Doreen McGettigan

I cannot believe no one ever told me about these until a few of them happened to me and I asked.

Uterine, bladder, intestine or bowel prolapse– Apparantly a very common condition but if you have no idea what is happening it is terrifying. A prolapsed happens when the uterus, bladder, intestine or bowel has moved from its normal position in the abdominal cavity into a different position, usually a lower position. Prolapse may occur because of underlying weak muscles or simply as a result of repeated term pregnancies. It can cause pelvic pain. A prolapsed uterus can be treated by inserting a stabilizing device into the vagina called a pessary. Sometimes surgery is required.

Reflux– Another extremely common condition that I have heard of but had no idea it could cause a sore throat actually feeling like you are gargling with glass. The return of stomach contents can back up into the esophagus. This frequently causes heartburn because of irritation of the esophagus by stomach acid. 80% of patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease also have a hiatal hernia.

Migraine, insomnia, night sweats– We have all heard about hot flashes occurring with menopause but did you know that the drop in hormones can cause severe migraines, chronic insomnia or waking up completely soaking wet and needing to change the sheets as well as your pj’s.

Bladder Incontinence– We are seeing commercials for this problem but when it actually happens to you it is frightening and embarrassing. Urinary incontinence — the loss of bladder control — is a common and often embarrassing problem. The severity ranges from occasionally leaking urine when you cough or sneeze to having an urge to urinate that’s so sudden and strong you don’t get to a toilet in time.

Intestinal blockage– This condition can be extremely dangerous. Intestinal obstruction is a partial or complete blockage of the bowel. The contents of the intestine cannot pass through it. There are numerous causes of this type of obstruction. Some are simple to treat and others, require major surgery.

Pelvic Congestion– One third of all women have this painful condition.  Pelvic Congestion Syndrome is similar to varicose veins in the legs. In both cases, the valves in the veins that help return blood to the heart malfunction and don’t close properly allowing blood to flow backwards and pool in the veins causing bulging veins, pressure, pain and discomfort. In the pelvis, varicose veins can cause pain and may affect the uterus, ovaries and vulva.

Shortly after New Year’s I woke up in the middle of the night with one of those leg cramps that goes all the way down to your toes. My toes were actually stuck and no matter what I did it hurt. It happened the next night and the night after that. I Googled leg cramps. The ‘simplest’ reason for cramping was dehydration, so I drank water. The leg cramps stopped but I started being woken up during the night with painful heartburn. The cramps came back and I developed a bulge in my pelvis, heaviness in my legs and several other unpleasant symptoms the worst of which was pain.  It is a non-stop throbbing ache. Four doctors, numerous tests and three days in the hospital left me with no diagnosis. The first five conditions above were ruled out. Pelvic Congestion Syndrome is difficult to diagnose and sadly some women suffer for years before it is detected. There is non- invasive treatment available but some cases require a hysterectomy. I am hoping the non-invasive treatment works for me.

Symptoms of Pelvic Congestion

Chronic pain that is dull and aching usually felt in the lower abdomen and lower back. The pain often increases during the following times:

• Following intercourse
• When tired or when standing (worse at end of day)
• Other symptoms include Leg cramps
• Irritable bladder
• Irittable bowel
• nausea
• Vaginal discharge
• Varicose veins on vulva, buttocks or thigh.

Thank you for reading,

Doreen

Today’s post is part of the annual A-to-Z Blogging Challenge. Each day of April (except Sunday,) we write a post corresponding with that day’s letter of the alphabet. For more information on the challenge and its creator visit:

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com

My theme for this years’ A-Z Challenge is An Intimate Look at the Homeless and Mental Health Epidemic in America which just happens to be the subtitle of my next book, The Stranger in My Recliner. The book is the true story of Sophie.  She was the eighty-year-old homeless woman that my husband brought home one night. She lived with us for nearly three –years. The book will be out this fall.

Pawning off our elderly and mentally ill…

Not that long ago, as a society we locked away our family members that were deemed mentally ill, developmentally challenged or sickly and elderly. We locked them far away from the rest of us and our civilized society. We put them in dark, cold asylums. In the 1500’s prior to having actual asylums to commit them to they were put on asylum ships.  Back then these were known as the ships of fools. These ships roamed the seas and stopped from port to port only to pick up supplies and more fools. Can you imagine who the people were that they hired to work on those ships? I am quite sure they were plucked from the crop of the least employable. Some of the workers were lifelong criminals. They were given the chance to be sentenced to the prison ship or to work on the ship of fools. Why not get rid of two of society’s ills on one ship.

