CYRx MD Surgical

50 hours of surgery gave this young man his face and his life back.

A team of more than 80 people at Mayo Clinic worked in shifts over three days to finish one of the longest and most complex operations the clinic has ever done.

It was only Mayo’s second face transplant. Surgeons replaced roughly 85 percent of his face with donor tissue, bone, and skin.

He can smile, blink, and breathe through his nose again for the first time in a decade.

“As a Mayo Clinic-trained surgeon, I see this as a reminder that the goal is more than restoring anatomy. It is about giving someone back the ability to live fully.” — Dr. Steven Cyr

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Source: Mayo Clinic News Network, Minnesota Star Tribune.

Your ‘normal’ iron levels just changed.

The American Society of Hematology just released new 2026 guidelines that raise the ferritin thresholds used to diagnose iron deficiency.

• Most adults (including pregnant or menstruating): 30 ng/mL or lower (was 15)
• Young children (9 months–4 years): 20 ng/mL or lower (was 12)
• High-risk groups and inflammation: different thresholds apply

These higher cutoffs exist because the old numbers were missing a lot of people who actually have depleted iron stores, even when their hemoglobin still looks fine. Fatigue, poor recovery, brain fog, and low exercise tolerance can all show up before anemia appears.

“I see patients all the time who have been told their labs are 'normal,' yet they still feel entirely exhausted or struggle to recover from physical stress. This update is a massive win for patient advocacy. It gives us clearer, updated guidance on when iron stores are actually low enough to impair your quality of life.” ~Dr. Steven Cyr

If you have been told your iron is “normal” but you still feel off, this is a reason to ask your doctor about rechecking ferritin under the new standards.

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More REM sleep was linked to a lower risk of 83 diseases.

Researchers tracked 95,559 adults for a week, then followed their records for nearly nine years.

• About 48 more minutes of REM: 80% lower Parkinson’s risk
• Same REM gap: 46% lower dementia risk
• 6 to 8 hours: lowest risk window
• Under 5 hours: higher risk across 37 conditions

The study found a link, not proof that REM prevents those diseases. Parkinson’s and dementia can disrupt sleep years before the diagnosis, so poor REM may be an early sign rather than the cause.

I tell patients the same thing after surgery that I tell them about bone. Healing is not only what we do in the operating room.

Growth hormone, bone turnover, and soft-tissue repair lean on sleep, and the back half of the night is where REM usually stacks up.

If pain, the way you are lying, or your phone keeps waking you in the second half of the night, you lose the REM stretch. That is the part of sleep I do not want you giving away after surgery. A lot of the bone and soft-tissue repair happens while you are asleep.

— Dr Steven Cyr

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Does pain wake you in the second half of the night?

Surgery looks like a pile of steel from the outside. Loupes, retractors, a lead vest that weighs more than it should. Those are just the tools.

The real work starts when a patient decides to trust you with their spine. That decision is heavier than anything on the table, and it has to be earned.

More than tools. It’s a science of trust.

— Dr Steven Cyr

If neck or back pain is running your life, don’t guess your way through it. Get a real plan. Link in bio or call SASpine in San Antonio or Houston.

A $200 fine will not stop someone from calling themselves a nurse.

New Jersey’s Assembly committee just advanced a bill that would fine anyone who uses the word nurse without a license. First offense, $200. Every one after that, $500.

RN, LPN, and APN are already protected. The plain word is not, so a nanny, a caregiver, or a med spa staffer can still use it today.

The bill still needs a full Assembly vote, and it has no Senate companion. Nurse leaders at the hearing asked for higher fines and a ban on chatbots calling themselves nurses. Neither of those is in the bill.

The name tag is not the issue. The issue is whether the person in the room is licensed to do the thing they are about to do. Patients do not parse RN, LPN, and APN in a hallway. They hear nurse and they trust it.

A $200 civil fine will not change a med spa that is already selling procedures under that word. If a state is going to protect the title, protect it like it matters.

— Dr Steven Cyr

Would you want this law in your state, and is $200 enough to stop anyone?

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Happy PA Week to Jackie, Mary, and Paul.

I could not run this clinic without them. They know the patients, they keep the day moving between cases, and they treat people like family. That is the part of this practice I am most grateful for.

— Dr Steven Cyr

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