Health related information and news from around the world.

Home health care is just what it sounds like: health care not in a hospital or chronic care facility, but in your own home. Home health care includes services such as intravenous infusions, physical therapy, and respirator treatment. The people who provide the care range from physicians and nurses to aides, physical therapists, social workers, respiratory therapists, and dietitians.     People who need home health care are those whose medical condition is stable but who need the services the hospital provides. People with HIV infection usually use home health care for intravenous administration of antibiotics, aerosolized pentamidine, nutritional treatment, and homemaker services. Services called “aids to daily living”—like feeding, bathing, toileting, or transporting—may be what the person with HIV infection needs most, but these services require “unskilled” or “custodial” care that few insurers will pay for.     The most common skilled service provided by home health care companies is the intravenous administration of antibiotics. In this case, the person with HIV infection or the caregiver (often someone who lives in the same house) is instructed in preserving and administering the antibiotic. The equipment and drugs are provided by a home health care company. Specialized services—such as a nurse to make periodic checks or someone to take blood for tests—are provided either by the medical supplier or by a licensed agency. Medical observations—including laboratory test results and nurses’ reports—are sent on to the physician-of-record, who is ultimately responsible for the patient’s care.     The advantage of home health care is that it permits you to remain in your own home. Though there is little scientific proof that people recover more quickly when treated at home, people being treated at home are usually happier. Home health care is also substantially less expensive, usually one-third to one-half the cost of the same treatment given in a hospital.     People usually arrange for home health care when they are discharged from the hospital. The process of arranging home health care begins with an assessment by a physician or by a physician’s order to a home health care company, often with the help of a social worker or a specialist in home health care from the hospital. This assessment includes your medical status, the services you need, whether you also have a caregiver in your home, and the funds you have available.     The physician-of-record must agree that home health care is feasible. The person needing home health care should need it for a week or longer. It is not economically justifiable to train a person who will only need the equipment or the skills for less than five to seven days.     Home health care has become a big industry in this country; many cities have over thirty home health care companies. Some hospitals offer their own home health care programs. People needing the services have a large selection but no way of knowing how to make the choice. They usually depend on the hospital staff, physician, social worker, or AIDS-advocacy groups to make a recommendation. In addition, people choosing a home health care program should check for its accreditation. The organization that accredits home health care companies is the same as the organization that reviews hospitals: the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Organizations (JCAHO). The home health care company you choose should be accredited by the JCAHO, and most insurance companies require this accreditation as a contingency for payment.     Whether you choose home health care, and which company you choose, should depend on the stability of your medical condition, the availability of a reliable caregiver, the likelihood of medical complications, the cost of the home health care, your insurance coverage, the availability of emergency services twenty-four hours a day, and the availability of technicians, nurses, or other specialists as needed.     Financing home health care is variable and confusing. Certain home health care services are covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and the Veterans Administration. Medicare covers only services that are usually provided for hospitalized patients. Services covered include home health agencies, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and social work; the service not covered is intravenous treatment. Medicare also requires that care be under supervision of a physician, that the patient must be confined to the home, and that the patient must need skilled nursing care or physical therapy. Medicaid, though it varies from state to state, generally covers 80 percent of the cost of skilled nursing and specialized medical equipment. Blue Cross/Blue Shield, commercial insurance companies, and HMOs all have differing coverages. Moreover, the companies that provide home health care have the right to refuse to care for you, a decision often based on guaranteed payment.*172\191\2*

Persistent DIMS is a type of disorder that afflicts the patient for a month or more; as we’ve seen, this form of insomnia can last for years and is directly attributable to the learned behavior I’ve just described. For example, a patient may experience some kind of illness or emotional crisis that, among other symptoms, disrupts sleep. However, when the illness is cured, or after the crisis has passed, the insomnia may take on a life of its own and become the focus of the patient’s concern. He or she then perceives the insomnia as a distinct disorder in itself.
The insomnia thus hangs on long after the initial, precipitating cause has disappeared; the longer the pattern continues, the more entrenched it becomes. Just entering the bedroom and experiencing its sights, smells, and sounds can trigger feelings of unpleasantness. Frequently the patient will conduct some kind of inner monologue: “Oh God, it’s bedtime . . . another night of tossing and turning. I just know I’ll never get to sleep. I hate this ritual. . . .” In this way victims reinforce their insomnia on a nightly basis, until it has swollen into a kind of sleep phobia. The technical term for this kind of conditioned disorder is “psycho-physiological,” a combination of syllables that appropriately suggests the impact the mind can have on the way the body behaves. According to one study psychophysiological factors are present in about half of all diagnoses of DIMS.
By carefully eliciting the patient’s medical and psychological history, I find I can usually detect the conditioning pattern. Ruling out sleep disturbance stemming from medical conditions or psychiatric problems such as anxiety, fear, depression, or the form of neurosis known as obsessive-compulsive behavior, I begin to suspect that I am confronting a case of persistent DIMS. One key element in confirming the diagnosis is the patient’s absorption with the sleep process itself, to the exclusion of other mental or emotional concerns. Often he or she reports desperate and self-defeating efforts to obtain sleep, revealing in the process the degree to which a sleep problem is overanticipated.
*112\226\8*

