February 21, 2012

February 18, 2012

Thinking about the upcoming kayaking season…

February 17, 2012

February 16, 2012

A new study just released by the National Science Foundation gives some clues about how to develop those math skills I’ve talked about here. Sure enough, playing with puzzles helps to build spatial skills which are critical to being able to do math and understand science.

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=123203&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click

It is fun to realize that my husband’s first handmade gifts for our grandchildren has been…puzzles.  Here we are at Christmas in 2009 when Sam opened his..horse. Sister Grace lends a hand there. Then Grace goes and finds her puzzle that granddad made for her 2nd Christmas. And all is well. We spend time playing the puzzles and every year, there is at least one new, age appropriate puzzle for fun play between grandkids and grandparents….

Febryary 13, 2012

In my book, Talking about health, I tell the story about dealing with back and shoulder pain with physical therapy and the exercises I learned to use during the day. One includes setting a 30 minute timer to remind me to get up and move around… Well, another strategy that a colleague has adopted is a motorized desk…

February 10, 2012

Why do we talk in “either” “or” terms when we know better?

It is not “either” we drill for Marcellus shale “or” we will remain energy dependent.  

It is not “either” we quit drilling for Marcellus shale “or” we will destroy the environment.

As long as we keep talking and thinking that way, here is the story…

February 8, 2012

  I am reading some research about how math anxiety leads us to avoid doing things that   might have math or numbers included. I read one study where it all came rushing back to me. I was a freshman at the University of Michigan and taking the first of three classes in calculus. I didn’t quite understand some of the homework, so I visited the graduate teaching assistant’s office and was told, “If you don’t understand this, you better get out while you can ‘cuz it only gets harder.” I wasn’t feeling anxious about math until that meeting. In fact, I have always loved math and have a high aptitude for math. But worry and anxiety washed over me. There was no one to ask about this that I knew. It was my second week at a huge university with 10s of thousands of students. The TA must know what he was talking about. I dropped the class. Only to pick it up again and complete the three calculus courses with success later.

Still, I read the research conducted by Jackson and colleagues and that experience came flooding back, as the researchers found that at the college level, especially freshman year, “Students were told to leave class if they did not understand the material.”

Perhaps such experiences and our own love for math and science leads us to spend time with our granddaughter and grandson doing math. Making it a game more often than not, with me playing with my grandson–who will be 4 years old in the next week–counting and arranging and rearranging.                                                               

February 4, 2012

April 1982, my friend had an article about the birth of her twins in baby talk: THE FIRST BABY MAGAZINE where she described her experience and mentions me, her ”second childbirth coach, a close friend”… Her other coach was her husband. As her labor progressed, my friend tells the story about how the nurse put an I.V. in her arm ‘just in case’ and how her two coaches looked away, leading the nurse to remark, “If you can’t watch this, how do you expect to watch these babies get delivered?” But we did. And the babies were beautiful.

I persist in believing that such classes are beneficial. Here is someone who says just what I would say about how such classes help with the process http://www.parents.com/pregnancy/giving-birth/preparing-for-labor/childbirth-classes/ 

But here, too, is one of those videos… http://www.parents.com/videos/m/32086618/birthing-101.htm 

And another…

One more with Jimmy Kimmel’s spin…

February 1, 2012

January 31, 2012

I wrote about my own diagnosis with Lyme disease in this forum in the past. This is one of those conditions that is too often undiagnosed. It is one of the most commmon causes of peripheral neuropathy. Dad are you reading this?

It is a common cause of tiredness, exhaustion, and fatigue. It is a common cause of joint pain.

But don’t take my word for it. The Insitute of Medicine has recognized the frightening scope of this condition in the U.S. and held a workshop to get some conversation going. They are currently getting ready to conduct a fuller study. For now, you can read the workshop report for free online. Go here: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13134#toc

Health communication’s role is highlighted on p. 36: “One participant highlighted the current gap in communications, noting that how information is provided on the Internet can vary, with implications for how those to whom it is disseminated (e.g., schools, insurance companies) will respond to the disease. The same participant called for a centralized source of information on the latest research to facilitate patient/family efforts to obtain such information. Another participant called for better communication between patients and their physicians, noting the damaging effect of this disconnection between two groups who have worked together on other illnesses. By working together in creative ways, physicians and patients may help to advance the science and understanding of the disease processes and chronic manifestations to permit earlier diagnosis and better treatment outcomes.”

On p. 31, there is a summary about conditions that often occur together with Lyme disease and need to be considered by patients and doctors as well, “Completing this community of patients are the coinfected: those with babesiosis, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, or some other tick-borne infection. Surveys around the country report that ticks can transmit these well-known human diseases, yet primary care physicians almost never consider or test for them, even if they seriously consider Lyme disease.”