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!
Judaism teaches that GOD hears every prayer, paying special attention to those for someone else's welfare. Do what you can to ease the heartache of this child and her parents.
A medical crisis - you'd cry too, if it happened to you. Use your tissues and handkerchiefs with my blessings borne of experience. GOD gives you Permission to Weep. And you can say that to any critics after explaining that "It's a Crisis! And I'll Cry if I Need To." Read all about that on page 5 of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge.
The past week held Yom HaZikaron, Israel's national day of mourning for its soldiers and defenseless innocents murdered by terrorists, followed by theYom Ha'Atzmaut day of joyous celebration for Israel's national independence. Israel is a home for Jews to cherish. I was so caught up in things that I did not blog much.
Passover/Pesakh had already been an emotional experience that remains with me until today. During the times when we focus on personal thoughts at the seder, I kept thinking "This an apropos time for Israelis to dismiss the appeasement fantasies of the kneset, the UN's opinion on anything (care to repair life in the Sudan or UAE, hmmm?), and the USA's messed-up take on Middle East life - let alone MSM's."
We'd spent the seder night recalling how only HaShem (GOD for non-Hebrew speakers) saves us time and again, and that politicians plus other meddlers are part of our problems. I'd like every Israeli to end their subscriptions to depressing, con job newspapers, pray harder, do more mitzvot, convince chutznikim to makealiya already (empty promises belie inactions) and to watch H's promises come true (Mashiakh must arrive on the scene when all the world's Jews are in Israel as Commanded).
Okay, on with the HH Blog Carnival!
Marriage is a mighty controversial word in the Orthodox Jewish world. Well, "marriage crisis" or "singles' crisis" might be better phrases for capturing the scope of the problem. A BIG argument about that debate broke out in The Jewish Press; click this Tyranny of Beauty link to learn about that (it became a BIGGER mess at this link) and on Gila Manolson's wonderful response link.
Rivka Lambert-Adler aka Bat Aliya writes a heartfelt blog. She and it always have thoughtful ideas to share. Read about TheBalancing Act and share your thoughts with her.
For those of us who take Torah and mitzvot seriously, including parshat Kedoshim (in which GOD rules out homosexual activity), let's up our spiritual ante. Am Yisrael is in DEEP doo-doo !
I'm looking forward to the next HH Blog Carnival on May 06 2012 at Ruth Palatnik's Beneath the Wings blog.
Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
In the past 48 hours I've been caught up in Israel's national Day of Mourning/Yom Zikaron for the over 22,000 soldiers and defenseless innocents murdered by terrorists since the late 1800s this week.
Today we celebrate the declaration of
Israel's Independence.
I traveled early this morning to join Israel Defense Forces soldiers at at army base, with other civilians. We prepared a barbecue. We shared memories, salutes, deep thoughts, jokes, emotional healing and more. Fathers in uniform held their babies, children played soccer, frisbee, and other games.
It's been an emotional week, with much personal and national reflection.
Here I am (in the pink top) with my picnic plate, looking out at my miraculous country and people. I hope to post other photos of me on the scene after I upload them from various cameras. Meanwhile, here's a video describing the miracles of the Jewish people and our homeland to enjoy:
Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
A medical crisis - you'd cry too, if it happened to you. Use your tissues and handkerchiefs with my blessings borne of experience. GOD gives you Permission to Weep. And you can say that to any critics after explaining that "It's MY Crisis! And I'll Cry if I Need To." See the heavenly license to cry, and to cope with illness, disability and sadness, on page 5 of
Readers, I have a dynamic E-mail correspondence going on behind the scenes with some of you. I'm delighted with the diversity of the readership here. It's a privilege to be helping and interacting with people I'd never otherwise "meet"! The fun and wonder will grow on April 29 as I hostess what's called the "Haveil Havalim" blogpost carnival.
Various bloggers from around the world will be sharing their links with me in the next few days. I'll post selected entries that serve public interests and purposes on April 29th. No snarky remarks from contributors, please. Share something thoughtful, innovative, educational, helpful, or soothing to serve public interests. Send your URL to giveretgolani@gmail.com.
Here's a quick FYI if you're wondering what Haveil Havalim means in English: Vanity of vanities. It's a catch-phrase repeated in Ecclesiastes (kohelet in Hebrew), the famous passage written by King Solomon. We learn in it to focus on spiritual meaning, to rise above our present limitations (moral, physical, emotional, intellectual, etc.). Why? Selfishness is not destined for eternal value.
Fractures HURT and so do the wrong crutches. Here's an FYI from a medical professional who contributed to today's blogpost:
"Please be aware that crutches must be the correct measurements for YOUR measurements! And you must use them correctly or you may cause yourself injury. Here is just 1 link to info on the measurements you need for your crutches as well as links to their proper use. I see too many people with obviously incorrect crutch lengths! So if/when you get the crutches, go there armed [no pun intended] with a measuring tape and your own necessary measurements.
Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge to learn how to speed up your healing process from that fracture. Even how to quickly overcome RSD/CRPS! Click on http://booklocker.com/books/3067.html
Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.
Here's an informative bit of pain management news for Becker's ASC Reviewand beyond: Surgeons preparing to do corrective surgery on my feet were astounded to learn that I had not been taking any pain killers for the deformity currently messing up my walking abilities. How astounded? The head of the department asked me if I was afraid to reveal how much medication I take, as the situation was affecting my ability to even stand, run or walk! He informed me that most people find the situation unbearably painful.
I assured the doctors that
the pain management tips shared in
have served me well. I literally ate the foods or took the vitamins listed there. They minimized or canceled the pain altogether. The only reason I'd sought the surgical consult is because time and the repeated use of my feet and legs have worn down some of the parts. That caused an awkward gait. I need to walk with greater stability. So, I'm going to have corrective out-patient foot surgery in the foreseeable future.
Pain management specialists, anesthesiologists and nurses can learn quite a bit from the book. So can the average reader. The first time I'd had surgery for the situation was almost a drug-free experience. I simply meditated as the surgeon rearranged the bones and muscles for me. I only needed pain killers to a small degree, near the end. That surprised the staff supporting me.
Fun does not have age limits, as you'll see in this Dancing in Dulles video. Get your boogey on. Sing, dance, indulge in some realistic for you sports, whatever it takes. The trick is to do what appeals to you and lifts your spirits - maybe those of people sharing the fun with you, too. There's plenty of healing power in pleasure.
Want to lose the too-thick middle-aged midriff while you're at it? I have two terrific tips to share with you on this blog. Just ask me for them by leaving a comment below, with your name and photo so I'll sort of know with whom I'm communicating.
Many of my real life and cyber acquaintances are in physical pain due to accidents and/or to eating nutrition-challenged "foods" for Easter (candy only looks cute in the box, not in your gut) and Passover (too often overloaded with sugar and eggs, let alone matza). It's a memorable lesson in the harm that sugar and dietary excess can cause to human bodies.
Here are some helpful and quite economical tips from the "Coping with Pain" section of
I was in a freak accident in which my left elbow and ulna (a long, slim bone in the forearm) were broken in multiple locations. I’d been left-handed lifelong.
My disability was significant and my level of pain due to the complicated fracture was too awful to describe here. I took powerful painkillers that only removed a bit of the mega-wattage agony. Doctors in the hospital eventually gave me morphine so I could endure arm-saving surgery.
Physical therapy was a matter of raw courage. I wept through several sessions, struggling to restore the use of my hand, forearm and upper arm. I stopped taking narcotic painkillers over time, fearful of addiction problems from prolonged use.
Then I gradually put together an all-natural pain-reducing plan that worked.
Here’s some potentially helpful information for anyone healing from a bone fracture as I did, or for anyone interested in protecting their bone health.
I minimized the pain by:
· Using my Personal Pain-o-Meter (explained a few paragraphs below)
· Listening to soothing music
· Sitting in cheer-me-up sunshine (which provides Vitamin D for strong teeth and bones) with and without friends
· Basing part of my grocery list on advice from Dr. Neal Barnard’s Foods That Fight Pain book. I bought it after interviewing Dr. Barnard about some of his innovative health-promoting techniques several years ago (I’m still a health writer/journalist for hire, folks).
Shop as I do and you just might feel better after buying from the organic green-grocer and health food store:
Almonds with Raisins (really!)
Beans (soak them for a day, changing water 2-3 times so you won’t develop belly bloat)
Broccoli Capsaicin Cream (a natural remedy made of chili pepper extracts!)
Fresh and powdered Ginger Root
Fresh Figs and/or Fig Jelly
Sweet Potatoes
Vitamin B6 (50-150 mg)
Vitamin E 400 IU
Zinc
I ate the foods in abundance and took the vitamins once daily.
These old standbys also helped me:
· Arnica Montana (a natural remedy that resembles tiny white pills)
· Cuprum Metallicum (a natural remedy that also resembles tiny white pills)
· Rescue Remedy Cream
· Rescue Bach Remedy Drops
· Any bar of soap at all. I have no idea why this folk remedy works, but after I place a bar of soap under a sweatshirt sleeve, under sheets, or upon some other area of sore muscles, the pain reduces noticeably.
Be sure to visit www.NutritionMD.org for more information about the role of nutrition in a variety of diseases and conditions.
Oh – if you or the person you're caring for can't swallow pills, here are some possible solutions to the problem:
Crush the pills. Place them in a plastic sandwich bag and step on them if you lack a pill crushing appliance. Then mix the bits with applesauce. Be sure to shake all the powder into the applesauce, too.
Warm liquid jell-o is another alternative. Pudding works. So does pleasant-tasting yogurt. The idea is to provide a slippery, pleasant-tasting food in the mouth so that the medication will go into the tummy with it. The pleasant taste prevents gag reflex problems. The slippery textures make the swallowing much easier despite the fear of swallowing the pills. And children will be eager for more dessert at medication time. Be sure to remind them that the medicine is not dessert, the pudding, applesauce, jell-o or yogurt perform that yummy job.
