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Arthritis Insight
Newsletter * Vol. 5 Issue 166 October 1, 2003 AI Staff
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- Cooking with Char!
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- Rosie's SOS
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Arthritis & Employment
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Newsletter
Vol 5 Issue 166
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Welcome to the 166th issue of the Arthritis Insight Newsletter.
All back issues will be posted at /community/newsletter
Feel free to pass this newsletter around to others who may be
interested.
----------------------------------
The information in this newsletter should not take the place of
advice and guidance from your own health-care providers. Material
in this newsletter is provided for educational and informational
purposes only. Be sure to check with your doctor before making
any changes in your treatment plan. Information presented here is
the opinion of the authors and has not necessarily been approved
or endorsed by the medical advisors.
----------------------------------
Notes From Tina
(Tina@arthritisinsight.com)
Tina Underwood aka KrissyJo
Brrrrrrrr! It sure got cold here quickly! It's 35 degrees outside
right now. Of course it's early (6am) but that's darn cold. If
it's that cold on the first day of October I don't think I want
to see what the winter is going to be like.
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Am I the only one that dreads physical therapy? I sat here for a
week with three PT orders from two different doctors, not wanting
to make that phone call. It seems that every time I go I end up
in pain. If I go for my ankle, the exercises cause my knee to
flare. If I go for my hand my elbow flares. This time I am going
for an ankle, a lower leg and my back. I don't even want to know
what's going to flare this time! Guess I will find out Friday
morning at 8. UGH! Wish me luck!
Off to dig out the winter clothes! Have a great week!
-Tina
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Ron's Ramblin's
(Ron@arthritisinsight.com)
Ron Griffin aka IndyRon
I just got in from a trip to Charleston, SC for my nephew’s
wedding. What a whirlwind few days, fly from here to Greenville,
SC, visit with my sister and her family for a couple days, then
all of us off to Charleston for the wedding and festivities.
Charleston is still one of the most beautiful old cities around,
and I tried to take in as much of it as I could over the few days
that we were there. It had been a lot of years since I had been
there and I must say, that it is even more fun now than I
remember it being. The wedding and festivities were magnificent,
from the rehearsal dinner at one of the old plantations to the
wedding at one of the oldest churches in the city to the
reception in one of the beautiful old historic homes.
During the lulls in wedding activities (which were not many) I
did manage to get out to Patriot Point and tour the Naval Museum
vessels there. That was quite interesting but it was rough on an
old gimp. I also took the boat out to Fort Sumter and wandered
around it a bit. And finally we took a horse drawn carriage tour
of some of the historic areas of the city. The weather was
wonderful, and the activities fun so what more could I ask for.
The weather even cooperated for my drive back to Indiana today.
I am beat, but all in all, it was worth it.
~Ron
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Your Weekly Giggle
The Washington Post's Style Invitational
The Washington Post's Style Invitational once again asked readers
to
take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding,
subtracting, or
changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this
year's
winners:
you realize it was your money to start with.
ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows
little
sign of breaking down in the near future.
getting laid.
subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
person who doesn't get it.
really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and
it's
like, a serious bummer.
consuming only things that are good for you.
they come at you rapidly.
you've accidentally walked through a spider web
bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
the fruit you're eating.
And the pick of the literature:
Check out all the jokes at:
/fun/jokes
Send yours in today!
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Tina's Tips
Tina@arthritisinsight.com
Arthritis can affect your ability to do even the simplest of
tasks. I've heard some people say, "Accept your
limitations." I'm not sure accepting them is the way to go.
I prefer to challenge those limitations, work around them,
finding alternate ways of achieving the same goal. Every week
I'll share some tips I've found to work around those annoying
limitations and I hope all of you will send in your tips too. We
may not be the next Martha Stewart, but sometimes the simplest
things can help so much.
Penny sent us gobs of great tips, here are the first of them:
Thanks Penny, for taking the time to send those in!
Check out more tips at /living/tips.html and send in yours today to
Tina@arthritisinsight.com Keep those tips coming!
