Cholesteatoma

  Buddy is enjoying the gorgeous summer like temperatures (and most unusual) that are presently in our area. The poor lad deserves a break. After trips to the family doctor, ER and the ear specialist we learn what is really going on.

  It all began a month ago with what appeared to be a middle ear infection that apparently broke the ear drum. Several trips to the GP and one to the ER, we met up with an ENT and we learned that was not the case.
  What he actually has is cholesteatoma which is a type of cyst that develops in the middle ear and may cause oozing from the ear when an infection occurs. Once the bacterial infection is under control, the next step will be to determine the method needed to remove the growth before it causes further damage. After an MRI, surgery is the only option.
  I was told by a dermatologist that all the skin growth that happens on the outside of a person with psoriasis also happens to internal tissues. Seems to me this is to be the first indicator that it's doing just that. Though what's most puzzling about this ear event is it's timing. It became an issue while his external skin cell growth was in a remission that was bringing a smile to Buddy's face. He loved watching himself and rejoiced as his cleared up skin was appearing all over himself. When over 80% of your body is full of plaque and it drops away revealing the skin beneath it, that has an impact that I can only imagine! Alas those episodes never last more than three months. As of yesterday that lull is struggling. His arms and legs have flared up again. We are applying creams in hope of keeping this under control as long as it will allow us to. We do what we can every day. Each day is a new challenge.
   But what's more frustrating is that in the past few days the ear drops seemed to be causing some sort of allergic type reaction but we weren't sure. Today that became most clear. It made his face and eyes red and itchy about one hour after his dose. For now he must take an Allerdryl and a cortisone tablet to become comfortable. Immediately the drops will be stopped and taken off his this list of safe drugs(topical ciprofloxacin antibiotic)to be allowed. Apparently other forms of that antibiotic are reported as causing some serious side effects to some folks so I am not surprised that the drops are disagreeing with him.
  Still Buddy is very happy that the Florida like weather has come to him. WHY? He'd love to go to Florida. He's waiting to go.
  For over two years now we keep hoping to travel to Florida but we are stalled by unexpected  issues, mostly health ones; my eyes, hubby's heart and now Buddy's ear. We pray that the fall season will give us the break to make that getaway. HOPE keeps us all moving ahead. FAITH has us believing it will happen. Buddy will get better and his wish will be fulfilled.

P.S. Buddy monitors the daily and weekly weather reports with great intent, listening to hear that winter is gone. Once he loved those wintery days and he would toboggan, skate and ski. But no more. He claims he's grown too old, pointing to some white hairs on his whiskers and sideburns as he grins. Gotta love his humour!

The Help (part1)

   The other day I decided to watch the movie 'The Help' and while it took me back to the very early '60's and discussions I had with my dad about the sad way people of colour were treated in the US, it also brought me to the role I played in helping others with their child rearing.
   My parents were the first to get me to understand I play an important role in assisting in caring for the younger siblings. My 20 months younger brother had to be played with a lot. When my sister was born when I was 10, old enough to do a lot more than just play.
   A daily event, I was taught how to sterilize bottles on the stove and fill them with boiled cooled water and measured formula to be put in the fridge for later. I was taught to clean cloth diapers and baby clothes made of cotton by placing them in a huge pot of boiling water with added soap. Then these had to be carefully and manually rinsed and hung to dry in our tiny one bedroom apartment. The sterilization had to be done for a period of over six months. This was to ensure the tiny baby would not pick up any harmful germs.
   I was shown how to bath her properly and dress her too. She always smelled so nice that I loved this chore that I shared with my mom and dad. And there were the daily walks so that baby would get plenty of fresh air. I would walk beside my mom proudly as she pushed the pram. Sometimes she would take us to the nearby Woolworth's where she would stop for something. The pram and baby remained outside. Often a passerby would look at the sleeping infant and comment on how cute she was. I would beam with pride. Once in a while I was allowed to walk her without my mom's presence. I had to stay close by so I could be seen from the window of our place. Those were precious moments.
   But there was a darker side to my help.  My parents expected me to get up at night when baby awoke because I was closest to her room, the sunroom next to the living room where my brother and I slept on a pullout couch. It was my duty to let my parents rest for work. We were struggling immigrants in the mid '50's. I did as I was told even though there were tiny moments of resentment during some of those nights when she was hard to settle back to sleep.
   I was the help. But there was a huge difference. I was made to feel very proud of what I was doing to contribute to the family well being.

Thinking Day

   February 22, I remember it as Thinking Day and Lord Baden-Powell Day. I was a Girl Guide from the age of 12 and remained a member until the end of my teenage years. My brother followed and became a Scout. And then little sister joined Brownies. We took being a member very seriously, striving to reach the highest levels. Check out our chords. But the awards in the background belong to a Scout troop.
We wore our uniform proudly on this day.

Today I post this in honour of a world movement that inspired many youths.

