I have been trying to encourage my sister-in-law Susan to quit smoking for the past several years. She has smoked heavily for over forty years, so it is not going to be easy for her to quit. What bothers me is that her doctor has already told her that she needs to quit smoking because her lungs are not working at their full capacity. And her doctor has told her that the age of her lungs are about fifteen years older than her actual age. That tells me that she is on the path to an early death.
Unfortunately, she does not seem to have much interest in quitting smoking. Even though she has repeatedly promised her kids that she is going to quit, and even commits to a specific date, that date comes and goes and she still smokes. It seems that every time I turn around, she is outside smoking a cigarette and talking on her cell phone. The smoke stinks up her clothes, and stinks up the car when she sneaks a smoke in there.
I’ve been hearing a lot about the new electronic cigarette that has recently come onto the market Although it does not advertise itself as an aid to quit smoking, what I have read about it seems to be a viable option for people who need to quit smoking but really don’t want to. I’m going to talk to Susan about trying one and see if she would smoke one of them instead of the “real” things. If these are really less harmful to one’s health, then I’m all for it!
The only thing I could find in the office that wasn’t already claimed with someone’s name on it was a big Idaho potato in the vegetable bin of the refrigerator. Usually I keep a few things stashed in the freezer or in a desk drawer. I guess I ate the last of the freezer dinners some time ago and forgot to replace it.
So lunch today was a baked potato. We keep butter in the refrigerator and sometimes there is dressing or dip. But no such luck today. It was baked with butter and a little salt and pepper.
It could have been worse. It actually tasted good and was nutritious. So tonight I’m going to the grocery store and stocking up on a week’s worth of food to keep at the office.
Sue was trying to convince me to buy some of her newly discovered healthy-trend products that she has bought recently. She knows that I have frequent stomach irritations, so she wanted me to try some of the Oregano Oil she got. She said that she bought it over the Internet, and that it is supposed to help digestive health. And she was telling me that my brother should try some of the Bio D-Mulsion that she got. She said that was full of Vitamin D, which she knew that his doctor told him to take. The last physical my hubby had resulted in the doctor telling him to take some Vitamin D, as his blood tests showed he was low on Vitamin D.
I have to admit that I am always leery of trying new vitamins and supplements. This is an unregulated industry, and who knows for sure what is really in these supplements? I know what the labels claim are in there, but I’ve heard and read and seen so many news stories over the past several years about unsanitary factories and the like that I resist taking any kind of medicine. I really try my darnedest to eat healthy, so we don’t have to take vitamins and supplements! I wish that these things were overseen by some kind of regulatory agency that would ensure the quality of the products!
When I was a teenager, no one I knew had even heard of teen rehab or teen addiction statistics. Sure, we had a health class in middle school where we watched videos about the dangers of drinking and doing drugs, but it was nothing like the DARE program that so many of the schools use now.
I think it is a really sad state of affairs that we are putting so much pressure on our teenagers nowadays to study so hard to get into college, telling them that if they don’t get into a good college then their lives will be ruined. I think that is the main reason for so much substance abuse and teen suicide! Of course, the social media now creates more intense peer pressure, too. Geez, life was so much simpler when I was a teenager!
At least I’m glad to know that there are teen drug rehab facilities for our struggling families. I do think that things would be a lot easier, though, if schools focused more on dealing with stress in healthy ways instead of putting so much pressure on them to succeed.
I have known a few people here and there throughout the years that are dealing with Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms and are always on the look out for good quality Multiple Sclerosis News. The more you know about a disease the better patient you will become all the way around. Knowledge is powerful medicine and the Internet brings a lot of that type of power to us, which is awesome. Of course you can’t believe everything that you read, we all grew up hearing that one, but you just need to use some common sense and if it sounds to good to be true then it is probably not true!
A close co worker of mine’s wife was just recently diagnosed with MS and he has been doing a good amount of research online during his free time at work. We are a close bunch so we are all learning along with him. As with most illnesses a good Multiple Sclerosis Diet and a good Multiple Sclerosis Exercise regiment is very important and plays an important part of the treatment plans. We found a great website at allaboutms.com that we have found a lot of good useful information and I would recommend that anyone who is dealing with any type of Multiple Sclerosis issues give it a look see.
