Ni Hao is Everywhere

Once a student nurse, I was obligated to have a set of blood pressure apparatus for hospital and community exposure use. Thinking of quality, durability and efficiency of a product, I dropped my cousin a line, who is working as a nurse in the United States of America, for an "imported one". The package arrived. I was so excited for my "imported BP apparatus. Ouf ot my thoughts, my father have had already opened my stuff. I checked my new BP apparatus and I've noticed my father highlighted something at the back. To my surprise the highlighted part was MADE IN CHINA. Funny it may say, I've had a twist of emotion. 

"God made the earth and the rest is made in China." Hilarious may it sounds but reality lies underneath. It seems as if almost all of the products in the world are made from China. From appliances, toys, fashion and beauty products, hi-tech gadgets and latest trends are almost with same label - Made in China. Take this one fact: iPods are made in China and a key iPod chip was designed in India, however, the noticeable bulk of profits from sales stays with Apple in America. You may ask, "Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Upsides
The dramatically increasing jobs and opportunities for our chinese friends is an exclaiming positive source of their revenues that identified China as one of the world's biggest economist. Hence, these bring at least lots of benefits to the people of China who have been fated to be peasants for the rest of their lives. The enormous population of China can really help the chinese economy in terms manpower resources or workforce. Accepting foreign investors and other economist as well helps a lot to Chinese economy and the like. Jobs offshored and imports in China modifies the economy and lives of Chinese as a whole.

Downsides
For the past years we were terrified with the safety of Chinese products. Up to now, we’ve seen problems with pet food, toothpaste, seafood, children’s toys and the scandalous milk products with melamine. The quality which is the important thing to consider is depleted that the trust of consumers and the reputation of China is surely at stake. With regards to this incidence, China should implement what rules they set. China has food safety and product safety laws on its books, but they are not reliably enforced. China should stop exporting substandard items to regain the trust of the world that is made in China.

So which is preferable, cheap and poor quality? or expensive and QC passed seal? The peculiar thing is, even the QC (Quality Control) passed seals are sometimes fake as well. Well in my case, I’d still love to buy cheap stuff but I make it a point to scrutinize the items first before buying it. Be not an impulsive buyer or else you will get a sweet non bubbling toothpaste. Be wise and think twice. Cheap or expensive, it’s with your taste anyway.

Mouth to Mouth, Dude?

After several months of laziness, hectic schedules, graveyard shifts and lack of sleep; I am writing again. If I could just print what’s in my head, I supposed I have lots of blog post now. Unfortunately when I try to scribble it, the ideas I was thinking will just pop out. Well maybe I’ll spare this one. 

Science and Medicine is a never ending tale of discoveries just to make life easy, convenient and comfortable. Same as well in saving lives. Every year new medicines are discovered just to cure ailments either palliative or as treatment; the reason is to help save lives. Just this morning I talked to a friend from the West, who recently got a new job (Congratulations!), asked me something which made me think. At that point I typed it in Google and gave me something fresh, new, and very helpful information. How stupid I was not to know this, I suppsosed I am a nurse. Well better late than never!

For decades, *American Heart Association (AHA) uses CPR or Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation. This technique is use as first aid to revive patients who are unresponsive, non-pulsatile, and may experiencing heart attack or anything that cause the heart to stop. CPR is performed by alternately giving pressure to the chest or compression and breathing to the patient’s mouth or nose.

The process is done until the patient is revived or when the hospital is reached. The technique was formerly performed in 2 breaths and 30 compressions alternately. Few years ago it was changed to 1:15 ratio (1 breath and 15 compressions). 

It feels awkward to do this procedure to a stranger especially the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. You might ask yourself, have she/he brushed her/his teeth or maybe gargled before leaving home? Yeah, I might say so. Even medical personnel such as nurses, doctors, and paramedics might be hesitant to do so. For sure they will find ways just to avoid the mouth-to-mouth procedure like AMBUbag (if it’s available), donut shape handkerchief or whatsoever just to avoid the contact with the patient’s mouth. Well, the fact that that person might have communicable disease is one of the reason as well why caution is needed.

Here's the GOOD NEWS! In a major change, the American Heart Association said that hands-only CPR — rapid, deep presses on the victim’s chest until help arrives — works just as well as standard CPR for sudden cardiac arrest in adults.

Experts hope bystanders will now be more willing to jump in and help if they see someone suddenly collapse. Hands-only CPR is simpler and easier to remember and removes a big barrier for people skittish about the mouth-to-mouth breathing.

