Zen Mama Wannabe

And the Hits Just Keep On Coming

One Hundred and Four.  No – that is not the new Disney Dalmatian movie; it is the number I saw on the ear thermometer after taking my daughter’s temperature yesterday.  This would be AFTER I took her to doctor’s office that morning to have her chin looked at.  AFTER hanging out at the Dentist for nearly an hour waiting around during my mom’s appointment.  AFTER gymnastics class – where she did say she was chilly, but everyone was shivering in the big, cold space, so I didn’t think anything of it.  AFTER we finally got home and she started whining that her legs hurt.  AFTER she fell asleep on my bed (and this little one never voluntarily lies down and takes a nap anymore).  AFTER this Zen Mama Wannabe finally put it together that something was wrong, felt her head and immediately took her temperature.  104 and rising.  Like Tom Cruise’s character says in the movie A Few Good Men, “And the hits just keep on coming.”

I immediately called the pediatrician’s office.  Yes – the same one my husband wanted to abandon the night before.  Also the same one that had us come in the next morning first thing to look at her chin.  The one that saw us right away and said the gash could probably use a stitch or two, but they would have to send us either to the hospital or a plastic surgeon’s office.  And there was a chance they would just decide to tape it together with those sterile-strips.  Either way, there would be a scar – and either way it should heal just fine. We opted for the sterile-strips put on then and there in the doctor’s office.  I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

Now, just 6 hours later, I was back to being concerned.  104+ was the highest temperature she has ever had.  We are the healthy people.  We don’t get sick (or not very often).  “Weren’t you just in here this morning?” they asked me.  Yep – we’re the chin people.  You don’t know us very well because we never get sick and have to come in.  But here I am calling you twice in one day.  Just a coincidence??  Except I don’t believe in coincidence.  Could this be related to her chin in some way?  It made sense to me.  (My husband calls that “making up science” and apparently I’m quite good at it). 

The word from the pediatrician's office:  not related – probably just a virus.  We could come in and have the doctor look at her (again!) but they are probably going to say take some Tylenol, drink fluids and rest.  I don’t need to pay another $30 co-pay for that. 

So here we are at home.  Activities and plans now having to be canceled. (And as Murphy's Law would dictate, we have a lot of them - including a birthday party on Saturday which she has been counting down the days until!)  Waiting to see what her high fever is trying to tell us – you know, what is coming next?  (When I called her preschool to tell them she wouldn’t be coming today, they mentioned that strep throat AND scarlet fever are going around.  Terrific.  What else ya got for me?) 

Yep, the hits just keep on coming. Or when it rains, it pours.  Or...if it’s not one thing, it’s another.  (Can you think of any others?)

As if We Didn't Have Enough Drama in Our Lives...

My daughter took a bad fall tonight - running up the stairs.  She tripped on her new Princess nightgown (the one she got for Christmas and never wants to take off – even during the day!) and fell down with her chin going BOOM on the hardwood floor landing.  (And she was running upstairs to get MY cough drops so I could manage to finish the story I was reading them!  Ooh, the guilt!)  So…loud thud, even louder screaming and blood all over.  Got the visual?

Luckily, she banged her chin on the underside, so her face looks okay, but there is a gash.  All I could think of was my childhood next door neighbor hitting her chin on the side of the community swimming pool and needing stitches, or my own ear mishap at a friend's pool party in high school (thanks to the boy that threw the oar at me) that resulted in 7 stitches (and we probably wouldn’t have thought to go to the ER but my mom’s friend – ironically the mother of that same next door neighbor – insisted that we get it checked out).  That seemed to be the million dollar question tonight:  how do you know if you need stitches or not??

As my husband put pressure on it to stop the bleeding, I decided to call our pediatrician.  The answering service would page the doctor on call and they should be able to walk us through this, right??  Not even close.  I called our pediatrician’s office only to find out that they DO NOT have a doctor on call.  All you can do is call a 1-900 number for a CHARGE and talk to a nurse.  Is this how it is where you live?  It sure wasn’t like this where we used to live!  Maybe this is just how it is now in general.  After all, our kids are healthy (knock on wood) and out of the baby/toddler phase, so other than our yearly check-ups, we don’t have much dealings with our kids’ doctor or her office.  Maybe this is just how health care is these days.  Hmmm.