This was a great story to read on Yahoo about a little girl born on the date of 8-9-10. The birth occurred at 11:12am. Too funny, right? What an easy birthday to have to remember each year. I was going to post the video about the special birthday girl but apparently there are copyright issues going on right now.
With so many people in the medical field and the numbers growing every day there will always be a need for medical attention, no matter how bad the economy gets. A good amount of people are going back to school seeking an education in some type of the medical field. It seems that where ever I go I see someone wearing either nursing uniforms and medical scrubs and most of them are wearing the clogs that have become so popular in the last decade.
Sometimes I’ll be in a drug store and see someone wearing something that looks like a lab coat and I’ll start talking to them as if they were employed and working there, only to find to my embarrassment that they are a customer but are wearing their medical uniforms which are better known as scrubs.
I mean folks that work in a doctor’s office, or dental practice, or in a pharmacy, or in medical records or in a nursing home or in any of the numerous departments at the local hospital are sporting this attire.It is good to see that they are making a larger variety of these uniforms, with all kinds of designs and patterns which must make it easier to tolerate having to wear this type of clothing day in and day out. I’ve seen them with balloons, Micky Mouse, frogs, happy faces just to name a few.
My favorite uncle, who is a proud Vietnam Vet, is looking for a good Mesothelioma Lawyer to help with his fight against this Mesothelioma Disease that we are hearing more and more about, especially on the TV. There has been plenty of Mesothelioma Attorney commercials on the local channels these past few years and the issue isn’t going to go away for many inflicted people.
My uncle never got over his experience in the Vietnam Police Action mentally. He spent a good amount of his time in the service under the waters in a submarine, which is where they believe he contacted this type of cancer. So by serving his country his head is all screwed up for life and now we are learning that his physical condition, which is deteriorating rapidly is due to his time over seas as well. A double whammy, if you will.
The VA has truly been wonderful. They had such a bad reputation for so very long that my uncle stayed away from anything to do with the VA hospital, but thankfully he was persuaded to give them a try, which he did, and it’s all been good, so far and I hope that they continue to take the best possible care of this special person in my family’s life.
Today’sdrug treatment and alcohol treatment center options have turned around big time in the past 15 years or so. With the economy is such a mess there is a growing need for drug rehab and alcohol rehab, not just for celebrities but for the common folk that are hurting big time with stress from finance issues. Back in the day, going into a treatment center meant going to a dirty, ugly, run down extension of some abandoned mental institute that doesn’t make for a pleasant stay during a difficult time in life while going through detox or drug or alcohol treatment.
Dr. Drew made a major impact in drug and alcohol rehab with his hit show (I think it was on VH1) that was on a few years ago concerning Celebrity Rehab and Celebrity Sober Living issues. It was an interesting series that I believe opened up a good amount of people’s eye to what is all involved in the detox and rehab process. It isn’t a pleasant sight but a necessary process that helps and needs to help so many more people that are in need in today’s wacky world.
I heard some great music coming from my wife’s computer so I went to see what was going on. She was watching this video. Now she wants to sign up for a Zoomba class! That would kill me!
My sister and her husband are up in arms about their oldest child who is in dire need of one of the drug rehab centers near where they live. He has gotten in with the wrong crowd, it started right when he started attending Middle School, which is when a lot of kids start going down hill, as the statistics show us. My sister is busy finding information on the Internet concerning the drug rehabilitation programs that they would be able to hook him up with. The Internet certainly is making this task a much easier one to tackle and she is able to share her findings with friends and family who are into emailing and the like.
There are good quality addiction treatment centers available these days. With the economy is such a mess more people are turning to drugs and alcohol as an escape from all the heart aches that our government has gotten us all involved in. This country is in a major mess and we need all the help that we can get, especially in this aspect.
I feel for my sister’s family, I can only hope and pray that they find the right place for him and that he pulls through and can make something of himself and his life. He is a bright kid, always brought home great report cards and has a real apptitude for working with his hands. I wish them all the luck in the world, just wish I was closer so that I could be of more help with it all.
