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Friday, April 17, 2009

Meet Me in the Rest Room

http://www.friendfeed.com/…-rest-room

Chat planned for Tuesday April 21 from 5-6 PM US Mountain Time. (UTC-7)

The Rest Room is a general topics chat room. You can bring up anything you want, from the book to affiliate marketing to ??? It's a free-for-all! The only rule is courtesy.

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Sunday, March 22, 2009

Synvisc

This stuff sounds like a real breakthrough. A 98 year old resident where I work has just gotten the injections. She had no cartilage left in her knees and sometimes you could hear the bones grind together--very painful. She told me that over the course of the week the liquid that was injected will form into a soft solid, acting as an artificial cartilage. It sounds very beneficial for those for whom surgery might be counterindicated due to extremely advanced age or other complicating conditions.
Every now and then, the medical community comes up with something really wonderful. Synvisc seems like it's one of those things.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Warehousing the Elderly

This was my reply to a friends' post about moving a lady to an assisted living facility. You can read his post here.

http://analytixman.blogspot.com/…dying.html

Sadly, most assisted living and long term care facilities have rooms such as you describe. While the fat cats' pockets get fatter, our elderly and disabled continue to get the shaft.

The apartments in the place where I work are not like this. But said apartments are, to be blunt, hella expensive. The apartments in the independent living area are about $3500 a month. The ones in assisted living are $6000, and the rooms in long term care are $9000. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time managing the $1100 I pay between mortgage and lot rent on my mobile home. (I know you wouldn't do this, but if anyone else feels the need to refer to me as 'trailer park trash,' so be it.)

None of the people I work with could afford an apartment or room in the place where we work.

Its scary. I have long term care insurance and a retirement plan but when I look at what this brings as compared to the cost, it ain't much. I do try to save but there's not that much if anything left over to save when the bills are paid.

I worry about what's going to happen with my father. He had a stroke four and a half years ago and is badly handicapped. My mother is his 24-7 caregiver. No home health agency will deal with him because he's so difficult to do transfers with. I pulled a muscle in my chest helping to transfer him. If something happened to my mother he'd have to go into a care facility because he needs someone with him 24-7. My brother lives in a different state and of course I work a full time job. There's no way we could swing it. And that's a sad thing to have to admit.

My parents had $300,000 in savings which sounds like a lot but its quickly being eaten up by my fathers' medical costs.

I don't know just how it can be done but something really needs to change in the way our most vulnerable populations are treated.

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Happy birthday to my brother

My younger brother was born at 4 PM on March 17, 1965. My mother had a precipitous labor with my brother. A precipitous labor is the kind where things move fast and it often isn't as painful as a normal length labor.
My mother and I were at the grocery store and she started feeling nauseous and a bit dizzy. The lady standing in front of her asked her if she was all right. We went home and as she later told me "I went to the bathroom and thought that it seemed like I was peeing forever. Then I realized what was going on."
She called my father and he came home. Not long after, maybe 20 minutes, my brother was born. I was in the room. I was four years old and to me there was nothing traumatic or awful. There was no screaming, maybe a bit of groaning, which is more typical of a precipitous labor. My brother was fine though he was three weeks early and he did have the cord wrapped around his neck. My father was able to remove it quickly and right away he started hollering.
Maybe it was because my brother and I had four years between us that there was never any great sibling rivalry. I was always very maternal towards him--until he got older and then we wrestled and climbed trees and such. Anyone who calls me a tomboy gets a can of whoop ass opened on them. My name was never Tom and I was never a boy. I was an active girl who liked playing with toy trucks as much as I liked playing with dolls. I've never been a "girly girl," it doesn't suit me. But I don't think I've ever presented as "masculine," much though society might like to apply that label to me because I don't fit the label its created for "femininity."
I have never been as much of a daredevil as my brother. He's done things such as hang gliding and sky diving, and he's a firefighter/paramedic/SWAT medic. Unfortunately he will have to have back surgery to fuse 5 discs together in his spine next month. When he was coming off the engine he had a bad fall backwards and torqued the hell out of his back.
My brother once tried to teach me to ride his dirt bike and I nearly killed both of us. He declared me a hopeless case. Which is probably a pretty accurate assessment!
My brother is a pretty busy guy. I hope that one day we might be able to be in touch a little better than we've been over the past 20 years. We're in touch, but not very often. Maybe someday he'll come into the Information Age and learn how to use that newfangled Email stuff.
Happy birthday to my brother.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Lymphoma and Multiple Sclerosis

A question on the Winzy site was postulated as to the similarities between non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple sclerosis. Those interested in medical matters might find this to be worthy of thought. Personally I couldn't think of any similarities between the two. They affect different systems of the body and the mechanism of each is different. This was my answer.