 My husband wasn’t quite so understanding.  Then again, you don’t tell a man soaking up blood and trying to keep his little girl from sobbing hysterically again that there are no doctors on call anymore.  As far as he was concerned, we were finding a new pediatrician tomorrow!  So we called the 1-900 number and agreed to the $2.95 charge for the phone call. (Believe me, it’s really not about the money – it is more a principle type of thing that you should be able to call your doctor and have someone paged who will get back to you – you know, apparently the old fashion way – without getting nickel and dimed about it).  I left our information on an automated system that told us that our message would be answered based on priority of illness and to expect a call back at some point.  Gee - it just gets better and better.  Then I remembered the ace up my sleeve -- my cousin (the pediatric surgeon)! 

So I played the card and called her – even though I never call her (we email each other, but with our busy lives even that is only occasional).  I think she was instantly concerned to hear from me at night (it was a little after 8pm - thankfully not TOO late) and was no doubt worried something was REALLY wrong.  I get that way too when the phone rings at night, especially late at night and really early in the morning.  Seems like that is the time when bad news (the really awful kind) gets spread, especially within families.

Anyway, she was kind enough to walk us through it very thoroughly – you know, ask questions, gather information (albeit over the phone) like a true professional and help us determine whether we needed to load up the car and head out for the hospital.  For us, going to the ER is a big deal.  It not only means getting there, but sitting and waiting (usually for hours on end) once you are there!  We want to avoid the ER at all costs if possible.  At the same time, we don’t want to not tend to something that might need more care.  

Thankfully, in this case, the bleeding had stopped and the gash where the skin isn't touching is only about 1/4 inch (it would probably be just a stitch or two – if that).  Anyway, we had ice on it a long time (it also looks like she's got a lump there) and my cousin recommended we clean it out, put a band-aid on it, and call our doctor in the morning just to touch base.

Interestingly, the nurse on that hotline finally called back and her advice was to go to the ER.  She said with anything on the face that is what they recommend.  I tried to explain that it wasn't ON the face, it was under the chin (so thankfully you wouldn't see a scar) but she said just to go.  Hmmm.  I understand it from their end: better safe than sorry – especially when you are dishing out medical advice over the phone – but still.  She seemed more interested in getting answers for the form she had in front of her than to actually listening to what I had to say. 

We gave our little patient a lollipop for being so brave (once she stopped her initial screaming, which lasted a bit, she really tried hard to keep it together – at one point when my husband asked her if she still wanted the ice on it, she gave a long slow sigh, paused, and said, "Whatever you think is best, Daddy.").  Her brother got a lollipop too for trying to be helpful (although I think I might have to work with him on his bedside manner; just a tip, but saying, “Oh my gosh!  Look at all that blood!  Uck!” doesn’t really work when you are trying to calm someone down) and then we finished our long forgotten bedtime story.  Hopefully she will be none the worse for wear tomorrow. 

What a night.  We’re so grateful I have a wonderful (accessible) pediatric expert in the family!  But what about all those families that don’t??  I know where they’d be right now. They’d be sitting in chairs at the Emergency Room, still waiting to be seen!  This Zen Mama Wannabe can't help but feel something seems really wrong with our health care system, don’t you think?

The Hidden Surprise in Your Hot Cocoa

Brrr – Baby, it’s cold outside!  There was frost on the ground and fog in the air this morning.  Currently the temperature outside is a chilly 41 degrees and dropping.  A nice warm drink sounds heavenly right now.  Maybe something festive like a Peppermint Mocha Twist or an Eggnog Latte?  But wait a second – this little afternoon pick-me-up is anything but little (calorie wise).  Add a tiny treat to go along with your drink and you are now looking at waistband sabotage of the deadliest kind.

Normally if I go into a Starbucks (or other coffee establishments) I order a non-fat latte.  An 8-oz one is 100 calories; the kind I usually get – a "grande"  – is only a little more (130).  That is where you (or perhaps I should just speak for myself) need to stop.  Call it a day – go home and away from other temptations. 

