Women Online

Monday brought a pleasant surprise.  A young woman thanked me for my efforts in promoting women. She had read my long neglected blog, and reminded me I mentioned iwpr.org, the Internet address of the Institute for Women's Policy Research, in a 2013 post. I revisited the post, and will update it soon, and repost.

However, I never thought to promote women with my blog. Rather I intended to inform elders of both sexes, as well as caregivers and families who are involved with aging people and issues pertinent to our aging American population.

My unexpected fan suggested a new topic for women of all ages and backgrounds, online safety for women, and pointed the way to an online resource. As a result, I am providing a link below to a vpnmentor blog post of "The Empowering Guide to Internet Safety for Women." Why is it empowering? I suspect my female readers could do with a layer of preventive safety measures, to give us direct control over our online lives. In so doing we empower greater confidence, even, self-esteem.

This information is important for men, as well; however men are less likely to be sexually targeted, than women. As do women in the #metoo movement, most of us have intense stories to tell, ranging from the dishearteningly unpleasant, to the dangerous and, in some instances, the heartbreaking.

So, having reviewed the Guide, I sincerely recommend it to women of any age, Internet savvy or not. Men, especially as you are our fathers, brothers, friends and husbands, I invite you to utilize the Guide, too.

https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/To keep up-to-date with public policy issues and information of particular interest to women, have a look at the iwpr.org site (The Institute for Women's Policy Research) and a list of timely, interesting publications.

Stem Cell Wild West

Have you waited and watched, while stem cell clinics, marketers, and hucksters grew like cancers? I have, and confess to halting my knee surgeries, in part, because I was so hopeful there would be a better alternative.  Boy did the t.v. ads make it seem stem cell therapy would be the ultimate answer...simple, non-invasive and incredibly effective.
Incredible is the key word here. Insurance was the first issue for me. Undaunted, though, I thought insurers would catch up with the technology. Surely the savings to them vis a vis surgical treatment, would prove a huge incentive. Hmmm...don't know how long I would have waited for Hades to freeze, but I've endured at least a couple of years more pain and limitation, waiting to go forward with knee replacement surgeries.  

Of course I've continued addressing my degenerative joint disease with anti-inflammatory supplements and dietary changes. Surgeries may not have solved the problem, and the drawbacks are obvious. But you get the point.

False hope, however, did not cost me what it has cost people, who spend substantial amounts of money on 'stem cell' procedures. This is the 21st Century Golden Fleece, and seniors, in particular, are being fleeced at alarming rates. The science is simply not in place, and providers are NOT using stem cells. Some, though not all, are treating patients with amniotic fluid containing dead cells; some use platelet-enriched blood from the patients themselves.

in a heartbreak of dashed hopes. Worse still are people who have suffered terrible damage from stem cell treatments no physician or researcher would recommend. Here is a link to a news article that may change your mind about how benign the stem cell business has evolved to be. Good luck out there. I wish you well, but stem cell treatment is about as well regulated as the Wild West of the 1800s:

https://ipscell.com/2017/01/clinics-cant-retract-stem-cell-treatments-gone-bad/ 

Oooops! There's that word.

There it is one of the more questionable benefits of advancing age, c o l o n o s c o p y. Of all the unattractive prospects, this is on the A list. Or, maybe, your medical provider, recognizing you are not going to do the colonoscopy, or are not a candidate, offers a miniature camera for you to swallow. All good, but somebody's going to go fishing for the camera you just expelled. In the alternative, maybe your medical provider, or immense insurer, sends along a DIY fecal test sampling kit, to send to a lab. (My insurer sent me a letter saying they sent the kit, but never received it back. They wanted it. The answer was obvious. I sent them a letter stating, "If you people don't send me your shit, I cannot send you mine." That's just me.

  Another thing that is just me is the purchase and consumption of bottles upon bottles of laxatives, and the trial by gut pain, which lasts until, at least, the morning after. Fear and loathing of hospitals runs this a close second for me. Anything short of death by MRSA or any gram negative infection is an uglier spectre than trial by gut-emptying torture for a night. Listen some things are at least as bad as death-by-nausea; these are two. Fear and Loathing in Conventional Medicine aside, there is plenty to consider, in terms of risks and benefits of colonoscopy. The miniature camera approach, obviously, does not permit the surgical elimination of polyps, if they are discovered in the colon. The fecal test is none too reliable; there is a chance of a false positive, a scary prospect. I can't quite imagine waiting to learn whether I have colon cancer, while going about my daily life.