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What’s New
Photo Album
The rest of Kate's pictures from Gimp Picnic 2003!
/community/photo/gp2003/index.html
Rosie's SOS
She's got moderation on her mind.
/living/family/sos/
Arthritis & Employment
More on how we make our livings. Yes, we're nosey - What do you
do?
/living/employment/do.html
Photo Album
Donnah and her adorable grandson Jake.
/community/photo/page69.html
Member Websites
Linda updated her site and it's really cool! Go check it out:
Linda Peck: Pound Puppies.
/community/websites/index.html
Birthday Board
We added a buncha new birthdays! Go see who is celebrating today
and send them a card.
/community/birthday
Newsletter
It's up! It's ready! Grab a cuppa something warm and take a look.
/community/newsletter/
News
As usual - Karen's done a great job gathering arthritis and
general health news from all over the web.
/news/
Check out all the latest updates at
/updates.html
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Arthritis Insight Chat
/community/chat
Time to get the party started! Got some extra time? Can't sleep?
Drop into the chatroom to talk to other members that know exactly
what you're going through.
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Cooking with Char
Char LeFleur
char@arthritisinsight.com
Hello friends!! Hope you are all relatively pain free this week,
but with changing weather patterns, many of us are full of aches
and pains.
So how about something to take your mind off of things?
My husband came upon a cache of small cookbooks, that I had
picked up at a garage sale some years ago, and had lost track of.
Most of them are from the 50s, and have some wonderful recipes in
them. So watch for some of them in the coming weeks.
But here it is already October, and the holidays will be upon us
before we know it. One of these little cookbooks is "The
Cookie Cookbook" and contains 250 cookie recipes.
I know some of you participate in cookie exchanges during the
holidays or bake cookies for special events, so I am going to
give you some recipes from this 1953 cookbook. The parenthesis
are all mine.
Caramel Sour Cream Cookies
(These are a rolled cookie, but I suspect you could roll this
into balls and flatten with the bottom of a glass and still get
good results.)
!/2 C shortening
2/3 C brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/2 C sour cream
2 1/4 C cake flour (I would use all purpose flour)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Brown sugar (for the tops of the cookies)
Cream shortening, add sifted sugar and cream well. Add beaten egg
to sour cream. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda and nutmeg
together. Add alternately with egg mixture to the creamed
shortening and sugar. Chill thoroughly. Roll only a small portion
at a time to 1/4 inch thickness. Sprinkle with brown sugar and
bake on a greased cookie sheet 15 minutes in a 350 degree (F)
oven. Makes 4 dozen 2 inch cookies. Will keep well.
Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies (This 1953 cookbook
calls them old fashioned, so I wonder how old the recipe is!)
1 C shortening
1 C sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsps vanilla
1 C sour cream
5 C cake flour (again I would use all purpose flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla to sour cream.
Sift together dry ingredients. Add alternately with the liquid to
the shortening and sugar mixture. Chill thoroughly. Roll out to
1/4 thickness Cut with large cutter, sprinkle with sugar and
press lightly . Bake in moderate oven (375 degrees F) 15 minutes.
Makes 100 2 1/2 inch cookies. (Again I think rolling the dough
into balls and pressing with a glass would work too. Sometimes
rolling them out, just isn't an option when you have arthritis.)
And last, but not least, how about a basic cookie with
variations>
5 in 1 Refrigerator Cookies
1 1/2 C shortening
3 C brown sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsps baking powder
6 C cake flour (I would use all purpose flour)
Cream shortening and sifted sugar until light and fluffy. Add
eggs and flavoring. Combine and sift dry ingredients. Add to the
creamed mixture. Knead in the last of the flour. Divide dough
into 5 equal parts and vary each as follow. Shape each portion
into a roll, wrap in waxed paper and chill thoroughly. When firm
slice very thin, and bake at 375 degrees F. Makes about 300 thin,
1 1/2 to 2 inch cookies.
