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Tag: Conditions and Diseases
Growing Older : On Turning 81 or Birds in the Bathroom
I’m celebrating this birthday with a two-week Viking cruise in Central America. Apart from lots of history, this is what I have learned so far: 1. There are birds chirping and cawing in a public bathroom that I’ve used several times. I don’t know if they are in the ceiling or not. They may be …
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Mental Illness Awareness Week – 2017
Take a minute this week to pray for those who are living with a mental illness. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one in four adults--approximately 60 million Americans--experiences a mental health disorder in a given year, so we don't have to look far. Last Sunday, I attended the 25th Annual Candlelight …
Fibromyalgia – Update on My Lyrica Dosing
Sorry about the goof-up yesterday with my post containing my photo and one of the cover of Caring Lessons. Those of you in the blogging world know how things can get sent without intention! I see by my stats that lots of you stopped by, and I thank you for that. Now for the real …
Chronic Itch – Is Relief Possible, Finally?
After nearly three-hundred days of prickly, burning, body-wide itching, I may have found relief. I say “may” because I’m not sure yet. My first post about the onset of this itching was last February 11. The itching started on January 31, out of the blue, a day after my left hand turned blue for the …
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Caring Lessons: First Drafts–Nursing Care of a Baby with Hydrocephalus in the 50s
“Just grab the head and don’t let go,” the nurse barked at me. “And the rest of the body will come along. “ I hesitated, frightened. “Just grab it, will you?” The nurse barked louder. “I can assure you it won’t fall off.” It was the summer of 1959. I was seventeen years old and …
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Chronic Itch – Mayo Clinic Visit Update
One day I was fine, and the next day I was not. We know life can change in an instant—an accident, a life-threatening diagnosis, a surgery—but I, for sure, never dreamed of having to learn to live with chronic itching. But I will have to. Following eight months of total body itching, accompanied by numerous …
DCIS: Breast Cancer or a Precancer? – My Experience as a Friend
I will always remember the phone call from my friend: “I’ve got cancer.” Was she joking? No, not with that taut tone of voice. Marianna and I were friends who happened to be nurses. Before that phone call, we’d joke that any of our abnormal symptoms—bleeding, headache, constipation—was cancer. We didn’t mean it, but it …
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How is your doctor’s nonverbal communication?
Last week I praised my internist’s therapeutic communication skills and promised I’d write about some bad experiences soon that I’ve had during my nearly 15-year history of fibromyalgia. So today is the time to give you one example that still floors me years later.Some back story. When I taught nursing, therapeutic communication was my favorite …
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Living with Bipolar Illness or Breast Cancer
If you have a loved one living with either one of these illnesses and would like to understand them better, then Ka Hancock’s Dancing on Broken Glass is a compelling, informative read. Hancock, as a nurse in the clinical specialty of psychiatry, dives into the minds of Mickey and Lucy as they forge a life …
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Write Along with Me 