So how much information is enough? How do you know when you have gone far enough? There’s no doubt that it’s a sensitive balance. Some parents are over-protective, worried that the child will be distressed when in fact it’s the parent who is distressed. You don’t feel comfortable with the subject, so your anxiety is projected onto the child. It’s important to point out here that if a child seems inordinately distressed by the subject, for no apparent reason, it’s worthwhile considering whether they might have suffered some sort of unpleasant or traumatic experience of a sexual nature that you don’t know about. Sadly, sexual abuse of children is too common to ignore that possibility.

Each person’s comfort zone will be different when it comes to sex. Working out what you are and are not comfortable with (and why) is an integral part of accepting your own sexuality. If a parent finds it simply too difficult to deal with the issue, there are things you can do to make it easier, like reading up on the subject to prepare yourself. It may help to ask for assistance from another trusted adult who you know to be sensible and well-informed. That’s not to say that you just abdicate the responsibility, but rather enlist the help of that close friend or relative … maybe to sit in on a few conversations to get the ball rolling. If you check out the local bookstore or library you will find a book, with explanations and diagrams, that will help too.

Is it possible to give a child too much information? Is there a point where sex education becomes abusive? Child psychiatrists tell us that this can happen when the words are being said more for the benefit of the adult than the child — ‘You have to listen to this because I don’t want you to go through what I had to go through!’; when the information is forced upon them at a time when the child is clearly not interested; when the child is distressed by what they are hearing and your explanations don’t settle them.

It’s easy to tell when a child has lost interest in a subject. They haven’t yet learnt the adult social skill of appearing to be fascinated by a conversation while their mind goes over the shopping list. They generally won’t tell you that they’re upset but they will certainly let you know if they’re bored. There are signs that the attention span has reached its limit. Have they fallen silent? Are they staring off into the distance? Have they tried to change the subject? Have they said ‘This is boring!’? Has it become a one-way lecture?

If the answer is ‘yes’, then it’s time to stop and wait until another opportunity arises. There’s plenty of time.

*10\17\9*
online pharmacy without a prescription

One of the things they taught me in medical school is that when you explain a diagnosis or a treatment to patients, it helps to check what they understood because the stakes can be high if the wires get crossed. So I say things like, ‘Mrs. Johnson, tell me what you have understood about the results of your tests. Now just let’s go over which pills you take in the morning, and which ones you take after dinner at night? Do you have any other questions?’ More often than not there is a glitsch somewhere along the line. Double checking makes the difference between confusion and control.

Recently, I visited a kindergarten to have a chat with some children about how babies are made. I think we all learnt something from the experience. There was one little girl whose mother was very pregnant. I asked her to tell me how babies are made. ‘Easy, silly!’ she began. ‘Well, an egg and a sperm mix together and they grow in the mummy’s tummy. Then the baby comes out of the mummy’s tummy into a hospital and into a pram.’ So far so good. ‘So where does the sperm come from?’ Not a moment’s hesitation. ‘From the daddy’s penis.’ ‘Very good! Now, where does the egg come from?’ ‘Ummm. From a chicken I think!’ Looks like this is where we lose the plot.

No matter how carefully you have explained things to a child, they’ll only take a certain amount on board, and how the egg and sperm story is actually translated in their minds is anyone’s guess. I’m reminded of a picnic one summer when a friend’s child asked me to join in an ‘egg and sperm race’. Sounded like fun, but I assured her a spoon was what she was after.

If you talk to a child about any difficult concept, get them to explain back to you in their own words what you have just explained to them. This is a great safeguard against confusion. You can immediately pick up any misconceptions they may have formed, and then you’re completing the circle of true communication.

*9\17\9*
Discount canadian drugstore

Cause

A stye is a small pimple which forms at the base of an eyelash due to infection from a germ.

Clinical features

A stye looks like a small, red lump, at the base of an eyelash, usually on the lower lid. It can cause swelling of the surrounding lid and be quite painful.

Treatment

Bathing the eye for 10 minutes several times a day, with cotton wool soaked in warm water, may help the stye to come to a head, and the pus to discharge. Do not try to squeeze a stye as it usually drains by itself. If it does not disappear within a few days, see your doctor.

Antibiotic ointments are rarely prescribed for treatment of a stye, unless it is a recurrent problem. Make sure that your child (and everyone else in the family) washes hands frequently to avoid spreading the infection. Use a separate towel for your child.

