HOPE

Last week I went to the opening of the Paralympics in London.   I felt very privileged to be at this once in a life time event and I was awed by the bravery and the enterprise of the people of so many nations who, despite often devastating disability, had managed to rise to such an exalted level of sporting achievement.

That made me think about people who cope with illness and disability in whatever way they can to make the most of their lives. 

One such person that I met recently has started a website for brain tumour survivors www.aunty-m-brain-tumours.co.uk 

She did this after she herself had a brain tumour removed while she was in her early twenties.   For an active and attractive girl with the world at her feet this was a devastating blow.  And once the drama of the surgery was over and people who had been holding their breath for her had exhaled, she was left to cope with seizures, blinding headaches, crippling tiredness, mood swings and impaired vision that dogged her daily life.

When she should have been riding high with a promising career ahead of her she was, instead, afraid to go out in case she had a seizure.  She tried to work but just could not keep up with the pace.  She longed to drive again but after months of waiting her hopes were finally dashed, for good. Frustration almost overwhelmed her. But this was a girl who was going to fight back!  She looked around for support and found loads of facts and figures and articles about brain tumours.  The information and support she wanted, was hard to come by.   She envisioned a place where fellow suffers could meet for a moan or a laugh and a joke, where the emphasis was more on recovery than on dealing with the mechanics, diagnosis and treatment of brain tumours.  So she decided to make a site herself.  And so aunty M (that stands for meningioma) was born.   She is about to publish her autobiography and you can see details of that and a lot of other useful and inspiring information on the aunty M site.

As the huge sporting fest that we have enjoyed this summer through first the Olympic games and now the Paralympics, I think that the impact on all of us will be long lasting.   For those parents with disabled children, the Paralympics presents a new and perhaps unexpected avenue for their child to explore.  For those of us unfortunate enough to be disabled through accident or illness, there is the inspiration from those athletes many from countries much less developed than ours, who have managed to excel despite their disabilities.   And to all of us, able bodied and disabled, there is that very important word on which the world turns – hope.   

You can see the website address for aunty M on the blog on UK radio.

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UK Health Radio – the health radio station for the United Kingdom, Europe and beyond at www.ukhealthradio.com – is kindly sponsored by www.1-stop-health-shop.com

Amanda Thomas

A Late Summer Harvest

It's been a good year for gardening in Seattle, at least in my garden.  Thanks to great new tools* and Steve Solomon's recipe for homemade fertilizer, my house has been swimming in home-grown vegetables all summer.  I'm fortunate that a friend lets me garden a 300 square foot plot behind her house.  Here's a photo of part of today's harvest; various kale/collards, zucchini, tomatoes and the last of the pole beans:

Perfect for the Eocene diet.  

Read more »

National Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Day – September 9

Did you know that approximately one out of every 100 babies is affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)? Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders are a group of conditions that can occur when a child’s mother drank while pregnant. Effects can include physical challenges and problems with behavior and learning or in most cases all three. In rare and extreme cases FASD may cause death.

In many cases women many not know for several weeks if they are pregnant and in the United States half of all pregnancy are unplanned. To protect your unborn child from FASD, do not consume any amount of alcohol at any time during your pregnancy.

FASD is not just a children’s disorder as it lasts a lifetime. There is no cure for FASDs, but research shows that early intervention treatment services can improve a child’s development. However, diagnosing FASD can be difficult because there is no medical test, like a blood test, to determine whether someone has FASD or not. And other disorders, such as ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) and Williams syndrome, have some symptoms that are similar to FASD.

Given that this disorder is completely, 100% preventable, more needs to be done in the realm of awareness and education if the number of babies affected is to ever decrease. To that end, every year on September 9, International FASD day is observed. This year we ask that you join in. September 9 was chosen so that on the ninth day of the ninth month of the year, the world would remember that during the nine months of pregnancy a woman should abstain from alcohol. So remember those affected by FASD, whether you ring bells at 9:09 a.m. as some do, or pass this blog on to your friends, you will have taken an additional step in helping prevent FASD.

If you think your child might have FASD, talk to your child’s doctor and share your concerns. Please don’t wait!

