Bad luck? Perhaps

As we sent one rehab patient to hospice recently, I read this article from the BBC with much chagrin.

Could our patient Mr. Z really have just had bad luck? Could that mutation have been stopped before it metastasized all over and sent him to rehab?

One commenter said, "Mutations get all the bad press."

Fine time they should!  Lifestyle changes are important, but as the saying goes, sometimes you do everything right, and something goes wrong. I have a litany of relatives who've been burdened with these cancers by fluke, food and lifestyle. Horrible disfigurement and shortened lives make for a story, but try telling that to kids growing up without parents, families suffering from impenetrable sadness and loss.

Knowing we got him on his way, no matter how long our little bit lasted, with a little more dignity, is a very good thing.

Stay tuned...

Completely logical

Maybe this dog was just trying to get a chance at chasing (and actually catching) some cars.

Enjoy!

Uncorked

It's not what you think. This mechanic (and father of five) invented a device being used during childbirth, after he won a bet with a friend to get a cork out of a bottle.

Necessity and mothers are really helpful for inventions, as Jorge points out.

More to come.

Doctor data?

You may very well see one, as personalized medicine becomes more common, according to this BBC article.

Having seen how far in the dark ages we are using the technology around us in healthcare in my own family, I am not surprised.

Enjoy!

The pain of misdiagnosis

Trigeminal neuralgia is not uncommon in the patients we see at the Hotel. How this lady was treated is unusual.

Thank goodness we do not do this as a common treatment.

News flash

Yes, if you needed documentation on this very important subject, here it is:

Scientists decipher dog-tail wags (from bbc.co.uk)

Thank goodness WildDog has a long enough tail to really read!

That is all.

Your sense of smell

Some things just stink. Your favorite team doesn't win a football, baseball or soccer game.

However these recent news stories had me wondering where the bad odors could be coming from.

Think the litter box needs emptying? Maybe it's just your laptop according to Dell. (courtesy of the BBC)

Can the smell of the famous "rooster sauce" (aka sriracha) cause headaches? Some people think so. (from the LA Times).

And you thought things were rough listening to Grandma's Lawrence Welk. Those darned Somali pirates can't handle this woman's music. (from www.military.com --thanks to my astute active duty brother-in-law).

Enjoy! More to come...

Every little bit

 Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.― Mother Teresa

I came across this blog last year when I read about it on BBC. One woman talks about raising her child as a single parent and subsisting on very little.

Now she's been blogging over a year, and talks about doing little things to make life better for others.

Important thing to ponder...

Nuggets for July 17

Here are a few goodies I've run across on the internet lately. Enjoy!

A little explosive
Always provocative, Rolling Stone may ignite a few opinions all over the place with their cover photo and story of a Boston Marathon bomber.

Wired up
AHA's survey of Health Care's Most Wired hospitals is out and to no surprise, the Veterans Health Administration made the list.

If you were wondering
How those folks can count all the participants in uprisings, revolutions, etc., the good folks at the BBC have an article about that very topic.

No contest
Maybe if MBAs were licensed like RNs or other healthcare personnel, they'd make the most trusted list, and not appear in an article like this one about writing their own recommendations. I'd love for my old clinical instructor, Nurse Battle Ax (a former Navy nurse) to talk to one of them.

I've always wanted a cattle prod

But, alas, they are not FDA approved.

However, maybe the Manglement at the Hotel will advocate for our patients to start wearing sets of these so they do pressure relief when they're rolling around the unit.

I'm sure those docs in Calgary already thought of the cattle prod and got shot down, too. Shout out to my peep Ray-Ray and his family. (I sure miss P. and the stories about Timmy's and your orders just "appearing" when you walked in.)

I love the last line...all you rehab peeps know they HAD to say this or they'd short staff us all.

That is all...back to grad school madness.

Yes, I had a Monday

Power outage, rascally equipment, surly coworkers, you name it. It was a Monday.

But I'll also probably have one of those Tuesdays (meeting day from Hell-back to back for four hours), Wednesday (hump day) and Thursday (madhouse clinic day).
.
I am so glad the folks at the BBC could find researchers willing to solve this terrible problem of Mondays, by saying it's not just Mondays.

Still makes me want to go buy a winning lottery ticket and/or look for some other random financial windfall so I can stay home when I don't want to work.

Stay tuned.

You think you have it bad

Here are some items I saw recently in the news, thanks to the folks over the pond at the BBC.

Can't pay your hospital bill and you just had a baby? Be glad you're not in Greece.

The man who invented the remote control died this week. Should we blame him for selfish husbands who hog the remote and monopolize the TV?

Cherry wood and crystal in a car? What? Apparently this guy has that in his car.

I thought I had some obnoxious relatives until I read about hers.

I don't feel so bad anymore...

Love the stranger

Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place. ~ Tecumseh 

If I were not a rehab nurse, I'd want to be a transplant nurse. I've enjoyed working with transplant patients and learning about how to care for them, particularly while they stayed at Saintarama or at the Hotel.

Lately, I've enjoyed reading the articles in the news about transplant chains. This BBC article describes how one chain brought together 30 patients and 30 kidney donors. Another NY Times article discusses how the system isn't perfect. I even found one on a complication: CMV infection, which I could have used when I took care of a patient who got CMV post-transplant.

Always lots to learn...more to come.

Mr. D would have loved this

One of my patients raised and raced pigeons in his youth as a hobby. Animals are fascinating!

Happy Birthday Flo

Found this interesting article about Florence Nightingale across the pond at BBC News...enjoy!

I want one!

If only I could get one of these:

Towel-folding robot (courtesy of www.bbc.com)

Look at all the time I could save! Amazing!

Nuggets for September 24

Yes, it's been awhile, but since I've been on vacation, I figured I should just stop the early Christmas shopping and get with posting a few of these goodies. Hope you all enjoy!

Pandemics-R-Us

Since it was on my list of things to do, I got my seasonal flu shot this week.

It's easy to get caught up in the hype, but keep your wits and learn something from the CDC's page on H1N1 flu.

On the subject of flu, my personal favorite in the "when people get carried away" section appeared recently in the NY Times with some great photos and is called City Critic- What not to wear when worrying about the flu. No, Tyveks are not fashionable this year. Big thing to remember: hand hygiene people!

Family fun

The myriad of articles on family dynamics, etc., really surprised me. Here are some I found interesting:

Seven ways your siblings may have shaped you (from Yahoo!Health)

Mama wasn't always right: 9 updated health rules (from cnn.com) Guess I won't get in trouble for reading in low light anymore!

Medical news of note

I am always fascinated by brain stories (I guess in another life I was somewhere in neuro) and this one was really interesting: Brain pacemaker for a rare disorder (from msnbc.com)

The BBC has been having some very interesting articles on health, and here are a couple below.
Antibiotic resistance clue found

And because most of my patients are in the target demographic for this...
'Viagra cream' could prove safer

Tools you can use
And finally, since I've been embarking on a few home improvement projects, check out these nifty health related tools. No batteries required!

The ANA has a new site on Safe Patient Handling. It's got a lot of information you don't want to miss to keep your work environment safe.

I found this one thanks to a nursing newsletter from the ANA. Statistician George Fernandez at the University of Nevada at Reno has devised an even simpler implementation of BMI called MWL or Maximum Weight Limit. The calculation is a breeze, especially if you don't have a calculator handy.