momomom's New Writeups

Breastfeeding and H1N1 (review)

2009-11-23T04:45:34Z

Pregnancy and being under 2 years of age are risk factors for severe disease complications from H1N1. Consequently early vaccinations have been aimed at these groups. When a pregnant woman does contract H1N1 recommendations for the feeding of her infant vary. Things to be considered include the dangers of not breastfeeding, the safety of the milk itself for the infant, the safety of mother/infant direct contact and the safety of the medications used to treat the H1N1 being ingested by the infant via the mother's milk

Consulting the major pundits that I am aware of I find the opinion that breast milk is best especially is true across the board. All three also feel the typical influenza antivirals are safe for an infant in the small volumes ingested via breast milk. There is some variance in recommendations on temporary separation of mother and baby with WHO not addressing the issue, CDC recommending a minimum of 48 hours (while…

Chicken Milanese (recipe)

2009-03-02T04:39:44Z

In our family we call this Grandma Chicken ... because, well, Grandma made it every Sunday.

So here is Rose's version.

Flatten boneless, skinless chicken breasts or fillet/butterfly them horizontally into thin pieces.

Break one eggs for each ½ pound or so of chicken into a pie pan or other wide bottomed bowl. Add ground black pepper and chopped fresh or frozen basil to taste. Beat lightly with a fork.

Make a bread crumb mixture with dry Italian bread and grated Romano cheese, proportioned about half and half. Add chopped fresh or frozen basil.

Bread the chicken by dipping in the egg mix followed by the bread crumb mix. See breading tips for the process.

Fry the breaded chicken in a mix of half olive oil and half canola oil poured to about ¼ inch deep in your frying pan. I prefer a non stick pan despite also using oil.

Heat to medium high, just under the smoking point.…

breading (recipe)

2009-03-01T22:18:16Z

Breading Tips

Breading (also known as "patting" when oysters are the food product being prepared) is the process of coating a food with a layer of crumbs, flour and/or corn meal prior to frying. Some foods this process is used for are chicken cutlets, chicken fried steak, fried oysters, fried cheese, and fried ice cream.

Regardless of the specific products being used or prepared the process is similar. One dredges the main ingredient with successive layers of a liquid and a dry material, creating an adherent coating that remains in place during the frying process.

Use your left hand for the wet ingredient and your right hand for the dry. This assumes you are right handed; reverse everything from this point on if you are left handed.

Have everything prepared and lined up…

August 26, 2008 (person)

2008-08-27T15:18:52Z

Reading Lucy-S's story about her honey's problems with medical insurance (this is US centric) reminded me I had recently read a very well done article here by a hand surgeon called "Managed Care and your hands, What you need to know". It talks about managed care and its restrictions causing "a war of attrition from micro - mismanagement and poor flow of care" and how it can make a difference in the outcome of hand surgery even if the patient has the same procedure by the same surgeon. This can easily be generalized to most sorts of surgery.

It is difficult to know what to do about this as an individual. Certainly we should lobby for regulatory control of insurance companies as their excessive profit is the big impetus behind many of the problems. Those of us who can should lobby for the purchase of better insurance through our employer but the option for that level of input is not available to many. Some companies offer choices, maybe a good…

chicken and dumplings (recipe)

2008-02-04T00:48:33Z

Chicken and Dumplings, easy crockpot version

Ingredients
1 chicken, whole or pieces but include bones and all pieces. Free range would be nice.
1 pound good whole carrots
Inner parts of a bunch of celery
1 medium large yellow onion
1 14 or 16 ounce can of petite diced tomatoes
1 16 ounce bag petite frozen peas
Mushrooms type and volume optional
1- 24 ounce box chicken broth, I recommend Swanson's or Better Than Bouillon
¼ cup Italian Seasonings – I used a mixture from my garden of dried thyme, marjoram, oregano, sage ... heaviest in the order written. Commercial mixes will also suffice.
¼ cup chopped parsley – Again, from my garden but please, if you don't have the luxury of your own garden use either fresh or frozen, never dry.
2 ¼ cup low fat Bisquik mix
2/3 cup skim milk

Equipment:
Large Crockpot
Large frying pan with lid
Bowl
…

The nurses wear white. (idea)

2007-12-04T07:19:47Z

Once upon a time nurses were readily identifiable in the US. They were the ones in white. Now most white "nurse uniforms" are made of PVC and come packaged with mesh thigh highs and either a crop or a giant "syringe".

Some hospitals have elite VIP units that charge patients many hundreds if not thousands of dollars more per day for upgraded care. One, the famous Johns Hopkins Hospital requires all their VIP unit nurses to wear white. It is also totally staffed by RNs. That may be one end of the spectrum. In the middle nurses and technicians typically all wear the same type clothing consisting of designed or solid "scrubs". At the far end of the spectrum even the name badges in some hospitals do not identify the employees' job or qualifications.

There is a movement afoot in some hospitals to require that all RN employees once again wear white uniforms…