Awards for Everyone

If you have been following the health care debate then you know that we have a epidemic problem that can not be taken care of through universal health care. The rise of diabetes is growing daily and it is estimated that approximately 3K people are diagnosed with diabetes every day. A big part of the problem is that people are not watching what they eat and not getting enough exercise. The complications of diabetes are numerous not to mention the daily monitoring that patients must go through in order to monitor their disease. While they may not feel the immediate effects the ongoing monitoring will become a way of life constantly reminding them of their disease. Diabetic test strips can be expensive and may not be covered under your health plan. The best way to not get diabetes is through prevention with lifestyle and diet modification. There are numerous medications that are available, but should not be the first course of treatment if it is caught early enough.

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Recenty I read an article in a  journal that said that  people who eat meat can have undigested meat left over in their intestines that gets trapped there and slowly decomposes. This is not a thought that I found overwhelmingly appetizing.

The article cited the case of a woman who had been a vegeterian for about two years and who went for colonic irrigation, to find to her horror that bits of ‘meat’ came away with the other rubbish that had been left behind.

I shall be doing some further research into colon cleanser and irrigation methods, and will post results of that research in this blog.

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Both my brothers are photographers, and I recently had the opportunity to see one at work. Not that I went with him to the shoot, but when he came home I was there to see him working with the photos.

The first thing I noticed is that he did not have endless wires between his camera and the computer, as he used to before. He simply removed the micro sd from his camera and popped it into the card slot of his computer. My computer is a bit older and does not have a slot like that, so that is something for me to remember when I next upgrade my computer.

Then he went to work on the photos. He has some interesting programs that are able to alter the photos to such an extent that you would never recognize the initial photo again when you look at the end product.

Makes me wonder whether all those very pretty people I see on-line really are so pretty or whether they have been digitally enhanced.

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I have written previously about my patient who has mesothelioma. She is now in hospital and not doing particularly well despite our best efforts. What is especially galling is that she has only recently been receiving treatment from specialist mesothelioma doctors. Before that she was under the care of the general oncologists.

Specialist mesothelioma doctors do not only have far more information about the medical condition and its treatment, they also have a lot of support networks enabling patients to live with the condition, help for the family and access to lawyers who deal in filing mesothelioma suits. My patient has declined any offer of pressing a suit, as she feels it is not really worth it for her and she has no dependents.

For my future work, I have of course filed all phone numbers and details of these specialists in my work folder, so that should I meet another patient with the same condition, I can get the ball rolling immediately after diagnosis.

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Working in the homes of people who are ill or who need help, constantly reminds me that not only should I live a life as healthy as possible (diet, exercise, moderation in all things) but that should I fall ill, I need to have the knowledge that I can see whichever doctor or specialist I need to see and have the treatment prescribed or hospitalization if necessary.

In England this was never a worry, as I had paid into the National Health System and was covered for all eventualities. Here it is a different matter, and private health insurance is a must.

Private health insurance need not be expensive, and it pays to shop around. I came across a website called bcbsnc, which offers very affordable health insurance plans for residents of North Carolina, and I have of course sent the information on to my friend who lives there. I am sure that most states of the US and most countries in Europe have affordable health plans, and they are definitely worth investigating before you fall ill.

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Thinking about the forthcoming visit of my English friends, and the wife’s eternal problem with her weight. I have done my homework and found her some further diet pills she might like to try.

But watching my next door neighbours sloping off to the gym three or four times a week has made me wonder whether my friend should be taking up some exercise in addition to her diet pills. She does not like the idea of going to a gym and other people ‘looking’ at her. She is sure they are all looking and thinking how fat she is.

Maybe she could buy a piece of gym equipment for use in the home. Something like an elliptical which would give both her upper and lower body a workout at the same time, and would also get her heart rate into the aerobic zone, so that she would be burning off some calories. They are not so huge nowadays, and she could put it in the sitting room and watch television whilst on the machine.

I think I will suggest it to her, I think it may be a good addition to her diet pills and her diet regime.

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My friend who lives in North Carolina and I had a long telephone call yesterday. I told her about my recent root canal surgery and that in fact it had not been as bad as I had expected. She told me that her daughter Anita has to have cosmetic dental work done, and that she is seeing a Southpark Dentist for this.

I thought she was joking and was referring to the television series , but apparently near where she lives is an area of town called Southpark, and that is where the dentist has his practice. She informed me that the South Park of the television is not set in North Carolina but in Colorado. This of course led me to do some research and she is correct, I then spent the rest of the afternoon watching videos of SouthPark on-line. What a wonderful thing, the internet and television.

I hope Anita’s dental work is as painless as my root canal surgery, she is only 14 and is a bit apprehensive about the whole procedure.

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In a couple of weeks my friends from England are coming over again to use what they call their ‘time-share’ in the sun. It has been extremely hot here this summer and I hope for their sake that the weather will still be warm here when they arrive.

I have had to do some more homework on trying to find my friend the right sort of diet pills. She has now tried two, with mixed results. My job is to find out which are safe, which are not too expensive and which give the overall best results. Apparently she has lost a few pounds since I last saw her, and I hope I will remember to compliment her on that. Normally I really do not notice people’s weight, and I know that would really upset her.

I just hope the pool will still be warm enough for her to show off her new body shape.

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My best friend’s daughter, who lives in England, has just taken up horse riding. She is only eight years old and my friend feels that it is a good idea to get her used to being on a horse at a young age. Personally I have never been on a horse, as I find them quite frightening.
So, now when I speak to Lizzie on the Skype phone with video she is parading in her breeches, her boots, her helmet (which apparently she wears when walking about the house) and her talk is about horses, ponies and rosettes. I think she dreams of being a prize winning jockey in the Grand National. I have never seen her so enthusiastic, and it is great to see her so happy.

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I recently needed root canal surgery on one of the molars in my lower jaw. I have had the procedure once before on a different tooth and in a different country. I therefore had no particular worries, knowing that the process was a long one, but not particularly painful and that I would feel much better once it had been done.

What I had not realized is how expensive the whole thing would be. Nearly a whole month’s income was spent in the few hours at the dentists’ office.  Clearly we were not well-prepared and should have taken out some sort of insurance for dental care. There are several packages with dental care discounts available, and I have now made sure that we are all covered for any further possible dental problems.

Because we had lived in a country where dental care is very heavily subsidized we had not done our research about how much things actually cost and  I had also not asked for a quote before the work started. A hard lesson to learn and one I do not think we will repeat.

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Our kids are getting to the age where the beds and dressers that they have had for 5 plus years is starting to look a little dated. I noticed this just this past week when they had friends over and they were all huddled around one of the bunk beds trying to get their turn on the Xbox. So my wife went on a search to find what is new and exciting in kids furniture and actually found ourselves evaluating our own set that we have had for over 15 years.

Some of the new furniture sets that you can find online at company’s  help you to realize just how outdated your current bedroom furniture is and what can be had today. I especially love the low lying platform beds and mattress that are both practical and functional. So instead of the bed taking over the entire room it actually serves to help the flow of the room and actually give the perception that you have more room. I was intrigued by the leather beds which is pictured here. This is something that I have not seen in our local stores and could be a interesting option for a guest bedroom that we are finishing in our basement. The head board is made of leather and in this case crocodile leather which can add a bit of flare to any room. The look and feel of this bed could really set the guest bedroom apart and may not be such a bad place to sleep in case the wife and I get in an argument.

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