   So colonoscopy is still the "gold standard," one that comes with risk. Here is an article by Dr. Mercola regarding the risk of infection. It is clear, when instruments are neither discarded, following each single use, nor effectively disinfected (effectively being the keyword,) infection can and will occur. Of course this is separate from the risk of just being in the hospital setting. Please know and understand I am not, nor would I ever discourage people from getting tests their physicians recommend. However it is up to each of us, as a patient, to be savvy and informed. Here is a link to Dr. Mercola's article: 

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/12/06/endoscope-sterilization.aspx

     If you don't pick up on the "fear" of hospitals part, maybe that is good, or, just maybe you will become a clean freak during your hospital stay, and ask every person who enters your hospital room (or the room of a loved one) to wash his/her hands. However, if your doctor has ordered a colonoscopy, be prepared to ask what solution is used to clean the sigmoidoscope or colonoscope (not disposable devices.) Peracetic acid is the key; the solution used in 80% of cases is Cidex (glutaraldehyde;) it does not properly sterilize the instruments, allowing for the transfer of infectious microbes. Yep. You read me correctly ... all but 20% of providers/institutions use Cidex, THE SOLUTION WHICH IS LESS DESIRABLE. 

    Okay, then, and I trust you will not agonize over whether or not you returned the fecal sample to your provider's lab. Maybe you spared yourself some needless angst. Geez I wish this stuff, together with a battery of ineffective or likely false-positive tests, would get better. -Too much to ask?

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Coffe, Tea or ... Oh, no!

Are you a coffee drinker? Is it a guilty pleasure for you? It needn't be, although elders and friends of my acquaintance, who abstain from all caffeinated beverages seem just as lively as the rest of us. Then there are tea devotees, who enjoy the benefits of tea in glorious variety. Personally I've traveled most of my life, and I am fond of coffees and teas from all over the globe. Of all the truly restorative routines I know, the Japanese tea ceremony tops the charts; it isn't entirely the tea, itself, although the tea is delicious and invigorating. 

      Though I don't hook up a coffee i.v. in the morning to keep the flow of inspiration pumping, the morning mug brightens me no end. I expect, someday, to have my ashes scattered over a coffee or cacao plantation (organic, of course!) Why, you ask, am I on about coffee? Simply there is new research on a number of fronts. I'll concede there are layers of nutritional research, so new is a relative term. (This week's new is next week's new, new, and so forth.) 

    I was cheered to read a "New York Times" article by Aaron E. Carroll, published in May 2015. The article provides an analysis of a number of research studies regarding the risks and benefits of coffee consumption. The article is comprehensive regarding cardiovascular health risks, and goes on to reveal the results of large-scale cancer studies (involving various cancers.) Carroll concludes the news is better than "mixed;" the benefits outweigh the risks, many of which are either mythical or wildly inaccurate.

    As with everything moderation, particularly in case of one's daily caffeine "load," seems to me to be an excellent idea. Caffeine is tricky; some people become a bit brighter, maybe a bit more ambitious, after a caffeinated pick-me-up. It can certainly be abused, and can lead to anything from a mild case of the jitters to addiction. I know myself ... know I cannot consume coffee or tea, followed by other caffeinated beverages; it is once a day or not at all. Coffee and tea up my desire for "a little something" sweet, a tendency I keep at bay.    A double shot of espresso, a rare treat, will take me from loquacious fun to total brain dump. (My head always fills with ideas and words much more rapidly and in much greater quantity than I can express in conversation. Not so, if I have sufficiently strong coffee, in which case, stand back!)
   Here's a segway to a difficult subject. Like the rush toward alternative spirituality of the late Twentieth Century, the rush toward alternative cures swept the hip culture (and, eventually, the mainstream) of the U.S. I guess it was the mid- to late 1970s, when many of my friends were touting the benefits of coffee enemas. The idea began taking hold in the 1930s, in the treatment of cancer by a Dr. Max Gersten. In any event I drew the line; the idea struck me as potentially dangerous, particularly in the hands of the growing multitude of quack healers. Sure enough studies have proven again and again that, yes, coffee contains beneficial substances; however drinking a cup of coffee is much more efficacious for absorption than colonic irrigation. The real issue is the danger of septicemia, a bad word, a potentially deadly outcome (Margolin KA, Green MR. Polymicrobial enteric septicemia from coffee enemas. West J Med 1984; 140: 460.)  In short, if there were the remotest possibility of dying from septicemia, why on earth risk it? Which brings me to another subject.
   In the process of thinking about this post and researching it, I have run across new (new, new?) information concerning colon cancer and colonoscopy. I'll tackle this equally squeamy subject in my next post. Meanwhile, enjoy that hot, steaming mug of coffee ... by mouth. It has proven nutritional benefits, won't cause you cardiovascular disease or cancer. Best of all it won't stunt your growth, cher, I guarantea! 

