gkrn

I'm a Birkenstock clogger myself. They are well worth the extra money because they last longer. I have a pair of dress white leather that I save for certain occassions and the white man made ones with refill soles on the inside for the everyday stuff.

Concerning car seat laws. In OK it is required that the driver be belted in and that children be in appropriate car seats. Too bad the law didn't apply to all adults in the SUV that tried to pass a sand truck during our current ice storm. They might be all be alive now rather than 1 dead and 2 in serious condition. The driver made it OK. People who do not follow logic to maintain their safety are rebellious in my opinion, not just stupid, and if their lives didn't effect others then it might be OK to leave the law the way it is. If someone is so rebellious that they won't wear a seat belt or helmet while on a motorcycle I still think the law needs to be there and enforce it. Maybe the states could make enough money off of the fines to help pay for the injuries-------oh, I must be in a dream world. Good night.

We have all heard of the proverbial straw that breaks the camels back--I can understand the anger. When you are holding a choking-non-breathing baby your adrenaline gets a burst, you have 2 major emotions that result from such a burst, scared to death or angry. We have little control over such a burst and some people function better in anger and are paralyzed by fear. I just glad that the chip was dislodged by the nurse. As far as SIDS, over my nursing career sleeping positions on infants has changed from stomach, to side, to back. When all babies were to be put on their stomachs, the rate of SIDS went up on babies laying on their stomach (could it be because more babies were sleeping on their stomaches?) Same thing for when they sleep on their side. I haven't worked in the hospital setting for 5 years now. Has it changed again? On infant seats, car seats, they are now designed to really cradle the baby well and if the baby's neck is strong enough for the baby to ride safely in the car without neck support, I don't see any problem with them sleeping in the car seat. When I worked in the 4 pound to 2 year nursery in a children's hospital we used to place our long term infants in an infant seat daily as part of their turn Q 2 hour and get up in chair equivalent without any problems.

Does anyone have experience or knowledge of whether it is safe to use a wound vac on a wound that has been open for over 1 year which may be draining exudate from a dying tumor. A neighbor has had 6 surgeries to remove a tumor and the wound had not healed when it was decided to try the cyberknife for another venue. The wound is now about 4 cm deep and draining. The wife has been resistent to anything that I had to offer so I nagged her into getting a home health nurse to come out and evaluate the wound and teach her to do wound care. When the wound got infected the Dr aggreed and now they are debriding the wound and are about down to a clean wound bed. It still is draining a good deal and just wondered if anyone knew if it would be safe to use a wound vac if there is a tumor involved. It seems that it would reduce the O2 to the tumor via vaccuum but??????

My favorite through the years has been Bohan's butt paste, now sold as Flander's. It is one that is tan in color and the objective is to leave the bottom layer on when cleaning up the person and apply it fairly thick so that you can wipe off the top layer and still leave some on. It is gentle on the skin so it doesn't burn, it has color so that you know it is there, and usually worked with half a tube. Then when the redness was gone, something like vaseline could be started and it would help take off the bottom layer without a lot of rubbing. I also like the Aloe Vesta 2 in 1 perineal skin cleanser.

Do any of you know if a wound vac is safe to use on a draining tumor wound? Any experience or knowledge of such having been done? I have a neighbor who has had cyberknife after multiple (8) attempts to remove a tumor. He has an open wound that is draining what may be the decay of the tumor as it has shrunk by 1/3. He has gotten an infection which is being treated and now has wound care being done by home health for a week. I have never heard of a wound vac being used on such a wound and wonder if it would be good since it would potentially rob the area of O2 while draining the fluid or what other factors need to be considered. Your input would be appreciated.

We had one incident where part of the KCI black wound packing remained in a wound but fortuantely was found the next wound change and was removed like a debridement. We never were able to figure out if the dressing tore while being removed or if a sliver of the dressing was packed at the time the bulk dressing was placed. We learned to carry a flash light and to look into the wound especially if there was a tunnel to make sure that we did not have a repeat. There is no way to count number of dressings like sponges because the dressing is cut to fit the wound.

Since MRSA is no longer just found in the hospital settings it is becoming harder to track, but if you are having several patients that have MRSA coming out of the hospital, please make sure that the Infection Control Nurse is aware. Also I know you probably are already doing this, but be careful not to assign a nurse to a patient with suppressed immune system that needs care after seeing a patient with MRSA. As far as help from antibiotics, they only seem to beat down the MRSA for a while and then it returns. I have had some success with adding a nutritional program to their antibiotics but few in home health have funds for good supplementation. The biggest bang for the buck that I have seen work is a good Olive Leaf Extract added to the antibiotic regimine and then continued as a lifetime supplement. There is some research out there about nutrition in addition to antibiotic therapy that you may want to find.

I have had good success in the past with a couple of chronic MRSA patients. When they take Olive Leaf Extract with their antibiotic and then they continue on the Olive Leaf extract all the time to keep it from resurfacing. I also suggest ways to build up the immune system. Since all cells need glyconutrients that is one place to start so that the cells can communicate their needs and get the nutrition that is required. When my home care patients addressed these 2 issues, they dropped off the chronic return for IV antibiotics routine and returned to active life. Also, have read where Pycnogenol has oral and wound prep that are being found effective but do not have personal knowledge of whether it works or not.