Sail Away For Vaughn Elementary

Schools have to make difficult cuts as they plan for the 2009-2010 school year. Here’s a way to take a little stay-cation and help Vaughn Elementary School on Key Peninsula.

For more information or tickets, you may either call or email Marci Cummings-Cohoe at Vaughn Elementary (cummingsm@peninsula.wednet.edu or 253-530-4762)

One last thing about April:

Just to finish up some old news...I made it through this year's PAD Challenge. Woo-hoooo, that makes number two under the belt, holstered and smokin'! Thought I would finish by sharing one more, dedicated to the gypsy in anyone.


Day #24 prompt "traveling"

Ever On, Ever On

I was born a part of every road

my spine the white lines

leading to undefined horizon;

four legs running and the stars' design,

constant change by the roadside.

Black ribbon that ties the world,

moves the dust in devils,

moves clouds and mountains,

moves my journey ever on, ever on.

Winding lanes there and back again,

hedgerows and chalk horses on hills,

standing stones mark movement still;

four legs running and a red-maned Queen

riding her lion by the roadside.

Jungle vines and sindur lines,

jasmine, joss sticks and jeweled

elephants still stream through dreams;

four legs running and Quan Yin

on striped tiger by the roadside.

Using and leaving the road to rest

upon the Mama's belly and breast,

cleft of a red rock canyon;

four legs running and Grandmother

calling for a ride by the roadside.

The road to her side and our goodbye,

a circle begins where a circle ends

friends destined to meet again;

four legs running and the old Grey

matching stride for stride by the roadside.

Black ribbon that ties the world,

moves the dust in devils,

moves clouds and mountains,

moves my journey ever on, ever on.

PLU Nursing Students Working It!

Tomorrow night, Monday May 4th. at 5pm, nursing students from PLU (specifically Prof. Maureen Barta's students) will be putting on a presentation, at the Longbranch Improvement Club, about Lyme disease. The presentation includes pamphlets they have made, full of education and Washington-specific in its focus. This will be followed by the award-winning documentary, Under Our Skin, and a panel discussion.

The evening is a public health service, to teach you about tick-borne infections...infections that pose a more real and present danger right now in our state than Swine flu, Avian flu and West Nile virus rolled into one. I'm not telling you the sky is falling; I'm asking you to learn how to protect yourself and your family.

These wonderfully dedicated students have done their work, interviewing both patients and doctors politely and passionately. They will also have a booth at the Key Peninsula Liveable Community Fair (I promise more information about when) coming soon.More healthy advocates for the Lyme community is a cause for celebration in our house!

Maureen Barta is a powerhouse of promise and follow-through. In that dedication to her calling she has become a beloved member of our family. The young women who came to our house to interview Anna have also earned our respect and love. To all of them, our family and the Lyme community send our most heartfelt gratitude.

May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month

This just in from the California Lyme Disease Association...link provided.

http://www.lymedisease.org/news/lymepolicywonk/115.html

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), which represents physicians and surgeons in small practices, sets the IDSA Lyme disease guidelines in its cross-hairs. Why? Because the physicians need flexibility and the IDSA guidelines are mandates that restrict the ability of physicians to provide individualized care. The full text of the AAPS letter to the IDSA follows:

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a non-profit organization founded in 1943, is dedicated to fostering private medicine, ethical medicine, and the patient-physician relationship and protecting them from third-party encroachment. Through thousands of member physicians and surgeons, AAPS represents virtually all medical specialties nationwide, primarily in small and solo practices. AAPS is funded almost entirely by physicians, reflecting its representation of its members and their patients, in contrast with many other medical organizations that rely on funding from outside sources. Justices of the United States Supreme Court have cited legal submissions by AAPS in multiple cases, most recently in 2008.

AAPS objects to the overly rigid IDSA Lyme Guidelines (“Guidelines”) that were published in 2006. For example, on page 1090, the Guidelines mandate laboratory confirmation of an observed condition (extracutaneous Lyme disease) in order to diagnose and treat it. On pages 1089-90, the Guidelines prohibit clinical diagnosis and treatment of particular conditions associated with Lyme Disease if based on “clinical findings alone.”

