conditions.

A typical Pans are pandas case will present with an abrupt onset of OCD or eating restriction, usually at the same time as an illness, or shortly after maybe even up to 1 to 2 months after.

Some of the OCD behaviors to be aware of are excessive hand-washing, sometimes an overwhelming sense of guilt and needing to confess even the smallest mistakes, compulsions to go through routines and rituals for simple activities of daily living.

Sometimes the child may need constant reassurance, which would represent with the repeated questions over and over again, like is the door locked?

Is the meat cooked?

That sort of thing.

The pediatrician says there are three criteria she uses to diagnose the conditions.

So the first criteria is again the abrupt onset of OCD or eating restriction.

The second criteria, you have to have two other neuropsychiatric symptoms from a list of seven.

Those criteria can be found on websites like the Neuro Immune Foundation and the Pans and Pandas network.

And then the third requirement is that you're making sure that you rule out any other kind of medical or neurologic condition.

So in a sense, this diagnosis is a diagnosis of exclusion.

You always want to be considering other more, severe or appropriate diagnoses for the for the situation.

This one I just got last weekend and I got it together in five minutes.

In Matthew's case, he was able to receive a diagnosis in 2023 and has been undergoing treatment ever since.

With the right treatment, doctors say the symptoms of pandas or pandas will eventually go away.

You know, Brett, considering the limited resources on the topic, it's not surprising that folks are, you know, clicking on the PBS 39 YouTube link to learn more.

I think it's one more way people are getting some resources, right?

All right.

Well, moving on to our next story.

It's about a rare form of eye cancer.

Yeah, I caught up with a Lehigh Valley man who knew nothing about ocular melanoma until his beloved and was diagnosed with it.

Most people will never know what it's like to battle ocular melanoma or eye cancer, according to the Ocular Melanoma Foundation.

It's a rare form of cancer that strikes approximately 2500 Americans each year, a fraction of the population.

But if you or a loved one is among the seven and a million people diagnosed every year with this disease, the words ocular melanoma become life changing.

And Georgia, was my Uncle John's wife.

So my mother's brother's wife.

And, you know, she was my aunts.

But we weren't that many years apart in age.

She's like 7 or 8 years older than me.

So she was more of, like a big sister, to me, than an aunt.

Somebody I could, like, talk to, confide in.

She was really special.

She was 45 years old.

I believe she got diagnosed in 2014.

So in 2017 is, when she passed, she fought it for three years.

Michael Dorn says co-owner of the Copper Grill in Allentown in Central Valley, shares memories of his beloved and Georgia candy Leon, who fought and ultimately succumbed to metastatic ocular melanoma.

I'm not exactly sure the symptoms.

I know she always had, like, like a little blemish in the corner of her eye.

So I don't know if it was something that was there for a long time.

And, you know, it just went undiagnosed.

Symptoms of ocular melanoma include a growing dark spot, blurry vision, and one eye, flashes of light floaters, or a change in the shape of the pupil.

Usually, patient who is getting eye examination every year.

They may not have any symptoms.

They have found to have this spotting dye, which grow over the year.

Oncologist Doctor Takumi Sato, a leading expert on ocular melanoma, serves as a physician and researcher with the Melanoma Research Institute of Excellence at Jefferson Health's Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

This has become more dominant for the Caucasian like eyes, you know, fair skin and similar a risk factor for skin melanoma.

This type of the person should have eye examination dilated.

Eye examination every year.

Ocular melanoma develops in the UVA or middle layer of the eye, where it's often difficult to detect.

Unfortunately, it can also spread to other parts of the body, predominantly to the liver, if the tumor is considered to be aggressive.

We have to be very careful and then we have to keep watching very carefully, especially this tumor.

Go to the liver if spread out.

So therefore we keep watching for any tumor development in the liver and dent lung.

Doctor Seto advises individuals who have had a general eye exam in which a potential cancer or concern was spotted to seek confirmation and treatment from a specialist.

You should go to the ocular oncologist eye doctor.

We specialize in cancer because sometimes diagnosis is kind of very difficult.

Since Georgia of Leon's battle with this disease, research and treatment has made progress.

She was going over to Lehigh Valley Anderson campus biweekly to get treatment when she was diagnosed.

It was like one clinical trial.

So now they've added like 3 or 4 more.

Doctor Saito and his colleagues and partners in research now see promising new ways to help patients fight this disease through immunotherapy, radiation therapy, laser therapy, surgery and other technologies.

They are even working on a vaccine to prevent the cancer.