But last week I fell for the holiday marketing.  A Peppermint Mocha Twist sounded so fun.  Luckily I remembered to ask to have it made non-fat (don’t even ask me about the whipped cream – OF COURSE I had whipped cream!  Why bother to get a holiday drink without it?!)  Even with non-fat milk, I later found out my drink added up to 360 calories!  It would have been 430 calories if I had forgotten to change the milk.  Holy Moly – just on a drink!

My girlfriend stuck to the Signature Hot Chocolate; sadly she fared no better.  Hers was 500 calories and a whole day’s allowance of saturated fat and sugar.  So much for our quick stop for something warm to drink!  Who knew we were consuming a whole meal?!

That is the problem of course – unknowingly choosing to DRINK your calories instead of EAT them.  Researchers have shown that when you drink 100 calories (as oppose to eating 100 calories) you consume just as much at your next meal. But when you eat 100 calories of a solid food, you actually consume a little LESS at your next meal.   Makes sense – food fills you up and keeps you feeling full longer than merely drinking a beverage does.  That’s why they tell you to eat an orange instead of drinking a glass of orange juice.  Not only do you get the benefits of fiber (and less calories) you actually stay feeling full longer.

A woman I know admits her weakness is a grande frappuccino.  Based on how often I see her sipping on one as we wait to pick up our kids from school, I imagine she has one at least several times a week.  Well, a caramel frappuccino blended coffee drink (with whip) is the calorie equivalent of a Big Mac!  I doubt she’d be walking around nibbling on a Big Mac as merely an afternoon snack.  Sipping on a frappuccino seems so innocent.  But health wise, it is anything but! 

Recently I splurged and got my kids each a crispy marshmallow square from Starbucks as a special treat.  I normally wouldn’t spend the money and I certainly feel in general they are just big sugar nightmares (the last things I want my kids to have) but this particular day I was feeling generous.  The kids were thrilled and gobbled them up (the mini M&M’s on the top certainly made them that much more fun).  Should I have REALLY been that shocked to discover they were over 400 calories a piece?!  Yep – on a snack!  (Sure, not a big deal this ONE time, but generally speaking, if kids are having these types of snacks on a regular basis – and I see the massive daily flocking of high school and middle school students to our local Starbucks -- do we really need to question why obesity rates across the country are rising?). 

Anyway, this Zen Mama Wannabe certainly does not mean to be a Scrooge.  Enjoy your Hot Cocoa or Mocha Lattes.  Just be aware (as I too recently learned) of all the calories lurking in that paper cup.  Trust me, you’ll be glad you did the next time you go to slip on those jeans. 

The Journey of 10,000 Steps

I am once again being outdone by my mother. 

She is on a mission – 10,000 steps a day.  She has got her little pedometer that she now clips on her waistband each day as she records her steps.  She is doing it as part of a fundraising program at her retirement home.  But whether or not she records her results really doesn’t matter; she would walk that amount each and every day anyway – it is part of her daily routine. 

10,000 steps a day is what all the health and fitness experts recommend NOT for weight loss, but just for general well being.  That being the case, you would think if you were a relatively active person (no coach potatoes here) it would be fairly easy to hit 10,000 steps per day.  Yeah right.  Give it a try; see what YOU come up with.

A year ago (or maybe it was 2 or 3) this Zen Mama Wannabe started wearing a pedometer all the time to see how I was doing step-wise.  I was pretty confident; after all, chasing after 2 small children and running myself ragged with our daily routine was bound to count for something.  Right??  Not quite. 

The first day I recorded 3,500 steps.  Obviously it wasn’t working properly.  Maybe I didn’t have it hooked on correctly.  The next day the number was slightly more – but only by a little.  Later that week, it finally went over 5,000.  You’ve got to be kidding me, I remember thinking; I’m only HALF way there???!  

On a day I felt I was moving non-stop all day, I got to 8,000 steps.  It was soon apparent that the only way I was going to reach 10,000 or more steps was with a dedicated walk each day.  My average moving about, running here and there and back over there wasn’t going to do it.  I confess, I was shocked. 

It took me adding in a 30-minute walk around the block to get to 10,000 steps a day.  Which I did a few times, and then I got busy.  The numbers on the pedometer started dropping.  I would “forget” to put it on in the morning – and how could you start later in the day when all those millions of steps you already took wouldn’t count?  You can see where this is going.

