G's-Spot

Know the Difference between Cold and H1N1 Flu Symptoms

Got this chart in an email yesterday and found it pretty helpful, actually. Anyone see any of the info that's not correct?
 

Symptom	Cold	H1N1 Flu
Fever	Fever is rare with a cold.	Fever is usually present with the flu in up to 80% of all flu cases. A temperature of 100°F or higher for 3 to 4 days is associated with the flu.
Coughing	A hacking, productive (mucus- producing) cough is often present with a cold.	A non-productive (non-mucus producing) cough is usually present with the flu (sometimes referred to as dry cough).
Aches	Slight body aches and pains can be part of a20cold.	Severe aches and pains are common with the flu.
Stuffy Nose	Stuffy nose is commonly present with a cold and typically resolves spontaneously within a week.	Stuffy nose is not commonly present with the flu.
Chills	Chills are uncommon with a cold.	60% of people who have the flu experience chills.
Tiredness	Tiredness is fairly mild with a cold.	Tiredness is moderate to severe with the flu.
Sneezing	Sneezing is commonly present with a cold.	Sneezing is not common with the flu.
Sudden Symptoms	Cold symptoms tend to develop over a few days.	The flu has a rapid onset within 3-6 hours. The flu hits hard and includes sudden symptoms like high fever, aches and pains.
Headache	A headache is fairly uncommon with a cold.	A headache is very common with the flu, present in 80% of flu cases.&n bsp;
Sore Throat	Sore throat is commonly present with a cold.	Sore throat is not commonly present with the flu.
Chest Discomfort	Chest discomfort is mild to moderate with a cold.	Chest discomfort is often severe with the flu .

Eureka Springs, Arkansas: Happy Birthday Gene, Jeff, and Dee

Notice that Jeff's the only one who looks good in this pic?  Man, it's hard to get four people looking the same way and all good at the same time whenever there's a camera around!  Gene is Mr. Smiley, as usual!

 We only took a few pics because we were too busy having a great weekend together celebrating Gene's 49th, Jeff's 51st, and Dee's...well, never mind!  I'm the odd man out with a January birthday but that's okay, we like this tradition of celebrating the October birthday boys and girl all together. Last year, since it was Jeff's 50th(!) we went to Vegas so this year we needed to stay a little closer to home.

Next year?  Hmmmm...Gene's 50th. Wonder where he'll want to go...gee, if anyone knows Gene's favorite vacation spot, let me know, because I might forget. :-)

We stayed at the Basin Park hotel, downtown, built in 1905, the sister hotel to the famously haunted Crescent hotel, built in 1886.

This is a shot from the balcony restaurant, the only area shot I remembered to take, just to give a hint of the gorgeous fall colors we were surrounded by.

I like the Basin Park. It's old and it's not renovated, as in gutted.  The bathrooms are tiny, the lighting certainly not makeup applying friendly,  and the rooms are oddly shaped but that's what I like about it.  They've done a great job sprucing up the paint and adding funky pieces of furniture and lamps to create a misfit fit kind of ambience that serves Eureka well.

Dee and I survived the makeup challenge with no mishaps, I'm happy to say. No freaky colors. No odd foundation lines at the jaw, although had it not gone off so well we could have declared the bad makeup in deference to Halloween next   weekend.

Here's Dee TRYING to get Gene to smile for the camera. She got half of it: the smile.

I'm not sure what she was trying to do to him...I was off at the bar collecting a round.  All I know is Jeff was running the camera.

Jeff and Gene have been best friends since they were little kids growing up across the street from each other in Marshfield.  Jeff found Dee first and I came along a couple of years later to the group. For years we traveled to Oklahoma City to see them, then Collinsville. It's nice to have the back in Marshfield, closer to us, but amazing how it still seems like months go by between times we get together. That's only because of work and the usual everyday life we all have to get through and since I work every other weekend that doesn't make it easier to get together with folks with regular work week hours, but we vowed with this trip that we'd all see each other more often now that it doesn't take an overnight bag for a visit!

Happy Birthday to all three: my adorable husband, and my two wonderful friends!