Some families, although very few back then kept their feebleminded relatives locked away in the attics or the basements of their own homes for their entire lifetimes to protect them and to keep them safe from the horrors of those ships and asylums.

During the 1600 and 1700’s the practice of exiling our mentally ill from ordinary society continued. The purpose of this treatment was to remove and isolate the less desirable from society, rather than to try curing them or at least trying to help them with their symptoms. It wasn’t until the early 1900’s that a more compassionate attitude towards the mentally ill started to emerge but isolation was still the ‘normal’ treatment.

During the 1950’s most of the country’s state hospitals were ordered closed and they literally opened the doors and let everyone out. Homelessness was born.

Today’s post is part of the annual A-to-Z Blogging Challenge. Each day of April (except Sunday,) we write a post corresponding with that day’s letter of the alphabet. For more information on the challenge and its creator visit:

Women started to enter the workforce around that time too. This left no one to care for aging parents so instead of asylums they built nursing homes. They built beautiful ‘assisted’ living facilities and led us to believe our parents would be well taken care of.

They are not being well taken care of at all. I spend a lot of time working in these facilities. Recently I have been working in the most ‘expensive’ facility in the area. I have seen an elderly man fall and lay on the floor moaning for twenty-minutes before somebody arrived to assist him. The nurse yelled at him. He was sent to the hospital and never returned.

The aides put elderly people on the toilet and leave them sitting for 15-20 minutes sometimes an hour. My client was so tired of sitting she went to get up and fell. They picked her up, put her in her wheel chair and left her alone in her room for 2-hours. I put ice on her bruises and demanded an ambulance, immediately.  I believe it was because ‘the State’ was in the building investigating cases of neglect and they did not want them to see a case first hand.

They are SO lucky she is going to be okay. No they really aren’t lucky because I am on a mission now to see that the management is fired, again. It just happened, 7-months ago. The corruption returned fast.

If one of your loved ones is in one of these facilities please visit often and at odd hours. Your loved one is most likely not going to complain. You have to look for other signs. Bruises, weight loss and depression are definitely a sign something is off.

Ask to see the nursing reports, medications sheets and even the aide’s logs of when they were taken to the bathroom, had their positions changed and what they ate. Learn who the facilities ombudsman (the mediator) is so you don’t have to ask when something does go wrong.

Are you caring for an elderly relative? Have you had a bad or a good experience with a nursing, rehabilitation or assisted living facility?

Thank you for reading,

Doreen

I’m one of Lisa’s Live Wires! Lisa is a challenge co-host Lisa Buie-Collard

My fellow live wires:

Rhonda Albom –   Bob R. Milne –   Tamera Narayan –  Stephanie Faris –   Heather McCubbin –   Randi Lee

Today’s post is part of the annual A-to-Z Blogging Challenge. Each day of April (except Sunday,) we write a post corresponding with that day’s letter of the alphabet. For more information on the challenge and its creator visit:

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com

Today we are 1/2 way through the alphabet!

My theme for this years’ A-Z Challenge is An Intimate Look at the Homeless and Mental Health Epidemic in America which just happens to be the subtitle of my next book, The Stranger in My Recliner. The book is the true story of Sophie.  She was the eighty-year-old homeless woman that my husband brought home one night. She lived with us for nearly three –years. The book will be out this fall.

Money, Money, Money

How much does homelessness cost taxpayers and how much will it cost to eradicate the homeless problem?

If you have been following my A-Z Challenge posts you know that I get so frustrated when people choose to complicate the answer to the problem of homelessness.

Homeless people need homes, period. Once they have a home they are not homeless and the problem is solved, period.

A lot of government officials, churches and charity’s still believe that raising and spending millions of tax payer and private dollars on shelters, referral agencies and programs makes perfect sense. It makes no sense at all. I think the truth is those people believe it is easier to control homeless people when they are all living under one roof. It reminds me of the way minorities were housed not that many shameful years ago. Let’s keep them all in one area so we can keep an eye on them.

