How to Feel More Confident - Quickly!

B'SD

25 Tishrei, 5774

My online silence last week was due to a hectic series of holidays and my reflections on the recent death of a personal hero.

I'm blogging today to share an uplifting thought with you: The Archenemy of Happiness.

Share the essay with anyone who can benefit from it. Print it out if necessary. You might prevent lots of new heartaches and cure some old ones.

It can go a long way to building self-confidence.



Need to face a medical, disability or mental health problem? Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge.  

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Figure out how to be happy with yourself: Simple decency will do ;^ )

 

Healthcare as a Commodity? Here's a Solution.

B'SD

14 Tishrei, 5774

Spell it as you prefer: Health care, healthcare or *~^%$#@!!!! (add an extra *¡¿₪£€&a;%$!!! if you wish)

Healthcare as a commodity has been a debate and a nerve-wracking reality for some time. PBS/Dr Marcia Angell have remarked on it. So have Seacoast, USNewsandWorld Report, and other venues.

A right, a privilege, whatever you choose to call it, health care has become a competitive activity. 

Well, securing it has, anyway.

The question 

How is Healthcare Different from a Commodity? 

is answered with humor and facts 

at Quarks.

As I proceed with my ICD-10 medical coding studies, classmates and I learn about prohibitive insurance clauses and limitations, far more than I'd already known of or suspected. 

Medical insurance issues are not a patient-friendly environment. 

So I did something to minimize, perhaps solve, the problem.

Need to get out of the downward spiral? 

Find resources you, a child or someone else need for quality 

• Medical care, 
• Medical appliances, 
• Medical transportation, 
• and other medical needs - worldwide - in the informative print or E-book edition of 

Medical and mental health professional recommend it
on and off the cover. 

So does a medical ethicist.

A medical crisis - you'd cry (or curse) 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."

Then resolve to solve your problems as best you can.

Oh - here's How to BE CAREFUL when you buy a  drug discount card!

 

Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. 

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Find the information you, or someone you love, need.

 

Calm Mindsets to Help Humanity

B'SD

13 Tishrei, 5774

I held off at making yesterday's blogpost go "live" due to unfolding events in the DC Navy Yard horror.

As it was, I was grieving the death of a dear man, a model of what GOD wants humanity to be: Simply good. The chief rabbi of Bet Shemesh had died early in the morning, after a horrific and valiant fight against a relentless disease process. He was so beloved by a wide cross-section of people, and still is. 

We had spoken with each other about healing modalities, and had shared lovely conversations and experiences in the past. GOD had a plan for how things would go.

I can only guess that as a man of peace, shalom, the rabbi is blessed with complete shalom in heaven. He died just before Sukkot begins. It's a time when we invite saintly figures to our huts, which symbolize GOD's mercy, and strive to emulate their qualities.

The Jewish world begins a week-long celebration of Sukkot (Tabernacles or Feast of Booths) on Wednesday night.  

The video below is of a classic Israeli song. It bespeaks the charming, peaceful demeanor and mindset of the deceased rabbi and the Sukkot holiday. You can read the lyrics translated into English at the bottom of the video.

At this point, while I reflect on yet another headline horror that ended some lives and pained others, I want to ask that you do what you can to promote mental health in your immediate world, and the wider world if possible. 

Suffering caused by one person's misery inflicted on innocent, defenseless others, is something worth preventing.

Calm mindsets help humanity.

Learn of mental health resources in the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge.  

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Focus on bettering yourself and society.


 

Yom Kipur INFOgraphic - and What to Do About the Fast

B'SD

9 Tishrei, 5774

Yes, you need to speak with your rabbi and doctor if you are concerned about fasting. Do it soon, Yom Kipur begins within hours.

Need to know more about Yom Kipur? Aish.com has that for you at http://www.aish.com/h/hh/yom-kippur/guide/Yom-Kippur-Infographic.html

May the world be inscribed for a healthy, 

peaceful future.