We spent already 5 or 10 years to develop the vaccine.

I mean, I a I've seen concept doctor said, remains optimistic that one day a vaccine will be approved.

Of course, research and testing takes money.

Michael Dantas, his family and employees are doing their part.

They hold an annual golf outing at Center Valley's Wedgewood Country Club, specifically to raise funds for research.

So myself and my cousin Mike, we have the same name.

I go by junior.

He goes by senior because he's a few years older than me.

He's, my business partner is the other owner.

So, he's involved.

His, our wives are involved.

Are families involved?

And we, you know, we've been doing it.

Our team is involved.

The corporate team, a lot of our staff helps out.

Last year, they raised more than $27,000.

And every year, they donate that money to Jefferson's Melanoma Research Institute through the Ocular Melanoma Foundation in memory of Georgia.

This year, Mike and the other Mike and the whole Dantas family and network of friends raised more than $21,000 at their annual golf outing in Center Valley.

That makes a total of over $165,000 donated to date.

An incredible feat, for sure.

Absolutely.

And so helpful.

Absolutely.

And another popular video on our YouTube page this year is about environmental wellness.

In May of 2020, for goodwill, Keystone initiated a new fee free e-waste recycling program.

Trashing old TVs comes with a price.

Townships often require permits and fees to take electronics.

Scrappers might take that flat screen for parts, but then dump the rest.

Who knows where.

So the environment pays the price.

Now goodwill, Keystone area, thrift shops and Re World, a sustainable waste recycling company, have teamed up to offer an alternative.

Thank you for your donation.

Now anyone can drop off their old electronics for free at any one of 42 Goodwill Keystone Area stores, including three in the Lehigh Valley.

So you can see we accept any kind of TV from the old large back tube TVs to flat screens.

There's a toaster oven in there.

And I'm sure we have some computers and other household electronics in there as well.

And all of these will be recycled responsibly.

It was kind of amazing to see all this stuff starting to come, because all of a sudden there was this publicized free drop off.

It's a bring all your stuff and we'll take care of it.

And it came.

We collected through December 1.4 million pounds of electronics in a program that our initial goal for the first year was 500,000 pounds.

But we estimate by June we're going to collect over 2 million pounds of electronics.

Broken or unusable electronics.

Go to re world if the items still work.

Goodwill Keystone resells them along with all its other lightly used merchandise.

Any time that you donate, your DSR, the representative can give you one of these receipts and the receipt you can claim on your taxes or however else you would use it.

And as part of our e-waste program, we get in a lot of electronics for your kitchen.

We have toasters, we have popcorn makers, coffee makers.

They see about 300 donors a day, a number that's up since they started to accept electronics.

We have irons.

We will have printers.

Almost anything.

You could possibly think of that you would need in your home.

We may have it here.

The electronic waste program has been doing great.

Has increased our donations.

People are thrilled that they have somewhere where they can bring their items.

We don't limit them on how many items they can bring or how big the items are.

Goodwill Keystone's E-waste recycling program complements its longstanding mission to responsibly recycle, reuse, or resell donated clothes, housewares, and other items to reduce waste and improve the environment.

We accept between 45 and 46 million pounds of donations on an annual basis.

Of that, roughly 67 almost 70%.

We find some avenue of resell, recycle, reuse.

In addition to promoting environmental sustainability, goodwill uses the funds generated through sales to help trade in place folks with barriers to employment.

You go out into the public and everybody you see walking around, they're our customer in one shape or form, whether they be a donor, a shopper, somebody that we help with job training.

To give you an example, if you went into a Pennsylvania, we all have Pennsylvania driver's license.

And you go in and you have your license taken to get your new license.

Chances are the person that took your picture and handed you license is a goodwill plate.

Recently, goodwill, Keystone and re world received the William M Heenan Jr.

Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Development Award.

It just adds to our mission of being able to advance sustainability.

When we talk about sustainability, we're talking about the environment, the community.

You know, sustainability is many different things.

So it advances all that.

The goodwill brand, cultivated for over 100 years continues finding value, especially in people, donors, customers, community and its own employees.

I love coming to work working for Goodwill Keystone Area.

I feel like I have a purpose when I'm at work and I enjoy what we do.

It's rewarding.

I did not know nine years ago what all goodwill was, and now spending nine years here to find out all the good that goodwill does do.

It makes the job something special.

In the first year of the fee free e-waste program.

Goodwill Keystone recycled about 1.6 million pounds of electronics.