The fact is a homeless person living on the street can cost up to $80,000 a year. The costs comes from emergency room visits, hospital stays, jail stays, first responders, addiction treatment, mental health treatment and state or county assistance.

To house a homeless person in a shelter for a year the cost averages around $42,000 a year. Because they have a roof over their head and are eating more regularly they do not get as sick. Shelters are expensive to run so a lot of the cost is administrative but don’t get me started on that foolishness.

To place a homeless person in an apartment would cost $9,600 a year. To provide them with a social worker is $2000 a year (social worker makes $40,000 a year and has 20 clients.) Add $1000 a month for expenses and we are up to $23,600 a year.

Kudos to, Beyonce for realizing that homes are the answer and donating 7 million dollars over many years in the Houston area as part of that city’s 100,000 homes campaign. Her and her husband Jay Z are brilliant business people. They were not going to throw their money at the problem and hope it helped. They solved the problem.

Beyonce’s-Temenos Place Apartments has space available for 43 individuals, and houses men and women who otherwise would likely be homeless. The facility supports its residents by providing meals, job readiness training, HIV/AIDS screenings and case management services, with an overall goal for residents to reach full self-sufficiency.

Houston has seen significant progress in its fight against homelessness. A 2014 Houston Homeless Count showed that on a given night about 5,351 people in the city were living without stable shelter — a 37 percent drop from 2011.

There are so many misconceptions about the homeless. The most ridiculous to me are they choose to live on the streets and they deserve to be there.  Being homeless is terrifying and dehumanizing. The one thing a homeless person might have left is pride and that pride makes it difficult for them to ask for help.

To learn more about Beyonce’s, project or to donate: http://www.temenoscdc.org

Thank you for reading,

Doreen

I’m one of Lisa’s Live Wires! Lisa is a challenge co-host Lisa Buie-Collard

My fellow live wires:

Rhonda Albom –   Bob R. Milne –   Tamera Narayan –  Stephanie Faris –   Heather McCubbin –   Randi Lee

Today’s post is part of the annual A-to-Z Blogging Challenge. For more information on the challenge and its creator visit:

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com

My theme this year is An Intimate Look at the Homeless and Mental Health Epidemic in America which just happens to be the subtitle of my next book, The Stranger in My Recliner. The book is the true story of Sophie.  She was the eighty-year-old homeless woman that my husband brought home one night. She lived with us for nearly three –years. The book will be out this fall.

Jails, Justice and Homelessness

Did you know that if you become homeless you are pretty much considered a criminal by law enforcement and most communities? It is illegal pretty much everywhere to sleep outside, to loiter to beg and now it is becoming illegal to feed the homeless people on public property.

These laws that cause the homeless to be jailed and processed through the justice system do nothing to alleviate the problem of homelessness. In fact the fines and court cost pile up causing the homeless to be repeatedly jailed because they cannot pay the fines which results in higher fines, more court costs and this only causes the homeless person to be in an unending cycle of poverty. It also sucks up government, political and private resources that could be used elsewhere.

One community in Florida spent more than five-million-dollars over a five-year period jailing, prosecuting and re-jailing the same thirty-six people over and over. That doesn’t count the other millions spent on ambulances, emergency rooms and mental health facilities. It makes no sense morally and less sense fiscally. The town could have rented thirty-six apartments, provided thirty-six social workers, mental health services, addiction services, financial counseling and most likely well before five-years would have money left over and could have had thirty-six tax- paying, upstanding members of their community.

It is amazing what a hand up instead of a hand down can do for those whose self-esteem and confidence have been beaten out of them mentally and sometimes physically. Soup kitchens and shelters do not make the homeless feel good about themselves. Most of them are dangerous places. Sure they might be a band-aid but the only people that feel good about them are the people that think these places actually make a difference. They really don’t.

Our police communities are overwhelmed. Their budgets and manpower have been cut severely. They deal with violent criminals, domestic violence situations, child abusers, are the first on scene to deadly accidents seeing horrific sights, witness young people killing each other and they get calls about homeless people. One homeless person sleeping in a park can generate hundreds of calls to the police from mothers walking the children in the park, employees eating lunch the park, vendors trying to do business, dog walkers and joggers. Not all homeless people are mentally ill and not all mentally ill people are dangerous but let’s face facts, some are. All of those people that call the police have a right and deserve to use the public park the way it was intended to be used without fear.

