Drug Safety |

June 20, 2012

| by Carrie Tucker

Is Your Body Shutting Down Dying?

Some folks are drama queens, you never know when to take them seriously.

But if you are seriously feeling your body shutting down … dying … then I hope you can get someone to listen to you!

I’m not saying that YOU are a drama queen, but I’ve seen so many people STRUGGLE getting the care they need!

It leaves me wondering, “why won’t your doctor listen to you?”.

My good friend, Terri, had advanced heart failure before they decided to listen to her.

I miss her.

It wasn’t all the doctor’s fault though.

Terri just wouldn’t complain very loudly.

Days before her death she said, “I put up with it too long”.

She was referring to having constant diarrhea for over a year that she couldn’t get anyone to address.

Terri died because Continue reading article →

Ideal Weight |

June 17, 2012

| by Carrie Tucker

Is Food Really Congestive Heart Failure Treatment?

If you have recently received a CHF diagnosis, I don’t want to minimize your concern about what heart failure treatment you might need.

Certainly you must immediately address the life threatening fluid retention that is associated with acute heart failure if you have reached a point that it threatens your life!

Your doctor actually doesn’t want to medicate your fluid retention until he/she absolutely has too. “Water Pills” make you pee off important vitamins and minerals so it really isn’t good for you.

The only reason your doctor would prescribe drugs for fluid retention is because the alternative is worse than the damage the drugs will cause. Heart failure is a serious diagnosis, so you must allow your health care team to stabilize your fragile state before you question the choices you face.

Remember oxygen IS a drug and it is also a vital nutrient!

Once you have achieved a stable balance it is time to realize that your situation didn’t happen over night and it won’t heal over night.

It’s time to take a look at what needs to change and change it! Continue reading article →

Mind Set |

June 16, 2012

| by Carrie Tucker

Do You Have Bucket List Ideas For Now?

My conversation with Briana about Bucket List ideas the other day got me singing the song from the movie.

I absolutely love the song sung by John Mayer that addresses a huge issue some folks never work through in their entire life time.

Do you “Say What You Need To Say”?

My daughter’s Bucket List includes travel and chocolate.

Personally, I like the idea of a Bucket List that gives me Peace when I lie down to die.

Saying what I have to say, when I have to say it, would give me more Peace than all the travel and chocolate I could consume in a lifetime!

It’s not like I really have a choice.

I HAVE to “Say What I Need To Say”!

The alternative is to swallow it and let it rot my guts.

I’ve always wondered how people swallow their truth. It makes me think, “Is the truth more costly than rotten guts?”

There is no way to know without walking a mile in another’s shoes, but still I’ve got to wonder.

Recently I was hired to assess an in home care giving situation.

The elderly woman receiving the care had been experiencing dementia symptoms for over a decade.

At times she was very lucid and you could see how intelligent and thoughtful she was.

At other times she couldn’t remember her children’s names.

One particularly enlightening conversation I had with this sweet woman helped me to see Continue reading article →

Drug Safety |

June 15, 2012

| by Chad Kubo

Does Every Pain Deserve Pain Pills?

When you are in pain you want it to stop!

How long do you allow pain before you medicate it?

The way I see it, there are two kinds of pain.

One is about growth.

The other is about injury or degeneration.

My father taught me the lesson of positive pain.

When I was eleven, I started taking judo lessons.

My dad was there offering “moral support”.

“Just pull with your arms more!”

“Twist your hip and get under your opponent!”

Dad’s suggestions were not helpful during the confusion of a judo match.

I finally just got so frustrated that I blurted out, “If it’s so easy, you do it!”

It was pure frustration on my part, but my dad rose to my challenge and joined the judo club!

The first day of practice he became so exhausted after five minutes he had to stop and sit for the remainder of the hour. He said later that his first thought was, “I’m too old for this!”

The next day seemed confirmation!

As he struggled to get out of bed he wondered about the wisdom of this decision. He could just quit! Nobody expected the old man to hang in there.

Dad said what kept him going Continue reading article →

Social Connection |

June 13, 2012

| by Briana

What Bucket List Ideas Could Inspire More Joy In Your Life?

Graduating from high school is bound to bring up many happy memories and cause you to look forward with inspired goal setting.

My daughter, Briana, and I were discussing her first post here on Heart Failure Solutions.

I told her I wanted you all to get to know her a little bit so you will know what to expect from her future posting. She is VERY passionate about many subjects and a few of them are bound to catch your attention from the get go.

Somehow we got on the subject of “Bucket Lists”, and it was interesting to reflect on how different bucket list ideas can be depending on many factors, but most especially AGE.

I’ll let Briana share her thoughts with you here, and perhaps I’ll whip up a post of my own on the subject. That girl always inspires deep philosophical conversation that lingers long after we’ve finished our chat.

“Hi, I’m Briana.”

I’m young … I know.

Though, I am frequently the one to discipline my 7 year old brother, I take on a lot of the responsibility for helping my mom raise my siblings, and I often feel concerned about the future … so, I don’t usually FEEL very young.

When I compare my accomplishments with those of a senior, I realize that I sure don’t want to waste any of the many years ahead. With that motivation in mind I created a Bucket List.

Some of the things on my list are very simple. Some of them are just plain silly. Some of them mean a great deal to me.

You can learn a lot about someone by looking at their bucket list.

I read a bucket list that included Continue reading article →

Mind Set |

June 12, 2012

| by Carrie Tucker

Could You Be Living With PTSD Symptoms?

June is PTSD Awareness Month.

Are you aware of this devastating condition that can sink the brightest shining star? Living with PTSD symptoms can feel like navigating life under 10 feet of water.

Every person on the planet is capable of feeling the feelings of another person.

It’s arguable that you could say that about animals as well, but for the sake of this discussion let’s keep it to 2 leggeds.

Have you ever played the game where the group tries to guess the emotion of the acting participant?

It’s not hard usually unless the emotion is complicated, like jealousy.

But within the complexities of living life and navigating relationships, surviving and pursuing happiness, things get a little harder to read.

It can be difficult to understand your own feelings in difficult situations.

For someone with post traumatic stress syndrome feeling your own feelings can be increasingly difficult. You simply have no access to what you are feeling … good or bad.

If you can’t feel pain, you can’t feel Joy.

(If you noticed, I just used the term “post traumatic stress SYNDROME” as opposed to “post traumatic stress DISORDER”. The reason I want to invite you to use the word “syndrome” instead of “disorder” is because this condition is a response in your nervous system that is certainly painful to live through, but it is not a “disorder” in that you CAN heal!)

If you are living with PTSS/PTSD symptoms you will notice that you have a much harder time understanding others and communicating clearly, because you aren’t receiving your own signals.

You become numb.

Soldiers are certainly susceptible to this crippling condition, and so are survivors of traumatic events.

It’s easy to see this type of suffering in others. But it’s a lot harder to see it in yourself. Continue reading article →