Whole and Present

     Maybe, like my family, yours needs healing for the holidays, more than anything else. We can bring about change, as difficult or painful as it seems. Family time need not be just a time to "deal" with relatives. My family is contentious, like so many. It seems, we so often reflect how we deal with the world in how we manage our family relations. With family, however, bad behavior may be heightened by bad manners. Hurts tend to be deeper and the anger we suppress in the interests of "getting along," festers. So it came to pass this year, some family members were "avoiding" each other, unwilling to attend our annual Thanksgiving celebration. Without judgment, here is my plea.

     "Of all of us, I'm the least likely to stay silent on any topic. I hope you will indulge me this time, as I feel I must speak my peace. May it be authentic and from my heart. Here are a few things I find remarkable. Seated around our holiday tables of the past, present and, future are unique reservoirs of education and intelligence, not to mention qualities such as civility. As a group we possess an astonishingly large reservoir of creative talent, as well. Why, then, would we settle for divisiveness and dysfunction?

     My plea is for everyone to come to the Thanksgiving table in gratitude for life, love, sustenance, beauty and the freedom to enjoy them. For a moment I lost track of my great friend, Adil, in the bloody chaos of the terrorist attacks of Paris. After a terrible night I did find him. He had gone to bed early, after a long day. He has a booth in Montmartre. From it he sells his paintings of Paris and Heidelberg to passersby and tourists. He shares his space and swaps stories with other artisans and merchants there. Drifting off to sleep, Adil was awakened by the sound of an explosion, followed by others. Adil knows (knew) some of the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo. He was very much affected by the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the killings in the Jewish hypermarket January 7, 2015. Now he struggles through the aftermath of a fresh nightmare. We cannot know what tomorrow will bring. Let us live in the moment, whole and present.

     Gene and Rosann have made us all welcome to their lovely home and table.  Maybe we could each choose to make the McCullough home and table a safe place for each and every person who comes to Thanksgiving. In the interests of convocation we can choose not to say one word of past hurts, bitterness or anger to anyone. We can choose to love unconditionally for a few hours. To do so, I believe, is the essence of gratitude. It can also be a starting point for a spirit of true reconciliation to take hold. Reconciliation is not forgiveness, nor does it forget. Rather, It is an exercise in relinquishment. It does not deny wrongs on either side. Rather it takes no side. It calls a halt to animosity, to begin. Then it calls us to seek healing and reconstruction, not restitution.

     I'll gladly start. I relinquish hurts of the past absolutely. I am grateful to have met and known Gene. I am grateful to have been his wife and the mother of his children. I am grateful to Rosann for loving Merritt, Margaret, Colin, Ryan, Cole and Aidan as more than a stepmother, as a mother. My gratitude for my children and grandchildren is boundless. You are all remarkably intelligent, talented and generous. To my grandsons, I find you to be, each in his own right, handsome, bright and wholehearted. More important each person around our Thanksgiving table is the owner of a lion's heart. Contentious we may be, but the world finds us independently courageous and generous to a fault. Be this to each other.

