1.  Just Like A Woman

2.  Blood On The Tracks

3.  Subterranean Homesick Blues

We have been to see The Family, Many Miles Away.  A seven hour drive there, eight hours on the way back.  No snow, no stuck trains, no plane strikes, no tour firm collapses. Just me, The Man, Son 1 aged 5y 2m and Son 2 aged 2y 3m all packed into a hatchback. Big Advantage of Having Failed Completely At Christmas Shopping: More Room In The Car For Us All.  The Elegant Aunt had a Big Birthday and we said we’d go.  Fair Play to her, as she would say, she was delighted that we bothered.  She loved her presents: organic cheese from the Veg Man, Alpaca Cushion from the Big Town Shop which will never last, and a golden scarf made from beautiful cotton. Hopefully she liked them so much that she won’t notice she didn’t get a Christmas present.

Last time we went Far Far Away bubbles Son 2, who was 10m, ended up in hospital on a drip. It was awful. A long, dark two-week walk with gastroenteritis whose legacy is found in the small bottles of antiseptic handgel on every shelf, in every bag, tub, car and pocket in our lives. Granny and Granddad had thought, and had booked us into the same hotel room in which all 4 of us barfed continuously last time we visited.  Son 2, 17m older and stronger, couldn’t settle in his cot, and despite all my resolutions, ended up sleeping with me on the sofa bed. Yesterday morning, after another night broken by his piercing, persistent cries, he woke me again with his wracking sobs.  I put out a hand and felt moisture. He had a terrible cold. “Oh Son 2, what’s the matter now?” I asked. “By dose,” he cried. I put the light on. It looked like a massacre. His face was coated in blood, the sheets were crimson, my pyjamas were stained and there was blood in his mouth, in his hair and on his hands.  Atomic nosebleed. It went on all day, and meant we were unable to travel back because every time it dried up, he stuck his little baby finger up to rake his nostril out and off it gushed again. At 8pm ish we gave up and booked in the hotel for another night. I texted my boss. I was not to worry about The Office, she replied. But shouldn’t we be seeing a doctor?

We would wait for the morning to see what kind of sleep he had, we decided. He slept all night without a murmer.  The Man was pleased he’d finally slept through. And then I confessed to giving him 2 spoonfuls of travel sickness medicine at bedtime. Bad Mother. I was tired, I needed some sleep.  And of course I stayed awake the whole time, hunkered down by his cot in the shadows, holding my breath while I listened to his…  But postively, both boys travelled well. Son 2 had his finger in its normal place: “My nose beed again!” Son 1 kept the tension up “I need a wee!”  But we spotted madly: pink car, crane, flag with a flag pole, digger, plane, christmas tree with decorations, the traffic was ok, they slept in the morning and we sang Christmas songs in the afternoon.  It is Too Far to travel with a young family. But I think you have to do it to prove it.

Diarrhea can inflict almost anyone. It refers to increased water content as well as the high frequency of stools. The colour of the liquid stools can vary from light brown to green. Additionally, there may be flecks of blood, mucus, or semi digested food in the stools. Luckily, in most cases, diarrhea only occurs over a short period and responds rather well to a number of well tried treatments.

Most diarrhea results from viral infections that take place in the intestines and stomach (gastroenteritis). The infection inflames and irritates the intestines, thus making it less able to absorb food and liquids.

Causes

* People with lactose intolerance (the inability to digest lactose) who have consumed dairy products will allow the lactose to ferment in the large intestine where it can cause bloating, flatus, diarrhea and pain.
* Consuming large quantities of artificial sweeteners such as hexitols, mannitol and sorbitol can cause diarrhea.
* Food poisoning leading up to diarrhea is caused by bacteria such as salmonella, E.coli and campylobacter.
* Emotional stress and anxiety can have an unpleasant effect on the digestive system and can spark off diarrhea. Once the stress or anxiety is gone, diarrhea stops.
* Some women experience diarrhea immediately before or during menstruation.
* Antibiotics can upset the healthy balance between the good and bad bacteria in the intestine, resulting in diarrhea. Such antibiotics include doxycycline, digoxin, ampicillin, clindamycin, tetracycline and dirithromycin.
* Diarrhea can be a side-effect from drugs like immunosuppressants and those used for lowering cholesterol; for treating rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, cancer, osteoporosis, urinary tract infections, HIV and manic phase of bipolar disorder.