My mom doesn’t have excuses.  Her arthritic fingers fumble with the darn thing each morning and yet she still manages to fasten it on.  Her deteriorating eyesight makes it hard for her to read the numbers on the little screen and yet she has figured out a way to hold it just so at the end of day so she can record her results.  

She has been taking a morning walk before breakfast ever since I can remember; she says it is how she gets the aches and pains out of her body.  She is the one that CHOOSES to take the stairs up and down from her room on the 3rd floor instead of the elevator.  Even with all that, SHE wasn’t going over 10,000 steps a day in the beginning. 

10,000 steps is the equivalent of approximately 5 miles.  Again, this is what is being recommended for a basic fitness level.  For those interested in weight loss, the number of steps needs to go up.  According to studies, children ages 6-12 need even more.  12,000 steps per day is what is recommended for girls, with 15,000 steps a day for boys. 

I wonder how many of us in the United States walk 10,000 steps a day?  We have turned into such a sedentary society, and yet we act surprised when we hear the rising numbers of obesity and various health conditions now affecting our adults and even young people.  I wonder what would happen if we all started moving our bodies more? 

Any journey begins with a single step (and then another and then another – and then maybe before we know it we’ll be at 10,000 steps too).  For the rest of the month of December I am going to go back to wearing my pedometer.  I’m calling it an experiment – just to see where I am at.  It might just encourage me to be a bit more active this month – at a time when I NEED to keep moving (‘cuz those Christmas cookies always seem to call out to me and I refuse to end this month heavier than I started!)

My mother is nearly half a century older than I am.  Something is very wrong with this picture if SHE is moving and walking MORE than I am!  Same goes for you!  Are you going to be outdone by an 88-year old woman??  Time to clip on that pedometer (you can pick one up for $10 at any sporting goods store) and go for a walk!

Beware! A Halloween Candy Scare

With Halloween just days away, candy is on many people's minds.  As in, "How can I get as much candy as possible?" to "Do we have enough bags of candy to hand out?" - because as we all know, you never want to be the house that runs out of candy early in the evening (hex on you!).  At the same time, you don't want to have a huge bowl or container of it left over at the end of the night either (because, being the dutiful adults that we are, we can't bare the thought of it going to waste - and that is where it ultimately ends up: on our WAISTS!).  It is quite a balancing act, and what happens to many of us is in a last minute moment of panic, we run out and buy just a bit more - just to be safe.  And this year, being SAFE is on a lot of people's minds!

Emails are flying around the internet right now about some chocolate candy being recalled because of the risk of Melamine contamination, which is highly toxic even in very small amounts.  Here is part of the email I got:

HALLOWEEN CANDY RECALLED
 
The info below was verified by Snopes. Please pass this on to people in contact with children or even lovers of chocolate coins.

There is a new warning put out by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency...Sherwood brand Pirate's Gold Milk Chocolate coins are being recalled due to the fact that they contain Melamine, the contaminant in milk product that has caused many infant deaths in china. These candies are sold at Costco, as well as many bulk and dollar stores.  Please make sure to check your children's Halloween candy and DO NOT LET THEM EAT THE PIRATE COINS (you know the ones wrapped in the shiny gold foil) and please let other parents know about this.

Sherwood Brands is saying this recall is for chocolate coins vended only in Canada and that none of this chocolate reached the U.S.  This may be true, but we might want to error on the side of caution.  Certainly no chocolate coins will be going anywhere near my children's mouths -- that is one simple way to alleviate any uncertainty. 

The potentially bigger issue is that this Melamine problem in chocolate is quite possibly not restricted to these chocolate coins alone.  A number of U.S. manufactures buy their milk, chocolate, etc. from China.  Already this week, British chocolate maker Cadbury ordered a recall of its China made products and CNN went on to report the following:

"U.S. companies Kraft Foods Inc. and Mars Inc. said they would adhere to a recall order of Chinese-made Oreo wafers, M&Ms and Snickers in Indonesia, but said they wanted to conduct their own tests with outside experts.

So far only a local agency has checked the products for melamine, but the levels found were considered very high."

No! Not my beloved M&Ms and Snicker bars!!!  What would Halloween be without them??!  Again, this Zen Mama Wannabe should point out the reports are thus far saying it is their Chinese-made products and no massive recall has been issued here in the U.S.  I am not sure if it says on each individually wrapped candy where it was made, but I can tell you this year I will be checking our loot extra carefully. 