CHOCOLATE-Add 2 squares of melted chocolate. Blend well. Baking
time-10 min.
SPICE-Add 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and 1/4 nutmeg. Blend well. Bake 9
min.
FRUIT-Add 1/2 C finely chopped dried or candied fruits (dates,
raisins, figs, currants, apricots, prunes, cherries, peel).
Baking time-14min.
NUT-Add 1/3 C finely chopped nuts (almonds, pecans, Brazil,
filberts, or walnuts) Baking time-12 min.
COCONUT-Add 1/3 C shredded coconut. Baking time-10 min.
If you have comments or suggestions, or have recipes you would
like to share, please send them to Char@arthritisinsight.com.
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From the FDA:
FDA/U.S. Customs Import Blitz Exams Reveal Hundreds of
Potentially Dangerous Imported Drug Shipments
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2003/NEW00948.html
A recent series of spot examinations of mail shipments of foreign
drugs to U.S. consumers conducted by the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP
or Customs) revealed that these shipments often contain dangerous
unapproved or counterfeit drugs that pose potentially serious
safety problems. This joint operation was carried out to help FDA
and CBP target, identify, and stop counterfeit and potentially
unsafe drugs from entering the United States from foreign
countries via mail and common carriers. It was also designed to
help FDA and CBP assess the extent of this problem.
These "blitz" exams were conducted in the Miami and New
York (JFK) mail facilities from July 29-31, 2003, and the San
Francisco, and Carson, Calif., mail facilities from August 5-7
2003, to obtain a representative picture of products entering the
United States. In each location, packages shipped by
international mail through U.S. Postal Service facilities over a
3-day time span were examined. For the purposes of these blitzes
FDA and CBP identified, through review of historical data and
experience, those packages likely to contain drug products. For
example, packages were considered if they were from countries
from which drugs are known to be exported via the mail. Due to
the speed at which parcels are automatically processed and
transported through the mail facilities, country of origin was
the only specific criterion that could be consistently applied to
all parcels.
Approximately 100 parcels (each of which may have contained
multiple drug products) per day per facility were selected based
upon their country of origin and historical experience. They were
subsequently opened by CBP and jointly examined by both Agencies.
Those in violation of CBP provisions were held by CBP. Those in
violation of FDA regulations were detained by FDA.
In general, FDA and CBP do not have sufficient resources to
perform comprehensive examinations of all mailed packages due to
the huge volume of parcels entering the United States through
international mail and courier services, the consuming time
requirements for processing and returning illegally imported
drugs, and multiple, competing enforcement priorities. For
example, the Carson, Calif., mail facility alone receives over
10,000 parcels per day.
Although many drugs obtained from foreign sources purport, and
may even appear to be, the same as FDA-approved medications,
these examinations showed that many are of unknown quality or
origin. Of the 1,153 imported drug products examined, the
overwhelming majority, 1,019 (88%), were violative because they
contained unapproved drugs. Many of these imported drugs could
pose clear safety problems.
These drugs arrived from many countries. For example,15.8% (161)
entered the U.S. from Canada; 14.3% (146) from India; 13.8% (141)
from Thailand; and 8.0% (82) from the Philippines. The remaining
entries came from other countries.
"This joint effort with CBP illustrates the real and serious
public health risks created by the importation of unapproved
drugs," said Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., Commissioner of
Food and Drugs. "To protect Americans from unsafe imported
drugs, we are working to target our enforcement resources as
effectively as possible against those products that pose a threat
to the health of consumers and the safety and security of our
drug supply."
"This action represents an important step forward in keeping
harmful or illegal drugs from entering the country," said
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, Robert C. Bonner.
"Although CBP’s priority mission is preventing
terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the United States,
CBP continues to perform its traditional mission by working with
the FDA to identify and interdict illegal and dangerous drugs
that could threaten public health and safety."
The potentially hazardous products found in these blitz exams
revealed:
*Drugs different from those approved by FDA -- Drugs that FDA has
never approved are being imported. For example, Roaccutane (an
unapproved version of Accutane) is being imported from Thailand.