Home Remedies:
•     Diarrhea treatment can be achieved by using Ginger. In cases of diarrhea that were caused by indigestion, fresh or dry ginger has shown to be very useful. Use a piece of dry ginger along with a small crystal of rock salt, a qtr. Tsp. of this powder should be taken with a small piece of jaggery.
•     Diarrhea treatment can be achieved by using Pomegranate. Pomegranate has shown to be very effective in treating diarrhea because of its astringent properties. If a patient becomes weak due to diarrhea, he or she should by given 50ml of Pomegranate juice to drink. This will help to control the diarrhea.
•    Diarrhea treatment can be achieved by using Bottle Gourd. The juice of bottle gourd is a very valuable medicine that is used to treat excessive thirst caused by diarrhea. Take a glass of the juice with a pinch of salt to help treat diarrhea.
•     Diarrhea treatment can be achieved by using Mango Seeds. Mango seeds are very valuable in treating diarrhea. Take a dose of one to two grams with or without honey. Use twice daily.
•     Diarrhea treatment can be achieved by using Rice. Rice has shown to very useful in treating diarrhea within children. Take a teaspoon of the powder of charred parboiled rice, mixed with buttermilk. Give doses of 30 grams every half hour.

Read about Herbal Weight Loss and also Obesity Treatment and Natural Weight Loss Supplements .

Approximately six weeks into the baby adventure, we took the big step of going out with friends and we took the kid. We had a great time, though we stayed out a bit late in light of the reality that we (or at least I) would be up a lot in the night. It turns out that I didn’t know the half of it…

Around midnight I began to experience the initial symptoms of full-blown gastroenteritis. Every orifice became an emergency exit – an unpleasantness that lasted well into the wee hours; I became so exhausted that I could no longer stand. I could feel the mams filling; they had not seemed to get the message that I was *sick* and that milk production was to be put on hold. I knew that I needed to empty them but simply could not muster the energy to do so. Finally the pressure became too much to bear and, dragging myself upright, commenced to draining the massive udders.

I had gone more than six hours without pumping; had I been cognizant of the consequences I wold have directed my husband to hook me up as best he could. By the middle of the next day I began to rally as my insides rearranged themselves back into their previous configuration. I even felt well enough to travel a few hours to see family who had not yet met the babe. As the day wore on, however, I began to feel the beginnings of a fever. By the next morning I had spiked a fever of close to 105° and one breast was rock hard, red, and throbbing so much that I swore the house shook to the beat of the pumping of my blood.

I called my midwife who immediately diagnosed a bad case of mastitis.  The cure?  A round of powerful antibiotics and even more frequent pumping – emptying the breast encourages the reduction of infection and inflammation.  This was somewhat analogous to my mildly masochistic feelings regarding a deep dental cleaning:  kind of hurts (sometimes really hurts) but in the end there’s a certain pleasure in it.  Pumping through mastitis evoked the same feeling for me.

Thankfully this was my only bout with full-blown mastitis; I had other blockages and inflammations later on but all were mitigated with increased pumping, hot compresses, and massage (nice for someone else to do if they the right touch…).  Some women swear by cold cabbage leaves in the brassiere but I never found this terribly effective.

Words to live by:  If you feel even the barest hint of blockage or inflammation, or are tempted to dramatically change your pump schedule, mastitis is lurking!  With respect the first, simply pump/nurse as often as possible, apply your choice of hot compresses, massage (from the base of the inflammation toward the nipple), and/or cabbage leaves if this is appealing to you.  For the second, proceed with caution!  In the first several weeks, frequent pumping (to mimic the nursing activities of a newborn) is essential to establishing an abundant milk supply.  You may find that once you’ve found a good rhythm and you’re producing plenty of milk (remember – you might want to bag and freeze some extra), you may find that you can gradually increase the time between pumping.

I’ll close with the following thoughts:

1. Always drain the breast.
2. Continuing to pump for a few minutes after you’re empty will encourage milk production.
3. Rub a little breast milk onto your nipples – this will help keep them supple and reduce the soreness you may have from the pump (or the baby if you’re nursing).
4. Be prepared for some discomfort in the beginning; it gets easier!  (and see #3)
5. Don’t worry if it seems like what you’re producing at first is hardly worth the effort – it takes time to build up the milk supply.  It is worth the effort!
6. I always liked to read whilst pumping…also a good time to meditate, or just think.
7. Do not feel guilty for enjoying the time to yourself.
8. Breathe.

2nd December 2009. The day I became a loonatic. It’s loonatic and not the usual lunatic. 18 trips to the loo within 12 hours makes you one. Mid way throught the day it seemed that I was a Formula 1 car and making pit stops for a quick splash and dash as the experts would put it.

Medical experts though termed it as SEVERE gastroenteritis. In layman’s term caught a stomach bug and a pretty bugger of a bug it seems as 36 hours since it made its presence felt it is still troubling me a bit.

I hope the medicines do the trick.

PS: Avoid farting when you have got the stomach bug!!!

Today started abruptly at 2am with Rory (my beagle) throwing up multiple times coupled with  a bout of diarrhoea and extreme discomfort.  This continued until about 4am when finally she was able to settle down and get some sleep.  I think we all got about 4 hours of sleep in total.

