Frances Ellen Speaks!

I have recently become the Resident Expert on Astrology at LifeScript.com. So, instead of finding my usual post here, I will direct you to my latest articles at LifeScript. If you are interested in Chinese Astology, you might enjoy reading about predictions for the Year of the Rat.

Or you may be interested in Aura Colors . Take the Aura Color Test.

It’s May, and Mother’s Day is right around the corner. This is the time of year I especially miss my mother. I’ve mentioned several times in this blog that I regret not asking her more questions about herself. But every year when May rolls around, I realize I do actually know a lot about her, if not everything.

For instance, I didn’t know it then, but I see it clearly now in retrospect, she was a feminist before that word even existed. Back in the early 50s, she decided she wanted to learn how to drive a car. There weren’t many women drivers on the road back then. Husbands usually did all the driving, or there was public transportation. That wasn’t good enough for my mother. She hired a driving instructor, passed her driver’s test and acquired a license long before her four sisters. As a matter of fact, she became their main mode of transportation, and even though she urged them to get their own licenses, it was several years before the first one found the courage to do it.

There’s no doubt she was the driving force in our family. She multi-tasked before that ever became a word, too. I guess that’s why I always regret knowing so little about this dynamo who was my mother. When I was a very young child, I thought there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do; I thought she knew just about everything. As a rebellious teenager, I hated that she was right about everything. And as an adult, I marveled at her wisdom.

I remember her facing off with our family doctor. Often, when I was sick with some childhood illness, the doctor would recommend a penicillin shot. At the time, penicillin was considered a miracle drug, but my mother insisted a person might build up an immunity to it. The doctor strongly disagreed, but grudgingly honored her wishes. One day, on the way home after one of these visits, she sympathized with me saying that she knew I felt very, very sick, but on the off chance I might need penicillin to save my life someday, she preferred to nurse me back to health without it. I was young, could hardly understand what she was telling me, but I felt her anxiety. Now I realize how hard it must have been to stick to her guns when all she had in her arsenal to defend herself was sheer conjecture. All I know is, while my friends almost always got a needle at the doctor’s office, I received very few. My mother took a stand at a time when doctors and scientists denied the possibility of resistance. Now we know that–

Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change in some way that reduces or eliminates the effectiveness of drugs, chemicals, or other agents designed to cure or prevent infections. The bacteria survive and continue to multiply causing more harm.

If you wish to read more about how a body can build up a resistance to antibiotics, (information my mother was not privy to at the time) go to About.com: Pediatrics.

Although she could never convince me to eat red beets, she did manage to cajole me into eating carrots. She told me they were good for my eyes. Science has proved her right on that one, too.

And like many other mothers, she believed that chicken soup would make a sick person feel better. And according to the Mayo Clinic, studies show they were correct.

Generations of parents have spooned chicken soup into their sick children. Now scientists have put chicken soup to the test, discovering that it does have effects that might help relieve cold and flu symptoms.

However, when I purchased my first pair of reading glasses, she warned me not to become too dependent upon them because I would end up needing a stronger prescription every time I took an eye exam. Although the last part of her statement has proved correct, I’ve been told my eyes are going through their natural progression. As I age, my eyes age right along with me. So, I guess my mother was wrong on this one, or maybe…science just hasn’t caught up to her, yet.

Do you have a memory about your mother that you would like to share? This is the time and the place.

For quite some time, I have been putting off cervical neck surgery. Unfortunately, disk degeneration goes on hiatus for no man. Finally, one is forced to accept the truth–it’s time to face the music and have surgery.

Too bad the surgery requires a stay in the hospital afterwards, because things ain’t like they were “in the old days.”

First off, if you don’t have nice, big, juicy veins…beware. Don’t go in the hospital expecting to find a crack-team of phlebotomists, those dearly loved persons who specialize in taking blood. I don’t think they exist anymore. Invariably, as a last resort, someone will have to insert the needle into a vein on your hand, because no one is adept at hitting a vein in your arm. Let me tell you, a needle stuck in the top of your hand is a whole lot more painful then one in your arm.

I’ll refrain from going into my entire bathroom fiasco. Suffice it to say that after the first horrendous trip, I suggested to the nursing assistant that it might be easier for all concerned if she supplied me with a commode next to my bed. Puzzled, she responded, “Oh, you want a commode?” The thought of a commode appeared to be a totally foreign idea to her. I can only assume she preferred yanking all my IV lines as she “helped” me back and forth from the bathroom.

24 hours later, and after at least two assistants heard and saw me cough up thick mucous, I asked one of them for a breathing machine. Again I was greeted with that surprised, kind of blank, look, “Oh, you want a spirometer?” After searching through the cabinet in my room, and finding none, she left, returned with one and handed it to me. It had no sterile wrapping, so I had no idea where it came from, or where it had been.

This is what should’ve happened long before it was necessary for me to ask for the contraption myself.

Your nurse will explain the deep breathing and coughing exercises you will need to do after surgery. These are done to improve lung expansion. This helps prevent infection and other lung complications. You will be shown how to use the incentive spirometer. This is a tool to help you breathe deeply. Coughing is needed when you have secretions in your lungs.

That is the procedure that is recommended at Incentive Spirometry, and has actually happened to me on previous visits I’ve made to a hospital.

