by yoursl | Apr 23, 2020 | Health and Medicine |
Appendicitis is the inflammation of the appendix, which is a finger-shaped pouch with no known purpose that projects out from the large intestine on the lower right side of the abdomen. This inflammation causes abdominal pain of varying degrees and is usually treated by surgical removal of the appendix. If the inflammation is left untreated, the appendix can rupture, which can then release pus or infection into the abdominal cavity that can lead to a life-threatening infection called sepsis. According to the Mayo Clinic, the most common symptoms of appendicitis include sudden pain that begins on the right side of the abdomen; sudden pain that begins around the navel and often shifts to the lower right abdomen; pain that worsens with coughing, walking, or with other jarring movements; nausea and vomiting; loss of appetite; low-grade fever that may worsen; constipation or diarrhea; abdominal bloating; and flatulence. The Mayo Clinic goes on to report that most often appendicitis occurs in people between the ages of 10 and 30 and that the site of pain may vary, depending on age and location of the appendix. As a recent appendectomy patient, I would like to point out that the above is the perfect textbook scenario that emergency room doctors hope to encounter. I, like my life, am anything but perfect or predictable. I went to bed on Monday with a touch of GI upset, which is my normal since I battle with an autoimmune disorder that tends to upset my stomach quite a bit. I woke up on Tuesday with the same light GI upset accompanied by a mild pain in a...
by yoursl | Apr 19, 2020 | Book Reviews, Just For Fun |
Isolation and social distancing can be difficult for the more extroverted among us. We simply need diverse human interactions to thrive and to be happy. Everyone may just need a break from Netflix binges and sleeping too much. During this possibly difficult period of isolation, here are five books Your Sexy Librarian is recommending for your reading pleasure. Please note: My preferred method of online shopping has become smile.amazon.com, which allows me to donate to my favorite charity when I shop. Product links below all lead to Amazon as a result. I make zero money on reading recommendations. Stealing Buddha’s Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen is a memoir that was originally published in 2007. Having fled Vietnam as a small child, Minh Nguyen comes of age among the Jennifers and the Tiffanys in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I love this memoir because the views of an outsider, one who did not fit in perfectly with those around her while growing up, are eloquently expressed and beautifully written. This book’s message will resonate well with those of us who grew up as awkward caterpillars among a kaleidoscope of butterflies. This quick read is available on Amazon as an eBook and in paperback and hardcover editions. Fromms: How Julius Fromm’s Condom Empire Fell to the Nazis written by Götz Aly and Michael Sontheimer and translated by Shelley Frisch is a haunting historical accounting of the systematic and calculated financial ruination and overall destruction of Jews living in Germany as well as the story of Julius Fromm, the inventor of the condom vending machine and the founder of one of Germany’s largest condom...
by yoursl | Jul 22, 2018 | Just For Fun, Positivity |
The morning and evening news in Indianapolis is usually filled with stories about shootings, child abuse, drug offenses, and murders. It is becoming harder each day to watch these news broadcasts. I find myself purposely looking for positive displays of humanity throughout the day in the outside world, on social media, in newspapers and magazines, and even on television, where I recently found a ray of positivity on a very dark day. The Netflix original series Nailed It! is a quirky reality show baking competition in which three home bakers compete to replicate a professional’s stunning creation, such as a perfectly crafted yellow fondant-covered and decorated emoji cake, in the hopes of winning a $10,000 prize. In addition to being of a positive nature, Nailed It! is humorous with some silliness woven into the show. Nailed It! competitors, judges, and viewers all know there is absolutely no way anyone outside of a professional can nail the final round’s showstopper creation. This does not keep home bakers from trying. When the contestants fall short in some way, the judges avoid criticizing their efforts. Instead, all three judges compliment the contestants on some aspect of their baking or decorating skills or on their ability to persevere in the face of setbacks. Another aspect that separates Nailed It! from other baking competitions is that there are no eliminations during judging. Contestants who fare poorly in the first round are generally given extra help, such as a panic button, in the second and final round. One of the three judges will jump in to assist competitors who activate their panic buttons and reassure...
by yoursl | Jun 20, 2018 | Death and Dying, Taboo Topics |
I stopped blogging for more than a year due to being mired in grief over the loss of two close family members. The mental and emotional fog of my grief finally lifted several days before one of my best friends lost his battle with cancer. His death was not sudden, which allowed those of us who love him to adjust to the idea he would not be in our lives much longer. Knowing his death was imminent did not lessen my heartbreak or keep the grief fog at bay. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to tell my friend how important he is to me and what his being in my life for the last two decades has truly meant to me. During my grief-fueled writing hiatus, I read several books about death, the American funeral industry, cremation, burials and its alternatives, and cadavers. While this sounds odd and perhaps crazy to some people, I was on the hunt for information about how other cultures deal with death, mourning, grief, and their actual physical dead. My exposure to Midwestern open-casket funerals had left me feeling hollow and uncertain about my own emotions regarding death. I wanted to find some semblance of logic in the processes of dying and of dealing with the physical dead since death itself is unpredictable and wildly emotional. No two people deal with the emotional fallout of grief in the same way yet an entire community may deal with their dead in the same physical manner. This juxtaposition peeked my curiosity and set me on my reading journey. The view from the crematorium One of...
by yoursl | Feb 11, 2018 | Book Reviews |
I am reviewing books through the Blogging for Books program in an effort to support my community’s Little Free Library, thus the addition of book reviews outside of the usual sexual health topics to Your Sexy Librarian postings. After being reviewed, the book gets stamped “Always a Gift, Never for Sale” and placed into a Little Free Library for others to enjoy. Convicted by Jameel McGee and Andrew Collins with Mark Tabb, which was released on September 19, 2017, is the story of two men, one an overzealous police officer who eventually becomes corrupt and the other a new father truthfully in the wrong place at the wrong time who becomes a victim of the other man’s corrosive and unlawful behavior. There is an element of racial tension in Convicted that is not sugar-coated nor ignored. Tabb is a well-known collaborative American writer with more than thirty books to his credit who helps weave together the story of McGee and Collins. Convicted shares incredible life lessons, from the consequences of dishonest public servants to how race profiling impacts the innocent to how forgiveness can empower an individual, in simple terms and uses language that is accessible to a vast majority of readers across many age groups. Even some advanced elementary readers will be able to comprehend the concepts presented in Convicted, which is good because young readers should read Convicted simply to better understand how poor life choices can impact not only an individual but those he comes in contact with as well. The message conveyed in Convicted is shrouded by a Christian slant that is continually pushed in the...