At 7am Rory was bright and bouncy, barking at the front door and hunting for food.  She had what she would class as the worst breakfast in the world (dry Z/D food) whilst Caleb (my GSD x Husky) got chicken mince.  All was going well until about midday when I checked Rory’s anal glands (she suffers from impacted anal glands that need to be expressed weekly) and I found blood.  We headed down to the vet clinic straight away as blood is never good sign.

The diagnosis was infected anal glands with a dose of gastro.  We got some antibiotics and headed back home to prepared for a dessert afternoon for Lelak’s birthday.

Wonderful desserts were eaten whilst enjoying good company.  The dogs played beautifully with the toddler in attendance and all was good until 6pm when we noticed that the left side of Rory’s face was swollen.  She looked like she had turned into Bull Terrier/Beagle hybrid.  Still she was bright and bubbly and ate her dinner with much gasto.

After our friends left around 8pm, Rory’s face was still all swollen, so we decided to call the vet to see what we should do.  We were told to bring her in immediately.  Thus began our second vet visit of the day.

Whilst taking Rory’s temperature, the vet discovered bloody faeces on the thermometer and a rectal exam confirmed much more bloody faeces.  The gastro with infected anal glands was upgraded to haemorrhagic gastroenteritis – a rather nasty version of gastro that has no known cause.  The vet gave Rory an anti-histamine shot for her swollen face – suspected to be the result of a run in with a wasp, and we waited for 30 minutes to make sure everything was okay. After 30 minutes, we got another exam and a blood test to make sure nothing nasty was going on with Rory’s blood as haemorrhagic gastro can cause dogs’ blood to become sluggish and begin to clot where it shouldn’t.

Fortunately, Rory’s bloods looked good so we were able to take her home.  She is on Z/D (bland allergen free dog food) for the next week and hopefully the bloody diarrhoea should pass in 36 hours. It has not been a good day for anyone.  We are all exhausted and tired. We are all hoping for a good nights’ sleep tonight and an uneventful Sunday.

El temido Anisakis
Cuando Teresa presentó un cuadro de gastroenteritis, con diarrea, dolor abdominal y alergia cutánea, con aparición de habones, urticaria, malestar general, hinchazón de los párpados, y de los labios, pensó que había comido algo que le había sentado mal. La sopa era buena y el pescado al horno era fresco, pero estaba poco hecho Precisó ir a urgencias del hospital y cuando le contó al  médico que había comido pescado al horno, este enseguida le diagnosticó de alergia a anisakis.  La anisakiasis humana es un problema de salud pública, que origina enfermedades, y cuya incidencia está aumentando en los últimos años. Este aumento podría ser debido a una mayor infestación del pescado, a mejoras en el diagnóstico de la enfermedad y a la aparición de la costumbre de comer pescado crudo o poco cocinado. Las medidas preventivas son esenciales para prevenir la enfermedad. Se basan sobre todo en la congelación del pescado que se consume en crudo y en la adecuada cocción del pescado cocinado.
Recientemente, el ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo ha desarrollado un real decreto para la prevención de la anisakiasis, que ha creado una importante polémica
El pescado tiene unas propiedades nutritivas claramente beneficiosas ya que es rico en proteínas y en grasas omega 3.  Sin embargo, más del 50% del pescado que consumimos puede estar parasitado por anisakis. Los grandes mamíferos marinos son los que mantienen el parásito en el medio acuático. Por este motivo, el pescado procedente del Mediterráneo suele estar poco parasitado, mientras que ocurre lo contrario con el de mares fríos, donde suelen vivir estos grandes animales.
Cuando se consume pescado crudo o poco cocinado,  incluidos los ahumados o los boquerones en vinagre, las larvas de anisakis son ingeridas vivas por el hombre. El parásito se  “ancla” o “enclava” en la pared gástrica o intestinal y provoca cuadros de “gastritis” o de “gastroenteritis”, y  reacciones alérgicas, que a veces pueden ser severas. El antecedente de ingestión de pescado crudo o poco hecho en las horas previas permite el diagnóstico de alergia a Anisakis.  Actualmente se considera que es necesaria la ingesta de la larva viva,  para desencadenar una respuesta alérgica .
En otros casos, la ingesta de una cantidad masiva de parásitos, aunque estén muertos, también puede producir enfermedad, ya que se puede llegar a producir una obstrucción intestinal por los mismos.

Se recomienda a la población general, para matar el parásito, cocinar el pescado a 60º C durante 1 minuto. Cuidado con el pescado «poco hecho», ya que las temperaturas alcanzadas pueden ser insuficientes.  El pescado que se vaya a comer crudo, ahumado o en vinagre, o poco hecho es imprescindible congelarlo a temperaturas inferiores a –20º C, durante al menos 24 horas.

