Moms make many health decisions for their children. When someone in the family gets a cold there is a wide array of over the counter treatments to choose from. The pills and elixirs treat the symptoms but don’t help the immune system overcome the virus. Over the years I have…
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Wanting to Control: Learning to Release
It feels good when we think we are in control. As a mother I pursued the health of my children vigorously. I had been trained as a nurse at the University of Michigan. I believed in the medical profession and my ability to protect the health of my children. The…
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Illness, Resilience and Spirituality
Two years ago I began corresponding with Marguerite Bouvard. She was looking for contributors for an anthology on illness and faith. I offered to write a chapter about my family’s experience caring for our son during his treatment for leukemia. We continued to e-mail back and forth. I wrote my…
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Coffee and Warm Cinnamon Rolls for the Melody of Life
On New Year’s Day we like to sip coffee and enjoy cinnamon rolls while we watch the Rose Parade on TV. I have a recipe that allows me to make the dough the afternoon/evening before, and then in the morning I shape and bake the rolls. My dear husband makes…
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Every Baby is Valuable
My daughter gave me the book, The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved thousands of American Babies. The cover of the book suited the title. The book is an attempt to follow the life and work of a man credited with saving the life of…
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Should We Fear the Measles?
News reports about the measles are appearing in several states including Michigan and New York. The tone of the reports is fearful. It urges everyone to be sure they have been vaccinated . . . unless they were born before 1957. Everyone born before 1957 is assumed to have natural…
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Always More to Learn
On Fridays I respond to a writing prompt that Kate Motaung gives. Over the past 24 hours I have mulled over the word given and am finally tapping the keys of my computer. The prompt is: COMPLETE We spent a week at my daughter’s home—taking care of the grandkids, the…
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Two Different Viewpoints on Faulty Vaccines
On July 27ththe Wall Street Journal published an article titled China’s Vaccine Scandal. Parents in China have led protests on behalf of their children. I read through the article noting several paragraphs. Over the past couple of weeks parents in China have learned that a compulsory public-health program…
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Required Vaccine Safety Reports Were Not Done
Parents have differing opinions about childhood vaccines. That is okay. I am a nurse and my children received the recommended vaccines in the 1980s and 1990s. But my daughter had vaccine reactions and eventually developed fibromyalgia. Because of my family’s experience with vaccine reactions I support informed consent and parent…
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Different Environments: New Perspectives
I am joining the writing community, Five Minute Friday, today. We write for five minutes (or sometimes a little more). The prompt today is: ADAPT It was a decision I came to after much thought, choosing to work with physicians and midwives that attended home birth. I had worked…