Save your sanity, time & money!

Need solutions for the medication, medical appliances and/or medical travel that you can't afford? READ EMPOWER Yourself.

A Health Information Management professional, I survived a life-threatening emergency with information that only a person of my professional experience would know. And I’m sharing it!

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Stocking Stuffer Alert! Hanuka Happiness and Cuddly Kwanzaa Holiday Season Gift Ideas

19 Cheshvan



Buy copies of It's MY Crisis! And I'll Cry if I Need To for the gift-giving Holiday season. It's a great way to say "I love you." And it's a terrific way to be good to yourself.


Places of worship can sell It's MY Crisis! And I'll Cry if I Need To in their gift shops and at special events.

Kwanzaa, Xmas and Hanuka celebrants can benefit from this book. Have a holiday? Read my book and find out how to cope with many emotions: joy, sadness, stress, rising and falling moods.





***

Exhaustion, both physical and mental/emotional, is part of the growth process. When you learned how to ride a scooter or bicycle, how to master calculus or how to win somebody's heart, you sometimes felt pretty drained in the process. Think of inner growth as learning how to shed a former inability and how to attain a new skill or ability.

Comfort comes with the sense of satisfaction you feel when you consider, then realize, what you've achieved.


Why is the inner growth process so tiring? My hunch is that it prevents us from wasting energy on unrealistic or unrewarding goals. Think about it. Remember when you spent way too much time and effort trying to accomplish something, then realized (perhaps too late, perhaps in the nick of time) that you were wasting your energy on the project? It was a valuable life lesson. It pays off because it prevents you from making the same mistake again. Now you're blessed with focus, not derailed by blind ambition. Nor are you playing computer games as time flies by during your health crisis.

Realizing that your medical or emotional crisis is tiring you is not a reason for despair. You can make it into a cause for celebration that will recharge your batteries. You're making progress, doing your work to improve your physical and/or emotional state. That need to nap or to kick up your heels is proof positive that you're heading forward. Be sure, though, that the people who love and respect you agree that you're moving in a good direction. A group consensus is likely to be correct. It's neutral, unaffected by your personal prejudices (which might be misleading your objective assessment effort about the situation).

Truth is the light with which you find your way out of darkness. Turn it on.

– Rebbe Nachman of Breslav



To your emotional and physical relief,a happy and healthy holiday season to one and all,

Yocheved Golani
Coping with a Medical Crisis?
Make the Changes You Need in Your Life.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

What Can You Do About FEELING Like You’re FALLING APART?

18 Cheshvan 5768

Gosh it is NORMAL to feel that you're falling apart over a medical crisis. Still, you want to minimize your pain. I hope I can help you with that.

Well, the first thing you can do is to know that you joined a BIG club around the world. Lots of people believe they're "losing it" during a medical crisis. They're not, really. They're simply dealing with a new reality and finding their way through it, one clumsy step at a time. The world just does not have a One-Size-Fits-All coping method. You seek what you need until you find something that helps you to go forward.

Your condition or that of the person you're trying to help is accented by medical realities: changes in brain power, muscle power, self-confidence, medical equipment that seems to tie you up in knots, you name it! The stress goes right for your sense of discouragement, increasing your emotional and physical pain.

"Patience? Confidence? The future? What's that?" you sadly wonder.
Here are some suggestions foreating Back the Blues 1-2-3:
1. Consider working with an Occupational Therapist and/or a Speech Therapist who might be able to recharge your brain, heart and soul with appropriate therapy. Stroke patients often lose word recall, sometimes the ability to speak. They often recover with OT and PT. Think of TV reporter Bob Woodruff and the milestones he's reaching. And if something other than brain power affects you, an OT and PT still might do wonders for your sense of happiness and self-confidence.

2. Coax your relative/friend/self to keep doing whatever is familiar: listening to favorite songs, doing chores you're good at, eating food you enjoy, pursuing hobbies (even new ones) if you/she/he can take the physical strain, stuff like that. Those are confidence-boosters. They'll possibly ignite pleasant memories or create a few.