 

Make a healthful start to your new year: Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge.

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Feel better with sensible behavior.

Here's How to Help Detroit Retirees

B'SD

9 Tishrei, 5774


I did a triple-take when I read this headline:

Detroit may end health care coverage for retirees under 65, replace it with $125 monthly stipends

I can well imagine the sense of dread, panic and raw fear in the people who might be affected by this drastic move. 

$125.00 does not buy much health care. 

At retirement age, quality healthcare is usually Priority 1!

Considering the Confusion in California about Medicare Exchanges being Meaningless, more older Americans need to know how to obtain adequate health care. It's a matter of survival!

If I were in this situation, 

I'd be weeping.

Know a Detroiter or Californian who needs affordable quality medical care?

• Medication? 
• Medical transportation help? 
• Medical appliances? 
• Something else medical?

Alert them to pages upon pages of information about charitable organizations - worldwide - willing to pay for some or all of an applicant's medical necessities.

Buy that person a copy of the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge so they can read all about that.

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. Read all about that on pages 4 and 5.

 

EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. 

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Forget about politicians promising to save you. They caused this mess.

 

How to Make the MOST of Your Life - Despite Setbacks

B'SD

8 Tishrei, 5774

The meaning of what happens to you is determined by what happens in you.   —   Rabbi David Aaron

Do you find that idea mystifying? Something you resent? I understand. So do many medical and mental health professionals.

Here's a recent headline from the medical world:

Good Attitude Helps Heart to Heal

If your heart aches from inner or outer turmoil, take tiny steps to become more refined, more considerate, and more forgiving, than you are. 

No need to make life harder by taking on too much of the task at one time. 

Gradual progress is the best, most sensible way to go.

Need help to accept what is rather than what you originally wanted? 

Read the inspirational stuff that made clergy of different faiths recommend

The writer of the book re-engineered her life 

after a devastating medical setback 

(that other people could have prevented)

left her with the need to update her goals.

I'm that woman. 

Read the story of 

What happened to me, 

What I chose to do about it,

and 

How that can help you.

You'll find it in the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. 

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Find your inner greatness by rising to the challenge. As often as necessary.

 

Bunches of Good (and amusing!) Reasons to Care Better for Yourself

B'SD

7 Tishrei, 5774

Yom Kipur is coming and that's a time when hearts are filled with serious thoughts. 

The nifty thing about Judaism is that life IS a do-over. We can start with fresh slates by making changes in our beliefs and behaviors. Gradual improvement is the key, not killing yourself over "Instant Makeovers."

Attitude is what it's all about. 

Here's a great overview of Yom Kipur.

Okay, put your spiritual power to work on your physical realities.

Here's a colorized video of your heart's biscuspid valves and other nifty parts, hard at work. 

Click the links at 
http://www.smm.org/heart/heart/pumping.htm for a more in-depth understanding of your physical heart (you can nurture your emotional heart with good sense and uplifting activities).

Learn about blood pressure here (be sure to notice the food recommendations, towards the bottom, for healthy bodies).

Here's a kid-friendly video about the brain and nervous system. This one is kid-kosher too: KIDS' Health.

Want to know more about your marvelous, miraculous body? See http://mrfordsclass.net/, which holds lots of funny, interesting and educational videos about the rest of the human body. I suggest that anyone in high school or college-level anatomy and health courses look these over. Your teachers will appreciate that ;^D

When you're ready to resolve some sort of medical, mental health or disability issue (to the best of your ability), be sure to read  doctor-recommended E-book or print edition EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge.  

I'm preparing for Yom Kipur with intropsection, studying relevant texts and a low-key lifestyle. I want to make it through the fast in my usual "No-problem" style despite rising heat and humidity. 

I pray for the ever-better health of my readers and the wider world daily.

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Fire up your resolve to be better in body, mind and spirit.

