Tag: health

Posted in Let's Get Visual

Help Keep a Family Housed this Holiday Season

Posted on by Kelly Russell

Easter update: Many, many thanks to all who donated to this effort. We raised $1,955.00 – a mere $45 from the goal of $2,000. The family still has their rental house and they are doing well. Thank you!

Happy Holidays and Welcome to those who have arrived here from Indiegogo. For those who’ve landed here from elsewhere, I’ve launched an Indiegogo campaign to help a family keep a roof over their heads this holiday season.

You can read about the campaign here: Help Keep a Family Housed this Holiday Season. The short version is: Family breadwinner with health problems without paid sick leave equals financial disaster and threat of homelessness for said breadwinner and her children.

Donors to the campaign have the option to claim a Perk. This campaign is offering photographs by Timothy Down, photographer and motion picture location specialist. All photographs are printed on quality photo paper and are suitable for framing.

Below are images of the Perks available to donors of “Help Keep a Family Housed this Holiday Season.”

1. Planet of the Apes Location – (Trona Pinnacles) – For a $50 donation to the Indiegogo campaign, you have the option to receive one of the following six images. If you have a strong preference for a particular image, leave a comment below and we’ll get in touch with you via e-mail.

Trona Pinnacles 1

Trona Pinnacles 2

Trona Pinnacles 3

For a donation of $75 or above, choose one of the following images:

Santa Monica Beach

Santa Monica Beach, California

Mojave Desert Railroad Crossing

Mojave Desert Railroad Crossing, California

Butterfly In The Sky

Butterfly in the Sky, Los Angeles, California

Mars Attacks 1

Mars Attacks, Owens Dry Lake, California

________________________

All photos by Timothy Down.

Thanks for looking!

Posted in Issues, Science, Self Care, Tech

An Advert: SonoCine

Posted on by Kelly Russell

We now move to the medical arts, where things quite simply aren’t as they should be.

Dr. George Papanicolaou first presented his findings that cancerous cells could be found in a vaginal smear in 1928. Despite the efforts of the American Cancer Society to promote the use of Dr. Pap’s screening tool, it took until the mid 1960’s for the test to become part of a routine check-up.

I recently went for a routine mammogram.  The results came back with phrases like: “questionable central nodularity right cc view and axillary portion left breast MLO view.”  Since my previous mammogram results were not available to this radiologist, he suggested “spot compression views and ultrasound if necessary” for further evaluation.  My nurse practitioner called me to follow up.  I told her that I wasn’t coming back for spot compression, but that I was going for SonoCine screening.  (Here’s their website.)  She hadn’t heard of SonoCine, but agreed that more radiation probably wasn’t a good thing.

SonoCiné is an automated breast ultrasound system that has been cleared by FDA as an adjunctive examination to mammography. It is a complimentary examination and not a replacement for mammography.

Early studies indicate that, when used as an adjunct to mammography, SonoCiné may find smaller cancers than may not be found by mammography alone.

SonoCine isn’t covered by health insurance plans.  As far as I can tell, it hasn’t been embraced by the medical community on the scale that it deserves to be.  So, dear consumer, it is up to you to be informed and make some noise about this.

I don’t have breast cancer.  I do have a couple of fibroadnomas.  You can read about what they are over here.

For those of you who have had breast cancer or have a history of breast cancer in your family, I recommend SonoCine.  For those of you who have ‘dense breasts’ – I recommend SonoCine.

To the medical community: It’s time you embrace a tool that works.  To the insurance companies:  Do the right thing.  Besides, this might save you some money.

SoCal folks, you can get your SonoCine at the Hall Health and Longevity Center in Venice.  (Here’s their site.)

YouTube video here.

Special thanks to Nancy, whose cancer was found by SonoCine early.  Thanks for hoisting and waving the SonoCine flag.

Posted in Around Town

Healthy Pasadena

Posted on by Kelly Russell

There are people who go to work every day but don’t have health insurance. Most of the adults who seek health care at Pasadena’s CHAP Clinic are working adults. But generally, people who don’t have health insurance don’t seek preventive care–they wait until something is wrong. So, for example, Jane Doe’s hypertension goes undetected and she ends up having a stroke.

The site of the now-closed St. Luke Hospital got sold to some developers (via PSN). Council member Haderlein is quoted as saying he told the developers that “historic preservation, park space, an urgent care facility and uses compatible with the surrounding residential neighborhood would be important for the site.” Haderlein hopes that city control will be exerted through the existing zoning for the site.

I hope so too. The uninsured of Pasadena deserve affordable health care. The old St. Luke site is appropriate for either an ambulatory or urgent care facility, and it is a better site than the city-owned building currently under consideration located on East Del Mar Blvd. St. Luke  is in a more densely populated area along a major transportation route. I hope those who have a say-so in this matter are serious about extending medical services to the east side of Pasadena.

For those of you with insurance, go get that physical you’ve been putting off (I’m talking to myself here). You can’t rely on your HMO to do it for you, per this article from the 19 October 2007 LA Times: HMOs rate poorly on prevention.