Online Resources:

• http://www.womenandalcohol.org/index.html
• http://www.nofas.org/ (check out their online videos!)
• http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/fasd/index.html
• http://www.fascenter.samhsa.gov/

Why do I have to go to the post office to pay my gym membership?, and other interesting things about Israel, by September blogger of the month Benzion Samueli

●     Why do I have to go to the post office to pay my gym membership?

●     Why is there a traffic light here?

●     Why are they only open for 3 hours on Mondays... and they take a 30 minute lunch?

●     Why does the English menu have higher prices than the Hebrew one?

●     How does it make any sense to say, “I make for you special deal... buy one for the price of two, get one free!” ?

●     What kind of a name is “Supersol Deal Extra?” Or is it “Supersol Extra Deal?” And why do they sometimes spell it Shufersol?

●     If I wanted a taxi I’d wave one down... why do all drivers ask if I want a ride?

Lesson #1: the answer to every question is: because this is Israel. Although when I tried to use that response when my Hebrew teacher asked why I’m learning Hebrew, she said, “But we’re in Be’er Sheva... nobody speaks Hebrew here.”

To understand what it’s like to study at BGU, you need to understand Israel a little bit. So that’s what this post is about. To sum everything up, I overheard someone say, “Lalala, this is Israel. It’s like a summer camp - most of the normal rules don’t really apply, you’ll get sick and you lose your voice.”

You pretty much don’t get privacy here. There’s a scale outside the hospital dining hall that everyone steps on in front of the cashier and anyone else who’s around. (At first we thought it was a requirement to make sure you don’t stuff your pockets with food, but later learned that it’s an option to help you to keep track of your weight.) The internet guy asked one of my classmates how much he paid for rent; the plumber asked my friend how much she makes and how much she pays for her children’s pre-school; a professor mentioned that Payroll leaves all the paychecks sitting on a table, and then realized that everyone gets paid the same. But somehow I haven’t mastered this culture yet, because when someone asked me if I’m married and how I met my wife and then I returned those questions, she got all flustered. My friend, trying to show off his Hebrew, asked her out on a date with a few different idioms, until she said, “I don’t want to talk about this.”

Lesson #2: It will be a long time before I can get away with “being Israeli.” Last week, in response to hearing someone say חס וחלילה (God forbid), I said חמסה חמסה חמסה (which has a meaning opposite of “Evil Eye;” this is a phrase I picked up from my Hebrew teacher that she always responds to God forbid). In any case, a passerby came over and reproached me for saying חמסה. He explained that I didn’t understand the strength of the word. My Hebrew teacher explained that Israelis don’t like it when Americans encroach on their culture.

But the greatest moments are the Hebrew slip-ups. Here are some of my favorites, some of mine and some of others:

●     יש לך חבר בישראל? A barista asked a customer if she had a boyfriend in Israel. Misinterpreting the word as meaning “Do you have any friends,” she answered, “יש לי שלושה חברים פה” (I have 3 boyfriends here.”)

●     השדים כועבים לך? A medical student tried to ask a older, superstitious religious person if her breasts were causing her any pain, but in a slight mispronunciation, asked if any demons were hurting her.

●     אתה רוצה לצאת איתי? Attempting to ask someone if he wanted to leave school together, I accidentally asked him out.

●     בוא נזרום! While saying “Just go with the flow” sounds cool in English, in Hebrew it means something almost like, “Go be a prostitute.” (Lesson #3: Don’t say anything your friends told you to say. You’ll inevitably end up in a Big Fat Greek Wedding situation.)

●     יש לך השעה? Many English expressions just don’t make any sense in Hebrew. I asked someone if “he had the time,” but as time isn’t something one can literally possess, he answered, “מה זאת אומרת?” (lit What does this say? fig What do you mean?).

Americans have some shared notions about what each foreign language sounds like, and the kind of noises and accents you need to make to imitate them. Ever wonder what other people think of English? When I was walking down the street with my wife one night, a little girl overheard us speaking and came running over and said, “Na na na, speaking English speaking English, na na na.” - September blogger of the month Benzion Samueli