In the United States, prescribers of Accutane (a drug to treat a
severe form of acne) are required to monitor patients to avoid
certain serious risks such as birth defects that may occur
following use of the drug. Taro-warfarin (an apparently
unapproved version of Warfarin) from Canada is also being
imported. Warfarin is used to prevent blood clotting and its
potency may vary depending on how it is manufactured. Because it
can cause serious, life-threatening bleeding if not administered
appropriately, it requires careful monitoring by a health care
provider of a patient’s blood count during treatment.
*Drugs requiring careful dosing -- Drugs such as unapproved
versions of Dilantin (from Philippines); unapproved versions of
Synthroid (from Canada); and unapproved versions of Glucophage
(from Canada and Philippines) that require individual titration
and
very careful dosing to avoid serious life-threatening side
effects are being imported.
*Drugs with inadequate labeling -- Moreover, most of these drugs
came without adequate labeling or instructions for proper, safe
use. Some of the drug labeling was not in English and important
information about matters such as proper dosage was often
missing.
*Drugs inappropriately packaged -- In some cases, these drugs
were inappropriately packaged in baggies, tissue paper, or letter
envelopes. In other instances, the imported drugs arrived crushed
and broken.
*Drugs withdrawn from the market -- Consumers are importing drugs
that FDA has withdrawn from the market for safety reasons. For
example, one unapproved drug that came from Mexico, Buscapina,
appears to be the drug Dipyrone that was removed from the U.S.
market in 1977 because of several reports of the development of
severe blood disorders following the drug’s administration,
some of which resulted in fatalities;
*Animal drugs not approved for human use -- Animal drugs that FDA
has not approved for humans use are being imported. For example,
Clenbuterol, a drug approved for the treatment of airway disease
in horses but that has not been approved for human use and has
been banned by the International Olympic Committee as a
performance enhancing drug, came from Costa Rica and China;
*Drugs with dangerous interactions -- Drugs such as ketoconazole
(from Thailand) - unapproved versions of Viagra (from United
Kingdom, India, Philippines and Japan); and unapproved versions
of Zocor (from Canada) are being illegally imported and have the
potential to cause clinically significant interactions with other
drugs which consumers may be taking;
*Drugs that carry risks requiring initial screening and/or
periodic patient monitoring -- Drugs such as unapproved versions
of Lipitor (from Ireland, Thailand, Japan, Philippines, Canada,
Argentina, New Zealand, England and Brazil); and unapproved
versions of Pravachol (from Canada) are being illegally imported.
Initial screening and periodic patient monitoring by a medical
professional (e.g. monitoring liver function) are recommended in
FDA’s approved labeling for these drugs to help assure their
safe use;
*Controlled substances -- Over 25 different controlled substances
were offered for import including Diazepam (from Canada,
Thailand, Philippines, Costa Rica, Malaysia, New Zealand, and
India); Xanax (from Philippines); Codeine (from Canada,
Philippines, Costa Rica, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Thailand,
Guatemala, China, Peru, and Taiwan); Valium (from Philippines and
Thailand); and anabolic steroids (from Costa Rica). These drugs
were referred to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Controlled
substances pose serious safety issues for consumers because they
are dangerous narcotics that have abuse potential for patients
who take them inappropriately or without the proper physician
supervision.
The blitz is also helpful in understanding trends in the illegal
importation of unsafe drugs. In 2001, FDA conducted a similar
analysis that prompted the same concerns about the risk of these
imported drugs. Compared to the 2001 results at the Carson mail
facility, this most recent blitz uncovered a somewhat larger
number of imports, including a larger number of unapproved drugs
and drugs that appeared to be counterfeits. The blitz FDA
conducted at the Carson mail facility in 2001, as well as the
most recent blitz conducted by FDA in coordination with Customs,
illustrate the type of regular surveillance activities involving
imported drug products that FDA undertakes. As a result of the
current blitz, we are re-evaluating the enforcement strategies
and objectives we use to target the entry of unapproved and/or
counterfeit drug products through international mail facilities.