The homeless also have rights. The police routinely do what they call sweeps. They go through public properties and confiscate or destroy the possessions of homeless people and their shelters with the hope the homeless will move on. If they don’t they are arrested. The UN has called the United States out on this practice. It does violate the homeless person’s fourth-amendment right to illegal search and seizure.

Three states have introduced bills to stop this practice. California, Oregon and Colorado are trying to ensure people can eat, pray and occupy a motor vehicle as long as they are not obstructing passage or are on private property without the owners’ permission.

Most people think the answer is complicated. It’s not. Homeless people need homes. That is pretty simple.

What can you do to help?

Only donate to programs that work towards permanent housing for the homeless.

Before donating to a shelter ask what their policies are. Do young woman have to prove they are at risk on the street before they can stay? Do they accept pets? Do they have programs that lead to permanent housing? What is their crime rate? Are they open 24/7 or do the homeless have to leave first thing in the morning? If you are not comfortable with the answers do not give them your money. Find a program that actually offers a hand up.

Thank you for reading,

Doreen

I’m one of Lisa’s Live Wires! Lisa is a challenge co-host Lisa Buie-Collard.

I am excited to be working with this bunch of fabulous bloggers …

Rhonda Albom –   Bob R. Milne –   Tamera Narayan –  Stephanie Faris –   Heather McCubbin –   Randi Lee

*homeless man on bench: *Photograph: Tony Eves / Alamy/Alamy

Today’s post is part of the annual A-to-Z Blogging Challenge. For more information on the challenge and its creator visit:

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com

My theme this year is An Intimate Look at the Homeless and Mental Health Epidemic in America which just happens to be the subtitle of my next book, The Stranger in My Recliner. The book is the true story of Sophie.  She was the eighty-year-old homeless woman that my husband brought home one night. She lived with us for nearly three –years. The book will be out this fall.

Indigent-

adjective (Formal) destitute, poor, impoverished, needy, penniless, poverty-stricken, down and out, so poor as to lack even necessities; very needy,in want, down at heel (informal), impecunious, dirt-poor, straitened, on the breadline, short, flat broke (informal), penurious, necessitous

One of my readers called me the other night and told me this story. She needed a place to live for herself and her elderly mother. A friend suggested she take over the lease on her trailer. The woman moved herself, her mother, her dog and a couple of smaller animals into the trailer.

Right from day one she had problems with the landlord. He told her he wanted her to move. He had someone he wanted to offer the lease to. Months went by and he continued to harass her and her mother. She reached out to her county agency on aging and her county representatives for help with the harassment. Their idea of helping her was to take custody of her mother and assign a guardian. She was placed in a horrible place. The woman was then served eviction papers, had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized. She called animal rescue from the mental ward and asked them to go get her pets. She got a little better and was moved into transitional housing. She was fined by animal control ($500.00) for leaving her animals.

The woman lost all of her belongings, her pets and her mother.

My heart was breaking listening to this story.

This woman was indigent in every sense of the word but she was strong, educated and determined. Every agency that was supposed to give her a hand up instead did everything they could to keep her under the soles of their shoes.

Should the woman have been prepared for a rainy day, had some savings, a support network? Of course she should and she did. She was prepared for the rainy day not a tsunami.

The good news is this woman is on her way back to the top. She no longer wants to be a victim and she doesn’t want to fight organizations and politicians anymore. She is moving forward and plans to start a rescue for pets left in the situation her beloved pets were in when she was indigent, hospitalized and completely hopeless.

She is speaking this weekend, let’s wish her luck!

Doreen

I’m one of Lisa’s Live Wires! Lisa is a challenge co-host Lisa Buie-Collard.

 I am excited to be working with this bunch of fabulous bloggers …

Rhonda Albom –   Bob R. Milne –   Tamera Narayan –  Stephanie Faris –   Heather McCubbin –   Randi Lee

The year 2014 did not start well for me. I lost my father unexpectedly in January and my best friend passed away on my birthday in February. I am grateful that I was by their sides and able to say goodbye but moving forward, past the shock and then the pain, has not come easy. In fact I have pretty much been stuck.