 

Medical Coding Report: Outtathebox Solutions for Employment in Israel

B'SD

Tishrei 4, 5774

Question: How can Israel's pool of 
potential employees 
find satisfying work 
that 

1. Pays self-sufficiency wages
2. Improves the bottom line of employers

and 

1. Enhances the national economy?

Answer: Rethink and retool the 
training and qualification system to
solve existing and potential problems. 

Treat your staff and trainees
with consistent support 
and total respect.

The Employment Problem
A former Health Information Management professional aka medical coder, I did not update my credentials with continuing education after my 2002 aliya (relocation to Israel). Nefesh B'Nefesh did not know how I could remain competitive in my professional field. Neither did the Israel-based hospital medical coders, MKs, or Misrad HaBriut officials whom I consulted. 

I sought enlightenment until Summer 2013/5773.

Cashflow or Cash-NO?
While I was trying to survive on negligible income, food prices kept rising in Israel. Ever-rising housing prices complicated life. Olim chadashim, vatikim and native Israelis hold on by their fingernails to stay fed and housed despite the Start-Up Nation status that seems to fill tax coffers more than private savings accounts. Job-hunting borders on a national obsession.

Solutionizing Is US
One week after a medical coding/Health Information management class situated in Israel launched, a friend alerted me to an online announcement regarding that out of the box solution: Instruction for Anglos, in English, in Israel, from a prestigious and user-friendly company. 

I made necessary phone calls and sent relevant E-mails to enroll in the class. It would be conducted by HRS Coding Academy, a privately owned medical coding/Health Information management company based in Maryland, USA. H

I joined the in-progress class about 10 days after it had begun.

The online education is augmented with Skype sessions that include a Professor of Education who is a medical coding/Health Information management professional, live and Skype appearances from coding instructors who include the educational program's creator and Wendy Coplan-Gould - the owner of HRS Coding Academy.

The user-friendly HRS-in-Israel environment allows students to proceed at their own pace, within the parameters of dates set for specific units of study. Due to my familiarity with the material, I caught up with the class, then bypassed several colleagues-in-training within a month.

The creators of our study program have been in business for decades. But we surprised them. 

The focus of the Orthodox students in this multi-faceted course of study is enhanced by our prowess at studying esoteric hashkafa (philosophy), halakha (Jewish law) and historic topics - in our native languages, Hebrew and Aramaic - with a bit of Greek or Latin tossed in. 

We tackle medical coding/Health Information Management's vocabulary (a language in its own right), legal and ethical issues, pharmacology, insurance rules and restrictions, anatomy & pathology, plus medical coding methodology by keeping loose ends sorted until we can tie them into cohesive conceptualizations that propel us forward.

We have so excelled in our studies that we're due to graduate 2.5 months ahead of schedule, a first for the system.  

The student successes are due in large part to the open-minded, non-judgmental approach of the HRS staff. Administrators and educators working with chavrei Knesset met our known and anticipated needs. 

Technicians are available for immediate response to PC glitches. Our classroom is kept in impeccable order and cleanliness. Secretaries processed enrollment papers and facts speedily. All that effort and insight facilitated unprecedented success by preventing problems. Twenty women who'd never met before, who come from various walks of life and the world, simply get along and achieve HRS' learning goals.

We'll sit for the qualifying US exam in due time. Our passing grades will qualify us to work for the innovative and US-located HRS Coding Academy company bringing jobs otherwise unavailable to Israelis.

An Israeli dream come true
Though the student body includes some women not yet conversant in Hebrew, the limitations on potential employment due to language barriers have been removed in two important ways. 

1) Instruction is in our native language.

2) The people training us are contracted 

to employ us once we pass the course and 

US certifying exam. 

Judging from our speedy academic 

accomplishments so far, 

we're headed for employment success 

in English, in Israel.

The Bonus
HRS plans to pay the students to code actual medical charts between the time we complete our studies and the time we pass the pending certification exam. It's an innovative approach to securing top-notch staff before they are snapped up by competitors or otherwise lost to the system (re-read the opening paragraphs to this blogpost for an FYI about that).