Here's another take on the confidence-building idea: Your body and your heart need lots of relaxation. Read some books you've been meaning to get to. Give yourself a foot-rub and take a nice bubble bath or just let the shower steam open your pores. Pamper yourself. Relax again and again. And keep telling yourself "I'm healing. In my own good time, I'm healing..."

UPDATE: Actually, you and your body might need a nap. See http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-to.hs.nap01nov01,0,4946284.story

Let your body heal as best it can. A little doctor intervention might be necessary. But a lot of wholesome care for your state of mind can go a long, long way before, during and after the doctor visit.

3. Here's one more idea, simple and colorful, too (and it's terrific for children, too)! Find a large glass jar. Maybe one of those giant pickle jars with a wide mouth. Every time you reach a goal or experience anything at all that fills you with a positive point of view, drop a colored marble into the glass jar. Over time, your collection will grow. It might become big enough to fill the bottom of a fish bowl or an aquarium...


Humor your inner child or one who's already part of your life. Put your marble collection to even more good use and watch the light shine in someone else's eyes. The glimmering fish will cheer up your surroundings (maybe your thoughts, too).

Do you know what's happening? You're keeping your act together so much you're going to inspire the people around you. After all, everybody likes someone with all their marbles!


Now lift your heart a little more so your attitude can go Dancing Through Life. Click on this link, a sort of booster shot for the tough days ahead... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otTLcWYA0ME

To your good health and peace of mind,

Yojeved Golani
Coping with a Medical Crisis?
Make the Changes You Need in Your Life.



Monday, October 29, 2007

November is American Diabetes Month

17 Cheshvan 5768

Rates of people with diabetes are climbing worldwide, especially in Western societies. Here are some basic facts you need to know. Change your habits and protect your health (under medical supervision) accordingly.

TYPE 1 DIABETES
A combination of genetic and environmental factors, this is an autoimmune disease. A person's own immune cells destroy the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas, a horn-shaped organ near the stomach.

TYPE 2 DIABETES
A combination of genetic and environmental factors, this is the most common form of diabetes. Obesity, insufficient physical activity and/or a family history of the disease are risk factors. Once rare in children, Type 2 diabetes rates are growing. This can lead to complications such as heart disease.

The American Diabetes Association wants you to know that diabetes and heart disease are linked. People with diabetes are at high risk for a heart attack or a ...

Find out the details at www.diabetes.org/communityprograms-and-localevents/americandiabetesmonth.jsp

As I've written before, I do have a bit of a journalism career. Contact me for my book review of a marvelous new cookbook for diabetics. It offers variations so you can keep meals interesting, appealing and very presentable. Just click http://giveretgolani@gmail.com and ask me for the "Enlitened" cookbook review.




Contact me, at http://giveretgolani@gmail.com, about whatever you want to know about in the wide world of healing arts.

My connections in the medical world are dynamic. They can be quite helpful, as readers of my blog indicate on previous posts. One of my contacts is also a source of medical practioner and medical treatment information for the MAYO CLINIC. If you need to learn about some new form of effective therapy, or about the world's best expert on some specific medical issue, I can seek out the information for you very quickly.

UPDATE: Fast Facts - About 154,000 people below age 20 have diabetes in the United States.

- According to data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2006, one in 523 people under age 20 has diabetes. About 79 percent of them are aged 10 to 19 years.

- Types 1 and 2 Diabetes rates are soaring in the USA and elsewhere. Lack of sufficient exercise and too much snack foods are part of the blame. The National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) offers tip sheets and an online quiz for teens, to help them to manage their disease and to reduce their risks for complications.

NDEP's new "Tips for Teens with Diabetes" encourages teenagers to manage their disease for a long, healthy life. Topics such as "What is Diabetes?, Be Active, Make Healthy Food Choices, Stay at a Healthy Weight, and Dealing with the Ups and Downs of Diabetes" are among many other tips.

NDEP’s tip sheet for addressing teens at risk for Type 2 diabetes is called "Lower Your Risk for Type 2 Diabetes."

An interactive online quiz for teens with diabetes (based on information found in the tip sheets) uses a question-and-answer format, with direct links to the new series of tip sheets. All of it is available at no charge from the NDEP. These resources support children with diabetes and their families to ensure their health and well-being now and into adulthoodThe new tools also support the 2007 World Diabetes Day campaign theme "Diabetes in Children and Adolescents." It’s for raising awareness of the rising rates for type 1 and type 2 diabetes among youngsters around the world.