My friend and the facilitator of Bucks County creative Explorers, Kelly wrote a blog post about being stuck. She wrote that she felt like her feet were stuck in concrete. That is exactly how I was feeling too.

Kelly then posted this challenge. If you are also feeling stuck please join us. Let’s inspire each other to smash our concrete shoes.

CHALLENGE:

I will post an entry in the Keep Moving Forward Challenge every Thursday from now through March 2015. To join in on the journey, use the comment section to tell us about how you “kept moving forward” that week. Write about it on your own blog site (and include the link in the comments), make a video, and/or use the hashtag #KeepMovingForwardChallenge on the social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).

http://kellydeeny.com/2015/02/05/keep-moving-forward-challenge-week-1/

Please make sure to use #KeepMovingForwardChallenge on social media so that we can comment, like, share, favorite, or retweet!

January 2015 started on a happier note. I finally signed the contract for my second book, The Stranger In My Recliner and it will be out later this year.

February has me feeling down. Has it really been a year since I said goodbye? I work part-time for a home care agency and my long time client was moved into a nursing facility on Monday, unexpectedly. She is 92 so chances are I have another goodbye coming soon. This client has been so supportive of me and my writing. My father and friend were extremely supportive too.

Having something exciting to look forward to, like a new book release to plan for, a trip to Nashville for a blogging conference (BAM) and a trip to Daytona Beach to spend time with my Mom and for bike week usually would be enough to pull me out of my grief. It isn’t working.

I know what will work for me and that is helping someone else. My client needs extra care and extra comforting. Being moved from a large, lovely home into a dingy nursing home room is so depressing. The room is too bright at night and too dark during the day, loud and stinky. Change is hard for everyone but at 92 it is heartbreaking. Change with care is compassion and that is what I need to be for her now, compassionate.

My concrete shoes are so heavy but looking on the bright side they will probably keep me from slipping and breaking my neck during our impending ice storm.

I cannot get this song out of my head:

http://youtu.be/OORsz2d1H7s

As we drove down Market Street, in Philadelphia I asked my husband John, “Do you see any signs that we are in the holiday season?” He looked around as we drove past one Drexel University building after another and he said no, not one.

University of Pennsylvania had nothing, 30th Street Station, not a tree in sight.  City Hall did not have one decoration hanging. Not a menorah, wreath, Happy Kwanza, Blessed Solstice just nothing.

It has been disappearing a little more each year but it hasn’t been this noticeable to me until this year.

I was excited and looking forward to driving into the city with John for his cousin’s wedding. It was a late afternoon service and the reception didn’t start until five-o’clock. We hadn’t been in the city at nighttime, together for ages and we looked forward to the people, the bustle, the traffic and the lights.

Those Holiday lights that add sparkle to a city that is trying to rebound from hard times. Shoppers that are breathing winds of hope and renewing the faith of struggling shop owners. The smiles on everyone’s face’s because it is impossible not to feel happy when you are caught up in such festive beauty, or is it?

If Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Merry Kwanza or Happy Solstice upsets you I feel sorry for you because you are miserable and unhappy. I worry about what mental health issue has caused you to be so offended by another person’s happiness and I am also angry with you.

More than that I am angry with myself because you and your rights have stolen my rights and with them my joy and I let you do it.

Friday Fragments are bits and pieces of your week that are usually brief; too short for a stand-alone post, but too good to discard. Collect humorous observations, “Heard” items, and other small gems and put them together in a Friday Fragments post. Then leave a link to your Friday Fragments here:

Half-Past Kissin’ Time

Every August we say, can you believe it’s August already. It comes every year at the same time yet here I am asking the silly question, “Really August is half over today?” Finally, that long cold winter we had feels like it is in the past and I am not ready to start preparing for another one.

This morning after I have a (hopefully) quick visit to have the highly annoying sutures removed from my mouth, we will be loading up a van with five of our grandkids and heading south to Florida. We will be stopping about half way for some swimming, eating and sleeping. I am honestly not sure who is more excited John and I or the kids. I am not going to think about the end of summer or any stressor. I want to enjoy every minute with the kids. When I am old I want them to remind me of the good times we had together.

