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Nurses and Ebola
Associated Press Photo Though the latest Ebola outbreak is mostly confined to three West African countries, three cases – two of them nurses who cared for a patient from Liberia with the virus – have been confirmed in the United States. That pales in comparison to the number of people who have died from the virus in West Africa – 4,484 as of October 18. With such knowledge, we have little reason to panic. And, with the influenza season at our heels, we have larger concerns to contend with: two hundred thousand people are...
read moreHow to Change Fiddle Strings
The first time I changed the strings on my fiddle, I started by removing all four of the old ones at the same time, thinking that would be a good time to give my fiddle a thorough dusting. But what I hadn’t considered was the sound-post, until it collapsed after I removed the strings (fortunately, it did not slip into one of the F-holes – the long, curlicue-like openings in the top of the fiddle). That’s why it’s strongly advised to change one string at a time. Which string to start with is not critical, but most fiddlers prefer to start with...
read moreMelissa Reads at Westwinds Bookshop, Duxbury, Massachusetts: October 2015
When it’s a cold, rainy day what better place is there to be than in a bookstore, slouching back in a cushy couch, nibbling on delicate pastries, and letting someone read to you? That’s how fifteen individuals, who were mutually interested in learning more about traumatic brain injuries, spent their Saturday afternoon this past weekend. As the hard rain tapped against the windows of Westwinds Bookshop in Duxbury, Massachusetts I spoke to them about TBIs, then read from my essay, “Invisible Bruise,” published in Chicken Soup for the Soul:...
read moreSurvivors Speak Out! Melissa Cronin: October 10, 2014
October 10, 2014: Donna O’Donnell Figurski, the host of the blog, “Surviving Traumatic Brain Injuries,” speaks with Melissa about her injury and recovery. Survivors SPEAK OUT! Melissa Cronin...
read moreNewborns Do Feel Pain
Luis Grenada, a 16th century theologian, would probably not care whether or not newborns feel pain, for he called them “a lower animal in human form.” And during the early 20th century, the ignorance of the times drove researchers to stick newborns with pins, even while they were asleep, to determine whether or not they sensed pain. Their defensive frantic kicking apparently was not adequate proof. More studies were undertaken, more pinpricks. Because the newborns reacted with what one researcher called “diffuse bodily movements accompanied...
read moreFrom Nausea to Plaques and Tangles: Traumatic Brain Injuries and Alzheimer’s Disease
You might have suffered a concussion playing football as a high school or college student, and because you felt nauseous and dizzy, you rested for a few days, just as your doctor advised. Those few days passed and you felt like your old self again, ready to return to the field. Fifty years later, your family is concerned about your memory: you don’t know what month it is, and you can’t recall the conversation you had with your son two hours earlier. Your wife eventually takes you to a neurologist, who diagnosis you with Alzheimer’s disease....
read moreDisabled, Paralyzed, Crippled? Half-Life by Joshua Prager
How do individuals who are unable to walk refer to themselves on the page? Why do some choose handicapped while others choose disabled, or even crippled? At age nineteen, Joshua Prager suffered a broken neck when a truck driver rammed into the mini bus he was riding in while traveling through Jerusalem. He spent four years in a wheelchair. Now, he walks with the aide of a cane. Prager has written a memoir, Half-Life, in which he tells of his tragic yet hopeful story of self-awareness, identity, and the loss of physical potency. Throughout...
read moreTeaching Children to Play the Fiddle
Whenever I spent time with my three-year-old niece, she would bounce and clap to the Irish tunes I played for her on my fiddle (note: the fiddle and violin are the same instrument. The style of music differs: fiddlers typically play traditional music like old time, Celtic, and Klezmer, and violin players typically perform classical and jazz music. Since I play traditional music, I prefer the term fiddle). When I stopped playing, she’d yell, “Let me, let me play!” I certainly was not going to allow her, or any three-year-old, even touch my...
read moreHow Blueberries Heal a Traumatic Brain Injury
You reach for the bush, grab a cluster of summertime, then pop the handful of nature’s sugar into your mouth. A burst of warmth coats your tongue, meanders down your throat, and you think of homemade jam. You grab another cluster, then another, and eat them all, guilt-free, because you know they are good for you – blueberries. They may be small, but wrapped inside the sheen of a blueberry skin lies a treasure of health benefits: vitamin C for immunity, manganese for strong bones and for converting fats, proteins and carbohydrates into energy....
read moreNurses Suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Too
You might think of war veterans when you hear, or see, the words post-traumatic stress disorder – an anxiety disorder recognized after the Vietnam War, when soldiers returned home with symptoms of mental illness. You might also think of victims of tragic accidents, rape victims, or those who have endured any kind of abuse. What about health care workers, such as nurses? We tend to think of nurses as in control, emotionally strong, even in the face of gore and death. Still, nurses often hear others ask them, “How do you do what you do?...
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