Meniere’s Disease Vs. A 17 Year Old – Who Is Winning?

(Image via Ventura County Star)

There are many of us with inner ear disorders. We know all too well that little is known about the various disorders. There is little research being done. And it quickly becomes frustratingly apparent that when we go to our doctors for help, we find that there is not that much help for us.

Everyone is affected differently, from mild to severe, but there are many consistencies. Vertigo, tinnitus, disequilibrium, nausea and hearing loss are only a few of the side effects.  It is a life-changing invisible chronic illness in so many ways. It affects many of us daily. It is so bad and unrelenting that some people have had to give up their jobs, their normal routines and their social life. The reduced mobility that comes with an inner ear disorder also has a domino effect on other areas of a person’s health – muscle weakness, a lower tolerance to colds and flues and the increased risk of other diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.

And this brings me back to the question in the blog post title “Meniere’s Disease Vs. A 17 Year Old – Who Is Winning?”.  It may be 17 year old Samir Malhotra who is helping to bring us one step closer to discovering what causes Meniere’s Disease. This article from the Ventura County Star explains how Samir, while working on a peer group project for his anatomy class as well as a science fair project, has possibly discovered a cause of Meniere’s Disease! In the article, Ivan Axel López, adjunct professor of surgery, division of head and neck, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, says:

“His project was related to propose a model of how water movement is regulated in the human inner ear, and how a disbalance in water transport affects inner ear function,” López said. “He writes excellent abstracts and significantly contributes to the elaboration of research reports. In addition, he is a co-author of a manuscript recently submitted to the Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Journal. This manuscript is the first one to report the presence of cochlin (a protein unique to the inner ear) in vestibular endorgans (definition follows) obtained at surgery from patients diagnosed with a debilitating hearing disorder called Meniere’s disease.”

This definition of endorgan  (found at the bottom of the page) is from http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com 

end organ,

n the expanded termination of a nerve fiber in muscle, skin, mucous membrane, or other structure.

end organ, proprioceptor,

n.pl the sensory end organs, located mainly in the muscles, tendons, and labyrinth, that provide information on the movements and position of the body. Four specific end organs are the muscle spindles; Golgi corpuscles, stimulated by tension; Pacini’s corpuscles, stimulated by pressure; and bare nerve endings, stimulated by pain.

end organ, sensory,

n the sensory nerve fibers that end peripherally as either unmyelinated fibers or special structures called receptors. Receptors are situated in the skin, mucous membranes, muscles, tendons, joints, and other structures and also in such special sense organs as those for vision, hearing, smell, and taste. The receptors are organized into a system that relates them to the environment: exteroceptors, interoceptors, and proprioceptors.

Samir has applied to all the Ivy League schools as well as UCLA. He loves research and people so he may be combining medicine and research as a dual career. Here’s wishing him and his future colleagues much success in their research and maybe one of us may have Samir as our doctor one day.

Sunday Quotes – Anais Nin

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Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age.

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How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.

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I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing.

Happy Halloween – A Haunted Dollhouse You Have To See

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Jenny Lawson, who you may know in the web world as The Bloggess, has been making her own haunted dollhouse for the past 11 years that is filled with references to horror/fantasy books and movies. You will find witches and skeletons, dragons, a hidden passageway, the picture of Dorian Grey, Dorothy’s ruby red slippers, a ouija board and tarot cards. There are two links in her post that has pictures of her dollhouse. There is also her Flicker page if you would like to see a few more pictures in a slideshow. All the better to see more larger and more detailed pictures.

Jenny has done an amazing job taking her love of horror/fantasy books and movies and transformed it into a dollhouse wonderland. If you are a fan of horror and fantasy, take a look at the slide shows and see how many references to various books and movies you can find.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Food Porn Friday – It’s National Chocolate Day

The National Confectioners Association has declared October 28  as National Chocolate Day. If you check the candy holidays list on their site, you may notice that every month has some type of chocolate holiday and rightfully so. In fact, last year I did a post about National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day which included a slide show from  WebMD about the history of chocolate. Because WebMD is exactly where I go for my chocolate history. They do have some pictures of chocolate. I also added a few pictures of chocolate. You know, for visual appeal.

Here’s a reminder of one of the pictures.

And here’s another for the fashionistas in the crowd.

Now, before you run to the kitchen to start making your sinfully delicious concoctions, a wonderful site to visit is allchocolate.com. Along with all the great information and recipes, there is a cooking with chocolate 101 page  you can check out to learn some of the basics of cooking with chocolate.

(Image via calgarypubliclibrary.com)

Now that you’ve  read some tips and techniques, let the drooling and planning begin.

Here’s a list of 101 chocolate recipes from Homemakers.com that range from cakes, bars and brownies to puddings, ice cream and drinks.

Several companies that produce chocolate also include recipes on their websites. Hershey’s, Cadbury, Ghiradelli and Lindt are only a few that have recipes and tips on their websites.