A lymphoma is a cancer of the lymphocytes. A lymphocyte is a type of white blood cell. The trouble often begins in the lymph nodes. Lymphoma is often discovered because of tumors in the lymph nodes. There are actually many classifications of lymphomas rather than just two as is the common belief. Hodgkin's lymphoma was discovered by Thomas Hodgkin in 1832. There are actually 16 varieties of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. There is a great deal of information to be found on Wikipedia about the subject.

http://en.wikipedia.org/…i/Lymphoma

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disorder which destroys the myelin sheath of the nerves. The term "sclerosis" refers to the scars that are formed in the white matter of the brain and spinal cord. It eventually results in paralysis in many sufferers.

Thus, lymphoma is a type of cancer and MS is a destructive autoimmune disease that affects the nervous system. I can't think of any direct similarities between them.



http://adjix.com/4725 Try Winzy, a real search engine that gives you chances to win prizes. Earn points every time you search.

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Saturday, February 28, 2009

At Work

Nothing exciting to say, just here at work procrastinating. Have to do rounds. Had to send a guy to the hospital a couple hours ago. He was dizzy and blood pressure elevated.

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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

medhodgepodge

Must get ready to go to school. Have exams. Whine whine, feel lousy. Would never by choice take morning classes when I work nights.

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medhodgepodge

www.change.org/myfundraising/wfmhchange My drive to raise $500 for WFMH by the end of the year.

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medhodgepodge

http://adjix.com/e3ek Make your own healthy baby food. Wonderful recipe e-book only $10.

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medhodgepodge

The air in the building where I work is so dry. I often drink a half gallon of water in a night when I'm working.

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medhodgepodge

http://ping.fm/3fKnW Got something interesting and informative to say? Trade your intelligence for back links at Qassia!

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Better fast food

Let's face it, I'm no cook. Most fast food is pretty much an artery clogging fat load, but something like a baked potato and chili from Wendy's is actually not a bad meal. I get the baked potato (yes, I use sour cream. Because life is too short to eat a !*!&$( DRY POTATO!) and a large chili with onions and cheese. I pour the chili on the potato. Chili is loaded with fiber and nutrients. Potatoes have B vitamins and potassium, especially if you eat the skin. So this is actually a reasonably healthy meal. You can also get a side salad with Italian dressing and make it complete. Well, get whatever dressing you want, but I tend to roll with the oil and vinegar based ones. Ranch is bad because it contains MSG. On my soapbox. MSG is not a "spice." It technically has no flavor of its own. MSG IS A NEUROTOXIN! It alters the brain chemistry of the person eating it. No joke, look it up. Many people are intolerant of this vile substance. For most, it causes intestinal distress to one degree or another. Sometimes it can even cause respiratory distress. I used to be on several asthma meds until I started watching out for MSG in foods. I was able to get off ALL asthma meds. I still have mild asthma but it tends to only be triggered by extreme cold or exercise and does not require medication.

At any rate, yes, you can find healthy alternatives at fast food joints. I know this. I just don't always take them...

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Sunday, February 08, 2009

Irresponsible and Reprehensible

The story from MSNBC is about a doctor who performed an abortion on an 18 year old client at 23 weeks. The fetus emerged alive. The clinic's owner cut the cord and placed the newborn and the afterbirth in a garbage bag. Read the story first and then the Curmudgeon's Comment.

The Crusty Curmudgeon sez: Once the fetus was born alive, it was the responsibility of the clinic staff to immediately get medical care for it. Also, it was irresponsible of these doctors to do an abortion at this stage of pregnancy unless there was a compelling medical reason. My belief is that abortion should be available on demand after counseling about all options and possible effects both physical and psychological during the first trimester. After the first trimester, it should be available only if there is a viable medical reason for doing so.

It was reprehensible of the clinic staff to agree to do an abortion so far along without sound medical reason in the first place. It was diabolical of them to not get immediate emergency medical care for the live infant. They should all be stripped of their licenses and jailed immediately.