May, 2009

Planning ahead

It is important to plan ahead when travelling with children. This can make all the difference between an enjoyable holiday and a nerve-wrecking disaster for all.

Make sure when booking that you choose accommodation that is safe for children Check for hazards such as balconies, stairs and swimming pools. Enquire what facilities are available for children. A nearby playground can provide free entertainment when parents need to rest. Make sure the place that you stay in welcomes children, and that your children can run around without bothering other guests.

Children are often fussy eaters. If your child has certain food preferences check in advance the sort of food available where you will be staying. You may like to take some food along with you. If your child requires medication of any sort, be sure to take an adequate supply along with you. If your child uses an asthma pump when he- is unwell, be sure to take it along also. In addition, always have your parent-held record with you in case you need to take your child to the doctor or the hospital while away.

*117\90\8*

The Sweetheart: Sweethearts seem to be trying to “sweeten” the disease away by overcompliance to any and all medical suggestions and requests. This same pattern continues in the marital sex, as they attempt to please their partner. “I have never turned him down. Even when I am sick as hell from the chemotherapy, I’ll still do something.” This wife reported a continued effort to be “nice” sexually and in every other way. “The doctor forgot what he told me about the medicine, but he is a very busy man. I am not his only patient. I understand.”

Research in healing indicates that such compliance is as potentially detrimental to coping with disease as is the unrelenting battle of the Hero. Providing sex as a favor, as an obligation to a partner, only serves to alienate the spouse, who in turn may pull away sexually. A balance between compliance and educated, modulated resistance to the disease process seems to be healthiest for any patient, and such a balance is promoted by a continued sexual interaction where there is alternating give-and-take. “I wish she would be a little nasty sometimes, you know. She is so damned sweet I almost feel guilty having sex with her.” This husband’s report points out the need for balance and what can happen to the spouse of the Sweetheart patient.

The Sweetheart patient puts herself or himself at risk. The medical industry can kill you if you fail to represent yourself, fail to ask questions and hold professionals accountable. Being obnoxious in the hospital or when you are being treated will not make you popular, but being too nice might get you ignored. Again, the issue is balance.

There are certainly many other forms of adjustment to illness. Try to understand how you are being ill, your sickness strategy, and you will learn much about how you might get well.

*268\97\8*

Every person asked this question had » very specific answer. Intercourse is not something we take lightly, even though we talk very crudely about it sometimes. Share your first intercourse experience with your partner. It will be difficult, but again a necessary step for super marital sex. Being happily married does not require the level of disclosure required on this test, but this book is a program for super marital sex, and for this, such vulnerability is necessary.

“I’ll tell you, it was crazy and quick,” reported the husband. “A bunch of the guys got together, got drunk, and went to this place. This woman was there. We all took a turn. What a wild time. I don’t know how I got it done.”

“Mine was after the prom,” said his wife. “I only remember my hoopskirt up in the air like som0 stupid tent. I couldn’t see anything.

To tell the truth, I don’t know if he ever really got in me. It might have been between the seat and my butt. I worried for weeks until I got my period.”

Clearly, these initiations to intercourse become “main roads” on our love map, and unless we study and learn from them, no detours to better routes are possible.

*94\97\8*

Soft sore or soft chancre produces a painful ulcer on the genitals.

The pain tenderness and soft feel of chancroid distinguish it from the painless hard chancre of primary syphilis. It responds well to tetracyclines and also the sulphonamides.

Granuloma inguinale or Donovanosis is rarely seen in temperate countries. It is endemic among the Aboriginals of central and northern Australia and is common around Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. It has an incubation period of one to four weeks. It causes painless blisters or small papules on the skin of the genitals or thighs which then become raised and irregular and may break down and ulcerate. These lesions heal slowly and may leave marked scarring. Penicillin is not effective but the condition responds to the tetracyclines.

*597/71/1*

The mature doctor will accept that death is inevitable, and will help his patients to approach it. But actively to push the patient across that threshold is another thing altogether.

Most doctors would accept the principle that one should not use extraordinary means to prolong life if that life has lost its “quality.”

But here the definition becomes obscure. For what is “quality” of life?

In the U.S. the medical profession has been confused by the always-present threat of a malpractice suit.

Fortunately, this is rare in Australia.

When you discuss euthanasia, either in support of it or not, you will need to consider who it is who makes the final decision — the patient, the patient’s family, the patient’s doctor, a panel of doctors or lay people, or perhaps a concensus of all of these.

But you will also need to discuss who will do the deed — the patient’s own doctor, or a specially licensed doctor — who carries out this procedure when requested.

God help him.

*340/71/1*

Being a bacterial illness it responds to antibiotics, although the organism is resistant to penicillin.

Pertussis vaccine is present in the triple antigen and is given to children starting at eight weeks of age. The greatest threat to children from whooping cough is to those under 12 months old.

Older children tolerate whooping cough much better, but may be affected by severe side effects from the vaccine.

The whooping cough part of triple antigen is usually not given to those over 12 months old. When immunisation is necessary, the CDT (combined diphtheria and tetanus) vaccine is used instead.

Cough suppressants are of little use trying to control whooping cough, but the child will usually respond fairly quickly once antibiotics are given.

*90/71/1*