It was very difficult watching my husband react to Robin Williams’ death. His son, John died of suicide. The similarity in the details was horrifying. As hard as it is for our family to hear and read about, depression and suicide need to be talked and written about. The stigma needs to end.

If you have a child entering high school or college, please have the suicide talk with them no matter what. Make them sign a contract swearing that they will never ‘do it’ and if the thought even enters their mind they will immediately call you and accept help. Is it over dramatic? I don’t think so and I’m quite sure Robin Williams’ family and my husband will agree. Will it save everyone? I don’t know but if it saves your loved one the talk was worth it.

We are taking the kids to ZOOM Daytona. It is a zip-line park. One voice inside keeps telling me to go for it, climb those trees with the little ones. Another voice is saying umm have you lost your mind you don’t even like the merry-go-round. John said there was no way he was climbing trees in August in Florida but he did pack his sneakers.  Have you tried one of these adventures?

To keep the ZOOM theme going we will also be visiting Kart City where we will race go karts, play some miniature golf and hopefully hit some home runs in the batting cages.

I have a few conference calls and a bit of editing to do while we are away but nothing inspires me and feeds my creativity more than working by the waves.

That being said we will be by the water not in the water…

Would you do this?

I am hoping to read a lot of blog posts in between the “are we there yet questions” and the karaoke versions of Big Fat Butt and Beachin.

Have a blessed weekend,

Doreen

For the month of April I am participating in the annual A-Z Blogging Challenge. The Challenge was started by author/blogger, Arlee Byrd. http://tossingitout.blogspot.com

Each day of the month (except Sundays) we will post something based on that days correlating letter. Some of us chose a theme and others are winging it. My theme is the A-to-Z’s of Mental Health, Raising Awareness. It is a topic that is very close to my heart. I hope you find the posts interesting and you will comment and share the posts everywhere. To see a list of all of the participants or for more information-click on the badge over there to the right>

Today’s Letter is the Letter Z

Zee End of my A-Z’s of Mental Health

I believe we have a Mental Health crisis or more like an epidemic not only in America but Internationally.

Read the rest of this entry »

For the month of April I am participating in the annual A-Z Blogging Challenge. The Challenge was started by author/blogger, Arlee Byrd. http://tossingitout.blogspot.com

Each day of the month (except Sundays) we will post something based on that days correlating letter. Some of us chose a theme and others are winging it. My theme is the A-to-Z’s of Mental Health, Raising Awareness. It is a topic that is very close to my heart. I hope you find the posts interesting and you will comment and share the posts everywhere. To see a list of all of the participants or for more information-click on the badge over there to the right>

Today’s letter is the Letter Y

Young Binge Drinkers and Mental Health

Binge drinking is a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood/alcohol concentration up to high levels, quickly. For men it would take five-drinks in a two-hour period and for women it would be four-drinks per two-hour period.

Binge drinking is common among the eighteen- thirty-four-year-old – age group. In fact ninety-percent of drinking in this age group is done in the form of binging.

Young drinkers may be the most common binge drinkers but those over sixty-five years of age binge drink more often usually five or six times a month.

This type of drinking is also much more prevalent among households that earn more than seventy-five-thousand-dollars a year and men are two-times more likely to binge drink than woman.

Excessive alcohol use can cause all sorts of medical problems including but not limited to liver cirrhosis, cancer, cardio vascular disease, gout, pancreatitis, nerve damage, infectious diseases and more.

Having one drink may give you a relaxed feeling due to the chemical changes the alcohol causes in the brain. It can relieve anxiety. If you continue to drink a negative emotional response can occur. You can become angry, anxious and or depressed.

It can also complicate mental health disorders. Alcohol use has been linked to depression, self harm, suicide and psychosis. It can be extremely difficult to diagnose psychiatric disorders when alcoholism and mental health disorders co-exist. In fact people that have a mental health issue and use alcohol excessively are at great risk of suicide.

Someone who is taking anti-depressants, anti-psychotic or anxiety reducing medication should NEVER binge drink. It can be fatal.

Occasional binge drinking is not going to cause a mental health disorder. Excessive binge drinking can cause mental health problems, physical problems and medical problems.

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