Do you suffer from leg cramps that wake you during the night? I sympathize. Here are my suggestions for preventing them:
PREVENT LEG CRAMPS
1. DRINK WATER - dehydration can play a part in leg cramps.
2. Stretch your calves during the day and night, especially before bed.
3. Riding a bicycle is one of the best preventatives, but a stationary bicycle a few minutes in the evening can help, too.
4. Keep your blankets and sheets loose at the foot of the bed to prevent your toes from pointing downward as you sleep.
5. Prolonged sitting, poor or abnormal posture or inefficient biomechanics (possibly related to poor flexibility) may cause leg cramping. Compensate as best you can.
6. Do the "Seaweed Soak": eating seaweed and drinking seaweed previously soaked in water before a meal. Eat, juice or blend good amounts of green leafy vegetables (parsley, squash, Swiss chard, etc.) and carrots, etc. Munch on sesame seeds and even add them to nut milks (e.g., almond milk). These foods hold tremendous amounts of magnesium, calcium, etc. which are very important for muscle comfort and function. You can learn about juicing and making nut milks in books or online.
7. Mix 1 teaspoon organic honey and 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar. Drink it once daily to prevent muscle cramps.
Certain leg stretching exercises can also help.
1. Stand 30 inches from the wall. 2. While keeping your heels on the floor, lean forward, put your hands on the wall, and slowly move your hands up the wall as far as you can reach comfortably. 3. Hold the stretched position for 30 seconds. Release. 4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 two more times. 5. For best results, practice this exercise in the morning, before your evening meal, and before going to bed each night.
Let's shift focus now, to Mind over Matter. Want to know how a Personal Pain-o-Meter works?
My recovery from that severely broken arm (doctors had to install a permanent metal brace under the skin, along my bones, in order to save the arm) had been challenging, to put it politely. I'd wept from awful, awful pain that major painkillers (including morphine) hardly affected. But I learned to cope with the agony by reducing it at will. Now I'm ready to share that technique with you.
Want relief from the physical pain of your medical condition? Try this nifty trick. Turn down the dial on your Personal Pain-o-Meter, a terrific technique that friend/Life Coach Ben Goldfarb taught me. Pain that does not serve a function is pain we can banish at will.
Go on. Create a dial in your mind. Study it. Say the level of your pain out loud: "On a scale from one to ten, ten being the worst level of pain, I have a pain level of... (fill in the blank with a number from 1-10)," then say this out loud, "I can lower my pain. I'm lowering it to (name the ever-lower wattage at each new pain-lowering session)..."
Then do it. Imagine the arrow on your Personal Pain-o-Meter dialing downward. Push it down with your mind. Choose to reduce your pain. Aim for less than half your present pain level.
Try again until you make progress. Yes, I know it's difficult. I do this exercise, too. My physical therapy workouts were not pleasant. C'mon. Try it again.
You can set aside time as often as needed to work at aiming that arrow increasingly down. You'll know you've succeeded when you realize that your discomfort feels significantly less than it felt earlier. Keep spinning that arrow down until your pain is as low as possible.
Ta-daaa, this is your one-step solution for pain reduction:
CHOOSE TO LOWER YOUR PAIN, AND TO REDUCE YOUR SUFFERING.
The first part of the book lets you know how to stay organized despite blizzards of paperwork, piles of business cards for doctors and treatment sites, pressing appointment schedules and the need to pack for hospital stays. It even includes tips for keeping or recovering your sense of humor despite all the pressure.
The second part of the book, the Global Resources section, clues you in to worldwide organizations willing to pay part of all of your medical costs and then some!
A happy-go-lucky woman in Israel wakes up blind in 2005. She soon learns in an emergency room that she is dying. Then she has emergency brain surgery and loses the benign brain tumor that had blinded her and almost ended her ability to breathe.
One year later in 2006, medical experts inform the weak, thin woman that she will never see again. And here she is in 2012, typing this blogpost to you - after she wrote a book to help ill and disabled people around the world!
It is the story of how I benefited from various forms of wisdom in the western and natural healing worlds. I now have doctor-certified bones and muscles to rival those of a woman HALF my age. The prescription for my eyewear has fallen 16 - yes 16 - times in 6 years. Every aspect of my former vision problems is lessening over time.
My physical health is improving in other ways, too. As for my emotional/mental health, well, there's a reason that I was invited to address a conference of mental health professionals - and why so many recommend that you read
There are plenty of reasons that I chose the motto for this blog to be
Face your medical problems with dignity.
Face your future with optimism.
Let me know which page of the book convinces you that an improved and protected sense of dignity plus ever-better optimism help ill people to cope with medical, mental health and disability challenges.
The bonus is that, as you read, you'll learn how to improve your health - or someone else's - while saving money worldwide: Results, safety, and health in one E-book or print edition.