As a P.S. of sorts for Sisco clan--guess who we ran into working at Basin Park?  Carolyn Morgan! It was sooooo great to see her!  We both squealed when we saw each other and made some of the folks around us laugh. She's doing really well and the kids are all grown. Can you believe little Travis, toddler Travis, is now 20?  Man, I forget how quickly time passes until my friends' babies are suddenly grown.

 

Also, I have to say that I had one PURE EUREKA moment. I ran to a gift shop by myself the morning we left to pick up something I hadn't gotten the day before.  The clerk was a lovely, sweet, outgoing gal in her 50's who was dressed in a black t-shirt with a black lace handkerchief edged mini skirt with beads hanging from the hem points. She had on gold tights under that, colorful scarves tied in her hair, around her wrists, and around both ankles. She had on colorful but not even close to matching barrettes, choker, earrings, bracelets, and rings on every finger.  She also had on one brown shoe and one black shoe.  As I walked in the door she was helping two ladies pick out a tear dropp crystal hanging from a beaded string. The lady couldn't decide which bead string she liked best and the clerk was telling her to ignore the colors, but to "hold a crystal in each hand, close your eyes, and let the crystals speak to you. The one that warms your heart and your hand is the one that was meant for you."

Gawd, I miss Eureka so much!!!!!!  

Even if the whole crystal, hippie, funky-dressing culture isn't evident on my person, I LOVED living with people who were so different from me.  Sigh.
  

Suckered Again!

But it's a good thing. When the nieces all read this they will know where their stocking stuffers are coming from this year. Every year since they were little Gene and I have had stockings at our house for the three nieces: Jordan, Sydney, and Kaylee, our nephew Isaac, and our cousins (should be niece and nephew) Holli and Jordan.  Every year we have a tradition that the girl stockings are full of Avon:  bubble bath, body wash, scented lotion, lip balm, lip gloss, etc.  They will be this year, too, but there's a cool twist.  My 16 year old CF patient sells Avon to extra money, so while she was doing her three nebs and vest tx, I gave her the cash of what I usually spend and told her that she gets to pick out the girls' stocking stuffers.  It was so much fun!!! Her tx's take 30+ minutes so she hunted through every page and found the coolest stuff that SHE likes at the best prices for my girls who are all close to her age. 

So there you go girlies--your stockings will be stuffed courtesy of your girl buddy "S". She's got your back!

Boogers in a Cup

I was in Peds last night with several cute little 4 year old boys.  One of them has flu-like symptoms so we needed to do a nasal wash to be cultured in the lab.  We showed him the catheter and told him we were going to put it up his nose to get some boogers.  He thought that was a really fun idea…until we actually did it. Then he hated us and cried and screamed (I would too if someone stuck that thing down the back of my nose).  As soon as we got the sample in the cup we redirected him by saying "Look, dude, it's your boogers in a cup!"  Mid-cry, he stopped and grinned and said "Look Mom, that's MY boogers!"

 

So proud.  Boogers in a cup.

 

I love Peds. It's more entertaining that TV could ever be!

HALLOWEEN CONTEST FOR KIDS (AND PARENTS)!

Mmmmm....candy....and free movies!

CONTEST:  With the kids, create an edible MONSTER from candy available at Blockbuster stores and send me a pic at Marie9949 (at) sbcglobal.net  (I wrote the word, not the symbol "at", in hopes of not attracting spammers.)  Your monster can be funny, scary, silly, elegant (is there such a thing?  Someone should try!), whatever the kids want to do.

The only "must" is that the candy used must be available at Blockbuster stores, although no proofs of purchase are required to enter. 

I will post the pics Monday morning on the Food Blog:  www.afridgefulloffood.typepad.com .

If you have any questions at all, please email me at the above address or through Facebook.

DEADLINE:  Sunday, November 1,09

Deciding a Winner:  Everyone (especially those who didn't enter :-) ) go to the food blog Mon or Tues the 2nd or 3rd, and leave a "vote" in the comment section telling which MONSTER is your favorite.

The winning family wil be announced here on the blog Thursday November 5th, 09

To the left is Blockbuster's Official Monster. He's pretty cute but I know WE can build a better monster, can't we?  Let's show 'em how it's really done!