En pacientes con antecedentes de alergia a Anisakis se les recomienda  evitar radicalmente la ingesta de pescado crudo, incluyendo salazones, ahumados y escabeche.  Además, es preferible que consuman el pescado congelado en alta mar, ya que en estos casos se eviscera precozmente y la posibilidad de parasitación de la carne es menor.  Asimismo, es preferible que coman las colas de pescados grandes, procurando evitar áreas ventrales,  cercanas al aparato digestivo del pescado que es desde donde emigra el Anisakis  a la carne tras la muerte del pescado.

Dtra. Pilar Riobó
Jefe Asociado de Endocrinología y Nutrición
Fundación Jiménez Díaz

Family sickness with kids is sort of like having someone push “pause” on your life, while everything else goes on and piles up around you and you can’t do anything about it.  While I was only sick myself for less than 24 hours, every time I turned around for six days I was stripping a bed and re-making it, cleaning up vomit, putting a toddler on the toilet (okay, that happens every day, but when the flu hits the lower intestine, the visits to the toilet get a little more . . . intense . . .) keeping the electrolytes up in whatever member of my family was losing fluid from whichever end of the intestine was affected at the moment, and washing clothes.

If you don’t know how much I hate laundry, you must be new around here.  As much as I hate this intestinal plague we’ve been experiencing, I hate laundry more and I have been doing laundry all week because we’ve been experiencing the intestinal plague .

On Tuesday, the mackerdoodle went through four sets of clothes while she was throwing up, as well as managing to throw up in her bed AND mine.  On Wednesday evening I managed to go through three sets of clothes in an hour partly because of the cheesedoodle’s cheerful projectile puking and I don’t want to talk about the other experience.  Thursday I had to strip both beds again.  I’d rather not talk about it.  You’re getting the picture.  In four days my daughter alone went through ten pairs of pajamas, five pairs of pants and I lost count of the panties. It was all I could do to get clothes out of the dryer, just to put the next load in.  At some point the pile quit growing and just went into recycle – remove the sick clothes or towel or sheets, place in washing machine and replace with whatever could be salvaged from “the pile”.

At the end of gastroenteritis homecoming week ‘09, my living room looked like this:

The Pile

Oh the humanity.

I haven’t got it all folded yet, just like I haven’t managed to get the rest of the house back into order, but it’s on the way.  Jawan asked me today if I feel normal yet.  Whittling the pile down to two baskets went a long way to helping me get there.  Our bodies may be healed, but my house has yet to recover.

I bet someone will want to look at the house on Tuesday.

Así estoy desde hace ya una semana.

El miércoles pasado me empecé a encontrar con síntomas de gastroenteritis y he ido pasando por diferentes fases que han incluido nauseas, dolores musculares, dolor de garganta, … y siempre acompañado por una flojera general.

En definitiva, nada que me impida cumplir mis deberes laborales pero que me imposibilita hacer muchas otras cosas, entre ellas entrenar.

Por suerte ya había dado la temporada por acabada, si se puede llamar temporada a lo que he hecho este año Teniendo en cuenta que ha sido la primera vez en mi vida que participaba en alguna competición y que hasta hace aproximadamente 2 años, correr más de 250 metros me dejaba sin aliento, estoy bastante contento de mi progresión y sobretodo de lo que falta por llegar ))))

Hoy he leido una entrevista a Javier Gomez Noya en la que afirma que las jornadas duras entrena 7 horas… ahora ya lo entiendo todo !!! En fin, que nunca llegaré a hacer grandes marcas pero si voy consiguiendo mejorar mis marcas y sobretodo aumentar distancias (olímpico, medio ironman y tal vez algún día un ironman) estaré mas que contento.

A ver si a partir de esta semana puedo volver a entrenar con cierta normalidad y sobretodo meterle horas de gimnasio para conseguir volumen muscular.

Gastroenteritis, stomach flu, stomach bug… All names for what Sabrina had last week. The weird thing is how it long it took to play out.  Here’s the timeline:

Last Tuesday Dinner – no appetitie, barely ate

Wednesday – low appetite all day, threw up at night

Thursday – low appetite

Friday – threw up a little, grouchy

Saturday – no appetite

Sunday – carbo loading

Monday – normal, not eating too much

Tuesday – no change

Wednesday – no change

Thursday – Eating machine!  She woke up STARVING. Drank her entire bottle of milk. 5 minutes later went to her high chair wanting to eat breakfast. Ate oranges, yogurt, waffle, banana… And that scarfing lasted all day.  I picked her up from daycare and they told me that she wanted to eat everything and everything in sight all day.  And her belly showed.  ;)

*** Update: I just found out that a baby we played with Tuesday got the stomach bug too.  So I guess it’s still contagious after the appetite comes back.  Bad mom friend.  :(

Sabrina with a gut — before her 3-day fast took it away.