For more information about NDEP's free resources for children and teens, visit http://www.yourdiabetesinfo.org/ or call 1-888-693-NDEP (6337). NDEP is jointly sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.World Diabetes Day, November 14, is sponsored by the International Diabetes Federation.

NDEP chair-elect Francine Kaufman, M.D., head of the Center for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism for the Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, is chair of the Youth Section for World Diabetes Day. Listen to an NIH Radio interview with Dr. Kaufman about diabetes in youth and World Diabetes Day at http://www.nih.gov/news/radio/nihpodcast.htm

For information about National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and its programs, see http://www.niddk.nih.gov/


To your good health, Yocheved



Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Prevent Crib Death (Cot Death for UKers)

16 Cheshvan 5768

Do Everything You Can to Prevent Crib Death!

It's MY Crisis and I'll Cry if I Need To addresses medical situations for every age. This blog, however, usually addresses more adult issues. Today we take a serious direction change to focus on a mysterious and terribly sad reality: Crib Death as it's known in North America, or Cot Death as it's known in the UK. The medical world calls it Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, SIDS for short.

It is when babies suddenly die without warning or previous illness. Caregivers find them lifeless in their strollers, cribs and cots. The nightmare is raw and deep. No warning cries from the beloved baby, no symptoms at all that anything bothered them. All that's left are undeserved feelings of guilt and an unending sadness.

A newish discovery might have the answers to solving the mystery and for preventing future infant deaths. It can help grieving people to absolve themselves of a crime they've never committed.

The source of the problem might be the baby's bedding! A combination of chemicals and fungus combine in a lethal mix of unseen, unsmelt gases that many people have not learned about. Unaware of the danger, many loving parents, grandparents, and other caregivers have placed children upon bedding that just might be killing them.

Read the compelling evidence about how to prevent these deaths at

http://www.preventcribdeath.com/

http://www.stopsidsnow.com/FactsAboutCribDeathSIDS.html

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988842,00.html

and at www.healthychild.com/cribdeathcause.htm

Seek out safe, all-natural fiber infant bedding or safe protective covers for problematic mattresses.

Here are some possible outlets for your purchase:

www.eves-best.com/babesafe-mattress-covers.htm

www.mercola.com/2000/nov/26/sids_prevention.htm

www.babysake.com/

www.babyuniverse.co.nz/site/page=brandsearch/manufacturer=Babesafe

www.pharmacy2u.co.uk/details.asp?productid=BASMCP



To your happiness,

Yojeved Golani
Coping with a Medical Crisis?
Make the Changes You Need in Your Life.


Thursday, October 25, 2007

Fire Safety and an Update about the Completed Walk around the World for Brain Tumour Awareness

13 Cheshvan 5768

The Walk Around the World for Brain Tumor Awareness is over. Read about some of the heroes and heroines of the trek:

BRAIN TUMOUR SUPPORTERS WALK THE EQUIVALENT OF MORE THAN TWICE AROUND THE WORLD

tp://virtualtrials.com/news3.cfm?item=4018

The world is waking up to some gritty realities for brain tumor patients and survivors of the surgeries. I hope this message soothes readers who are struggling with loved ones and friends who just don't "get it" about the struggles to cope with Meningiomas, Glioblastomas, Acoustic Neuromas plus other types of brain tumors.

Trying to understand what treatments such as Chemotherapy, Gamma Knife, Brain Surgery, Radiation and their after-effects are all about just adds to the fear of having the tumor in the first place. The good news is that compassionate people are working to improve the whole situation. On many levels.

If you want to become part of the Brain Tumor Awareness effort, click on http://virtualtrials.com/news3.cfm?item=4020
BRAIN TUMOUR AWARENESS WEEK A SUCCESS – CALL FOR ASSISTANCE TO THOSE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

~**~**~**~

My prayers for the people in California join yours . May they be blessed to have strength to recover from the horror burning their homes and state.

I've added this update about FIRE SAFETY to my blog as a timely lesson. Everyone needs to know its message.

