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This is posted as a follow up to my response to Ohyyjj's blog. This is what was reported on the news yesterday, October 24, 2009. We need the Health Reform Act now!! check out MSNBC for the rest of this article. The news that Social Security benefits will likely be frozen next year dismayed many older Americans, who said they feared that rising expenses for medication and other necessities would drive them into retirement poverty. “A lot of them aren’t going to be able to survive,” Anne Gondek, a retiree in Chicopee, Mass., said Monday, after the federal program for the elderly and disabled projected that for the first time in 34 years, there would be no cost of living adjustment (COLA) in payments for the next two years. Hope it's helpful.... Blueberrypi/Kathy
Tags: Make Your Voice Heard
FYI for More Info. Go to Wallet Pop.com Government Programs Put College Degrees in Reach for Moms By Godwin Alexander
posted: 8 HOURS 10 MINUTES AGO
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The Empty Nest Scholar Some find scholastic motivation once their children are grown. Just take it from Beverly Simon. She started her master's degree when her daughter and son were in high school. At the time, the easiest option was to pursue a traditional route by attending night classes at Fairleigh Dickinson University (Teaneck, NJ). After all, she needed to keep her job as a teacher of computer science at Middlesex County College (Edison, NJ), and remain involved in her teens' lives. "I got very little sleep." Staying up until 4 a.m. and going to work at 7 a.m. was the norm, she recalls.
Tags: The Empty Nest Scholar
See rest of article @Wallet Pop.com Patients, Beware 731 nurses reveal what to watch out for in the hospital posted: 16 HOURS 35 MINUTES AGO
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 jupiterimages You might already worry that hospitals aren't as safe or sanitary as they should be, but nurses say you don't know the half of it. That is the startling conclusion of our first side-by-side surveys of hospital conditions from two very different perspectives: those of nurses and patients. In the surveys, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, we heard from subscribers who told us about their own or a loved one's most recent hospital stay, and nurses reported on their most recent week at work.
Tags: Safeguards During Hospital Stay
I hope you will bear with me here but I have to tell you guys about one of the most fascinating places in the world to me. The beach is one of those places. I've always loved the water. Can't swim very well. Now the only way I would swim is to help save myself! Things have changed just a little but not my love for what has to be one of the things the creator created on his day of rest. It's too beautiful to believe otherwise. When my kids were much younger and they did well in school we went to the beach for a treat. When we just wanted to relax we went to the beach. They especially loved the seagulls and dolphins. We've had a terrible heat wave here but for once the weather is amicable. It was so beautiful I didn't make it to church! I went out early this morning to look for a Spa that is in the beach area. Yes a Spa. No not the kind where all of the really rich people go to be pampered. (smile) But a wellness Spa, it just happens to be in the one of the beach districts here. I need to see if the doctors there can help me with my energy level. And besides that i'm not even a little bit rich. Okay let me tell you we have very beautiful beaches!  I know everyone says that but we do. The water and sand are postcard quality. And today the sky above was a crisp blue, with beautiful fluffy white clouds in the sky. It was almost as if they'd been perfectly designed for the beach and the day. After finding out where the Spa was, we just had to go to the water. It was fantastic!!  I like early mornings at the beach best because that is when the Dolphins seem to like to feed. Their synchronized diving is a thing of beauty! It was so peaceful out there and so beautiful we ended up spending most of the morning and the after noon there. Fantastic.! A day not spent inside is alright with me. I had my sun hat but I really didn't use it the weather was great. Then it was finally time to leave and come back to the real world so, off to the Walmart's we went to get the car serviced. I am still happy because nothing can eclispe a day at the beach, and perfect weather. I think it was just what the doctor ordered because not once did I have to use my inhaler. Blueberrypi
Tags: Nature's Beauty
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to return to the non-Profit I used to work for in need of services. I worked for an agency that catered to the needs of people with disabilities for over 13 yeas as an Independent Living Advisor. If any of you are familiar with Centers for Indpendent Livings, then that is the type of non-profit I speak of. My mom who is a senior citizen was in need of a rollator, because her present walker is not only uncomfortable for her, but did not provide a way for her to rest when she gets tired while walking. Hence the equipment locker of the agency provides equipment on a loaned basis. It was really culture shock for me to walk back through the doors, the scary part is at that monent I felt as if I'd never left. I immediately began to talk shop and catch up on policy, and operations of the agency with anyone who engaged me. I also heard myself beaming proudly that the position I used to work, covered all of the individual assignments that present Independent Living Specialists" are able to handle by themselves. I also thought secretly that they were not very challenged! I mean how could you just be responsible for one specialty don't you need to know about the whole agency and how it works? The staff was very competent but I found myself thinking I wouldn't have executed this particular comment like that with regards to core services. It was a hysterical moment realizing that I was subjecting them to my critique!!  