"There is no evidence that unapproved imported drugs are
becoming any safer or more reliable," said Dr. McClellan.
"Given FDA’s limited resources and authorities to
detect and block potentially unsafe imports, we are concerned
about any measures that would increase the flow of these
unapproved drugs, or provide easier channels for them to enter
the United States."
The blitz results will assist the Agency in its efforts to:
Utilize its investigatory and regulatory resources more
strategically to focus on the foreign sources of illegal, unsafe
imported drugs;
Identify shipping patterns specific to identified sources of
unsafe drugs so that it can target future shipments and sources
of such drugs; and
Seek out partnerships with other federal and state agencies to
combat this problem.
In addition, FDA will continue its efforts to educate the public
about the dangers of drugs through illegal, poorly-regulated, and
potentially unsafe foreign channels.
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Member Stories
Kate R.'s Ankle Replacement Story
My name is Kate and I had an ankle replaced in November of 99
because of Rheumatoid arthritis. I've had RA for the past 14
years and now have both hips and both knees replaced as well. I
had such pain walking, standing, even sitting at the end of a
long day in my ankle I couldn't take it anymore. The first
orthopedic surgeon (who specializes in feet and ankles) told me I
didn't have enough good bone to have my ankle replaced and
suggested a fusion. I've had bad luck with a wrist fusion in the
past and refused to accept that choice. I'm fortunate that where
I live (SD) is also where Dr. Frank Alvine lives. Dr. Alvine is a
surgeon who developed what is now called the DePuy Agility ankle
replacement. So I went to see him and he did the replacement. I
had it done under spinal anesthesia, the surgery was exactly 90
minutes just as he had told me. I had no pain post-op since my
spinal was still working. I felt great- had company right away
and didn't need to push my pain medicine button til several hours
later. On day 2 they got me up- no weight bearing on crutches and
the next morning I went home. Had to keep the foot up and in a
bootlike splint that I had to remove twice a day for gentle range
of motion exercise. Never really did have much pain with it
except for my poor shoulders getting sore from the crutches. The
recovery period was very very long for me- 8 weeks of crutches
and finally partial weight bearing but easily within two more
weeks I was full weight bearing- no more crutches (yay!!) and I
have been on the go ever since. All of my replacements have been
a blessing to me but I think actually this did the most toward
improvement in my quality of life. Maybe because for the first
time in a very long time I have no pain in at least one of my
legs and not too much in my other leg with it's original ankle.
They tell me this ankle will last from 10-15 years and then what?
I'm not sure but I'm really going to enjoy my walking, and
climbing stairs normally and yes, even dancing with my new ankle
as long as I can.
To see the rest of stories go on over to:
/community/stories
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Notes and Insights:
Birthday Board!
Happy Birthday to Darci, Swimmer aka Sue, Margie, and Tammy
Bird!!!
Check out all the birthdays at
/community/birthday
and make sure to send them an arthritis-friendly e-card:
/cgi-bin/postcards/postcard.pl
Join the Arthritis Dieters!
This is a group of people with arthritis who want to lose weight
with others who know of the challenges of living with is
arthritis. All those medications that make living with arthritis
tolerable, but pile on the pounds. This group has been set up to
give us a protected group where we can talk to others who know
what it is like.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arthritis-dieters/
Wanna help?
Having surgery? Starting a new drug or treatment? Filing for
disability? Keep an Arthritis Insight journal so all of our
members can share and learn from your experience. If you want to
keep a journal just let us know.
Write an article!
We always need articles on all subjects relating to arthritis.
C'mon folks, we can't do this without you.
Ken Akers Cheer Fund
Donations to the Ken Akers Cheer Fund will be used to send
flowers and gifts to those community members who are
hospitalized, flaring or just in need of some good cheer.
/community/kenscheerfund
Thank You!
