Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Posted on August 11, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
IS THIS WHAT OUR AGE OF DISCONTENT LOOKS LIKE?
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Dickens wrote this in 1859 and the words ring true for any age. Before the recession of 2008 people were complaining about being “bored.” They had all the toys they were told they should like and want. But they were constantly on the look out for the next new thing, to keep themselves from becoming bored.
Everyone was encouraged to think that owning these things were somehow a “right.” This was a long way from “a chicken in every pot, and a car in every backyard” that Herbert Hoover talked about in 1928. Simpler times evidently led to simpler expectations, chicken.
Well were not so bored now, are we? Our age of discontent has changed from being bored to being uncertain about the future. Advertising has made us feel not only entitled to these toys, but somehow complete having these toys. Now that people have come to terms with not being able to afford the latest gadget, it makes us feel unsure.
Having the latest whatever, made us feel successful, timely, current. Everything must be alright, look at all the “stuff” I have. Poor people don’t have all this stuff. People in trouble certainly don’t have all this stuff.
To the point of television commercials showing the family getting a new TV, and the new model that is coming out advertised on a passing truck, causes a young daughter to comment on how lame her Dad is. Or the self-important little boy in the back seat of evidently, the cool SUV, is looking down on a child in a substandard car – oh, yes being driven by happy singing parents, apparently oblivious to how lame they are.
Will we be passing through our “winter of despair” into a “spring of hope?” I certainly hope it doesn’t take that long.
Virginia Garberding R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on August 3, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
A TRIBUTE TO THE WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL INTERNET
What did we ever do – where did we go for information before the internet?
The common sources of information used just a short time ago by the average person were:
- Check the encyclopedia – everyone had one, it might be old and dusty and in the basement – but if you needed something quick and in the house for that paper due tomorrow, you needed to have an encyclopedia.
- Check the library – yes people once used it for more than a quiet place to get away.
- Ask your Mom or Dad – parents were a ready source of information.
- Ask your brother/sister, friend or neighbor – people may have spent more time talking to each other because they had to – to get any information
But then came this marvel of technology the computer. I worked at the First National Bank of Chicago in the late 60’s and can remember that first massive piece of intelligence. It took up an entire floor of the bank. When you got off the elevator on that floor you could only gawk at it through a glass wall. They were very afraid that some small piece of dust or whatever would jazz up the computer. Only trained techs were behind that glass wall – in uniforms. The machine would come alive and spit out those cards, so fast everyone would gasp.
It was about the mid 70’s that they started talking about this “information superhighway” that was coming. But even those who dreamed big could never have envisioned what we have today. What are you looking for? Travel directions, cooking advice, medical information, what movie is playing down the street, stock prices, politics, housing, science, religion, want to lose a few pounds – diet, exercise all right at your finger tips.
Wonder what the heck that ugly bug crawling across the kitchen floor is? No problem – no not your brother Bob, neighbor Ralph, or that encyclopedia which attended a garage sale many years ago and lives somewhere else now.
You need a new car? How much do you want to spend – what color do you want – new or used? Let’s take a look at what’s out there.
Incredible – amazing – stupendous, I couldn’t be more impressed – of course I am also amazed that whatever I put out at the curb on Monday mornings just disappears as well – Wow!
Virginia Garberding R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on July 21, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
THE BEST APPROACHE TO CHANGE
The use of Power The first and most recognizable is using power to force change. This approach is used frequently in our society and consists of laws, rules, policies, procedures, job descriptions and other approaches that clearly communicate an expectation, with a subsequent punishment if the expectation is not met.
While this approach does bring swift change, because it comes down from someone in a higher position, it is usually resented. And without a monitoring system – this change is hard to maintain. Once no one is watching, the people who never bought into the change will revert back to their previous systems.
Appealing to the Rational. This approach is the most common approach to change in organizations and includes the assumption that humans are intelligent beings that are motivated by rational thought. Unfortunately this is not always true.
If this were true, as soon as the surgeon general announced that they had conclusive proof that smoking causes cancer, everyone who smoked should have quit, right? It is perfectly rational to know that if you want to avoid cancer, your best chance would be to stop smoking. But just having information doesn’t necessarily motivate the change to stop.