I never used to watch television other than the weather channel. I would get up early in the morning and put on the weather channel to see what the forecast was and then head out to work. I’d leave the house by 4:30 in the morning and wouldn’t get back until around 7:00 or 8:00 at night. I’d check the weather channel again, and then hit the sack. In between time I’d be busy plowing and sanding roads and driveways and parking lots in the wintertime, and doing groundskeeping in the summertime. I was even the town cemetery sexton for a few years and took care of the cemeteries, mowing the grounds and digging the graves.
So it really wasn’t until after my accident back in 2007 that I started to watch a lot of television. I really don’t like the fact that I can’t go out and do the things that I love to do, but the pain from my injuries prevents me from doing much of anything. If it wasn’t for all of the specials on television, I’d go absolutely insane! I’d love to upgrade our television service to get more of the cable specials, but my wife keeps telling me that we can’t afford the extra monthly rates for the premium channels. She’s working two jobs now, trying to pay the bills, and it is difficult for me to argue with her about what we can or cannot afford.
I do find it difficult not to envy my brother-in-law, who has satellite television and is always talking about how he divos the dish specials to watch later on. But my wife is right; money is just too tight now for those kinds of luxuries.
My wife says that I have a hard time dealing with change. I have to agree with her – I like things to stay the same. I like to sit in the same chair at supper. I like to leave the house in the morning knowing what is for supper, and if plans change and that supper doesn’t happen, I don’t like it. Even if the food is something I like even better! I know that there are a lot of people like that out there. I wonder why people are so uncomfortable with change. Why should it upset me when I get home and find that supper is even better than I thought it would be? I know that children need a structured routine to be comfortable; I wonder if we ever really outgrow that?
My wife is always misplacing her eyeglasses. She uses two pairs, one for the computer/reading, and the other for general life. The “general life” are progressive lenses and the computer glasses are just mid-range single vision. It seems that she takes both pairs of glasses with her to work because she is on the computer quite a lot of the time, and using the “general life” glasses are not very comfortable for her to use for long periods on the computer.
Seems as though every two or three days she accidentally leaves her computer glasses at work, and then when she gets home and wants to read her email and do our personal book-keeping work on the computer she realizes that she left her computer glasses at work. She gets very frustrated by that! So I’m thinking about suggesting to her that she buy a spare pair of glasses through the Zenni Optical website. I was looking on their website a few minutes ago and saw some lenses that look exactly like the pair she wears, and they were very inexpensive!
I think I’ll suggest that she gets a couple of spare pairs of glasses. You never know when a pair of glasses is going to break, so having a spare pair or two is always a good idea. And now, with the great prices at Zenni, it is not a prohibitively expensive luxury.
The Orchid Recovery Center for Women has a useful site for information concerning drug and alcohol treatment, detox and recovery, designed specifically for women. I was reading the Orchid Center Charity Blog that they have and it only makes sense to have a center that is gender specific, theirs is nationally recognized for their exclusive treatment center.
The Internet is a useful tool in researching topics such as this, help is available at the Orchid Recovery Center and you can find everything that you need at their site in order to learn all their is to know. Drug and Alcohol addiction is an ever growing problem. The economy has gotten people so freaked out that they are turning to drastic measures in order to escape all that this economy crisis has dished out to us these past couple of years.
Dr. Drew has brought this addiction issue to the light the past couple of years with his Celebrity Rehab series on VH1. Although celebrities are not the only ones struggling with addiction issues. It is every where and doesn’t show any signs of improving, much like the economy.
I am so disappointed in the violent reactions of some people in response to the new healthcare bill. Threats, and shooting out windows! I really think that this kind of reaction is over the top! It makes me really sad that people would stoop so low. These politicians really are trying their best to serve their constituents – responding with threats and violence is just plain nuts! We are supposed to be living in a civilized society, not the Wild West! Grow up people!
When my wife was involved in that traffic accident last October, she found out that the lady who caused the accident had one of the more popular online auto insurance policies. We see the ads for that company on television a lot! The online auto insurance company called us almost immediately to follow up on the accident, making all kinds of promises about how they were going to cover medical expenses and lost pay.