Sabrina has a mild stomach bug. Poor thing hasn’t been eating much the past 3 days, and she threw up twice.   Just a quick google search helped me learn that she has Gastroenteritis. She hasn’t been all that fussy so I wasn’t too worried, but I called her doc anyways. She instructed us to go in and get checked out. So I did. I woke Sabrina up early from her nap this morning to bring her in. Dr listened to her breathing in the stethoscope, then confirmed she has a stomach bug. Told me to just feed her bread and crackers for a few days, Pedialyte, and not to give her milk.

…Ok duh!  Did she really need to SEE Sabrina in order to give me generic instructions that I found with Google?  And I don’t even agree her instructions. I say if Sabrina is willing to eat something, bananas, yogurt, whatever, then feed it to her.   And the no milk instruction is to prevent diarrhea and Sabrina doesn’t even have diarrhea!

This is the second time that we’ve gone in to see a doctor “just in case.”   Now I don’t want to risk my child’s well being or anything, but really?  $100 for an ER visit to confirm that Sabrina was teething and for some Tylenol instructions? $20 + time and inconvenience for advice that I found on BabyCenter.com?   I’m thinking twice next time we take her to see a doctor.  Especially next time I have to wake her in order to see a doctor. I think the sleep will add to her recovery more than a visit.

MD friends and family, expect calls from me in the future!

31-07-2009

Para mí el día empieza de madrugada. ¿Me sentarían mal los chupitos de vodka a los que nos invitaron en la casa? Con vómitos y la barriga suelta a cada hora tiene más pinta de gastroenteritis, así que, botella de suero en mano, me monto en el coche como puedo. La farmacéutica de Shikment me entiende rápido (habría que verme a cara…) y me pincha algo para cortar los vómitos. El mal cuerpo no se me quita, seguramente por la deshidratación, y solo al final del día me encuentro mejor.

En otro orden de cosas,  tiramos para Almaty y hay buenas carreteras. Esta parte de Kazajstán no tiene nada que ver con la que conocimos en la primera entrada (por el Oeste) y aquí mucho más nivel de vida. Hay que bordear el territorio de Kyrgistán.

En nuestro coche conduce Juanma todo el día y acampamos a menos de 200km de Almaty.

[Quilpué, Chile] [Son comunes estas situaciones en clínicas veterinarias donde los médicos ineptos se parecen más a matarifes que a otra cosa y ven en los animales solamente una fuente de lucro. Este misterio sobre la muerte de Vodka, y el rechazo a practicarle una necropsia para determinar la causa de su muerte, indica fuertemente que hubo negligencia o derechamente maltrato animal]. Lo leímos en:

Murió Su Perro, Le Pasaron Otro y el Verdadero Está en un Refrigerador. Con efectivos de Carabineros se irrumpió el hospital médico animal para dar con el can, pero nadie ha querido hacerle una necropsia y lleva 2 semanas en una morgue. Caso pasó al Sernac.Una horrible pesadilla le tocó vivir a un joven de Quilpué y su familia tras la aún inexplicable muerte de su perrito de seis meses de vida cuya raza era pitbull.
Según explicó, el 10 de agosto recién pasado su perrito llamado Vodka se sentía muy mal y lo llevó al veterinario quien le dijo que presentía que tenía gastroenteritis tras lo cual le dio dos opciones: “Abrirlo en una operación ya o llevarlo a una clínica para sacarle una radiografía”.
Ante esto, el dueño optó por la radiografía y, orientado por el profesional, llevó al can a una céntrica y conocida clínica de 1 Norte en Viña del Mar. “Me dijo que él trabajaba allí y hacía operaciones”, afirmó.
El tema es que en el lugar, a eso de las 8 de la noche, se le dijo que Vodka debía quedar en observación y ante lo débil que estaba aceptó.
“Me fui y dejé todos mis datos para que me avisaran sobre cualquiera cosa que le pasara y sólo a las 13 horas del día siguiente supe que mi perro murió”, dijo el afectado.
Seguidamente y molesto se dirigió a la clínica a pedir explicaciones y se encontró con más problemas.
“Ya me habían cobrado 34 mil pesos y me pidieron pagar más y no tenía problemas en cancelar lo que corresponde pero nadie me dijo de qué murió mi perro y encontré todo muy extraño”, expresó.
Entre una y otra discusión que se dio en el centro veterinario, optó por llevarse a su mascota y pidió verla antes de que la taparan, pero le fue negada esta solicitud.
“Era tanto el dolor y la pena que me lo llevé finalmente”, señaló.

