Category: Guest Bloggers

 

Thursday we give thanks for all that we have. Then later that same day, or maybe the day after, we head on out and see how much more we can accumulate. Tradition.

Next Blog

 

 

I know this flies in the face of all that Jeff Noel stands for, but I have got to be honest. I hate to exercise. The minute I set foot into a gym, the distinct odor causes my gag reflex to kick in. I love to swim, but living in the Northeast means there is a definite season for that. Indoor pools = public toilet bowls.

All that being said, there comes a point in time when a decision must be made. We can either keep on ignoring the truth and hope for the best or we can force ourselves into submission. I don’t think there are many people out there who have not heard the benefits of exercise. The same as smokers know that smoking is negatively impacting their health, drinking heavily isn’t doing them any favors and fried cheese steaks with mayo and a side of fries is making substantial deposits in their arteries, we all know that we should try to incorporate physical activity into our life. We KNOW!

Sometimes true motivation comes from desperation. Arthritis has caused me to wake in the night with hip pain and stop wearing anything but supportive shoes. When I turn my head my neck makes the sound of milk being poured into a bowl of Rice Krispies. One day when my ankle was nice and swollen I got some free medical advice from my son. “Looks like arthritis, Mom. You know, dropping a couple of pounds would mean less weight on the joint.”

As I sit typing this post, I can see the park at the end of my street. The Township just paved a quarter mile walking trail around its perimeter. I’ve been forcing myself to go down there (almost) every day for the past two weeks. I walked a mile on day one, not wanting to aggravate my joints. Yesterday I walked two miles. Last night I slept through the night without waking up in pain. I feel like a hamster on a treadmill, pointlessly going in circles around the track. I haven’t bothered to see if I’ve lost any weight. This gal loves her sleep and doesn’t enjoy pain, so I will be heading down there later today, as soon as the rain stops.

Next Blog

 

 

“By golly, Jim, I’m beginning to think I can cure a rainy day!” – Dr Leonard “Bones” McCoy – Chief Medical Officer, USS Enterprise

Yes, I’ll admit it; I watched Star Trek. My son was a HUGE fan and his interest was contagious. What amazes me is that some of the things that seemed so futuristic on that show have become reality. Tricorders were a constant presence, used for data analysis and recording. Medical tricorders were used for analyzing a patient.

NASA now uses a LOCAD, which monitors space stations for onboard fungus, E Coli and salmonella. Not so different from the fictional Tricorder! In the not too distant future, we will benefit from handheld devices that check for cancer, diabetes and bacterial infections. Development is in the works!

It really is amazing when you stop to think of the recent medical advances we now take for granted. Joint replacements, cardiac stents, statin drugs and MRIs are all commonly used. Open-heart surgery for valve replacement isn’t that old a procedure and now, in some cases, is being done as minimally invasive surgery. In our grandparent’s day, having one’s gallbladder removed was major surgery; now it’s routinely outpatient, with three tiny incisions covered by Band-Aids. Cataract removal meant lying in a hospital bed with sandbags around your head to keep you immobile. My mother recently had hers removed by laser and stopped for lunch on the way home. My current amazement is the treatment for my father’s macular degeneration. My friend’s mother is now legally blind because of this common condition. For just the past decade, there is a treatment that slows the progression and in most cases even restores some vision loss. Monthly injections into the eyeball of the exact same drug- but in a much lower dosage- that is also used to treat colon cancer; my father is now able to read two more lines of the eye chart, and he’s only had three injections so far. I stay by his side through the process, which is pretty simple and totally painless, according to him. It always makes me smile and say a little “thank you” to those child science nerds who saw the future in the crew of The Starship Enterprise.

Next Blog

 

 

Myside Bias. Confirmation Bias. “The tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses regardless of whether the information is true.”

It’s a common occurrence. People want to prove they are right, and so they tend to filter any information they see or hear. Sometimes they will totally disregard anything that is contrary to what they already believe.

How sad that this happens when we have decided we don’t like someone. We will only listen to or believe negative things about them. What if we tried to find a positive for every negative? What if we slowly started to realize that the person isn’t as bad as we chose to believe? If that person is someone we don’t personally know, if they happen to be a public figure, then what we think about them has little affect on them. WE feel the consequences of those negative emotions. As the late comic Buddy Hackett so brilliantly stated, “While you’re carrying a grudge, they’re out dancing.”

Next Blog