Do you know the SAFE way to handle a flaming pot or pan on the stove top?

Here's a Life-Saving tip about putting out grease fires: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZGzbd0IvUE

Important Points:

NEVER toss water onto a grease fire. Water is heavier than cooking oil. Water sinks to the bottom where it instantly becomes superheated. The explosive force of the steam blows the burning oil up and out. On the open field it becomes a fireball resembling a nuclear blast. Inside a kitchen the fireball would hit the ceiling, filling the entire room.

And NEVER throw sugar or flour on grease fires! The explosive force kills and maims its victims.

May all your meals be as pleasant as this spread:







To your good health and peace of mind,

Yojeved Golani
Coping with a Medical Crisis?
Make the Changes You Need in Your Life.
http://itsmycrisisandillcryifineedto.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Taking the Fear out of Scary Medical Tests

12 Cheshvan 5768

It's hard enough to know that you or a loved one are facing a medical crisis. Suffering through medical test after medical test just adds to the misery. The machines look BIG, spooky and confusing. Some of them hurt! You start wondering if anyone cares that all that stuff scares you out of your wits! If you're like me, you've asked out loud "Why doesn't somebody invent something easier for patients to use?" You wish for something that is nicer to touch, nice to look at and nicer to feel as your medical team tries to find out how you're doing.

The good news is that some doctors realize how frightened we are of gadgets that whirr, blink, creak, draw, squish your tender parts, and go beep-beeeeeep-beep. They're patiently explaining the mysteries of their machines to people who need them for diagnostic and healing purposes. Share this message with your medical practitioners if you wish. It definitely won't hurt to try!

Protect Yourself from the Unexpected

The Washington Post newspaper recently updated its readers about a marvelous, patient-friendly way to decide if some medical tests are or are not in your best interests. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/19/AR2007101902620_pf.html

***

Remove even more fear from your medical situation. Buy It's MY Crisis! And I'll Cry if I Need To. Click on http://www.booklocker.com/books/3067.html

Order it in book stores if it's not on the shelves. It's MY Crisis! and I'll Cry if I Need To can be shipped worldwide.

Specialty editions are available for large organizations.

Booksellers, save money on large quantities of Its MY Crisis!:
https://secure.booklocker.com:443/booklocker/wholesale/order.php

Sending you healing thoughts,

Yojeved Golani
Coping with a Medical Crisis?
Make the Changes You Need in Your Life.


Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Breaking Medical News!

11 Cheshvan

Before I became an author and Self-Help Coach, even before the life-saving surgery referenced in my book It's MY Crisis! And I'll Cry if I Need To, I was a journalist. My specialty was reporting medical news, an outgrowth of my former career in Health Information Management.

On July 25 2007 (just before the publication of my book) I posted something to this blog. Due to reader disbelief, I then regretted it. Now I regret having pulled the item off the blog. Why? Because the news is getting around the world by word of mouth, E-mail and more. Here is the information I now gladly share with you:



July 25, 10 Av 5767

Today I added new information (that may just rock the world of medicine) to the Resources section in It's MY Crisis!.

AN ISRAELI SCIENTIST MAY WELL HAVE DISCOVERED THE CURE AND PREVENTATIVE FOR AIDS!

That's not all he discovered. When the full implications of this innovation in the medical world are understood, it will change the face of life worldwide. Avian Flu, Herpes, Legionnaire's Disease, as well as other virus-based illnesses, may soon be things of the past.



Publisher and editors of news sites, magazines and other media, contact me immediately to seal a feature story deal. I can write an article about the topic to knock your sox off! I'm well acquainted with the scientist addressed below. Mediabistro, this is a BIG story for you!

Readers of my blog who need to cope with serious illnesses, stay tuned for more breaking news.

Buy It's MY Crisis! And I'll Cry if I Need To. Click on http://www.booklocker.com/books/3067.html

It's MY Crisis! and I’ll Cry if I Need To can be shipped worldwide. Specialty editions are available for large organizations.

Booksellers, save money on large quantities of It's MY Crisis!:
https://secure.booklocker.com:443/booklocker/wholesale/order.php


To your good health, Yojeved