No Era Su Perro
A las 21 horas, junto a su familia decidió enterrar a Vodka en el patio de la casa y cuando llega el difícil momento de sacar al perrito de la bolsa negra en que se lo dieron se enfrenta a un drama mayor.
“El perrito que estaba en la bolsa no era ni es mi perro. Era un Chow Chow y allí exploté de rabia, así es que fui a la Primera Comisaría de Carabineros de Viña del Mar con todos estos antecedentes y con personal policial llegamos hasta la clínica”, expresó.
A esa altura ya era la medianoche y los efectivos policiales pidieron la inmediata presencia del director del recinto quien tuvo que llegar y tras todo lo sucedido reconoció que el animal fue cambiado sin querer y el dueño exigió una necropsia para saber la causa de muerte de Vodka.
“Pedí la operación la hiciera un profesional externo y se negaron, manifestando que su patólogo lo haría, pero resulta que este también se negó y dijo que no quería involucrarse en este tema”, indicó.
Por esta razón, el animalito ha quedado en el refrigerador de la morgue y ya lleva dos semanas sin que nadie se lo devuelva a su dueño.
El caso pasó al Sernac donde se inició una investigación por “falta de comunicación con el cliente, falta de atención al cliente, omisión de información, mentiras y falsedades, publicidad engañosa y falta de seriedad con el animal”.
[Anita Collao G.]
[28 de agosto de 2009]
[©estrella de valparaíso]

1.  Advanced Directives–Also known as a Living Will.  Includes your determination of your Healthcare Surrogate, or who you want to make medical decisions for you. 

If you have a “DNR” form that specifies that you do not want paramedics to resuscitate you in the event your heart stops beating or lungs stop breathing, this should be prominently placed near the entrance of your home or attached to your refrigerator.

2.  List of your medications, including specific doses.  Include medication allergies, including any allergy to latex.

3.  First Aid Kit with topical antibiotic, alcohol pads, guaze pads, paper tape, Ace wrap and bandages.

According to a  survey by AARP and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), two-thirds of people aged 50 and older use some form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).  Less than one-third of those who use CAM talk with their doctors about it. 

Remember that supplements are not evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.  The term Medicine Cabinet is used  in the title of this article to emphasize the fact that supplements should be treated like other medicines.   Share with your doctor any supplements you may be taking to find out any side effects or interactions with other medicines you may be taking.

4.   I call Vitamin D the Superstar Supplement–studies suggest it may reduce the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes and certain cancers.   Vitamin D helps the absorption of calcium in the stomach.  Many more people are vitamin D deficient than previously known.  Vitamin D is important for healthy bones.  It helps the absorption of calcium in the stomach.

5.  Calcium is important to prevent osteoporosis or thinning of the bones.  Calcium supplements typically contain vitamin D as well. 

6.   Continuing this discussion about healthy bones, the combination of glucosamine and chondroitin were shown to improve the pain of moderate to severe arthritis, but was no better than placebo in mild arthritis in the GAIT study  funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

7.  Healthy joints may also benefit with omega-3 fatty acids, more commonly known as ”fish oil.”  Some small studies show that omega-3 fatty acids may help patients with an inflammatory arthritis called rheumatoid arthritis. 

Omega 3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) have also been found to improve memory. 

Fish oil is best known for helping increase the good cholesterol in the body and lowering  bad cholesterol and triglycerides (fats).  The best way to get omega 3 fatty acids is to eat fatty fish such as  salmon, sardines, tuna or mackeral twice a week. 

A landmark study conducted in Italy showed that omega 3 fatty acid supplementation after a heart attack helped reduce the risk of recurrent heart attacks.   

The American Heart Association recommends 500 mg of omega 3 fatty acids daily for healthy people and 1 gm of omega 3 fatty acids for people who have known coronary artery disease.

Check with your doctor before taking omega 3 fatty acids because they may increase the risk of bleeding.

8.   Cholesterol levels can also be improved by eating fiber in the diet.  The best sources of fiber are whole grains such as barley, oat bran or quinoa.  

Fiber also helps prevent diverticulosis (small pouches inside the large intestine).   The more fat in the diet, the more diverticula that form.  They can become inflamed and infected and may even require surgical removal of part of the colon.   

Some patients with irritable bowel syndrome or constipation benefit with fiber supplements in their diet.

It is very important to drink lots of water when taking fiber supplements–approximately 64 ounces a day. 

9.    Probiotics are supplements that also help maintain good colon health.  Probiotics are microorganisms which replenish the good bacteria that normally live in our colon or large intestine.  Probiotics are especially helpful when you have a stomach virus or have to take antibiotics.

10.  A study carried out by Harvard Medical School researchers showed that regular use of aspirin after developing colorectal cancer decreased the risk of death from colon cancer. 

The most common use for aspirin, though, is to prevent heart attack and stroke.  The U. S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) encourages men aged 45-79 to consider taking low dose aspirin to prevent heart attack. Women ages 55-79 should consider aspirin therapy to prevent stroke.

Like other blood thinners, aspirin should not be used by patients who have had bleeding ulcers, patients over the age of 80 (except under a doctor’s supervision), patients with bleeding strokes or people at high risk for falls. 