First, call 911 and push hard and fast on the middle of the person’s chest. Hands-only CPR calls for uninterrupted chest presses — 100 a minute — until paramedics take over or an automated external defibrillator is available to restore a normal heart rhythm.

This action should be taken only for adults who unexpectedly collapse, stop breathing and are unresponsive. The odds are that the person is having cardiac arrest — the heart suddenly stops — which can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems. In such a case, the victim still has ample air in the lungs and blood and compressions keep blood flowing to the brain, heart and other organs.

A child who collapses is more likely to primarily have breathing problems — and in that case, mouth-to-mouth breathing should be used. That also applies to adults who suffer lack of oxygen from a near-drowning, drug overdose, or carbon monoxide poisoning. In these cases, people need mouth-to-mouth to get air into their lungs and bloodstream.

This is how you do it...

The association took the unusual step of making the changes now  because three studies last year showed hands-only was as good as traditional CPR. Hands-only will be added to CPR training.

Now, you can be a hero in your own simple way by the power of your two hands and your strength to compress somebody's chest; extend someone's life. What I have in mind is, of course I can do both CPR with mouth-to-mouth and even without. In any case if somebody collapse and when you that person lying and he looks like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie, will you use without mouth-to-mouth? You better answer it right.

                               *Thanks to www.msbn.msb.com and to YOU!

Revived Blog

Wow, it has been six years since I wrote my last blog post. Well, live has been very busy and priorities have been changed. For the last 6 years, a lot of changes have had happened in my life.

•  I went to another country hoping to get a better job and better life, nada. I went home after several months.
• I started a new job. Graveyard shift. Who would have the time to write blogs? ME!
• Tried to get a nursing job outside the country AGAIN. Nada.
• Meet the man of my life, got engaged.
• Migrated to the United States, got married and got pregnant right away.
• Now, a mother of an 18-month-old baby girl!

This seems a very short blog for 6 years, don't you think?

Well, don't worry. I will update my blog post more often now.

Say What?!?

do you have any alternate phone number? oh my bday? july 13, 1930

is the part that you looking is a cantilever ? oh no...you cant deliver it? lol

The Hormone that Makes You FAT

Do you have problems with eating? Do you get easily full? Or it does take 3 hours for you to be satisfied? Obese? Malnourished? Indeed a problem.

When I was small I have this nickname (some of my cousins still calling me until now) which means fat. One of my cousins named me this with respect to my weight. Yes! I was fat and chunky; cute as what they describe it. But to think of the present, I am the mere opposite of the past. I am just ranging from 95 to 99lbs. I even struggle to maintain 101lbs for a week or two. I am so desperate to gain weight or just even to be normal for my height. I was never normal. So it’s an affirmative! I’m always abnormal. (To think I behave like I really am).

One evening, I was bored and started reading magazines I have in my room. (It was not really reading but purely scanning). I came across the topic about eating, specifically on appetite. The article is talking about a diet hormone which is called LETIN. Letin is responsible and influences our eating behavior, and to the amino acid protein galanin, which stimulates the desire to eat. (I hope I don’t sound like I’m talking in Latin).

What now? A diet which is high in calorie and high in fat may trigger chemical changes that make the body less resistant to hormone leptin. More explanations? Calorie-rich and fat-rich food such as fast food, donuts and curls or those stuff we consider “junks” make us crave to eat more and are surely addicting. This means our brain loses its ability to respond to these hormones as body fat increases. Take these kids as an example. Looks like these kids doesn’t have any hormone letin at all. I don’t want to name stores or whatsoever but fast food as a word well really obvious what are those. Now I know what makes an obese REALLY OBESE. Think of the fatty molecules stuck in your blood vessels. Supposed a free flowing blood is now moving viciously causing high blood pressure and worst, coronary heart diseases such as Myocardial Infarction.

Solution? Burn your thick fats! Exercise! Eat balance diet! Lower your cholesterol! Live a healthy life!

As to myself, letin is really working. Maybe I need a little fat to signal my brain to increase my appetite; a daily visit to fast food especially to the big M (which is kind of expensive I think) will make me fat; or steroid use? (Which I never thought of using); or an inspiration (if you know what I am talking about); or/and sometimes I think still, THIN IS IN!

I Guess You are Guessing DOC

Mother, mother I am sick. Call the doctor very quick.

Doctors. Respected figures in the medical field. Ten years or more at school to study and learn the human body; to alleviate pain, to cure and to KILL?

“It was in the local news” my friend exclaimed.

“They even sued the doctor who did that. Yeah. My cousin lost his arm. It was amputated” he added.