Change through re-educative. This approach is based on the tendency of people to not put themselves in someone else’s shoes. This reminds me of a bargaining method that was used once by a school board with their teachers. Everyone started out very angry and met in their own groups, teachers in their group school board members in theirs. They were asked to make a list of the things that were the most important to the educational system. Then they switched the lists and gave each group the other group’s list. They soon realized that their lists were almost identical, the tempers went down and they could begin to negotiate.
It is a fact that for most people even the word “change” causes some anxiety. As the old joke goes – “Of course I am willing to change, you go first.”
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on July 20, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
HEALTH PROBLEMS CAN START OUT SMALL – BUT TAKE A CLOSER LOOK
Not acting, whatever the problem may be, could result in the problem growing to unforeseen proportions. I am reminded of the story of the woman who noticed bees flying in and out of the vents of her home. She didn’t think of it often, just when she saw the bees coming and going. She never thought to mention it to anyone, and she quickly forgot about it in her busy life. But every once in a while, when sitting on her porch, those bees would catch her eye.
Unknown to her those bees were setting up house in her attic in mammoth proportions. The hive had thousands and thousands of bees and it wasn’t until there were hundreds of pounds of honey in the hive that the woman’s ceiling caved in, landing in her second floor bedroom.
It could be a mole that you have had forever, but somehow it looks different, the shape looks different to you and maybe it’s bigger. It might be a back pain that just never goes away completely, until the day you have excruciating pain running down your leg and now you need surgery. Maybe it’s a little indigestion, or so you think until you feel like there is a piano on your chest and you can’t deny it any more.
It could be a cough, that had seemed to be connected to a cold, but the cold went away and the cough didn’t. I remember the day I spoke to my best friend on the phone, and she was coughing and coughing. I asked her just how many weeks she now had had that cough. It had now been three months and she was on the fifth antibiotic, and I said “Edie it’s not still from that cold.” She was diagnosed with a fast moving lung cancer and was gone in two weeks.
It had started with just a few bees that she ignored and even over time she didn’t see the growing problem. She didn’t see it till it literally fell on her head.
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on July 14, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
IDENTIFYING THE REAL CAUSE OF OBESITY
The drastic suggestion was that maybe severely obese children should be taken away from their parents in a story called “Obesity as Bad as Child Abuse.” The quoted physician had published a paper stating this conclusion, for the child at the extreme. But how much of the finger pointing can and should be directed at the parents?
Childhood obesity has tripled since 1974, today 17% of children, nearly 2 billion, are considered obese. Yet the obese child they showed who had been removed from her parents turned out to have a genetic predisposition towards obesity. Opps – after she was taken away, there was no difference in her weight at the foster home.
There was a reference to children who drink two cans of pop a day. But how about talking about all of the products that have MSG in them to enhance their taste. There have been many reports on MSG causing headaches, obesity, food allergies in children, as well as hyperactivity in children.
MSG got such a bad name that the public was mislead to believe that is had been taken out of all foods, except of course Chinese carryout. When in fact they only changed the name. Mainly it now goes by hydrolyzed vegetable protein and can be found in most fast food items as well as processed food.
It is considered a “food enhancer” but really is used as an addictive substance. The food industry wants you to literally crave their product, and they help you with MSG. They want you to eat more, and don’t care how old you are.
Between genetically engineered seeds, food additives, added hormones – the real surprise is that everyone isn’t clinically obese.
Virginia Garberding R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on July 11, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
GRIEF – REMEMBERING DAD, BECOMING MORE LIKE YOUR LOVED ONE, KEEPS THEM WITH YOU
Many examples are in the news of people who have turned pain into purpose. The individuals who start charitable organizations usually do so after a loss. That is true with people who march to honor the memory of a loved one, with marches for breast cancer, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. My way of memorializing my Dad was to try to become more like him.
Dad knew how to share himself and his life with other
Even during the time of experiencing his mental losses related to Alzheimer’s disease, Dad continued to gravitate to people, and they moved toward him. Whenever I went to visit, people came up to him in the dining room, or greeted him when they passed us in the hall. Whether they were other residents or staff members, Dad knew them.