Always consult your doctor before starting aspirin.

11.  Lutein is an antioxidant supplement which has been shown to  help slow down or prevent vision loss in patients with age related macular degeneration.   The macula is the part of the back of the eye called the retina which is involved in central vision.   Age related macular degeneration leads to loss of central vision, sparing the peripheral vision.

The macula is the part of the retina that is also most sensitive to blue light the part of the visible light spectrum that, along with ultraviolet light, can damage your eyes.  Sunglasses also prevent  penetration of blue and ultraviolet light to the macula.

12.  Sunblock SPF at least 15 should be used daily to exposed skin.  Broad spectrum sunblock prevents ultraviolet A and ultraviolet B rays.  UVA rays cause premature aging of the skin.  UVB rays can cause sunburns.  Exposure to both types of ultraviolet rays can lead to the development of skin cancer, including melanoma, a very serious type of skin cancer.  

Look for agents that contain titanium and zinc oxide.

Most people do not use as much sunblock as needed to protect the skin.   One ounce, enough to fill a shot glass, is  needed to protect each of the exposed parts of the body. 

Sunblock should be rubbed into the skin, especially on the face, ears, arms and hands, 15-30 minutes before sun exposure.  It must be re-applied frequently, every two hours, even the water-resistant kind.   

The American Academy of Dermatology recommends daily use of sunblock to exposed areas of the body, not just on days you are out in the sun.   On cloudy days, up to 80% of the sun’s rays are still present to cause sun damage.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not substitute for medical advice from your healthcare provider. The author is not providing personal medical opinion, diagnosis or course of treatment. Do not delay or substitute this information for medical treatment.

En mujeres motivadas la tasa anual de fracasos de los métodos anticonceptivos orales oscila en un 0.1%.

En mujeres no motivadas con uso irregular de los anticonceptivos orales oscila en un 7.6% con un año de uso.

Los fracasos en la anticoncepción oral seda por múltiples razones y dependerá en gran manera de la motivación de la mujer en cuánto al cumplimiento en los días y horas establecidas. Resulta difícil entender de qué manera la omisión de una píldora o dos puede originar un embarazo.

Es fundamental para la mujer que utiliza anticonceptivos orales como método de prevenir embarazos atenerse de manera estricta a los 7 días sin píldora para poder obtener una anticoncepción FIABLE Y EFICAZ.

Los problemas más prevalentes que se pueden identificar como asociados a fracasos evidentes de la anticoncepción oral son: LOS VOMITOS Y LA DIARREA. Por lo que aunque no se hayan olvidado píldoras anticonceptivas, se debe usar un método de reserva al menos 7 días después de un episodio de GASTROENTERITIS (vómitos y diarrea).

 Una alternativa consistiría en introducir la píldora anticonceptiva en la vagina durante la enfermedad.

 DR. EDSON CANO   GINECOLOGO OBSTETRA.

Comenzando mis Post sobre las Enfermedades Transmitidas por alimentos hoy comienzo con Bacillus Cereus. La enfermedad asociada: Gastroenteritis causada por Bacillus cereus

Bacillus cereus. Es una bacteria que forma esporas y se halla en la tierra. Cuando ella se reproduce a altos niveles puede producir dos toxinas que pueden causar dos tipos de enfermedades.

Control:

Cocción apropiada de los alimentos. El calor destruye las células bacterianas vegetativas pero las esporas se destruyen con la ebullición durante más de una hora.

Medidas Preventivas

• Cocción de los alimentos a las temperaturas internas mínimas adecuadas
• Mantener los alimentos a las temperaturas correctas
• Enfriar los alimentos correctamente

This week, the nurse became the patient…

I got hit with a nasty case of viral gastroenteritis on Tuesday and it just went downhill from there.  You don’t need to know the gory details.  Ended up so dehydrated by Thursday that I landed in urgent care, hooked up to IV fluids. The poor nurses tried to find a vein and after four miserable, painful attempts, they called in the big guns: a phlebotomist from the lab who went in by instinct and got it on the first try.  Fluid volume deficit + Nurse Teeny’s stubborn veins = one major league challenge (that’s an official nursing diagnosis, by the way).

My diet for the past 48 hours has consisted of Gatorade, popsicles, and oyster crackers.  I missed clinical today, and won’t make it to a friend’s wedding this weekend. And it’s so hot I just want to find a corner of my non-air-conditioned apartment and not move.

Happy freakin’ 4th of July.

