Another Life Saved

David just called me to let me know how his day was going, and told me about a patient he saw today. He saw this person within the last month, and one of the local docs sent her over to the ER because she was acting so strangely, she couldn't even speak. David sent the patient to a neurological doc, and a couple hours later he called David back. Apparently this patient had a vertebral artery dissection. That's a tear in one of the arteries that goes through the vertebra on the way to the brain. A clot had formed and traveled to this patient's brain, causing a stroke.

The sad part about this case, and the reason I'm even mentioning it is because of the reason she got the tear in the first place. It was from a chiropractic adjustment 2 days prior. David and I had just seen a segment on Scientific American Frontiers a couple of months ago talking about this very thing. Chiropractors turn the neck in ways it wasn't meant to be turned when they do their adjustments, and it can cause tears by putting too much strain on the artery.

I know that I'll probably ruffle a few feathers by saying that chiropractic adjustments cause harm, but if it's going to save someone's life, then I'm going to go ahead and ruffle. I'm including an excerpt from the show, and I'll leave the website address for this episode in case anyone wants to read the transcript or watch it. They take a scientific approach to alternative healing, and it's very interesting...and besides, it has Alan Alda. He's always entertaining. The website is http://www.pbs.org/saf/1210/index.html

Invented by Daniel Palmer in 1895, chiropractic aims to correct blocked nerves - what Palmer claimed were the cause of all disease - by re-aligning the spine. But as former chiropractor John Badanes tells Alan, chiropractic has no basis in anatomy. Conducting a typical examination, Badanes explains how patients and chiropractors alike can misinterpret the popping sound that accompanies spinal adjustments. In fact it's dissolved gas being released in the joint fluid (the same thing that happens when you crack your knuckles) and not a sign that vertebrae are changing position - an anatomical impossibility.

This device, called an "activator," is used by chiropractors as one of many ways to adjust the spine.

Like Badanes, physician Robert Baratz, executive director of the National Council Against Health Fraud, takes issue with chiropractic. Baratz is concerned about the risk of injury during neck manipulation, which can place severe strain on a vertebral artery, leading to blood clotting and stroke. Although chiropractors maintain this type of injury is very rare, a recent Canadian study estimated that 20 percent of all strokes caused by artery damage could be a result of neck manipulation. That figure translates into more than 1,300 strokes a year in the United States.

We made the news! (technically)

Okay, so maybe the story wasn't about us, but we were in the background so I think that counts. They had a ground breaking ceremony for the new hospital today, and since David is one of the friendly faces of the ER, we had to attend. I'm not a pomp and circumstance kind of girl, and I really don't enjoy long-winded speeches full of buzz words such as 'partnership', 'cooperation', and 'future'. But I think we did pretty well behaving ourselves during the speeches, and that's what the camera caught us doing---standing in the back with our children and trying to keep them happy and quiet. It was only 3 seconds, but I'm counting it toward my 15 minutes of fame. I recorded it on the DVR so I can play back those 3 glorious seconds when we were all being good. I'm going to watch it on Sundays when we come home from Church wondering if we're raising children or monkeys.

Mystery Meat and Mustard

Last night I was scrounging through the fridge for some dinner, when I began to contemplate food in general. At that point I had found something, but I don't know if it was worth putting in my mouth. It was a hot dog, with lots and lots of mustard to disguise the flavor. I hated hot dogs as a kid, and the only way that was semi-enjoyable was when Mom would make weenie men out of them, and give them mustard and ketchup faces and buttons. Or as we called ketchup and mustard, 'roo-up and sardeenest'. Don't ask me why we kids came up with those names. I can only assume it's genetics. The Strong cousins are notorious for coming up with strange names for things. Some of the more memorable ones are Kweefer (a poor, beloved and mangled doll who had new tatoos every summer), bahoonawhiffer, and blinkenshlumpshlahotski. I have no idea what those things are. You'll have to ask Carrie. Grandma has also been known to come up with a few: Ishkabibble and GorKenDeanel being two that I know about. It must be her that we get the word genes from. But I digress....