Follow the Leader
The Israeli business world has an impressive model for its future success in HRS Coding Academy. Treating staff members with respect, paying a decent wage, and preventing employment site problems is a stellar way to improve everyone's bottom line: Israel's, the loyal and appreciative trainees plus the private business owners investing in mutually beneficial futures.

The HRS model is a precedent to imitate for various Israel employment endeavors. Head hunters and business owners need to heed its lessons.




Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Look for can-do out of the box solutions.

How to live a calmer, more organized life despite your medical, mental health or disability issue!

B'SD

29 Elul, 5773

I'm happy to let you know that I'm doing scholastically well in my ICD-10 medical coding studies. 

My goal is to complete a 2-year college education in about 8 months. I'm speeding ahead in the textbooks and doing well on exams, thanks to great long-term memory (I used to be a medical coder before my 2002 relocation to Israel). Thank GOD I still have an aptitude for studying complicated topics.

Watch this space for a relevant post about the company training me and my classmates. It's coming up next week.

I'm taking time off for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year's celebration.

The 2-day holiday begins this evening and

ends as Shabbat begins.

I plan to post again on Sunday.

Here are some educational links for starting your new year right:

Alpha-Beta Academy on Rosh HaShana. You can click on the colorful illustrations for immediate education on appealing topics, and/or sign up for the Alpha-Beta newsletter.

Click on http://www.aish.com/ for a colorful, thought-provoking exploration into the Jewish look at the new year.




Want to live a calmer, more organized life despite your medical, mental health or disability issue? Improve your perspective and meet more of your goals with E-book or print edition EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. 

Rabbis, clergy of different faith, medical and mental health professionals recommend it!

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Fill your life with increasing happiness.

May the world be blessed for a good year.

Have a good night's sleep after the holiday feast, and any night - to help your brain cells! 

See you next year: 5774!

 

Promoting Morality in the Medical Research World

B'SD

27 Elul, 5773

Medical research is a mystery to many people. Some of us hope that the researchers "Know what they're doing." Others of us worry "What ARE they doing? Especially with my body parts/pictures/laboratory samples etc?"

Not everything goes into a trashcan.

The Henrietta Lacks saga brings 
a medical research nightmare

to heartbreaking life.

Listen to this TedTalk about the need to sort out the moral and medical issues for many compelling reasons.

The Henrietta Lacks story teaches important lessons about patient privacy. 

Protect yours with 

• Pro-active questions, 
• Memos to medical practitioners and a 
• Constant inquiry into what is being done with your removed or repaired body parts and lab samples (your urine, blood, mucus, spit, feces, cells, skin, etc.).

Follow up on troubling comments and situations. 

You are your own best advocate. Have a relative or friend assist you if necessary.

Patients can be active in improving health care. Patient passivity is so decades-ago!

 
Part of being a patient is about being treated with respect, before, during and after surgical or medical procedures.

Need to know how to protect your privacy - and your preferences -  even as you lie in a hospital bed? Read the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. It clues you in on how to deal with rudeness, life and death issues and yourself. 

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Face threats to your privacy with forthright statements and actions.

 

Putting YOUR Best Foot - and SHOES - Forward!

B'SD

26 Elul, 5773

I'm still trying to figure out how women who wore banana-nosed shoes made it though one particular fashion season. I suspect that many foot doctors, and plastic surgeons who repair broken noses, made a lot of money that year.

Two years or so later, I found something to illustrate the lack of good sense in wearing some types of shoes.

Click on

Foot Damage from High Heels and Excessive Slopes

Ow. 
It hurts just to think about that damage. 

Avoid it with sensible footwear.

Your entire body is at risk for suffering enduring paid from damage caused by poorly fitting, foot-crippling shoes. 

Diabetics are at worse risk for health complications due to the foot damage.




Buy the E-book or print edition to EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. (you can even read it barefoot!) 

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Feet need sensible soles. You do, too ;^D