MEME

Meme is a word that has not been a part of my active vocabulary. When I skimmed over it today while reading a blog I decided to take time to acquaint myself with it.
The more I tried to grasp its meaning the more I frustrated I became. Seems this word is evolving along with many others in this computer age.
I have learned that the term is used to propagate an idea or image over the internet. Does that differ from 'going viral'?
If you have grasped how the word really works maybe you can help me to a better understanding? Who knew I could be so confused trying to make sense of a four letter word?

I clicked on HERE to get to the meme in one blog. The meme is Skywatch Friday. At that host page I found many images. Clicking on an individual image sent me back to the blog and blogger that added it. I suppose this is another way to enjoy followers but I didn't trust myself to join too.
It seems the Skywatch Friday site does not appear to be macbook friendly. Their homepage display appeared distorted on mine. And that made me back away from joining.

Instead I decided to post one of my sky pics without the link.
Here's the harbour at St. John, New Brunswick in the Bay of Fundy in the fall of 2010. Any one cursing(lol 'cursing'; thanks Patti for finding my typo) any time soon?

For those of you who are in search of hearts there appears to be a partial image of one. Enjoy.

Cigarillos

   The fact that homo sapiens may have free choice and are considered to be the most intelligent species on earth is questionable. Once the concept of agriculture emerged so did the appearance of crops that were not meant for humans, those that altered moods because of their addictive psychoactive chemical content like nicotine. 
   Used as a bug killer by converting the crop to nicotine tartrate, tobacco today is used mostly as a recreational drug  using the leaves of the plant. With many tobacco products on the market legally the worst known preventable health diseases on the globe (according to W.H.O.) have developed because of its addictive and carcinogenic properties.
   There's a cigarillo tobacco product (pompom) that is created in Jacksonville Florida and shipped world wide. It's a kind of mini cigar with a punch. It's small and fast to smoke and three times more harmful than one cigarette. Is there a benefit from using it? Not really. Only for the manufacturer maybe. Accountants could say there's a good profit margin. So what? Still sales from the product generate government taxes . Maybe that's the link in the chain that cannot be broken?
   But the tax income is quickly offset by the huge health care costs. Since the largest number of illnesses is caused by the use of tobacco, even insurance companies demand higher premiums from those who use it personally because the claims generated by them are the highest.

   Intelligence? Consider this; people buy carbon monoxide monitors to ensure that the air breathed is safe. Yet the smoke from tobacco products actually puts carbon monoxide poison into the air and themselves! Think of the damage that will do inside the brain and body. Then there's also cyanide that goes into the body. Both are known as poisons. The human uses the product knowing it's toxic. Smart?
   Homo sapiens may be the most innovative yet clearly not the most intelligent in self care. They create harmful drugs, a medical system to try to right that wrong and an insurance system to cover the medical expenses. Then there are political systems that believe in some sort of a smorgasbord of freedom of choice allowing a slow but certain death from tobacco consumption, yet no mercy death for individuals suffering tremendously near the end of disease. Something seems very wrong about choices in this instance.
    Today's newer media is adding new support to the use of tobacco products. Social sites like Facebook and You Tube have become places for promoters. For the pom pom product it's already there. Twitter? Likely yes. Seems if a famous celebrity with lots of followers mentions a product by brand name in a tweet  then there will be remuneration to them from the brand's company. Fast cash!  Any regulation about what may be promoted? Not much.
    More media tools in the mix is the allowing of harmful substances to be available via the internet. Shopping over the net has made the product more readily available. Is the cigarillo one item kids would select? Apparently yes because the makers of the product have offered it in a variety of yummy flavours, grape included! Hooking young innocent clients in is what matters to the future of their industry. I question why is the manufacture of tobacco stuff still allowed? Choices? Rights?
   Think of this. Our freedom of choice is being manipulated and influenced in so many ways now we hardly notice it's happening. The mind is being controlled more and more by advertisers and marketers. For example: 
   Will you be watching the $3.1 million commercials at this weekend's football game? You are watching the game right? Perhaps that's because it's been deemed a very big event, a fashionable thing to do and with so many followers. Over the years this event has been groomed to be that way. The media has been a leader of this for many years now. The viewers have followed as conditioned supporters ought to. Some call it loyalty.
   So do you question why some companies would put up the huge dollars for a 30 second spot of advertising during the game? Likely not. The advertisers hope for viewer attention by carefully planning their ad. Once watched and rated, the best one will be repeated, all the talk shows will spend days reviewing those commercials and discussing them. This kind of spotlight will certainly help sell a product more quickly and bigger volumes because of the mob mentality most people seem to have. In  no time that high cost of the ad is recovered  Clever?  Maybe?
   Thankfully the commercial that will not be created is the one about a tobacco product. No cigarillo spots. That product was banned from those type of ads along with all the tobacco items. Freedom of choice to do so was overridden because of the known very high health risks of that. 
   Shouldn't there be a tobacco ban on the net as well for the same reason? That's not about to happen. On the net the rules and laws have been very slow in keeping up with all the latest tricks to pull us into markets. Is that intelligent behaviour knowing what we know?


 P.S.  Being so conditioned to add media props, I originally had a photo of the product packaging in this post until I realized that it would be a visual promotion for it. Darn it's tough to be objective.