This conversation was real. A friend’s cousin lost his right arm. It was amputated because of negligence and malpractice of the doctor who cared for him. He was playing basketball and accidentally landed on his arms and has got an open fracture. He was rushed in the hospital and treated. Cast was wrapped on his fractured arm. IT WAS NOT CLEANED AND DRESSED, though. Hearing this line from my friend made me boiling mad thinking that I am in the medical profession too, a nurse. After a week or two, the patient noticed that he could no longer feel his arm and smelled a foul odor coming from the cast. They visited the hospital. The cast was opened and to their surprised, the hand was already gangrenous and ready to be cut. The unfortunate guy is now always wearing long-sleeved tops just to cover his amputated arm.

I was in the local news as well…a post graduate intern (PGI) unintentionally killed the baby by pulling it from the mother’s birth canal and left the head inside. This was so drastic medical malpractice and negligence. As how it was happened, I’d rather not discuss it. It is just worst than the first case mentioned.

Late at night, someone bothered me saying we need to go to the hospital. Well, as a nurse I need to be available 24/7. Just on my shorts and Tee, we rushed to the hospital. The patient can’t breathe and was vomiting. To make the story short, the doctor arrived and assessed the patient. He auscultated the patient and asked the patient if what time she vomited. The patient replied and the doctor said, “It’s GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease)”. It was like a big question mark appeared in front of my head. Eyebrows met questioning the doctor’s diagnosis. How can he diagnose a patient by simply doing that? He gave prescription to neutralize the acid and we went home. After a day, the patient was rushed in the hospital again concerning that she can’t breathe. The same complain she had a day after she was DIAGNOSED to have GERD. This time she was catered by a different doctor. Ha! It was pneumonia. She was on nebulizer for 3 days and after then she’s fine.

These are just few of the dismaying and horrifying events you can see in the local news or even for real. Where are the sworn statements of these doctors not to cause harm to their patients? We are not bunch of guinea pigs for experimentation. We consult doctors for cure but they keep on giving the wrong diagnosis. Of course wrong diagnosis would give wrong medication. These are just few of the obnoxious exemptions to those doctors who are doing their best for their patients. To those doctors who are not doing their jobs very well, practice your profession well before your patients sue you and revoke your license. Is this all about money or the desire to prolong the lives of these hopeless patients? Some of these doctors are just lucky enough that their patients are just not really educated enough or has the money to sue them. Now for the patients, how sure are you that your doctor is giving you the right diagnosis? Is it just a flu or swine flu?

Small Potatoes for Big Minds

I hate the given definition of the word "trivia" in my Encarta dictionary. It says "unimportant things: a collection of insignificant or obscure items, details, or information". Well, I beg to differ. Trivia are actually small pieces of information that people usually tend to be uninformed of. These are useful information that often we overlook. For an instance, we know that the skeletal system is composed of bones, obviously. However, the trivia set in as what is the biggest bone or the tiniest; the longest and the shorted; the heaviest and the lightest. Through trivia, we dig deeper to a certain topic that we know frivolously. Even renowned game shows use trivia for the million question.

Learn new trivia and answer the million question. If you can't join a game show, anyway, like what my blog description says "The more you learn, the more you realize how stupid you are." Free your mind from stupidity. Learn trifles and small beers for you to sound smart and be smart.

Every month, I'll be posting several trivia for your brain to guzzle. New information to learn, new ideas ponder and new facts to share.

To start this issue, let's have trivia about ME. Ha!

Just in case you don't know.

I've got long Hair – Hair grows rapidly when it is short. Its rate of growth varies about 2 cm or (about ¾ in) per month. The more the hair grow, the more the speed of growth reduces by one-half. The fastest growth is found in women from 16 – 24 years old.

Black Deep Eyes. – The eyeball is the only part of the body that doesn't change or even grow since birth until we die.

Brown skin with fine downy hair – Fine downy hair can only be found in newborns unless you are anorexic or shall I say skinny. In the absence of fats, the body signals to grow fine hair all over our body for the thermoregulation. The hair rise when it's cold and do the opposite when it's hot. In matters regarding psychology, hairy people are actually aggressive in nature. Oops, check yours. Don't give me that smirk on your face. Is the trivia right or what?

Melanin, the coloring pigment of the skin. Black people are abundant with melanin. Whites have less and albinos have none. Skin cancer is common to Caucasians because of the white skin color. Nevertheless, black and brown people are still prone to have skin cancer.

Well, enough of me. I'll have more trivia in the next issue of this feature which I call SMALL POTATOES FOR BIG MINDS.