Now, according to its vice president of sustainability, Bruce Brockman.

That figure has leaped to about 3 million pounds in six months.

That's a lot of TVs.

It really and a good lot of bad plus grades.

Yeah, helping the environment, for sure.

Now we head into the living in the Lehigh Valley kitchen.

We are joined by a nutritionist from Lehigh Valley Health Network who's showing us some healthy holiday recipes.

We are back in the kitchen here for living in the Lehigh Valley.

I have Rachel Saladino from Sodexo.

She's a Sodexo dietician with the Lehigh Valley Health Network, part of Jefferson Health.

It's great to have you.

Thank you for having me.

So we're preparing a couple dishes in preparation for our holiday meals.

Whether this just be a lunch on a regular workday or if you want to bring it to your holiday table.

So the first one you're making today is an appetizer, right?

Yes.

So we have the holiday chicken salad.

Right.

So what do we have here.

Yeah.

So it is shredded chicken.

And I already have a Greek yogurt base in with the chicken.

I personally don't like mayonnaise, so I use a Greek yogurt as the base instead of mayo and provides extra protein as well as some probiotics.

It also lowers the sodium, also lowers the cholesterol and saturated fat content.

So the Greek yogurt is just a healthier alternative.

Sure, that's what I'm just going to say.

I know a lot of people don't really love the mayo.

I love mayo, my chicken salad, but the Greek yogurt is a great option as well if you're trying to make it a little bit healthier.

All right, so we've shredded our chicken.

Is there any particular chicken that you use for this, whether it be a rotisserie or something that you're cooking a chicken breast, that kind of thing?

Yeah.

So you could use a boiled chicken breast and shred it up.

You can use the rotisserie chicken.

I personally used a rotisserie chicken.

You can a lot of grocery stores.

It says you can buy it already.

Shred it up.

So any kind of shredded chicken, you can also chop up like a chicken breast as well.

Great.

So chicken breast or rotisserie chicken.

We are ready to go okay.

What do we do next.

So we're going to add in some veggies.

We have some fruit some nuts as well.

Awesome.

So we're going to add in some paprika.

So this is a holiday chicken salad.

So we're making it a little bit colorful for the season right.

Some red and green.

We also have some dried cranberries that we're going to throw in there.

Right.

Well are we just as much as you want.

Yeah I was just going to say are we just eyeballing this.

If we like them we don't like them, that kind of thing.

Yeah.

So I did use some measurements.

But you can eyeball it if you prefer.

Less of the nuts or less of the celery, you know, you can kind of customize it as you like.

Wonderful.

All right.

And then we're going to add in some celery.

Great.

And I'll hand these I'll be your, your lovely assistant here some more calories.

And it looks like I don't usually put green peppers in mind, but this looks delicious.

Yes.

Just add extra crunch.

Yes.

Extra veggies extra crunch.

Great and green for the holidays.

Wonderful as well.

So I'll mix that up first.

Okay.

And then we will add in our pecans.

You can use any nut of choice as well.

And today we're we're using this as an appetizer.

So what are we going to be serving it with to make it an appetizer.

This looks like something you could put on a sandwich or wrap it more on top of your regular salad as well as an entree.

But this today we're using it as an appetizer.

Yes.

So we can serve this with like cucumbers or pepper slices.

If you want to use a veggie you could also use like mini toasts.

Today we're going to use crackers.

I have the Triscuit thin crisp crackers.

You could also use some of my favorite brands would be like simple Mills has a good, healthy cracker option or, Good Thins has some, like, gluten free options as well.

So that and also lots of different flavors with the crackers.

So a lot of options there.

Great.

Rachel, while you're mixing that up and making sure everything's really combined there, tell us a little bit about the, program, the nutritional program at Sodexo.

You work alongside and within the Lehigh Valley Health Network, hospitals, as well as, Lehigh Valley, part of Jefferson Health.

Now, of course.

Yeah.

So I personally work in patient with our admitted patients to the hospital, customizing their, you know, dietary needs based on, you know, why they're in the hospital.

But we do also have dietitians outpatient that specialize in, you know, weight management, oncology, pediatrics, a whole array of things.

Diabetes as well.

So we have a lot of dietitians outpatient that patients can see when they're not admitted to the hospital.

And they do individual like meal plans and really get like personalized with the patient's needs.

You know, disease related or not, you know, we can help outpatient or inpatient.

Sure.

Why is it so important for folks to be pairing, you know, a nutrition plan with, say, you know, a medical plan, whether where they're on a regimen of medications?