He didn’t always remember their names, but he knew their “story.” Dad had a way of lighting up when he saw anyone coming and acted as if talking to each one was the high point of his day. Everyone seemed to have spent some time with him, and he knew them.
At the luncheon following Dad’s funeral, it amazed us that everyone in attendance knew so much about him. They knew about his lifelong love affair with chocolate. Almost everyone who had come in contact with him knew his favorite sports and favorite teams. His love of interesting neckties and his tie collection was legendary.
Becoming more like Dad brings comfort
In the months that followed his death, I realized the comfort that could follow a loss by trying to emulate the qualities I had admired in my father. And in some ways, I tried to become more like Dad. I started to share more of myself with co-workers and friends the way Dad had.
I made an effort to be more attentive to others while they told me about their problems. I thought of the times when Dad talked to people and he was totally in the moment and really with them. Sharing my faith with others seemed to come up more frequently in conversations, just as it had with Dad.
Dad – a Witness till the end
We lost Dad in March of 2005, after a massive stroke. In the emergency room, as Dad slipped deeper and deeper into a coma and could no longer identify what he heard or what he saw, he prayed as long as he could talk. The last two words he ever spoke were Jesus and Heaven.
Book excerpt from: Please Get to Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
By: Virginia Garberding and Cecil Murphey
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Posted on July 6, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS STORED IN HUMAN FAT? WHY NOT – YET ANOTHER PROBLEM FOR THE PERSON WITH LIPEDEMA
Butter is 100% fat, and if from a cow that has been fed antibiotics and hormones, those toxins are especially concentrated in the butter. Not to mention the grass sprayed with pesticides the cow walks in, adding to the total toxins. Why wouldn’t those same toxins land in human fat as well?
Human fat comes in the white and brown kind. Babies have the corner on the market of brown fat. Brown fat has a large blood supply and is highly active creating energy. Babies need this very active heat producer in order to stay warm. Because they have so much body surface in comparison to body mass they would get cold if it weren’t for their brown fat. Babies do not have a shiver reflex to keep warm, and are not able to meet their needs when they get cold so they need brown fat for survival.
Because brown fat is so rich in iron, it appears brown. Adults have very little brown fat, what they do have is mostly located around their neck area. If adults did have more of this very active fat, it would be much easier to stay thin.
White fat on the other hand is what we all think of when we think of fat. A white fat cell will contain one large fat droplet. This fat is stored around organs to pad them, in the abdomen and subcutaneously right under the skin. White fat is also located in the liver and muscles.
Where does Lipedema come in? When the person with Lipedema eats a diet high in flour, sugar or other foods with a high glycemic number, an element of that sugar turns burnable fat into storageable fat. Because persons with Lipedema have very permeable capillaries allowing fat through, they become masters at storing fat. Then when aided by high glycemic carbohydrates, these sufferers can store fat to the extreme.
Not only now does that fat look unsightly, but that person is literally carrying around toxic cells. For a protocol for sufferers of Lipedema- go to: www.bigfatlegs.com
Virginia Garberding R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on June 30, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
BLAME – SOMETIMES IT IS JUST FOR THE THEATRE
Blame (my definition) having to find someone responsible for something bad that happened, in order to find yourself or others blameless. Isn’t that really the goal to find you blameless? Point the finger over there, so no one looks in your direction. In healthcare we many times even stoop so low as to “blame” the patient. No matter how old, fragile, and confused the person may be.
George fell because he pushed the button on his self-rising recliner until he slid to the floor. George cannot stand independently and likes this chair from home, so there he sits day after day pushing those buttons. How many times does he have to slide to the floor and have the staff “remind” him to not push the button, till we get that the problem is ours not the patient’s.
Adding some dramatic quality to an event creates theatre. Go ahead, raise your voice, get emotional, act self-righteous, and say things like “I always put the best interest of my patients first.” That’s right; when you are wrong make it about you. Instead of looking at facts, considering the facts and coming up with a plan of change, so much easier to just assign blame. Even if that blame is assigned to an elderly, confused man without safety awareness.