They sent my wife a lot of forms to fill out so they could get the medical records. That was months ago, and we have not heard back from them yet. I’m beginning to think that this particular insurance company is all fluff and no stuff. So it may be a good deal for the person who buys the insurance, but I’m not convinced that it will treat the consumer right if an accident actually happens and a claim has to be filed on it!
I got an email from Mark earlier today. He’s been having a great time in Alaska, but has been given a job offer in Florida that will last him a couple of years! What a great life he has! Still young and unattached so he can travel the world if he wants to! Mark was telling me that he has been trying a couple of body-building programs in his spare time. I guess there isn’t much to do in the part of Alaska he’s been in, so he started both the Power 90 and the Insanity Workout programs. I don’t know much about either one of them, but I don’t know if I was ever in good enough shape to do any kind of workout named “Insanity Workout!”
Much more to my speed would be a Slim in 6 program. I sure could stand to lose some weight! Except, of course, for the fact that I’m still recovering from my injuries that I got in that car accident! I’m still having a hard time just walking around! I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to be pursuing any kind of body-building; I’m just focusing on rehabilitation at this point!
One of the biggest reasons why my life is in such a mess is because the lady who caused the traffic accident I was in over two years ago didn’t have enough on her car insurance limits to pay for my medical expenses. That doesn’t even begin to touch the lost income, either! Naturally we had under-insurance coverage on our own auto insurance policies, but even that isn’t enough to pay for my medical expenses.
I’m all for people trying to get cheap car insurance as a way to save money, but I think that the best way to do that is by increasing the deductible, not decreasing the liability! If you are checking around for cheap auto insurance, please think of the other people who you may accidentally injure and get a policy with decent liability. Only having $25,000 is not enough. I know that is legal to have that low, but it shouldn’t be!
One of the reasons we chose this house to buy was because it had a propane fireplace in the family room. We reasoned that it would be a good emergency heat source in the event that we lost electricity during a storm. Well, we have used it once or twice, just for atmosphere, not really for heat, but let me tell you that fireplace certainly did heat up that room!
Well, we DID lose electricity yesterday due to that blizzard, so I went to turn on the fireplace. Wouldn’t you know that fireplace would not start up? I couldn’t get the gas to turn on! So I brought our kero-sun heater into the house from the garage and lit that up for heat. My wife complained that the fumes gave her a headache and she cracked open a window for ventilation. She was convinced we were going to die of some kind of cabon monoxide poisoning. I’m sure if we had been able to get on the Internet at that point she would have been looking that up!
One of my all time favorite songs is the Devil went down to Georgia, by Charlie Daniels. I heard today that he has suffered a stroke. My prayers go out to him for a full recovery! Hang in there Charlie!
This video is a longer version of the song than I had ever heard before – it’s terrific! Enjoy!
My wife made an appointment to have me take one of our dogs to the vet for her rabies shot. It seems that we needed a new one in order to get her county dog tag. So I went ahead and took the dog to the vet. The shot itself was only about $20, but they charged me over $50 for a “wellness check” that we never asked for!
Now that might be legal, but I think it is totally unethical to charge $50 for a “wellness check” that we didn’t ask for! I think that before they started checking her over they should have asked me if I wanted that done and advised that there would be a $50 charge for it! I feel totally ripped off!
Now I find out that I could have taken her to Petco to one of their shot clinics and had the shot done for only $18 and no “wellness check” fee. I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out where the next rabies shot will be coming from, do you?
The statistics can be found online about the drug and alcohol abuse that is on the rise. It seems that when the economy is in turmoil people find ways to ease the pain and most likely they will turn to drugs and/or alcohol. It is sad, but true and I’m glad that there are quality Residential Drug Rehab centers opening up all across the country that can help people in their times of need.
This is a subject that is no longer being kept in the dark. Dr. Drew opened up a lot of people’s minds about Drug Detox and Alcohol Rehab with his Celebrity Rehab television series on VH1. Celebrities have always been known to struggle with addiction issues, and we are a society that thrives on what all the celebrities are wearing and doing. Dr. Drew’s series gave some good information for the general public to chew on and has made this subject easier to discuss and I’m grateful to him for that.