There was one true thing that I could not help but think, and that was that maybe just maybe human services is my destiny? I actually felt stimulated which was really weird because I'd really walked away voluntarily years ago when I became ill. No matter what my Director offered at the time for me to stay on staff, I still felt I had to leave because at that time I didn't feel I could offer one hundred percent. And if nothing else as a type A personality, my work ethic is off the chart. I beleived in giving my consumers one hundred plus and then some, of my time, expertise, and effort while attempting to aid them in reaching their goals. Oh my God! I've come to realize, that was so much bull______! The reason I walked was because, I felt sorry for myself because I'd become ill and I couldn't see pass that. I did beleive in giving one hundred percent plus of myself to my work. But I totally negated the fact that I worked for an agency that would accomodate the person i'd become. Going back there yesterday with my mom made this very clear to me. I'm not regretting my choice back then. I really needed some time back then to adjust. My old director is still there and he came out to greet my mom and I when he was told I was there. That was very heady stuff! I gave him a big hug, i'm just thankful I didn't tear up.You know like a girl!!  I used to live for my job, and that man's respect. He was no nonsense, professional, goal oriented and uncomplicated, when I worked there, and that's the work environment I liked and thrived in. He is one of the greatest people i'd ever worked with or for. He gave me autonomy over my programs and trusted me to get it done. He also alerted me when I was taking myself too seriously, but he valued and trusted my opinion. After coming home yesterday. I had to ask myself why didn't you go back? Or better yet why did you leave? The truth of the matter is that looking back I really did need the time, because I'd begun to feel detached from the focus of my job, and wondering wheter it mattered. One example is when I was speaking to a group of seniors @ a nursing home, while doing a presentation of services the agency offered, I found myself looking at them, the senior citizens, and asking is this it then, you get sick you get old and then this is it? I used to love doing presentations. In a way they were part of our bread and butter. You know funding? Yes we did grants but presentations could garner the local funding and get the information out. I didn't have the room to become cynical. We as a non-profit couln't afford my cyncism at that time. Our agency functioned as a team. It was time for me to go! At that point in my illness as it had just begun, and at that time in my assessment of me. I knew I needed some time. I was good at what I did, it was important to me to be that good, and I could not offer consumers anything less than my best, and that is why I didn't go back. My mom got a beatiful burgundy rollator with the seat, and storage compartment underneath, she also received a very needed reacher. She has limited reach in her arms due to spinal stenosis. She was so happy and I could breath very well I noticed later, and my movement or ambulation was almost fluid. Go figure! Was it the psychological effect of focusing on my mom's needs and not my own? I'll think about that, maybe that's another blog. Will I ever go back to the agency? I'm working on that answer. But I have to say that there is the saying that you can never go home again, well I did on yesterday. And it was good! Blueberrypi
Tags: Back To My Old Job
Hi Guys, I found this article an thought it might be helpful to others, as well as myself. I know first hand that sometimes we all probably feel very tired and week. I do a lot. But I am on a journey for the rest of my life. I can live with the disabilities but I don't want to be controlled by them all the time. No matter how many set backs I have with my over all health, I want to be reasonbly fit. I have to get my tummy in order, and I have to get my legs strong again, because it interferes with my ambulation. Yes surgery, and illness etc. brought me to this point, but I have to take responsibility for feeling better at least in improving the things I can control. I cannot do a lot of the standing exercises they want you to do at the gym right now. Medication can only take care of so much. God will help me with all of it. Hope you guys find the article, and the information @ the link listed below useful. I am so not preaching, I just wanted to share.Blueberrypi  How to Do Seated Waist Bends With Weights
http://www.ehow.com/how_4559084_do-seated-waist-bends-weights.html Seated waist bends target the oblique or waist muscles and help to tone those pesky love handles. If you are carrying excess weight around your midsection, you need to combine exercises such as this with aerobics or cardiovascular exercise. This will help you burn off those calories and unwanted fat, as well as shape and tone your body. This exercise is often demonstrated in a standing position. However this may cause you to arch your back or lock your knees. Performing this exercise while seated will still allow you to target the correct muscles and can be a good alternative to the standing variation.