For those of you handing out treats, please take a moment to double-check the packaging of your goodies -- if all those vampires, ghosts and goblins standing at your doorstep don't appreciate your cautiousness, well, I know their parents sure do!

Flu Shots Anyone?

The front-page headline of our newspaper this morning immediately startled me: “Jump in staph-linked flu deaths in children is seen.”  For the first time, the recommendation is now for parents to have kids 18 years old and younger get a flu shot.   What do you think?  Do we all need to hurry over to our doctor’s office?  Are public health officials being overly cautious – or are they trying to push unnecessary flu vaccinations on our children?  What are you going to do with your kids?

Here is what public health officials are saying:

Flu deaths among children continue to rise each year.  There has been no drop in fatal flu-staph cases in children and those could still be on the rise too.

While it is true few children overall die from the flu virus (around 100 per year), it puts about 20,000 U.S. kids in the hospital each year. 

More than half the children who died were between ages 5 and 17 and had been healthy until they got the flu.

If that doesn’t do much to persuade you, the Los Angeles Times had an article last week talking about a “new experiment in the nation’s approach to preventing flu outbreaks – a push to vaccinate children, who are not only hospitalized at high rates because of the flu but appear to be efficient disease carriers as well.”

Ok, now that does start to make some sense.  The sickest my husband and I have ever been in the last 10 years was when my son was in preschool.  Our little guy would pick up a cold that had been passed around his class, and then bring it home to us.  What would take him 2-3 days to get over, took us each over a week!  Once we even inadvertently passed it on to Grandma.  It took my mom – a strong, healthy senior citizen -- nearly 3 weeks to get back to feeling good.  My husband and I consider ourselves very healthy people (who pre-kids hardly ever got sick) but we sure had a rough go with it for a couple years. 

As this year’s flu season bears down upon us, we still have my daughter in preschool, exposed to all those nasty little kid germs.  And now those weekly or bi-weekly visits to Grandma’s have turned into almost daily occurrences (thanks to her move to the retirement home here in town).  I don’t want us to be a germ factory getting HER sick on top of everything else. 

Why the change in the age recommendations?  Previously, flu shots were recommended primarily for children under the age of 5 - the preschoolers - which of course makes sense (little kids - sharing toys - no real nose-blowing skills - we all know what it is like).  But there is actually a higher rate of infections with young people ages 5-18. 

As LA Times Staff Writer, Shari Roan, points out:

Physicians hope that vaccinating kids en masse will not only spare thousands of them from the aches and pains of flu, missed school days and hospitalizations, but also will hinder the spread of illness throughout the rest of society – parents, grandparents, baby-sitters, neighbors, teachers, coaches, office workers, healthcare personnel, bus drivers, and on and on. 

 from "Flu-fighting efforts focus on getting kids immunized”

However, right next to that article was another one talking of the reasons why some parents were choosing NOT to.  What do we (as smart, caring, attentive parents) do?

I called our pediatrician’s office this morning to see what their practice was recommending.  They are recommending the flu shot.  After all I have read, I went ahead and made the appointment.  I guess this Zen Mama Wannabe is buying into the public health officials’ argument.  I don’t want my kids to miss school (like today – agh! It is starting already!) or have our regular routines interrupted.  I don't want my kids to feel crummy like only the flu makes you feel.  Right now, my daughter doesn't understand why she is coughing up phlegm from her throat but it bothers her so that every time she coughs, she cries!  And as she coughs all over me, it reminds me that I especially don’t want to get sick (as all women know, Mama is the kingpin that holds the family framework together – and when Mama’s sick, it’s hard on everybody – especially Mama!).  And lastly, I don’t want my mom to catch anything from us.  It seems like kid germs hit adults hard and the elderly are especially vulnerable. 

Will this flu shot prevent all those things from happening?  Maybe – or maybe not.  Maybe we will still get sick, but not as bad or for as long.  Maybe it will help us stay healthy all winter.  Maybe it won’t work at all.  Regardless, I am willing to try for the sake of the greater good.  Will I be seeing you and your kids in the waiting room??