Most of us know some one who needs help in this area, the Internet is a valuable tool and has become a great resource to find information concerning addiction and dependency issues. Hopefully the economy will be easing up and the stress levels of the general population will decrease and life will go on for most of us. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.
You can never tell these days if the photos that are being passed around on the Internet are for real or not. I just received this photo in my email today. I got a good laugh out of it and wanted to pass it along here for grins and giggles.
I’ve heard that eating chocolate can be good for you! I was thrilled to hear that – I happen to like chocolate quite a bit! Unfortunately, there is one that I don’t like – the dark chocolate. And that is the one that is healthy for you! Wouldn’t you just know it! My favorite is white chocolate, which I’ve heard really isn’t chocolate at all – it is almond bark. I’d be curious to learn how almond bark is made, and how that differs from how chocolate is made! All this came to mind as I unwrapped a Lindt white chocolate truffle and popped it into my mouth as I sat down to my computer. I could eat those truffles all day long!
Many of my friends from New England still keep in touch on a regular basis. That sure helps me to get through the many long and lonely days of recovery from my accident! Jarod called me to wish me a Merry Christmas last night. He was telling me that Santa had been really good to him this year. He said that he found a Burton snowboard under the Christmas tree at his parent’s house when he went over there for dinner. Jarod says he’s not quite sure how to send Santa a notice of new address from when he moved out to his own place last year! In addition he got a new Burton beanie and a new Burton jacket to wear while he is out on the slopes trying out his new board.
I never learned to snowboard; I always enjoyed alpine skiing and snowmobiling. Snowboarding always seemed like a lot of fun that I’d like to try someday, but now with all of these back injuries I have I’ll probably never get the chance to try it. My wife says we’re too old for that anyway and it’s time we started acting more our age. To be honest I think she’s just worried that some of the other boarders might run into us and that could really hurt! Well, too old, or too injured, either way it looks like I’ll just have to be satisfied watching that sport from a distance!
The recent snowstorm and cold snap have certainly sparked my desires to go to one of the nice warm Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Resorts for a few weeks. Although I’ve never been to any of the Myrtle Beach Resorts yet, I’ve been tempted by the many accolades that I hear from my friends and relatives from their vacations.
They love to send postcards from their Beach Resorts Myrtle Beach telling us how much fun they are having playing golf, going to shows or amusement parks, or just relaxing on the beach. And they rave about the luxurious accommodations that they are enjoying. I can certainly appreciate how hard it would be to leave such a place! We’ve heard so many good things about vacationing there that my wife and I are putting it on the top of our list of vacation spots we want to try out when my injuries are better healed and I can spend more time enjoying life without having to spend so much of it sitting down.
A friend of mine told me that his female chihuahua is expecting a litter of puppies, and he wants me to have one of the puppies. He said I could have one for free! He said that they are pure bred puppies. I don’t know how much money chihuahua puppies cost around here, but I am under the impression that just about any pure bred puppy is expensive to buy. I didn’t know much about chihuahua dogs, so I wanted to get some pet information on the breed before discussing it with my wife. After all, it is a good idea to be well informed on a subject before bringing the subject with my wife – she has a tendency to be quite knowledgeable about just about everything!
With all of the news in the media about the flu, and the large outbreaks of people being sick – so sick that the doctors are overwhelmed and just telling people to “self-isolate” just “in case” I have to say that I am concerned that the people who really need medical attention might not be getting it. As of this writing, we have at least three family members who are sick with “flu-like symptoms” that have simply been told to “just stay home.” I wonder if what they have is, in fact, the H1N1 flu, or something else. Am I correct in thinking that if they HAVE the H1N1 once that they cannot get it again? I think so. But without a “real diagnosis” of whether they have it or not, when the vaccine comes out, how do we know if it is a wasted effort to get vaccinated against it?
As a kid I remember how badly my mother suffered from what they called, “hayfever.” She would sneeze repeatedly and uncontrollably day after day as an allergic reaction to pollen in the air. Her eyes would get red and swollen, her nose turned bright red and raw from using Kleenex hundreds of times each day. She was miserable with her allergies for many years until the medical community started finding effective allergy treatments.