As I was chewing on my mustard, it occured to me that I have never tasted some foods that are probably American, but never talked about...maybe for good reasons. Parsnips, turnips, and rutabagas came to mind. I've never had those things, and they've been sitting on the produce shelves my whole life! That's a very sad thing in my opinion, especially considering my foray into new foods during my single years. At one point I decided that I was going to try one new food at the grocery store each month as a way to bring some excitement into my life. Yeah I know, I was really living on the edge, but this is ME we're talking about. It was edgy.

So into my life walked kippered snacks, sardines, 'seafood medley' (which is octopus, squid, mussels, shrimp, scallops, and probably some other stuff that got caught in the net), papaya, key limes, kalamata olives, fresh ginger, fresh trout, and some weird wild orange berry that grows on a penisula jutting out into the ocean by Netarts, Oregon. Okay, so maybe I should have left that one alone. But in any case, some of those were keepers, and some probably should have been left on the shelf, but at least I found out and didn't have to go through life wondering.

So I think that I may have to revive that tradition and continue my culinary quest of the American grocery store. Next on my list: capers. What are they? I'm going to find out.

Good People

It's been a busy week. We finished tearing the shingles off the roof, and have removed most of the redwood bark from the attic space. We covered the roof in plastic because it was going to rain, but the winds tore it too pieces. David had been talking to the maintenance man at the hospital, asking his advice about how to do the attic space, so he came over to take a quick look at our roof. He noticed the plastic, and then offered to go get his own tarps and nail them down over the plastic so our house wouldn't get rain in it. He brought a friend and they did it in 2 hours. Super nice guys!


I've also been super busy with canning. I got 41 quarts of plums off our tree, and the next day our home teachers gave us a huge box of sweet corn (they had planted some of their field in sweet corn), so I ended up canning 20 pints of corn. It was the first time I've used a pressure canner, and I managed not to blow us up. I think I should get a gold star.

2 days later, our neighbor brought us the peaches off his tree, and I got 21 quarts out of that, and 11 jars of peach jelly. This morning I picked the golden plums off our tree, so I'll be canning again, and our peaches haven't ripened yet, so those are still to come. Combine all that with a 2 year-old, a fussy 3 month-old, helping David clean up shingles and insulation, mowing the lawn, making bread, doing laundry, and a run into town...I'm pooped!

It's a good kind of pooped though. We got a lot done, and we are really grateful to have such kind people in this town. I tell you, I never want to go back to big city life. Give me small towns with big hearts any day!

More Remodeling

We've started on the roof since we're heading into the fall months, and need to get it done before the snow flies. As David started into it, we found that there were 2 layers of wood shingles, and 2 layers of asphalt shingles on top of that. No wonder the rafters are buckling!

This is up in the attic space. Note that it's filled with sawdust as an insulator. Now I'm no expert, but to me that says "fire hazard" all over it. We're going to remove the sawdust, and if the city will let us, we're going to turn this space into another room for the kids. (We only have 2 rooms in our house). They're making us consult with a structural engineer to see if it's possible. If they say we can't, then I think we'll have to move again within 5 years. We'll probably outgrow this little house by then.

Bad Word

David was working outside the other day, when in a moment of frustration he let slip a naughty word. Jacob, being the observant 2-year old that he is, promptly repeated it...several times in succession.

When David told me about it, I thought for a minute, and then came up with a pretty good punishment. Each bad word will carry with it either drops of hot sauce or drops of soap, according to how profane that word may be. For example, #@&%! would be 1 drop of soap, while *$&%^&$@!! might be 3 drops of hot sauce. If he decides to run a string of profanities together, we already know what the consequences will be...4 drops of soap mixed with 3 drops of hot sauce, for instance. I'm quite pleased with myself, to be honest. Creative discipline is FUN!

And as for Jacob, he's too little to know what those words mean, and if he says them again we'll have a talk...but I don't think he'll be hearing them again once David has his first 'profanity cocktail'.

Fair Time!

Every year we look forward to the parade and fair. Here's Jacob waiting for more candy.











Petting the finer end of a Holstein.











Checking out the pigs.











Bridget enjoying the fair in her own way.