How to Save a Life

The posters were plastered all around town.  Between drops-offs at school and quick (ha!) visits to the post office and the grocery store, you could not pretend to ignore the request.  Her beautiful 6-year old eyes radiated off the signs – even off the front page of the local newspaper.  The story was a simple one: this sweet little girl has leukemia and is in need of a bone marrow donor.  By coming to this neighborhood bone marrow drive and doing a quick cheek-swab, you would become part of the national marrow donor directory.  You might just be able to save this little girl’s life – or someone else who is similarly in need.   If someone asked YOU, would you do it?  Would you choose to save a life?

In talking to other parents in the days leading up to this local event, here are some “concerns” we came up with.  Do any of them match your own? 

• I’d like to help but I am just so busy right now. (The cheek swabs take less than a minute.  EVERYBODY has a minute.  As I heard someone say, “I don’t have the time” takes on a completely different meaning to the over 6,000 patients who check the national registry on any given day, just hoping and praying for a life-saving match.)

• I am a busy _____ (mother, father, executive, sole bread-winner, etc. -- fill in the blank) and I can’t be tied up in bed for a week or two recovering if I was chosen as a match.  (The majority of donations do not involve surgery.  The more commonly used peripheral blood stem cell donation is a non-surgical outpatient procedure.  If marrow is needed, it is a needle aspiration surgical procedure, again usually outpatient. Recovery is relatively quick.)

• Ugh, I don’t do well with needles and blood and that whole thing.  (Does a 6-year old - whose regular life has now been turned upside down and is dealing with chemo and needles and tubes and drips  - do well with it either?)

• I just know that if I do this, I will be the one chosen.  (There are nearly 14.5 million donors in the bone marrow registry.  Yet, only approximately 2,000-3,000 procedures are done each year.  That is how hard it is to get a match!)

• I thought the best chance of a match was from family members.  (You have only a 1 in 4 chance that a sibling or family member would be a match for you.  Over two-thirds of the patients needing a bone marrow transplant do not have a match in their family.) 

The deciding factor that pushed this Zen Mama Wannabe over the top was my own children.  My kids are healthy (and I thank God for this – believe me, I do)!  I am so fortunate.  But what if it was MY child that was sick and in need?  I would do e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g I possibly could.  And I would want EVERYONE to do the same.  So how can I not participate in this?  Think karma or pay it forward. How can you choose not to try?

With slight hesitation, my husband and I went to the bone marrow drive that day.  We left with tears in our eyes and love in our hearts, feeling so humbled – and proud to be a part of it.  I now HOPE I get chosen as a match!  What an honor that would be to be able to offer such a gift. 

So what about you??  What do YOU say?  Are you reading this thinking that you too would have gone and done the cheek swab, paid the small lab fee and become a part of the national donor registry like we did?  That you would not have hesitated to offer the possibility of the gift of life?

Well, great news!  You CAN participate online, wherever you are – and from now until September 22 it is FREE -- thanks to the NASCAR Foundation.  So no excuses – here’s what you need to do:

Click this link – which should take you right to the sign-up page – or follow these simple steps:

Go to Nascar.com/foundation
Click on Programs/Events
Click on Blood and Marrow drive
Follow the link to donate ON-LINE (at the bottom of all the race track dates, click where it says ONLINE MARROW REGISTRATION)

A cheek swab kit will be sent to you in the mail.  You do your own test and mail it back.  EASY!

If you miss the September 22nd deadline, you can still get a kit through www.marrow.org for $52 or contact the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for drives being held in your area. 

Lastly, for those of you with kids, this turned out to be one of those great “teaching” moments that parents always hope to get.  My son had a LOT of questions (as all 7-year olds seem to do) and it gave me the opportunity to not only talk about it, but to SHOW him and his sister that this is what Daddy and I were willing to do.  If they were sick, we would do everything and anything to try and help them get better.  Right now, this little girl is sick (as are the many others out there) and we want to do what we can to help them.  What a special thing to teach; what an empowering message for our kids to learn.   

What about you?  It just takes a simple click of the mouse.  Won't you SHOW that it is a gift you can offer too?

 

Please note:  You need to be between the ages of 18 and 60 to become a donor.  (If you are not, please still pass this along to everyone you know)!