“Kintsugi is a pottery technique. When something breaks, like a vase, they glue it back together with melted gold. Instead of making the cracks invisible, they make them beautiful. To celebrate the history of the object. What it's been through. And I was just... Thinking of us like that. My heart full of gold veins, instead of cracks.” ― Leah Rader, Cam Girl

     
     This year, alone, some family members have striven to return to school and work. People have moved, built and rebuilt homes. Some have chosen to make enormous changes and strides in careers. Others have overcome terrible injury and illness. We have managed our pain, collectively and individually. We have done so with courage and integrity. At the end of 2015 and into next year, let's heal hearts. None of us can judge the others. None of us is better than any other. None of us struggles harder. We are a company of excellent people, each of whom has come a long way. Respect everyone, criticize no-one. Mohandas Gandhi said, “Hatred is not the enemy; the enemy is fear.”
     I hope everyone will come to family Thanksgiving in the spirit, as well as in the flesh. If not I have no expectation. Rather I will count you there in my dreams. Meanwhile this is no time for shame and blame. We have a common goal, but everything has its time, and each of us holds the key to the clock. It would do my heart good to see us together again. The family bread baker, I am casting my bread upon the waters."

A Year, Lost and Found

A friend, writing about the highlights of 2015, inspired me to write a post. I have felt the year slipping by me, almost since it began. I felt it was a wash. Writing always brings me back to a more mindful state. This morning is no exception. I follow the Chinese lunar calendar, so today, November 18, is an auspicious day to move forward. On that note here are my highlights for 2015.

-The early months of this year were unproductive in terms of professional writing. I did not manage to monetize my blog. The legal document processing business also suffered.
-January and February were physically draining. Arthritis and cold, dreary, weather do not mix well. I was, frankly, racked with pain, and living as a virtual recluse.
-Spring never came to Denver. It rained, man, it rained.
-One daughter is making a splash in her career. She has exceeded sales benchmarks, to be awarded as a Pacesetter and Silver Pacesetter by her employer. She is destined for management.
-Another daughter is changing her life and career, devoting herself to painting, rather than design, a tough transition.
-My son made enormous strides in his life. He is working on a degree, maintaining a 4.0 average in college. He has an apartment and his own truck. He makes time for me, shares his stories and his strength.
- Received an invitation to enter a prototype for a new publication in The Knight Foundation's innovative journalism category. My prototype, one of 800 entries, did not win, but generated a second invitation.
-Summer came and went in a flash. I took on two pro bono legal document challenges, a blizzard of paperwork. Both people both got off the hook for serious financial penalties. One dodged an impossible deadline.
-One takeaway for the year is to choose the mountain! Death on some mountains is, not merely painful; it is a waste.
-My year has also been marked by family divisiveness. We seem destined to remain a rigid, contentious and unforgiving bunch! My daughter complimented me for having the ability to write people "carte blanche." No, it is simply that I have learned the hard way all it takes to truly reconcile.
-Still striving for better answers to chronic inflammatory disease, to share with blog readers. In the process I've discovered a world of information and some very compassionate people.
-November's national and international news has been particularly grim. The dreadful, events in Paris, were personal. I lost track of a close friend. The day after the terrorist attacks, I was relieved and grateful to find him, safe and sound.

Prayer, desperate prayer, seems so simple, but it’s a step rarely taken by those in family conflict. ~Erwin W. Lutzer, When You've Been Wronged: Moving From Bitterness to Forgiveness

Finally I am so grateful to my family and close friends for their love and generosity, for shining a light in dark times. Our lives seem to be forever marked by violence. Terror has cast a long shadow everywhere in the world. Cruelty and brutality are the order of the day. It is that time when we need the voices of sanity and compassion.

Oprah Power

Where is your gratitude?

Despite the humor intended in the title of this post, I am truly disgusted. Of course Oprah Winfrey is a proponent of gratitude! The primary issue I address here is my gratitude and that of my neighbors, although Oprah inspired me to write it. You see, my original intention and hope for this blog was to inform seniors, their families and caregivers. It was also to empower people; only a tiny percentage of the world's people, even of the world's wealthy, have Oprah Power.

Most readers who follow my blog will be familiar with some of the issues facing tenants of public housing. I happen to live in a comparatively nice-looking LIHTC, a highrise near downtown Denver. To my astonishment (not to mention the amazement of some of my neighbors) the building and landlord were featured on Denver's Channel 9 News recently. I say we were astonished, because, although this is reasonably attractive housing, it was touted as a progressive solution to public housing woes. I wrote two newspeople at Channel 9, two women, Adele Arikawa and Kyle Dyer, to express my surprise at the coverage, and to voice my concerns. Their reply? The single tenant of this housing with whom they spoke expressed her profound gratitude for her apartment. With regard to the issue of segregating the tenants of the tax credit set-aside portion of the property from the tenants and all of the amenities of the adjoining portion of the development, the tenant said she was aware of the situation, but has no objection on the grounds she is grateful for her home!

