We live in a fabulous world today where we can choose a specialty healthcare facility for children over individual facilities. These specialty facilities not only benefit the child(ren), but the entire family. I am talking healthcare facilities like the Hospital for Special Surgery. Facilities as such, have everything that is needed at your fingertips to care for your child’s special healthcare needs. Continue reading »
Many people are under the assumption that ringworm is a worm under the skin. Let me assure you, ringworm is NOT a worm. Ringworm is a contagious fungus spread by animals and humans. This isn’t to be confused with jock itch, athlete’s foot, ringworm of the scalp or beard, or toenail fungal infections – these are all forms of ringworm that appear differently on the body than the actual ringworm of the skin. All forms of ringworm fall under tinea corporis – the formal name of the fungus.
Humans can contract ringworm through:
Facebook is at it again! Is your wall on Facebook missing posts that you used to see? Here’s why – now you need to subscribe to ‘Interests’ to keep seeing those posts. If you don’t, you’ll miss out on giveaways, tips and lots of fun from your favorite deal bloggers, special needs bloggers – any blogger – says Facebook!
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Christmas is coming and there will be lots of giveaways you don’t want to miss out on; amongst all the other informative posts your favorite bloggers write for you, and giveaways they offer all year long. Log in to Facebook now and Subscribe to your interests – BEFORE you forget 🙂
Today’s Thursday Thriftiness is on an easy way to clean plastic straws – those reusable plastic straws – shake, sippy, water bottle, curly – any reusable straw. They’re really hard to get clean. And should you think yours are getting clean by simply washing them the traditional way – they aren’t. I am choosing to highlight shake straws for the purpose of this writing because they are used every day in our home.
These straws come in the covered cups I buy for my son. I also confiscate these straws when we are at Friendly’s if they happen to come with any of our beverages – I’ve paid for them right? So why not take them home and reuse them? I have quite the stash, so I can get away with washing them the traditional way and then set them aside for a deep cleaning.
I promise you that washing plastic straws such as these the traditional way does NOT get them clean. They may look clean – but they really aren’t, as you’ll see in the last step. If you put the beverage in the fridge with the straw – you’re doomed at being able to get the build up out of the ridges the traditional way (take a look at the first picture below. You’ll see build-up in the ridges from my son’s LNA’s not taking the straw out and washing it out before putting the cup with the straw in the fridge). Even if they are washed out – a build up occurs on the inside of the straws – you just don’t notice it until you’ve deep cleaned them.
In this picture, these straws have been washed in dish detergent and had water run through them. Notice the clearer straws – you can see gunk in the ridges despite being cleaned (the traditional way).
You can enlarge that picture – simply click on it. Were you able to see that nasty gunk? Some of straws have gunk from flavored milk, others from juices. Disgusting huh!?! Don’t fret though! They can be saved!
I am really bad about getting my posts over to my G+ wall. You have no idea as to how glad I am that I found that I can actually have my posts fed to my wall via Hootsuite. Setting it up wasn’t hard at all.
Follow the steps below and you’ll be on your way to auto publishing your blog posts too!
**What you are about to read is the account of a mom’s battle with malignant pleural mesothelioma. It’s a true story, sad and yet, very touching. I felt compelled to help her spread the word of her battle – a battle that any mother could be a victim to. Today, Heather’s hope is to bring awareness to this awful disease and how it took a village to help her through a very difficult time of her life.**
I had heard “it takes a village to raise a child,” but I never understood it until after 
I had my daughter. When she was born on August 4, 2005, I had no clue that my life was about to change in ways I couldn’t imagine.
Upon returning to work, I experienced a constant tiredness and shortness of breath. I was tempted to dismiss it as normal, new-motherhood exhaustion, but couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something else was wrong.
After a full battery of tests, I was diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma, a cancer of the tissue that lines the lungs. Apparently, I had been exposed to asbestos as a child, causing me to suddenly develop this deadly cancer 30 years later.