Why is it so important to make sure you're watching what you eat as well?

Yeah.

So different.

Diseases and conditions have, you know, certain nutrition needs that can help, you know, manage the disease or condition or can help with the recovery of the condition.

So it's very important to figure out, you know, what's the problem, what's the condition that you have.

And then how can my nutrition, prevent it from getting worse or, you know, help me to get better.

Great.

All right.

Let's plate up this chicken salad.

This looks absolutely delicious.

And let me tell you, around the holiday season, I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for ways to swap out some calories, especially with all the parties we're going to right now and all of the family gatherings.

This is just a nice light appetizer that folks can can kind of put on a plate and get some extra protein in there.

Wonderful.

All right.

So this is our appetizer here our chicken salad appetizer.

We'll put that there Rachel.

So tell us what are the ingredients inside the chicken salad.

Yeah.

So the chicken salad is shredded chicken Greek yogurt I use the oikos 000 plain Greek yogurt.

And then we have dried cranberries green peppers, some, celery, as well as some paprika salt and pepper.

And then you can either add the pecans into it or you can top it off on the top.

Great.

Onto the main dish now.

So what are we making.

So I am Italian.

So as you know Italian celebrate the feast of the seven fishes.

So today I have a simple garlic shrimp recipe for us to, you know, try out, it has lemon juice, caper brine juice, some garlic, salt, pepper and butter as the base.

Great.

And then we're going to you just kind of cook the shrimp up.

Great.

Cook those ingredients into it.

It's really quick and easy.

Maybe took me like ten minutes.

Great.

Should we throw it in the pan, heat it up a little bit.

Now we've we've kind of pre-cooked this for the magic of TV to get things roll on a little bit, but, in the meantime.

So this can be one of the seven dishes.

And if folks don't do the seven dishes, this can be part of their meal as well.

What are we garnishing this with today?

So we are garnishing this with some parsley.

You can use rosemary.

That works really well with the holidays as well.

So we're going to add that on top.

Also, I've cooked the parsley in the sauce as well.

So it just provides some extra flavor, extra garnish you know presentation with the holidays, if you're having some friends or family over want to make it look nice as well.

Great.

We're chopping up that.

What's the trick?

What's the trick here?

When you're chopping stuff and you want to make sure it's really fine, what's the insider secret?

I'm not a chef, so I don't even know if I'm doing it correctly.

But when it comes to the herbs, just bundling it up together, kind of chopping is a great, great.

By adding those fresh herbs just for an extra kick of the health and everything like that, making this recipe extra rich in nutrients.

Great.

So that's our shrimp right here.

Yes.

And the shrimp is a great source of protein as well.

You can swap it out.

You can even do this recipe with any kind of, like seafood or fish that you like.

I think it's a very versatile sauce, that you can use with anything, even if it's not shrimp.

Wonderful.

And then, you know, with the feast of the Seven Fishes, you have plenty of options there as well.

Yeah.

And we can actually throw that right on here with our chicken salad if you'd like.

This looks absolutely delicious.

I'm going to try a little piece of the chicken salad.

But for those who want to get some new ideas for healthy recipes, to try to do some of these swaps, like the mayo for the yogurt, how can they get that information?

Is there anywhere that Sodexo shares some of this information?

Yeah.

So the dietitians if you're working with a dietitian through our network, they can always provide some healthier substitutions.

Like I said, with the Greek yogurt and the mayo just providing some extra nutrition.

But also the internet is a great resource these days that I am Pinterest.

Everybody's looking for those healthy, high protein recipes.

So I think, like, good nutritional swap outs are just so much more readily available these days than they used to be.

Absolutely.

And with the holidays here, as I said, swapping out any calories that we can right now is the goal, especially as we move into the new year and we all want to eat a little bit healthier.

Rachel, what are the ingredients for our shrimp that we're making for the feast of the Seven Fishes, or just when we want to have a shrimp recipe?

Yeah.

So I used, olive oil as the healthy fat of choice, to cook the shrimp in.

And then I added some lemon juice, garlic caper brine juice, salt and pepper to make the sauce for the shrimp.

So, Rachel, this looks absolutely delicious.

Thank you so much for sharing some of these holiday favorites from your menu.

We appreciate you being here.

Th Wow that that looks tastes really good.

Yeah.

Good ones there.

Well that will do it for this end of year episode of living in the Lehigh Valley for PBS 39.

I'm Grover Sockeye and I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Hoping you stay happy and healthy and happy New Year.