People just don’t get tired of the blame game. The individual who never became as successful as he thought he should have been, can so easily look back and find someone back there to blame. Politicians have no problem assigning blame; most of their speeches usually focus on finger pointing. Teachers blame low testing scores on students who don’t try and parents who don’t care. And the list goes on, there is always someone to point to “who did it wrong.”
Bravo for the nurse who steps forward and says, “George fell because I knew he was too confused to have the control for his electric chair. I saw him playing with it many times, and I didn’t put the control out of his sight, it was my fault.”
That would be kind of shocking, but most refreshing.
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on June 13, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
EXHIBITIONIST – INDECENT EXPOSURE – WEINER IS JUST THE LATEST VERSION OF THE FLASHER
Why do people want so much to be noticed, even in a bad way? Weiner is just the flasher that used to run around in a trench coat. But now he and others are on the internet. Yes they get a bigger audience than just performing for the lone woman in the park. But what they don’t get is the satisfaction of the look of shock on the face of their audience.
Brittany Spears, Paris Hilton, Janet Jackson – all famous flashers, are not running through the park in a trench coat but are exhibitionists none the less. Guilty of indecent exposure, you bet. Exposing of a person’s privates as in the cases of the afore mentioned ladies, is nothing more than an attention seeking maneuver. I guess when you have nothing of interest to say, you have low self-esteem or you don’t really believe in your talent, you resort to exposing yourself.
Exposing yourself can also be a form of disrespect as in the case of the juvenile who “Moons.” But in the case of Congressman Weiner, although he is certainly guilty of juvenile behavior and judgment, this seems to be a problem of long duration. His motivation to expose himself to women via the internet seems on face value to be a sexual event. Was his intent to shock or titillate? He might not even know himself. He probably still wonders why he did it, and why he ruined the life it took years of hard work to achieve.
But who knows the public sometimes is very forgiving. Somehow everything on the internet seems to be more acceptable to the masses. I doubt if Congressman Weiner had been caught in a trench coat in Central Park (and hauled away by the police as a public nuisance) he would still have as many supporters.
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on June 8, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
LIVING ANTI-INFLAMMATORY TO FIGHT – THE TRAGEDY OF LIPEDEMA/LIPOEDEMA
(PART IV)
Joyce’s Grandma Emma and Great Aunt Clara certainly lived in a different time. A time when women weren’t encouraged to be pro-active about their health issues. Well that wasn’t going to work for Joyce or her sister Connie. Fifty years ago there would have been; no diagnosis, (Lipedema/Lipodema) no support, no internet, and no information. That was then, this is now and what Joyce knows as a nurse, is that living an anti-inflammatory life style will work for most conditions. So why not Lipedema?
Joyce decides she will take all she knows about living an anti-inflammatory life style and apply those principles to her condition. (Lipedema/Lipodema)
Living Anti-Inflammatory:
- Eat an anti-inflammatory diet: don’t eat white foods. No flour or flour products, bread, pasta, breaded meats, no sugar, no white potatoes, or rice.
- Eat only organic when possible – genetically engineered fruits and vegetables have pesticides built right into the plants.
- Eat only grass fed organically raised meats without hormones or antibiotics.
- Eat fruit only sparingly – large amounts of sugar in fruit can add to inflammation.
- Have food allergy testing to decrease inflammation caused by food sensitivities.
- Read, read, and then read some more about thyroid and other hormonal issues – this is another area that the individual needs to take responsibility for because the healthcare community will be very judgmental of a person with Lipedema/Lipodema who suggests they may have a hormonal problem.
- Use a hypoallergenic moisturizing cream on legs every day – well hydrated skin is less likely to suffer damage. (avoid damage by sun as well)
- Be extra cautious to avoid injury to legs and the development of those nasty bruises that turned into skin ulcers for Joyce’s patient Mary. (Part I of this series)
A really great web site to try out is www.bigfatlegs.com – written by a mother/daughter team who have developed their own protocol which seems to be working for them.
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
- Help support this site by buying my book! Click the link below for details. Thanks!
www.pleasegettoknowme.com