And in return for trouncing them and their monster, they're going to give us a $25.00 gift certificate.

 

This contest is sponsored by Blockbuster as a way to promote fun family time together.

Thank you to Blockbuster for the Gift Certificate prize!

Quote of the Day

Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

Knitting for the NICU: Halloween '09

My needles have been flying this month!

Next up:  Thanksgiving pilgrims, indians, turkey heads, and punkins.
 

Putting Aside all the Rhetoric, Why was the Peace Prize Awarded to Barack Obama?

 From the head of the Nobel Prize Committee:

"Jagland, a former Norwegian prime minister, said "we are capturing the spirit of the times, the needs of the era."

He and the committee's four other members caused shockwaves on Friday by announcing that Obama had won the Nobel, praising his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

The committee attached "special importance to Obama's vision and work for a world without nuclear weapons." (API)

The bold typeface and italics are my own. 

So every other winner of the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded so on actual accomplishments,  President Obama** got the Prize for "spirit" and "effort" and "vision".  So is this year's Nobel Peace Prize like the Special Olympics Peace Prize?  If I were President Obama, I'd be insulted by the award. It's like saying "We're giving it to you because even though you can't compete with folks who've actually done great things, we admire your enthusiasm.  We think you've done a great job trying...well...for your peer group."

If he got it, like I have heard and read many say now, for giving inspiring speeches...then shouldn't the award go to his speechwriters? 

Again from UPI:

"The Nobel committee members made no bones about it:  Helping Obama achieve ambitious peacemaking goals was their goal in awarding the prize Friday to an as-yet-mostly unaccomplished U.S. president."

While that is a wonderful vote of confidence for President Obama, it is NOT in the directive of the the Peace Prize as set up by Alfred Nobel's will.  The Peace Prize is for actual achievement.  So what happens if President Obama doesn't live up to achieving those things for which the Prize has always been awarded in the past?  Will they take it away from him and, my preference, give it twice to former President Jimmy Carter who not only DID achieve a great stride towards peace in the Middle East between Israel and Egypt, but who has spent the last decades since that award, dressed in overalls and with a hammer in his hand, fighting the good fight against poverty with Habitat for Humanity?

**Please notice that while I may not agree with the Nobel Prize Committee in this decision, unlike most of our media in the country, I do not denigrate the office of our President. I will always, agree or disagree, refer to our President with a capital letter and with respect as "President Barack Obama", not "Mr." Obama.

Quote of the Day

Acceptance is not submission; it is acknowledgement of the facts of a situation. Then deciding what you're going to do about it.

Kathleen Casey Theisen

Repression and denial work pretty well too....for a while.  

 

Seriously, Pediatrics is the Most Entertaining Place in the Hospital

Had a four-year-old wheezing pt come to the floor.  When it was time for his breathing treatment, I took the pediatric dragon mask and the neb into the room and showed them to him. I asked him if he remembered having treatments earlier in the ER. He said that he did.

I told him that since he was wheezing again, it was time to do another tx.  He told me in the most polite voice I have ever heard out of a pre-schooler:  "No, thank you. I'm fine."

The parents and the RN both started laughing with me.

Well. What do I say to that one?

I asked him if his chest was hurting again and he said yes. I told him the treatment would make him feel better.  He told me in the same polite tone but much firmer this time:  "No.  But thank you."

I said to the mom "I get the feeling I have just been dismissed like the hired help I am."

She started to get up and make him but, you know, that's not what we want kids to remember so I waved her back down in the chair, pulled my own chair up to the bedside and said "We need to talk about this, okay?"

He said, just as politely as before, "Why?"

"We need to talk about this until you decide you need a tx because that's the way we roll up here in Peds."

So we talked about his school, his favorite color, his stuffed animal on the bed, and finally about how that wheezing he could hear himself making when he breathed could be fixed by a breathing tx.  I talked to his mom for a couple of minutes while the mice ran the wheel in his brain and finally he said, extremely politely,  "I'd like that tx now, please."

I said, "Terrific! So glad I could see it your way."