Paging Dr. Facebook

 

 

I have a ton of hair, it is thick and coarse. When it looks nice I get tons of comments about my hair. The irony is that I know very little about hair. I search out stylists that know how to handle my thick hair. I need specific directions from a professional. I don't select a hair style or color before requesting assistance. I need help from and trust them to help me make a decision.


I have been disturbed recently to see the medical information exchanged on Facebook. Everything from open heart surgery to the use of vaccines. The original post can be very innocent or even a flat out request for information. Recently, a friend of mine on Facebook mentioned her one month old son had projective vomited the night before. She was sleep deprived and concerned about her son. In no time flat, her post was hijacked and he was diagnosed with pyloric stenosis. One well meaning person, insisted that she go into the doctors office and demand that her son have surgery. Babies throw up!!! They throw up for so many reasons. Because they eat too fast, because the formula does not agree with their tummies and to many other reasons to list. If you  are a Facebook friend, offer suggestions and support; not medical advice.


If you don't trust your doctor find a new one. Like my hair dresser, you might not see eye to eye with the first one you see. Ask them about their strategies for caring for patients. For some, the patriarchal old fashion doctor is just what the doctor ordered. Others like a more hands on, give and take kind of doctor. Neither is wrong, just find the right fit for you.

Ebola is the last straw

I have been a nurse for more than 13 years. There are physical ailments that are common to nursing due the toll of caring for those in our care. The most commonly we talk about nurses bladder.

Nurses work for long hours without breaks, even to empty our bladders. We ignore the urge to void and over time the abuse damages the bladder. When a person ignores a bodily function it quits working. Without the knowledge that your bladder is full, your full bladder just empty. This phenomenon happens so often in nurses, they call it nurses bladder.
Another issue nurses experience every day is aching feet. Ask any working nurse and she will tell you good shoes are a must. But is can get more serious than achy feet. Nurses get hit and kicked while working. Nurses are injured on the job more often than police officers!
Nina Pham has had enough. She is suing Texas Health Resources which owns Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. She claims that the equipment she was provided what not adequate. She is absolutely correct, you can read my feeling about that here. But, risks to the health of nurses is not limited to exposure to diseases from West Africa. Everyday nurses are working without the tools they need to protect themselves.  Pham claims to have hair loss, nightmares and body aches.

Pham will probably settle her lawsuit out of court to prevent embarrassment for Texas Health. She will probably receive enough money that she will not work as a nurse again.  While I have no doubt that Pham will have physical ailments the rest of her life, who advocates for the nurse with everyday ailments?






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cancers Dirty Little Secret

Britney Maynard ended her life today. She had battled a stage 4 glioblastoma since her diagnosis in the spring. Britney and her family even moved to Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. While there is no debate about the outcome of her cancer, there is no telling how long she would have lived or what her quality of life would have been.

Britney certainly had every right to make her choice, she was in fact supported by her family. She would like to use her life and death to raise awareness for assisted suicide. Her mission is to make assisted suicide available to all terminally ill patients in every state.  This, I believe, is were she goes wrong. I have been a cancer nurse for more than 12 years and have watched one patient after another die from glioblastoma. Research is a more proactive answer.
 

Research is health cares dirty little secret; or lack of research. We are the most advanced nation in the world, but our people die getting the same old treatments.

If a child is diagnosed with cancer, they are most frequently treated on a research protocol. This practice has drastically improved the survival rates of some cancers, think 95%. This is not the case with adult cancer patients. Adult cancer patients don't want to be the "guinea pig." This makes it difficult to fill and complete research studies. Many times in a study you may only need to fill out a survey, donate blood or be treated with the standard of care.

God bless Britney Maynard and her family. In her honor, enroll in a medical research study.

If you are a female nurse, please enroll in the nurses health study. Here is the link, http://www.nhs3.org/. If you are not a female nurse, ask your doctor.

Nurses aren't disposable!!!

This post is inspired by my sister living in Dallas.

An old doctor once told me nursing was the second oldest profession.  Nurses might have in fact been the second oldest profession, because there has always been a need. Since the beginning of time, caring individuals have stepped forward to care for the sick and dying. For centuries, nursing was not a respected profession. Nurses were invisible and disposable. Nurses were exposed to illness and disease often in terrible conditions putting their own lives in danger. Florence Nightingale, changed the face of nursing. She began to make us respected professionals and cleaned up hospitals.  

America is in a total up-roar, because three people have been diagnosed with Ebola. Two of these individuals were nurses. In Africa, your chance of surviving Ebola is 10%.When diagnosed and treated in America, your chances of surviving Ebola is still only 50%.  But, nurses stepped up and cared for their patient. They put their lives at risk and the lives of their families at risk. All in an effort to save a man they did not know. A man seeking treatment where he had a 50/50 chance. As the news reported the CDC removing waste from Thomas Duncan's apartment in hazmat suits, nurses (and all health professionals) at Texas Presbyterian were caring for him in gowns and double gloves. No fancy hazmat suits for those on the front lines.

All the nurses who are cared for Thomas Duncan are heroes!! Nurses all to often continue to be invisible and disposable. So the next time you are in a doctors office, hospital, nursing home or where ever, remember that nurse maybe putting there life on the line for you. We are human too, we can catch Ebola!!!