Mindful Mondays: Learning to Pause with Chronic Illness & Pain

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The Invisible Warrior

Mindful Mondays. Learning to pause iwth chronic illness and pain How learning to use a “Pause” can greatly improve our lives with chronic illness and pain

Mindful Mondays: Learning to Pause with Chronic Illness & Pain

The past two weeks have been really difficult for me.  Not only is the insurance situation that I am in one of the most difficult but I am also in pain, which just adds more weight. to the urgency of the issue.  So now I have a bad situation, increased pain and then here comes something else… a major bad attitude.

I hate bad attitudes. HATE THEM! They are one of my pet peeves and I am annoyed when other people walk around with a bad attitude.  Well lately ( at least a few weeks ) I have the bad attitude. So much so that I am annoying myself!  Anyone ever been there?  Be so annoying that you can’t stand yourself??

It is almost…

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Truth

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“You don’t destroy a myth by proving it false, You destroy it by discovering the truth behind it.” Author Unknown

via Quote — lyncrain

Think of how many topics to which this applies — politics, education, prejudice, superstition . . . .

Interstitial Lung Disease

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Interstitial Lung Disease is nasty and can strike people at any age, regardless of physical condition.

What is it? This is a scarring of tissue in the spaces supporting air sacs in the lungs. The 8353disease causes stiffness in the lungs, and can eventually make it impossible for the victim to get sufficient oxygen. That can presumably lead to a range of issues including dementia.

Symptoms:  Unfortunately, the symptoms can be hard to distinguish from other diseases:

  • Dry cough
  • Shortness of breath during exercise or at rest.

By the time these symptoms appear, there is probably irreversible damage to the lungs. In fact, the only known treatment for this disease is a lung transplant.

Causes:  Not all the causes of this disease are known.

The known causes include:

  • Environmental factors
    • Asbestos fibers
    • Bird protein (live pets and feather-containing products)
    • Coal dust
    • Grain dust
    • Mold from indoor hot tubs, showers and prior water damage
    • Silica dust
  • Radiation (especially the higher doses used in cancer treatment)
  • Medications
    • Chemotherapy/immunomodulating drugs, such as methotrexate and cyclophosphamide; methotrexate is also used for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis as well as other serious skin conditions
    • Heart medications, such as amiodarone (Cordarone, Nexterone, Pacerone), propranolol (Inderal, Inderide, Innopran), and hydralazine
    • Some antibiotics, such as nitrofurantoin (Macrobid, Macrodantin, others),  sulfasalazine (Azulfidine), sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (Bactrim). The last is described as a “relatively rare cause” of this disease.
    • Seizure medications such as Phenytoin (Dilantin) and carbamazepine (Tegretol)
    • Aspirin and other NSAIDS (ibuprofen, naproxen)

Air quality at home and workplace matters. Spider plants can help clear indoor pollutants. However, having someone test air quality is probably a good idea. Any water leaks need to be addressed because that’s breeding ground for mold.

Taking drugs is something you need to do wisely. Talk to your doctor about side effects and getting rid of prescriptions that you really don’t need. Once a drug has stopped helping you, it might in fact hurt you.

 

Sources:

  1. Mayo Clinic, “Interstitial Lung Disease.” http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/interstitial-lung-disease/basics/definition/con-20024481
  2. Dr. Sharon Orrange, “These Medications Could Harm Your Lungs,” Good Rx, 10 JUly 2017. https://www.goodrx.com/blog/these-medications-could-harm-your-lungs/?rs_oid_rd=1180733755670560&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_campaign=em_newsletter&utm_content=lungs&e=66e4013215cd54de978d8ff77403d770&c=fixed_69_2017-07

The Highlanders Take Care of Their Own

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Scotland is the first country to introduce a program to provide free tampons and pads to poor women.

It makes sense. That’s a “tax” if you would on being female, and a cost that’s unavoidable even on a very limited budget.

The program is simple, low cost, easy to implement, and doesn’t require massive audit or oversight. After all, what sort of black market is there for tampons? Really?

Sometimes, you don’t need complexity, technology or a lot of money to do good. Very Scottish.

Sources:

Jenavieve Hatch, “Scotland To Give Low-Income Women Free Menstrual Products In New Pilot Initiative,” Huffington Post, 12 July 2017. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scotland-to-give-low-income-women-free-menstrual-products-in-new-pilot-initiative_us_59662343e4b005b0fdca0697

Internet Insecurity Redeux

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This should have been expected.

Verizon’s cloud storage has been hacked, exposing personal information and passwords for 6 million customers.

The story is a bit convoluted. The Verizon data is stored on Amazon Cloud Services by a third party, NICE Systems. Someplace in the system, a configuration error allowed hackers to penetrate and obtain the confidential information.

Remember the mantra:

  • Nothing on the Internet is secure or private.
  • Nothing on the Internet is secure or private.
  • Nothing on the Internet is secure or private. . . .

________________________

Sources:

  1. Dawn Kawamoto, “Verizon Suffers Cloud Data Leak Exposing Data on Millions of Customers,” Information Week Dark Reading, 12 July 2017. https://www.darkreading.com/cloud/verizon-suffers-cloud-data-leak-exposing-data-on-millions-of-customers/d/d-id/1329344?elq_mid=79280&elq_cid=20204989&_mc=NL_DR_EDT_DR_weekly_20170713&cid=NL_DR_EDT_DR_weekly_20170713&elqTrackId=e47319f4a9254a7c8d50cb09f7c4e49f&elq=23e20c0e4ade4e49a933093d5178f627&elqaid=79280&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27257