And YouTube always has some helpful videos if you prefer watching how treats are made. This video for Chocolate Rum Balls uses rum flavouring as an option if you don’t want to use the real thing.

There are times when having a chocolate cake within reach isn’t the greatest of ideas. But, what do you do if all you want is a slice. How about chocolate cake in a mug.

I have given chocolate bark as Christmas gifts, it is so easy. Sometimes I only used the milk and white chocolate (as seen at the beginning of this video) to make marble bark or I’ve exchanged the milk chocolate with peppermint-flavour dark chocolate chips. My favourite is milk chocolate and macadamia nuts but you can have so much fun experimenting and it’s ridiculously easy to make.

If you want something different from the much-maligned fruit cake, try this white chocolate and dried fruit bark. This is a segment from a news show so you can skip the first 25 seconds or so to see how it’s made and the finished product.

I hope you find something you like – no, I can’t help you with the people in the pictures at top – and remember to pace yourselves. No need to overindulge. Or share if you don’t want to.

Wednesday Words Of Wisdom

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The Invitation

by

Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dreams
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon…
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your
fingers and toes
without cautioning us to
be careful
be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence
I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand on the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after a night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the center of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Sunday Quotes – Trust

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Depend upon yourself. Make your judgement trustworthy by trusting it. You can develop good judgement as you do the muscles of your body – by judicious, daily exercise. To be known as a man of sound judgement will be much in your favor.

Grantland Rice

I can trust my friends These people force me to examine myself, encourage me to grow.

Cher

If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level.

Rita Dove

Trust is to human relationships what faith is to gospel living. It is the beginning place, the foundation upon which more can be built. Where trust is, love can flourish.

Barbara Smith

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Funny Cats And Dogs

Since yesterday’s post was of the serious variety, I thought today’s post should have a much lighter feel. Enjoy.

(Image via nupxl.com)

(Image via misscellania.com)

(Image via icanhascheezburger.com)

(Image via dogs.icanhascheezburger.com)

(Image via lolcaption.com)

(Image via justcapshunz.icanhascheezburger.com)

Estate And Financial Planning For People With Chronic Illness

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We all have plans and dreams for the future.  Many times, those of us with chronic illnesses  see our plans and dreams change or end due to our illnesses. But, something many people are hesitant to think about is estate and financial planning.

The week of October 17 – 23, 2011 is designated National Estate Planning Awareness Week. Forbes.com has an article about estate and financial planning. The article highlights the work of estate planner Marty Shenkman,  whose wife Patti was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2006. They wanted to customize Patti’s financial and estate plans, but found that they couldn’t. So Marty created different ways.

As part of National Estate Planning Awareness Week, Marty is sharing his knowledge of estate planning for those with a chronic illness webinar titled “Estate and Financial Planning For People Living With Multiple Sclerosis.” Even though it is titled for people with MS, it would benefit anyone with a chronic illness. The following are the 12 steps for estate and financial planning that will be discussed in the webinar.

1. Organize your emergency information and information about your advisors.
2. Designate a person to handle your financial and legal issues by creating a power of attorney.
3. Designate a person to make health care decisions and access medical records by creating a health care proxy.
4. Communicate your health care wishes by creating a living will.
5. Protect your minor children with an emergency child medical form.
6. Sign a will.
7. Create a personalized (not boilerplate) revocable living trust to manage your assets during your disability or illness.
8. Ensure that your insurance coverage is in order.
9. File your beneficiary designations and confirm title to your accounts.
10. Give back so you can demonstrate important values to heirs, help others, and inspire others.
11. Communicate your estate and financial plan to your advisors, family, and friends.
12. Review, revisit, and revise your plan so it can continue to protect you.

The Forbes.com article also has links to a variety of resources for those who want more information. Also, this press release lists other webinars Marty is involved with during the week  for consumers and professionals to help with estate and financial planning for those with chronic illness.

Have you planned for the future or have you been putting it off for another day?

Sunday Quotes – Arthur Ashe

(Image via aids.harvard.edu)

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

I have tried to keep on with my striving because this is the only hope I have of ever achieving anything worthwhile and lasting.

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I keep sailing on in this middle passage. I am sailing into the wind and the dark. But I am doing my best to keep my boat steady and my sails full.

Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time.

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You’ve got to get to the stage in life where going for it is more important than winning or losing.

Why The Hell Not!

Why The Hell Not!  are  posts  I’m going to do from time to time to remind, not only those of us with chronic illnesses, but for all of us to do something for ourselves.  Something you may not have thought of doing or something you have wanted to do for a long time. Nothing is too silly or frivolous. The time to do something for yourself is now because…why the hell not!

JUST BREATHE!

Had one of those weekends where the smallest of things upset me. The best thing I could do for myself was to inhale and exhale…inhale and exhale…

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