These Guidelines should be revised to recognize that the physician must retain full flexibility in the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease. Medical societies do not practice medicine; physicians do. The mandate for specific laboratory confirmation is particularly objectionable, as testing for Lyme disease is notoriously insensitive and unreliable. Patients who do not meet this criterion would often be denied treatment that could mitigate severe chronic disability. In some cases, long-term treatment is required. Physicians must be able to exercise their professional judgment concerning the best treatment for each individual patient, without restraint by one-size-fits-all Guidelines, which amount to mandates and prohibitions.

The sine qua non of good medical practice is individualized care for individual patients. Guidelines should not usurp this in any way. It is each physician, and often only the physician, who knows the patient’s history, course of illness, severity of presentation, and responsiveness to treatment. AAPS objects to any curtailment of individualized treatment of patients by competent physicians, and no Guidelines should be adopted that infringe on such treatment.

Andrew Schlafly

General Counsel, Association of American Physicians & Surgeons, Inc. (AAPS)

Contact address for AAPS: 1601 N. Tucson Blvd., Suite 9, Tucson, AZ 85716-3450

Full text of objectionable provisions cited above:

Challenge to Lab Diagnostic Test Requirement--Page 1090: “Diagnostic testing performed in laboratories with excellent quality-control procedures is required for confirmation of extracutaneous Lyme disease….” (emphasis added).

Challenge to Restrictions on the Use of Clinical Judgment—Pages 1089-90: “Clinical findings are sufficient for the diagnosis of erythema migrans, but clinical findings alone are not sufficient for diagnosis of extracutaneous manifestations of Lyme disease or for diagnosis of HGA or babesiosis. Diagnostic testing performed in laboratories with excellent quality-control procedures is required for confirmation of extracutaneous Lyme disease, HGA, and babesiosis.” (emphasis added).

Evening Reverie

I decided recently to go out in the early evening and see what magic my camera might catch...I have always been one to smile and shiver and go exploring when the night wrapped itself in spring warmth and quiet darkness... I stopped downstairs in the hall to tease a good friend who was cleaning the various offices and asked her to take a picture of me with the garbage she had been collection.
"Night time is a great time to toss the hurts and worries of the day into the trash can," I thought.




From the second floor I saw the street lamp kissing beautifully the tree just in front of it. That sight had moved me to slipper my way downstairs and outside. I couldn't get that picture. But I did get one I think is a breath taker.
It got me thinking about the Lennon Lyric: "You may not get what you want. But you might get what you need." (Excuse my poor paraphrase)

And I really tried to catch the sweet dance between the darkness and the light. Need I add a trite cliche about the ups and downs of life?









How about sharing a few of your fond night time memories?

How will you stimulate the economy?

After talking about it for a couple of years today I signed up to get fresh organic produce delivered to our house by Terra Organics of Tacoma. Now why in the heck would I do that in the midst of an economic crisis? It’s my form of economic stimulus. Yesterday I received my letter from the Social Security Administration informing me of my one time payment as part of the “American Recovery Act” (it was nice to have good news from SSA for once). Since I am not in want of a television or stereo and the amount is not enough to go to Europe or anything like that, what better way to stimulate the economy than by giving my recovery money to local farmers, something I like to do in good times, too? The produce will be fresher and it’s one less thing to think about when I’m shopping for our large family.

How will you use your recovery money?

Gig Harbor High School awarded We the People Bookshelf Collection from National Endowment for the Humanities

Gig Harbor High School is one of 4,000 libraries across the country selected by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Library Association (ALA) to receive free hardcover editions of 17 classic books as part of the We the People Bookshelf grant program. The theme of this year’s Bookshelf is “Picturing America.” The school also received a grant for art prints representing the same “Picturing America” theme. These collections will be on display in the Gig Harbor High School Library and available for staff and student use. Last year’s collection, “Created Equal”, which was also awarded to the Gig Harbor High School Library, will also be a part of this ongoing display.

The award is part of the NEH’s We the People initiative, which supports projects that strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture. Selected public and school libraries in all 50 states each will receive a set of the 22 books (including Spanish translations of three of the titles and two bonus titles), posters, bookmarks, bookplates from the NEH and the ALA, and access to online planning and promotional materials. Since 2003, NEH has awarded 13,000 We the People Bookshelf grants to school and public libraries across the country.