A great big thank you to NeedaBasket.com (http://needabasket.com). NeedaBasket is now Arthritis Insight's
official gift basket company. They are giving us a great discount
and are donating baskets for our Arthritis Warriors.
Special Offers for Arthritis Insight Members
Whenever possible we will try get to our sponsors to agree to
discounts and the like for our members. Here are our current
special offers:
Sore No More (http://sorenomore.com) gel will send a free sample of the pain
relieving gel to any Arthritis Insight Community Member who
emails them at dma@glogerm.com.
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AI Help Desk
Linda Peck
SEARCH ENGINE TRICKS
Having a hard time finding something online? Does it seem like
you type in your search term but don't get anywhere near what
you're looking for? Well, here's a couple tricks that seem
(almost) universal between search engines. Let's say you're
looking for sports cars and all you're getting is information on
baseball and football (sports). What can you do? Try some of the
following:
Source: Computer Tips & Techniques
sports +cars
Most search engines will interpret this as meaning you only want
results that have both the word "sports" and
"cars" in them. Some search engines let you us the word
"and" to do this as well (i.e. sports and cars).
sports +cars -baseball
The "-" sign tells most search engines to exclude
results that have whatever word it is that has the "-"
in front of it. (Don't put a space between the - and the word to
be excluded though!)
"sports cars"
You should only get results that match that exact phrase in that
exact order. Sometimes that can narrow things down considerably.
http://www.worldstart.com
Copyright 2001, Worldstart - Reprinted with permission.
THIS WEEK'S CLICKS
Romantic Printables
Download and try games for free
Interesting Clock
Lite Brite - for your children or, the child in you.
Change the icons on your desktop
Take a test and find out who you are
New and used books - find the lowest price.
AN INVITATION FROM ME
I would like to invite you to visit my website, "Pound Puppies." When I'm not researching for this column
or having TLC time with our dogs, I'm working on my site. I
volunteer with a local rescue group and am so amazed at the
never-ending line of dogs who are abandoned and/or abused and end
up homeless. One of our dogs was abandoned and the other, abused.
They have brought such love and life to our home that the rescue
of dogs has become a passion for me. There is nothing directly
for sale at Pound Puppies....just lots of good information and
hopefully, thought provoking narratives and pages. If you have a
site and would like to become a friend of Pound Puppies, link
exchange info is also available. I hope you will visit, sign my
guestbook and perhaps gain some insight to the plight of homeless
dogs. Thank you so much!
Don't forget to visit the websites of other AI members by
clicking here.
UNTIL NEXT WEEK
"Each day comes bearing it's own gifts - it's up to you to
untie the ribbons."
----------------------------------
Weekly News Summary
Karen Sears
kaekae@arthritisinsight.com
HIGH HEELS DON'T CAUSE ARTHRITIS
... the findings were expected: Knee osteoarthritis was
associated with previous knee injury, arthritis of the feet,
heavy smoking, certain occupational activities and,...
EXPERIMENTAL DRUG MAY EASE ARTHRITIS
SYMPTOMS
There's a new drug under study for rheumatoid arthritis. It's
still experimental, but some believe it could be the best
alternative to stop the debilitating disease. NewsCenter 5's Liz
Brunner reported that rheumatoid arthritis patients participating
in the study are praising the results.
EXERCISE BENEFITS RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
SUFFERERS
Regular, intensive exercise for patients with rheumatoid
arthritis builds muscle strength and aerobic capacity, improves
the ability to do daily tasks and fosters a sense of emotional
well-being.
NOVEL THERAPEUTIC TARGET IDENTIFIED IN
FIGHT AGAINST RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
A team of scientists, led by Toshihiro Nakajima at the St
Marianna University School of Medicine in Japan, has identified
an exciting therapeutic target that may lead to the development
of new treatments for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). As published in
the September 15, 2003, edition of Genes and Development, the
scientists report the discovery of 'synoviolin', an enzyme that
is found in abnormally high levels in diseased joints. High
levels of synoviolin are found to cause an overgrowth of
joint-destroying synovial cells, a key clinical feature of RA.