Judy on our Wedding Day

“Baseball and marriage have much in common. Both are a team effort. You can’t play baseball by yourself. You need others and have to get along with them. Marriage needs a partner. If marriage reaches a point where getting along is not possible, the marriage is over.”  Peter Griffiths in the Daily Herald 1982

Today is our wedding anniversary eve, in fact our 26^th anniversary.  It was cool that we got to spend it together; this has not always been the case.  Tonight the Deity Herself smiled upon us as on a beautiful night we watched our Norfolk Tides defeat the Pawtucket Red Socks 4-2.  Tomorrow we start a 4 day road trip to Washington DC to celebrate our anniversary which will be topped off by a behind the scenes tour of the White House on Saturday Night arranged by a friend who I baptized on the way to Iraq, who is now on the National Security Council.   His staff has bent over backward to make this happen and we are blessed.  We will also see my old Commanding Officer from Marine Security Force Battalion, or now as it is called the Security force Regiment and his wife who are coming down from Annapolis to meet us Friday night.

So 26 years, as Jerry Garcia would say it has been a long strange trip.  We met almost five years before we were married at San Joaquin Delta College.  We got to know each other by hanging out between classes with mutual friends.  In fact the things we did were almost like Seinfeld before Seinfeld came on.  It was a relationship initially based on nothing, except that I had a Dorothy Hamill fetish and Judy had short brown hair.  We started dating about 7 months after we met.  We were co-conspirators at the Delta College German club where our German candy and bake sales were legendary, racking up huge profits for the club which enabled us to fund our own field trips to San Francisco and Monterrey.  Our political prowess was also unmatched, as a small club we had few votes in student government which at the time was dominated by a rather large and active ethnic club.  This club was a bit pushy the way it handled itself, so we cobbled together a coalition of the language, science and other kind of “nerdy” clubs, funded our candidate with our sales receipts, even passing our free candy on his campaign materials.  He had an ethnic name and we used it to our advantage, we convinced a lot of people that our friend Tory was one of the other ethnic club’s candidates.  We used his first name “Salvatore” in our advertising.  This caused a split in the voting allowing our stealth candidate from an Asian club to become student body President.  I guess had we had the wherewithal to pursue politics as a couple we might have been quite good, as both of us have pretty good instincts and I happen to be rather analytical and calculating at times.  As it were this was the high point of our political career but our relationship was solidified as we shared in taking German club from a poor club of nerds to a campus economic and political powerhouse of nerds.

Us in 1980 at Cal State Northridge

We grew together over the years of our courtship playing off of our mutual twisted sense of humor and our faith.  I followed Judy down to Cal State Northridge and a week after I was commissioned we got married at our home Church, East Side Presbyterian Church in Stockton.  The eve of the wedding my ROTC friends took me out and tried to get me drunk, but I survived.  The wedding itself was on a shoestring as Judy’s dad was out of work and her mom not working and playing well with others.  Everything came together and our wedding looked like it cost a lot more than it did.  We spent the next two weeks together before I went on active duty and Judy finished her last semester of college.  We finally settled in Eckelhausen Germany, a tiny little town in the Saarland in April 1984 and lived in Germany for most of the first three years of our marriage.

Now as to anniversaries that we have spent together and apart; this is what makes 26 pretty special.

Wedding Day 25 June 1983 East Side Presbyterian Church

In 1984 I was in Landstuhl Army Medical Center dehydrated from a 2 week bout of gastroenteritis where I was so sick I was vomiting my anti-nausea medicine.  I had lost almost 20 pounds and my company commander wouldn’t believe that I was sick until I threw up on his desk. It was his fault, I told him I was going to throw up and he told me that I had to stay.  Oh well, that got me a ride in a Mercedes-Benz Ambulance to Landstuhl.  In 1985 and 1986 I was in the field with my company.  We were together in 1987 and 1988 in San Antonio, but from 1989-1997 we did not spend a single anniversary together due to military duties.  We spent 1998 together but missed 1999 and 2000 after I came in the Navy.  We got 2001 one together, but just barely as I returned from deployment a week before it.  We missed 2002 as I was deployed to the Middle East and finally got 2003 together when we renewed our vows in Jacksonville Florida.  2004-2007 we celebrated on the road doing trips to minor league baseball games out of our area in either Pennsylvania or North Carolina.  Last year we were together but I was not doing well having hit bottom with my PTSD about 100 or so days after returning from Iraq.  So with this history in mind you can understand why this is special.  We are 10 for 26 counting tomorrow.  If we were a baseball team our record would be somewhere between the Indians and Nationals on a winning percentage at .386.  However, if we were a hitter we would have a 386 batting average and that is not too shabby.

We have survived poverty and war, separation and tremendously difficult circumstances and we are still hanging on, and doing pretty good as a couple.  We were never able to have children but we have had three really fun dogs, the latest of which, Molly, is looking over my shoulder as I write this now.  We are different in the way that we are wired differently and have some different interests.  We are both introverts with often strong opinions.  But we love each other.  I only came close to having her divorce me once, though murder may have played into her mind a time or two.

So here we are…26 years with a 10 and 16, .386 record.  Even so Judy is the love of my life and we are together.

Take care and blessings,

Peace, Steve+