Most of us have heard of the West Nile Virus and the Triple E virus (Eastern Equine Encephalitis), but have you heard of Dengue Fever? Dengue Fever a mosquito born illness and is a serious arboviral disease that is increasingly creeping into the US from other countries – primarily tropical countries. People have been diagnosed with Dengue Fever in Florida, Texas, and other southern states. There is severe pain associated with the disease; and due to this pain, you may hear one refer to Dengue Fever as the ‘break-bone fever’ and the ‘bone crusher disease.’
Four closely related viruses of the genus Falvivirus are the cause of this disease. Transmission begins when a mosquito bites an infected person that has the virus. In turn, that infected mosquito bites another person infecting that person. Nearly a week later, the mosquito can still transmit the virus to a healthy person. Should one get bitten by another mosquito during roughly a 6-day duration – that person is a source for infecting the mosquito. The disease is not spread from person -to- person; however, it can be spread by exposure to an infected person’s blood – just as HIV or Hepatitis B is spread.
One of my most favorite dishes is lasagna BUT I always hated to parboil the noodles. Luckily for me, long before
No need to boil OR use the no boil noodles
the no boil lasagna noodles came out on the market, I learned of a way to make my lasagna without having to parboil the noodles. Till this day, I will not spend the extra money on the no boil noodles – that just isn’t necessary. You can do the same too.
If you’re building a lasagna using a 9×13 pan you’ll need to use an additional cup of sauce. If you prefer your lasagna to be saucier – then you’ll need to use at least two cups, or thin the sauce with water. I prefer not to thin the sauce with water as I make my own sauce and I want that Italian flavor to be full. The reason for the extra sauce is because the noodles will pull the liquid from the sauce to aid in cooking them.
Now all you have to do is build your lasagna. Start building it by layering extra sauce on the bottom of the pan – not all of it, but about a third of it. Then continue to layer your ingredients adding extra sauce to each layer. When you’ve completely built your lasagna cover it tightly with foil(very important) and put it in the oven to bake. I also spray the foil with a non-stick spray. You will need to let it bake an additional 15-30 minutes longer than normal. Once it comes out of the oven I always let mine stand a few minutes before I uncover it. I then remove the cover and serve.
I’ve never had any trouble with the noodles not cooking. I have however made the mistake of not using enough sauce but that was my own fault. That time – I decided I was going to make this HUGE pan of lasagna and didn’t have enough sauce to start out with. A lesson learned.
Do you suffer from INTENSE leg, torso or digit cramps? I’m not talking just a charlie horse – I’m talking cramps that take your breath away and make you stop whatever it is you’re doing. I had suffered with these types of cramps until recently. The cause – my cholesterol medication – Simvastatin.
Back a couple, three years ago I was put on two long-term medications at the same time. One for my cholesterol and one a blood pressure med. Not long after taking both meds, it came to be where I would get these massive cramps in my torso. I did some research online, reading medical forums and researching the intricate of each med. I learned that the cholesterol med I was on could be causing these, which is what I suspected was the cause, as I know Lipitor has similar side effects.
At my next doctors appointment, I expressed to my physician how I was getting these horrible cramps. I told her how one day when I was driving that one came along that hit my chest area. This incident scared me half to death because it felt like it was so close to my heart. To make the incident worse – I was in a line of traffic and I had to keep the car moving. She didn’t seem all that concerned and assured me my heart was fine.
Well…I already knew that, and what she had to say, didn’t solve my issue. These cramps got worse over time – something I didn’t think could possibly happen because they hurt so much to begin with. Then my fingers started to lock up on me. Then my toes began to lock up on me. The odd thing about the digits locking up – they only did so once I went to bed.
After tolerating the locking of the digits for a few weeks – I had enough. I took myself off the Simvastatin since it made the most sense to start with that med first considering what I had learned through my research. Within just a few days – ALL the cramping went away. No more fingers or toes locking up. I decided at that point, I was done with this med altogether.
So, if you suffer from intense cramping like I describe – take a look at your cholesterol medication. You could always take yourself off it and see what happens. If the cramps don’t go away, then you know the cause isn’t that medication, and you’ll need to explore further.