I have heard this standard applied previously; indeed, by this landlord's site manager on another publicly subsidized property, a senior multifamily Section VIII.  Gratitude was Manager Ginny's trump card, and she played it continuously, with impunity! The housing had originally been developed under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Denver and/or Catholic Charities and Community Service of Denver. When the complex opened its doors, as Higgins Plaza, it was managed by vowed Catholic nuns. As such gratitude for this shelter is virtually compulsory. (-Have an issue with bullying by your neighbors or the management team?  Are maintenance and repairs are mediocre at best? Have you long suspected the Manager of stealing the property of elderly tenants, transferring to long-term care, deceased or dying?) Where is your GRATITUDE? My own son-in-law, while I was protesting my unhappiness in living at Higgins Plaza, alluded to life under one of the City's bridges as my unacceptable and only alternative!

By the measure of gratitude I submit to you I am a generally grateful individual, hence the name of this blog. By the measure of gratitude for "the little things," Oprah is remiss, to reduce this to the ridiculous. If memory serves, the unredoubtable Ms. Winfrey protested the treatment she received as a member of the public entering Hermes. Apparently Hermes felt she was mistaken to enter the store. A clerk advised Oprah she could not afford to purchase so much as a handbag in the store, so the story goes. In any case Oprah did not care for the presumption behind the statement, nor its racist overtone. Hermes, on the other hand, appeared to feel she should have been grateful not to have been immediately barred from its store.  See: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8338268/#.VkI0V66rRQY

You know the rest of Oprah's rather public issue with Hermes. No, Oprah was not sufficiently grateful to step foot in Hermes. Her gratitude for haute couture proved insufficient to overcome her expectation not to be followed, questioned and insulted, by high fashion's presumptuous bigots. Unlike the rest of us, Oprah had the luxury of publicly proclaiming her objection. Although we are told, as residents of public housing, the landlord cannot retaliate against us for voicing our concerns, legitimate or otherwise, it is absolutely not true. My former close friend and neighbor was effectively evicted and sued for unlawful detainer for disagreeing publicly with the landlord's new non-smoking policy and the manner in which it was introduced (and enforced.) The man's responses were inappropriately couched, but he should have had the right to express his objection and, for that matter, his annoyance, within certain limits of acceptability. The landlord could have insisted he keep it appropriate, not insulting, but, instead chose to evict, leaving him devastated. He lost a great deal of property, and has returned to his previous homeless state. He is a disabled American veteran. We should be grateful, and be able to demonstrate our gratitude for his service.

The Civil Rights Movement, it wasn't just a couple of, you know, superstars like Martin Luther King. It was thousands and thousands - millions, I should say - of people taking risks, becoming leaders in their communities. ~Barbara Ehrenreich

When the site manager at Higgins Plaza stated that "as a recipient of a housing subsidy, you should be grateful for shelter. My response was swift and clear. I said, "My financial status and arrangements are absolutely private. My housing subsidy neither removes any of my rights, nor does it negate my expectation that my housing will be decent, safe and secure, in decent repair and reasonably clean. Your company is accountable for adherence to federal law!" I have said the same things in my current tax credit housing. The sad thing was my willingness to move into housing under the control of the same landlord and management company. Be assured it is due to the scarcity of affordable housing in this city.

It all depends, I suppose, upon whether shelter is or is not considered a human right. It depends on one's view, also of the civil rights of Americans. Bottom line ... segregating people by income is egregious. Segregating an entire portion of a development by income is unlawful, if that portion of the development is a separate building and populated by a preponderance of the ethnic minorities in the development. This condition creates "disparate impact," and it is against the law. Perhaps one woman in this LIHTC is not at all concerned about being unable to swim in the pool, use the health club, or sip a cup of coffee in the courtyard of the development. That does not make it right, not by any standard.

So I ask, am I grateful not to be under the Cherry Creek bridge with my little dog and what remains of my belongings? You tell me. Am I grateful for America's tax credit program, which is notorious everywhere in the Nation for promoting segregation? You tell me.