About Medications–Prior to entering the hospital, I was told that the hospital would provide all medications that I normally take on a daily basis. The first night, I was offered the wrong blood pressure pill. Believe me when I tell you this, and I can’t stress it enough. Don’t accept any medication until you ask and understand what you are taking. This is by no means an isolated incident. See a post put up by Solid Geekery, a blog written by a group of people who are studying, working in, or are just plain interested in the shoddy treatment being dispensed by hospitals today. This particular post was written by Miranda, who is in her third year of graduate school, pursuing a Ph.D in Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis.

Getting back to my particular nightmare, the second night, after having my blood pressure checked, a nurse came in and said, “Your blood pressure is normal. Would you like to skip your blood pressure pill tonight?” I was actually struck speechless for a few seconds before I could answer, “My blood pressure is normal because I take my prescribed medicine.”

During my second day in the hospital, I asked the nursing assistant to write her name and the name of my nurse on the board supplied for that purpose at the foot of my bed. She couldn’t. Want to know why? Because someone had used permanent marker on the board, therefore it couldn’t be erased. Think about that for a minute, because it is really scary. Someone, who dispenses medicines and supplies hospital care to patients, used permanent marker on an erasable board.

I’m not one to rant. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I ever have on this blog…ever. However, just for the record, I could write another four or five paragraphs about the oversights and lack of knowledgeable help I received. But I won’t.

Have you noticed it’s getting easier and easier to spend money?

Last week, I received a tiny booklet in the mail from QVC, which contained my very own personal membership number. To tell you the truth I wasn’t surprised, since a few weeks before I had somehow lost my mind while watching their programming. I bought three sterling silver rings, a bracelet, and some lovely food containers–all in one night.

I’ve purchased products from them in the past. The thing is, I hadn’t fired up my ultimate buying power all in one sitting before. Since I momentarily fell off my rocker that night, I guess QVC thought it would be an excellent idea to send me a membership number. Voila! Now I can buy whatever I want by punching in a few numbers on my phone’s keypad. How’s that for convenience?

Furthermore, I’m such a good customer of Amazon.com, they have bestowed upon me their one-click customer status. I click–they send.

It appears I’m not the only one having a hard time keeping money in my wallet. Maggie the Cat is evidently having the same problem.

Ive been spending money on books when i shouldn’t be spending money at all. I got the wonderful book “Elvgren” by Taschen it is so beautiful.

I suppose my way of thinking is similar to Terra’s over at Questionable Rationale.

As much as spending money sometimes stresses me out, I actually become stress free after a nice long (and sometimes expensive) shopping trip. I think it’s just bills that I hate paying.

Obviously, no matter how you do it, shopping feels good, at least in the moment. I have broken the habit of running to the mall, though. That’s a step in the right direction, right? Now, if I could only stay away from the TV and the laptop. Any suggestions?

Darn it…I missed Belly Laugh Day on January 24th. I bet you did, too. What a pity, because researchers are finding more and more evidence that laughter contains some pretty awesome benefits for our bodies and minds.

There’s a lot of research to prove the claims, but really now, haven’t you always known that laughing makes you feel good? Giggling is at the top of my list of things that overwhelm me with happiness. Making other people laugh and giggle comes in as a close second. Two people laughing is better than one. Three people laughing is a virtual party.

But if you’re intent on knowing “scientifically” why laughter is good for you, here are a few good sources.

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Using laughter-provoking movies to gauge the effect of emotions on cardiovascular health, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have shown for the first time that laughter is linked to healthy function of blood vessels. Laughter appears to cause the tissue that forms the inner lining of blood vessels, the endothelium, to dilate or expand in order to increase blood flow.

And just the anticipation of laughter is good for you.

National Post

The simple anticipation of “mirthful laughter” such as watching a comedy on television is enough to increase levels of health-protecting hormones in the body and decrease levels of potentially harmful stress-related hormones, research shows.

So the bottom line–laughter is a good thing. It’s a great stress reliever, even Abraham Lincoln recognized that.

With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die. ~Abraham Lincoln

Perhaps you should start in right now. Have a good laugh with the Laughing Baby.

There now, don’t you feel really, really good?

The other day, I described to a friend of mine (much younger than I) the one and only time I could remember an entire movie theater audience jumping out of their seats to dance in the aisles. It was a crazy, spontaneous phenomena. One minute everyone was in their seats, the next they were dancing wildly wherever they could find an open spot.

That was in 1955. The movie was Blackboard Jungle. The song that roused everyone from their seats was Rock Around The Clock performed by Bill Haley and the Comets.

Seems like I’m not the only one who remembers that day fondly.

From Old Forty Fives, a really great site for some heavy duty reminiscing:

When did Rock’n Roll start?

Some people think it started in 1953 with Ike Turner’s “My Rocket 88,” or Big Joe Turner with “Honey, Hush” in 1953, or “Shake, Rattle and Roll” 1954. Personally, I believe it started with the premiere of the movie Blackboard Jungle in theaters across the country, in 1955. This movie featured the song “Rock Around the Clock” by “Bill Haley and his Comets,” which helped to propell Rock and Roll as a musical genre. It was reported that teenagers jumped from their seats to dance to the song.

Dancing was big in the 50’s. So was fashion. Do you remember how girls used to wear little scarves around their necks? And, of all things, girls actually had portable collars. Want to see more 50’s Fashions?

Petticoats and crinolines–we lived it, while others are obsessed with our fashion sense.

“Those were the days, my friends, we thought they’d never end…”