*270\90\8*

This is impossible. You want me to just talk about sex and tell my

parents about this. Are you crazy? They are from another world.

They would die if I really told them what is going on out there.

FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD BOY

What makes them upset is not being told or not feeling able to talk with you about these things. You know what? Your parents have had more sex than you have. Yes. I know you may find that hard to believe, but your parents have had and do have sex. They love each other. There is nothing absolutely nothing, you cannot tell your Parents. It is very, very sad that young people are out there in large numbers fumbling around trying to learn sex on their own, or pre-tending they’ve already learned it, when they have parents to talk to and from whom they could learn. And one more thing. You don’t have to start out by telling them anything. Ask them things. Ask about their feelings, about their sexuality. Fair is fair. They’ll tell you theirs if you’ll tell them yours. You don’t have to talk about what you do or they do, but talk about feelings and values and beliefs and specifics about what can, cannot, and sometimes should not be done. Go ahead. Make their day. Ask them a good, strong question you think they can’t handle.

*306\97\8*

Based on my interviews with the thousand men, their wives, and thousands of other interviews by myself and my staff, I offer twelve types of sexual husband. Remember, we all have elements of all these types, because they are not types at all but really behaviors, ways of being sexual sometimes. There is no need for more labels in the field of sexuality, so place the emphasis on the “fun” of these categories.

1. The Helper

Nobody gives her what I give her. I make her a princess.

HUSBAND

This is the husband who feels that he must assist his wife to sexual fulfillment. His daily activities, gifts he provides, things he does for his wife, and his behavior in bed are “help” rather than “share”-oriented. This husband attempts to live up to his perceptions of his wife’s expectations, which perceptions, by the way, are usually not accurate.

2. The Hounder

If I keep it on her mind, focused, bring it to her attention, we will have sex. I have to keep the ball rolling.

HUSBAND

This is a husband who oversexualizes everything. He comments about sex on television, in books, in the newspaper, purchases every source of erotica he can find. He has an extensive collection of pornography and may bring home X-rated videotapes or films to “turn her on.” There may be a secret pornography collection that the wife knows little about. Wives might want to look in the tool area of the basement under the wrenches. They may be surprised at what they find.

3.    The Heel

She’s not passionate. She tries, but she is of the fifties and I am of the eighties. That’s why I have to have a little modern sex on the side.

HUSBAND

This is a male who criticizes his wife sexually, while at the same time seeking his sexual fulfillment outside his marriage. He may defend his extramarital sex by blaming the wife for failing him sexually, when actually he has neglected the intimate dimension of his marriage for some time. Men and women who look outside the marriage have usually not looked long or deep enough inside the marriage or themselves.

4.    The Hermit

I just don’t think much about it. I run every day in the morning and sometimes at night. I am in training for the marathon. Sex isn’t everything. We’re partners. She doesn’t mind. She keeps me in carbohydrates and Coke. You know how running is. It takes your full attention.

HUSBAND

This husband has withdrawn from sex with his wife completely. While the wife may blame herself for this, actually the husband has neglected intimacy in the marriage and may be having an affair, not with another woman but with work, golf, or the television. Sex is very low on this man’s priority list, and so is the marriage. The wife may feel that she is just living in the same house with this man, not sharing a life with him.

5.    The Hero

I give her anything she wants. I really set her up. She wants for nothing. I kill all bugs, paint all ceilings, and am able to leap all of her problems in a single bound.

HUSBAND

p. Scott Fitzgerald once stated, “Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.” This is the man who seeks to establish sexual IOUs by contributing a house, child care, money, status, a car, or anything else he feels will earn him his sexual due.

*133\97\8*

Oxygen therapies use oxygen in various forms (ozone for example) to assist the body in the healing process. Their indisputable effectiveness comes from the fact, that oxygen is a key substance used by our body in the detoxification process. The rate of detoxification can be greatly increased, if the body has an excess of oxygen available to it. Selected safe and very effective techniques of oxygen therapy are listed below. Note, that breathing pure oxygen is NOT listed as the effective therapy. It is not the quantity of oxygen, which is the most important. Most effective healing techniques use minute quantities of active atomic oxygen, in concentrations occurring naturally in spring water and the air in the mountains.

Enema. This was described in detail in a separate section earlier on- in this book. Adding minute quantities of hydrogen peroxide to the pure water used for an enema, delivers small quantities of oxygen directly to excreting organs, helping them to work better. Never exceed the concentration of 1 drop of (30%) hydrogen peroxide per 2 litres of water for your enema. Your safety and comfort are most important. If in doubt, use much less. Do not use hydrogen peroxide sold in pharmacies for external use only. It contains so called “stabilisers” which may be toxic. Use only “analytical” or “food” grade hydrogen peroxide.

*32\96\8*