AMA journal report cites risks for Pargluva

This is why I tell my patients not to take new drugs. I'll stick to the tried and true and wait for the recalls to happen before me or my family take any new medications. My husband's doc recommended him to take Vioxx, but I wouldn't let him due to the fine print in the insert. All of a sudden, the deaths started occurring. My husband probably would have been one of the statistics due to his medical history.
Please do the reading and ask questions before starting a new medication whether or not it's been on the market for a while. Stay safe out there!!

You're an angel with a stomach like an iron skillet!

"How are you today?" (says your favorite nurse practitioner student)
"Not too good. I've been trying to go the bathroom for the last 4 days." (Not what I wanted to hear..)
Call to doctor and orders given for 1/2 bottle of Magnesium Citrate (bomb in a bottle)
Four hours later after many attempts and lots of gas... still no results.. on to plan #2!!
"Honey, do you need me to see if there is any hard stool in the way keeping you from going to the bathroom?"
"I'm so sorry you have to do this but yes! How can you do this for people? Doesn't it just disgust you?" she says.
"No sweetie." (to my 80 something year old patient)" I don't want you to be in pain and since you've tried so hard, it's time for me to help."
All my favorite female patients are honey and sweetie. I don't call my male patients that though. Some may think this is not appropriate but who cares?
I go and get the KY jelly and tell my fellow nurses where I will be and what's going on. Groans and moans commence.
"Poor NP student!" they say. "Take one for the team!"
In goes the gloved, gooed finger and I hit VERY THICK poop, not hard though. Good sign!
"Oh, how can you do this stuff! Are you sure it doesn't bother you?" she groans.
"Nope!" as I continue trying to disimpact the spackle from her butt.
"Honey, what have you been eating?"
"Lots of oatmeal. Why?" she asked.
"Well, you sure have a lot of oatmeal up here!"
She laughed. At least she has a sense of humor!
"Okay, let's get up on the bedside commode for a while and see if anything wants to move."
A large BM commences. Pay dirt!!! I do my famous poopy dance!
As all nurses know, this is just the beginning of the saga..
After two more large formed BMs.. the call bell rings..
Frantically she calls, "I have to go again, come quick!"
Of course no one is around and she's getting pretty tired and worn out..
The liquid bomb drops..
"Oh my god! Did I get any on you!
At first glance at my white pants, I say no but..
I look again a little more closely and noticed the splatter on my pants. Not too bad but I tell her that I need to change my pants after I get her cleaned up.
"Oh no!" she says.
"That's okay, it isn't the first time and won't be the last!"
I come back into the room in a little while to check on her.
She says, "Are you sure that you didn't go throw up?"
"No, I didn't. I swear. I have a very strong stomach."
"No, you are an angel with a stomach like an iron skillet!"

Thoughts on love

For an assignment this semester, I had to come up with my definition of love. It was harder than I thought it would be. There are many different types of love. I have had "puppy love" as a child, with silly giggles and daydreams of knights in shining armor. Then comes the immature type that comes fast and hard and is fleeting. Often, it is the first real experience of love for most. At the time, it seems to be the right one and that it will last forever. You grow up and grow apart because you can no longer meet each others needs because you never really knew what they were to begin with. You look back at it later with bittersweet memories and realize that it was just a growing experience preparing you for adult love. Adult love grows from friendship, passion, truth, trust and mutual goals. Adult love is a work,forever in progress, with daily changes and challenges. It's the ability to forgive your partner's aggravating quirks and habits even though sometimes you'd like to run away, knowing that they are putting up with yours as well. Knowing when the physical passions start to fade that the relationship is not built on this aspect alone and the memories will sustain you through your elder years when you are sitting together on the porch just enjoying each other's company.

National Statistics for Domestic Violence

Information from my instructor for the domestic violence class I am taking now. I thought it might be useful for some to read. It's horrible knowing that the numbers are so high. If you are being abused mentally or physically or both, please get help! You are not alone!!!
National Statistics

• The National Domestic Violence Hotline has received more than 700,000 calls for assistance since February 1996. – National Domestic Violence Hotline, December 2001


• Nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives. –Commonwealth Fund survey, 1998


• It is estimated that 503,485 women are stalked by an intimate partner each year in the United States. – National Institute of Justice, July 2000


• Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend each year to 4 million women who are physically abused by their husbands or live-in partners each year. – Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, U.S. Department of Justice, March, 1998


• Studies show that child abuse occurs in 30-60% of family violence cases that involve families with children. – "The overlap between child maltreatment and woman battering." J.L. Edleson, Violence Against Women, February, 1999


• While women are less likely than men to be victims of violent crimes overall, women are 5 to 8 times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner. – Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, U.S. Department of Justice, March, 1998


• Violence by an intimate partner accounts for about 21% of violent crime experienced by women and about 2 % of the violence experienced by men. – Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, U.S. Department of Justice, March, 1998


• In 92% of all domestic violence incidents, crimes are committed by men against women. – Violence Against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, January, 1994


• Of women who reported being raped and/or physically assaulted since the age of 18, three quarters (76 percent) were victimized by a current or former husband, cohabitating partner, date or boyfriend. – Prevalence Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, U.S. Department of Justice, November, 1998


• In 1994, women separated from their spouses had a victimization rate 1 1/2 times higher than separated men, divorced men, or divorced women. – Sex Differences in Violent Victimization, 1994, U.S. Department of Justice, September, 1997


• In 1996, among all female murder victims in the U.S., 30% were slain by their husbands or boyfriends. – Uniform Crime Reports of the U.S. 1996, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1996


• 31,260 women were murdered by an intimate from 1976-1996. – Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, U.S. Department of Justice, March, 1998


• A child’s exposure to the father abusing the mother is the strongest risk factor for transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next. – Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family, APA, 1996


• Forty percent of teenage girls age 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend. – Children Now/Kaiser Permanente poll, December, 1995


• Females accounted for 39% of the hospital emergency department visits for violence-related injuries  in 1994 but 84% of the persons treated for injuries inflicted by intimates.– Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, U.S. Department of Justice, March, 1998


• Family violence costs the nation from $5 to $10 billion annually in medical expenses, police and court costs, shelters and foster care, sick leave, absenteeism, and non-productivity. – Medical News, American Medical Association, January 1992


• Husbands and boyfriends commit 13,000 acts of violence against women in the workplace every year. – Violence and Theft in the Workplace, U.S. Department of Justice, July, 1994


• The majority of welfare recipients have experienced domestic abuse in their adult lives and a high percentage are currently abused. – Trapped by Poverty, Trapped by Abuse: New Evidence Documenting the Relationship Between Domestic Violence and Welfare, The Taylor Institute, April, 1997


• One in five female high school students reports being physically or sexually abused by a dating partner. – Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), August 2001