By Jacob Hansen

Jean Saya is 61 years old and the busy owner of Cal Skate Roller Blading and Skate Center in Rohnert Park, California. Recently, Jean underwent hip replacement surgery at Kaiser Permanente. This is a story of her experience going through surgery and the process of recovery.

Jean had a progressively deteriorating hip joint. She had arthritis in the hip, which was a problem the past ten years. A year and a half ago, she experienced an extreme pain in her hip socket which was caused by a fractured pelvis from a bone cyst. Bone cysts are quite common in arthritic joints. Kaiser Permanente offered this surgical procedure as an option to Jean a year before the bone cysts became known. However, Jean wasn’t ready to undergo a surgery at that point and only chose surgery after she could no longer perform her daily activities.
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Posted: September 22nd, 2011 under Health and Fitness.
Comments: 2

By Thomas Cazneau

Falling asleep and staying asleep can sometimes be difficult, especially for those of us who are light sleepers. It’s even worse for people with insomnia or sleep apnea issues. A sleepless night can occur due to a number of reasons, like stress, a sleep disorder, the amount of coffee you drank, or possibly the action-thriller movie you just watched. There are also times when there is no special reason; you are just wide awake.
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Posted: September 17th, 2011 under Health and Fitness.
Comments: 3

By Esmeralda Mercado

(The information shared in this blog involves one family’s experience. It is not intended to suggest that the incidents mentioned here will be commonplace for anyone with a PEG tube, nor is it intended to supersede your medical professional’s advice.)

My Mom has a PEG tube. She got it four years ago after a major stroke. Mom’s stroke left her speech slurred and her left side weak. The worst part was the damage to the nerves and muscles she uses for swallowing. Not only is there difficulty gulping down foods or liquids, there is also the danger of aspiration, which is when food or liquid is breathed into the lungs, creating a risk for choking or infection. To help Mom, a PEG tube was inserted into her abdomen.
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Posted: September 12th, 2011 under Health and Fitness.
Comments: none

By Thomas Cazneau

I love drinking coffee and I probably wouldn’t stop drinking it altogether. However, there are times when I notice myself becoming too codependent on coffee as an energy fix. I drink one coffee, then another, and pretty soon I feel like I have to drink coffee the entire day to stay up. One solution: drink lemon water!

Why lemon water?
We are primarily alkaline, so consuming coffee, which is particularly very acidic, greatly alters our pH balance, making us more acidic as well. Lemon water helps offset the acidic effects of coffee. Lemons break down the molecular structure of water, making it easier to hydrate our 20 different cell sizes. They are pre-digestively acidic and post digestively alkaline, which helps level our pH balance. Lemon water is like a pool cleanser for the body.
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Posted: September 2nd, 2011 under Health and Fitness.
Comments: 3