...
NOVARTIS SAYS U.S. LAUNCH OF PAIN DRUG
DELAYED
Swiss healthcare group Novartis AG on Tuesday said a U.S. launch
of its arthritis and pain drug, Prexige, will be delayed until at
least 2005 after regulators requested additional data.
WEIGHT TRAINING WITH ARTHRITIS
If you have arthritis, weight training can strengthen the muscles
that cushion sore joints, according to Rush-Presbyterian-St.
Luke's Medical Center. Stronger muscles mean less pressure on the
joints, and therefore less pain.
SCLERODERMA IS MORE THAN SKIN DEEP
Scanning thousands of genes, scientists have found scleroderma is
more than just a disease of the skin. More than 2,700 genes found
not only in skin but also in other body tissues act differently
in scleroderma patients than in persons free of the condition,
says a report in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.
More health news can be found on our site:
/news/
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Contribute
Have you written something you think our subscribers would like
to read? Send it to Tina@arthritisinsight.com and maybe we'll use
it in our newsletter.
----------------------------------
A Closing Thought
Are You a Bucket-Filler or a Dipper?
You have heard of the cup that overflowed. This is a story of a
bucket that is like the cup, only larger, it is an invisible
bucket. Everyone has one. It determines how we feel about
ourselves, about others, and how we get along with people. Have
you ever experienced a series of very favorable things which made
you want to be good to people for a week? At that time, your
bucket was full.
A bucket can be filled by a lot of things that happen. When a
person speaks to you, recognizing you as a human being, your
bucket is filled a little. Even more if he calls you by name,
especially if it is the name you like to be called. If he
compliments you on your dress or on a job well done, the level in
your bucket goes up still higher. There must be a million ways to
raise the level in another's bucket. Writing a friendly letter,
remembering something that is special to him, knowing the names
of his children, expressing sympathy for his loss, giving him a
hand when his work is heavy, taking time for conversation, or,
perhaps more important, listing to him.
When one's bucket is full of this emotional support, one can
express warmth and friendliness to people. But, remember, this is
a theory about a bucket and a dipper. Other people have dippers
and they can get their dippers in your bucket. This, too, can be
done in a million ways.
Lets say I am at a dinner and inadvertently upset a glass of
thick, sticky chocolate milk that spills over the table cloth, on
a lady's skirt, down onto the carpet. I am embarrassed.
"Bright Eyes" across the table says, "You upset
that glass of chocolate milk." I made a mistake, I know I
did, and then he told me about it! He got his dipper in my
bucket! Think of the times a person makes a mistake, feels
terrible about it, only to have someone tell him about the known
mistake ("Red pencil" mentality!)
Buckets are filled and buckets are emptied many times because
people don't really think about what are doing. When a person's
bucket is emptied, he is very different than when it is full. You
say to a person whose bucket is empty, "That is a pretty tie
you have," and he may reply in a very irritated, defensive
manner.
Although there is a limit to such an analogy, there are people
who seem to have holes in their buckets. When a person has a hole
in his bucket, he irritates lots of people by trying to get his
dipper in their buckets. This is when he really needs somebody to
pour it in his bucket because he keeps losing.
The story of our lives is the interplay of the bucket and the
dipper. Everyone has both. The unyielding secret of the bucket
and the dipper is that when you fill another's bucket it does not
take anything out of your own bucket. The level in our own bucket
gets higher when we fill another's, and, on the other hand, when
we dip into another's bucket we do not fill our own ... we lose a
little.
For a variety of reasons, people hesitate filling the bucket of
another and consequently do not experience the fun, joy,
happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction connected with making
another person happy. Some reasons for this hesitancy are that
people think it sounds "fakey," or the other person
will be suspicious of the motive, or it is
"brown-nosing."
Therefore, let us put aside our dipper and resolve to touch
someone's life in order to fill their bucket.
---------------------------------
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Arthritis Insight Newsletter Copyright 2003
Page last updated on October 1, 2003
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