Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Headlines, Medical, H1N1 Vaccine,

Two of the headlines making the rounds at the moment: was Michael Jackson's death involuntary manslaughter by his personal doctor? Also the pictures and news of the Bachelorette and her new fiancĂ©. If you don't have the that programme in your neck of the woods, it's all about one girl and a bunch of guys trying to find true love. This current Bachelorette was also on the Bachelor (same type of programme) and, a year ago, was purportedly in love with the current Bachelor. I therefore wonder how long this engagement will last. Still she had at least three proposals on the programme!!! I have yet to discover that you can guarantee true love throwing a bunch of people together for several weeks or even months. People actually watch these programmes week after week. A more important headline is the H1N1 (swine flu) virus and whether it will be readily available when flu season really hits us. There is a video clip at GMA's site which talks about the situation. It appears that pregnant women and young children are most vulnerable to the illness so they are likely to target them first. Pregnancy is vulnerable to any flu virus, but this one is worse they report. We usually have a flu shot every winter, hopefully there will be plenty available by October or November. At least our granddaughter has had it and is fine. In fact it doesn't sound as though she was that ill from the way she was complaining on Facebook about not being at school for the last week LOL. This morning I was up at the crack of dawn to go to the clinic to have blood work done. I got a letter yesterday from a doctor I was referred to three month's ago. I now have an appointment for next March - 2010 that is. I have to have similar blood tests done before the appointment so I checked and they suggested I ask the docs if they mind copy reports. Yesterday we had the car serviced and Matt decided to have the transmission checked etc. so that was another $220 - we don't seem to be able to have work on the car without a biggish bill. Oh I forgot, we did manage to sit in the sun for a while yesterday, but this morning its raining and thundering again. We shouldn't have a water shortage any time soon at least, unlike some parts of the world. I like what Thai food I have eaten, not a lot I confess. I even have a Thai cook book which I have never even attempted to cook from, we do have lots of Thai restaurants in Kitchener though. This one is from Eating Well once more and I just might save it until I get some shrimp from North Carolina, it is fresher and tastes better. Spicy Thai Shrimp Salad Makes 4 servings 2 tablespoons lime juice 4 teaspoons fish sauce (see Note) 1 tablespoon canola oil 2 teaspoons light brown sugar ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper 1 pound cooked and peeled small shrimp 1 cup thinly sliced red, yellow and/or orange bell pepper 1 cup seeded and thinly sliced cucumber ¼ cup mixed chopped fresh herbs, such as basil, cilantro and/or mint Whisk lime juice, fish sauce, oil, brown sugar and crushed red pepper in a large bowl. Add shrimp, bell pepper, cucumber and fresh herbs; toss to coat. Note: Fish sauce is a pungent Southeast Asian condiment made from salted, fermented fish. Find it in the Asian section of large supermarkets and in Asian specialty markets. We use Thai Kitchen fish sauce, lower in sodium than other brands (1,190 mg per tablespoon), in our nutritional analyses. Nutrition Information Per serving: 170 calories; 5 g fat (1 g sat, 2 g mono); 221 mg cholesterol; 6 g carbohydrate; 25 g protein; 1 g fiber; 652 mg sodium; 315 mg potassium. Nutrition bonus: Vitamin C (60% daily value), Vitamin A (25% dv), Iron (21% dv). 1/2 Carbohydrate Serving Exchange: 3 lean meat, 1 vegetable, 1 fat Have a great day.

7 comments:

  1. There are very many theories of how and why MJ died. One's assisted suicide. I think this is going to be another Marilyn Monroe/Jack Kennedy/Elvis Presley/Diana thing: we will all have our own idea about how and why they died.

    As for swine flu, I fear that it's only just begun ...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, I think you're right Marilyn on both counts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. About 4 1/2 years ago, we were at a friend's house. The girls were playing outside at the edge of the woods. The next morning I discovered a tick imbedded in her arm. The doctor had to remove it. Five days later, she was diagnosed with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. It was a harrowing time!

    ReplyDelete
  4. How odd, I had never heard of that fever before tonite, on Jeopardy, then you mention it too.

    Must have been pretty awful, especially for the child. Where was this, in NJ? I was always a bit scared at the back of my mind when we lived in NC, but these days we don't go anywhere where they might be.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes, it was here in NJ that she contracted the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. She was very sick the first few days with 105 fever. She had to go everyday the first week for bloodwork. There was the medicine. It was a harrowing first week, then after the fever subsided, things went better. After the first week of blood tests, then it was every other day, then twice a week, then once, etc. until she finally didn't have to go anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bad time for the whole family then. I hate ticks.

    ReplyDelete
  7. My daughter sure is paranoid about ticks, that's for sure.

    ReplyDelete