NOTES AND ASIDES...
Interesting items today from here and there...

Natalie Abbott wrote the other day about something many with Moebius Syndrome have gone through--cooling your heels in a doctor's waiting room:
"My ophthalmologist was the worst.  You could expect to wait absurdly long at any appointment with him, mainly because he squeezed every possible appointment in.  My pulmonologist was the best, mainly because I was usually coming to him when I couldn't breathe, which I guess is important.

Now it's not as excruciating, with phones and iPads and many other distractions... far cry from doing my school reading in an array of waiting rooms during my childhood.  But it's still the same drill, waiting, anticipating, sometimes worrying.  And doing it all over again all too soon."

Are you seeing a therapist?  In Sunday's NY Times, a noted psychotherapist, Jonathan Alpert, argued against ineffective therapy that goes on too long.  If it isn't working for you, he argues, end it.  He explains:
"Therapy can — and should — focus on goals and outcomes, and people should be able to graduate from it. In my practice, the people who spent years in therapy before coming to me were able to face their fears, calm their anxieties and reach life goals quickly — often within weeks.  Why? I believe it’s a matter of approach. Many patients need an aggressive therapist who prods them to face what they find uncomfortable: change. They need a therapist’s opinion, advice and structured action plans. They don’t need to talk endlessly about how they feel or about childhood memories. A recent study by the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland found that “active, engaging and extroverted therapists” helped patients more quickly in the short term than “cautious, nonintrusive therapists.”  This approach may not be right for every patient, but the results described in the Finnish study are consistent with my experience.  If a patient comes to me and tells me she’s been unhappy with her boyfriend for the past year, I don’t ask, as some might, “How do you feel about that?” I already know how she feels about that. She just told me. She’s unhappy. When she asks me what I think she should do, I don’t respond with a return interrogatory, “What do you think you should do?” If she knew, she wouldn’t ask me for my thoughts."


And there's some interesting news for women concerning aspirin use today:
"In a new study of more than 1,200 Asian women, those who took aspirin at least a couple of times a week had a much lower risk of developing lung cancer -- whether or not they had ever smoked.

The findings, which link regularly taking aspirin to a risk reduction of 50 percent or more, do not prove that aspirin directly protects against lung cancer. There may be other explanations for the connection.

But the study backs up a number of previous ones linking regular aspirin use to lower risks of certain cancers, including colon, prostate and esophageal cancers."

“If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.”---Anna Quindlen (born 1953)

"Sometimes a winner is just a dreamer that never gave up."-Unknown