One of the things that grately concerns me an in some ways is a pet peeve of mine, and always has been, is the relaxed and almost detached way that some physicians prescribe medications. No I am not physician bashing. It is simply a concern that for which I hope that everyone who has, and is taking prescribed medications will consider. Let me begin by saying that I have one of the best primary care doctors in the area! He challenges me, and I challenge him right back but not in the adversarial sense. But in the sense that he is responsible for my health care treatment plan. I, as a patient and consumer have a responsibility to follow his prescribed plan but only to the extent that it does not further endanger my life. Since becoming a person with a disability I am even more vigilant in knowing about the medications that are prescribed to me. In the past I have been given at least 4 different medications that after beginning I refused to take. Out of those four prescribed medicines, three ended up on the recall, or cease prescribing list. They had to be pulled from the market. One of them was the muscle relaxer, Soma. I hate any medication that makes me feel like a zombie anyway. I've learned recently that some of my daily medicines that I continued to take after reading over the side effects, deeming them safe enough, and also after you know, considering the benefits they were to provide my medical care treatment , may also need replacing. They cause lots bloating, and weight gain, and may not necessarily be compatible with other meds or supplements that I would like to take. If there is more than one doctor prescibing medications for you then you really have to do your home work . You have to remind them each visit of what your 're already on. Hey, they are extremely busy and very human, and sometimes they forget!! I;ve also learned that you have to be extremely vigilant in keeping up with the correct dosages you are supposed to be getting. Sometimes there is a dissconnect with the presciption itself, and what the doctor believes he has written in he chart and in turn sent to the pharmacy. I learned this the hard way by taking twice as much bp medication that I needed for months before I caught it. It didn't kill me but it made me pay closer attention to the dosage amount. Now I always question cokor and shape of pill, dosage, and I verify this with what my doctor has on his chart when I have office visits. One thing I learned from being hospitalized for a very bad bronchial infection, is that you should always take your regular meds. to the hospital with you. Because sometimes they do not have the appropriate dosage or equivalent for you, or it takes sometimes up to a day for the meds to come up from the pharmacy. Don't just take them let the nurses know you have them. It keeps me from making a bad situation worse. There is a site I use regularly to check for medication interactions, or contraindications, along with the advice of my pharmacist who is an excellent resource for this very important information. My doctor is good for this also, but there are times whne he has to pull out his blackberry as well. The pharmacist job is to know this information. The site I beleive, is very helpful, if you also self medicate with supplements, and especially to check your meds to see if they are possibly causing an interaction with each other. Sometimes, certain medications will cause you to feel worse than you alreay feel if you're having a problem, then its time to ask your doctor for something new if this possible. Don't be shy about it, it's only your health. The site address is; http://www.aarp.org/health/conditions/articles/goldstandard.html Hopefully, this will be helpful infromation to everyone. It was for me. Blueberrypi
Tags: Drug Interactions Dosages
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Friends
Posted On 05/14/2009 19:50:41
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Friends are invaluable and even sometimes necessary. I have many very good friends some steadier than others but they are always there when needed. Some will listen to you whine and try to figure out your life. You know the life you thought you had figured out so many times before, until that next thing happened. Some will listen to you laught about silly things and life right along with you no matter how silly the thing is. Some will stand up for you all the time no matter how wrong they think you are, as long as you're legal. The same friend will promptly dress you down in private for being too severe in your assessments and judgements of people or a situation. And yet they still love you unconditionally. Some are simply just out for fun and laughter, which is hopefully what life can be about. I am blessed to have all of those friends. Blueberrypi
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