Kay at the Gimp Parade has written a really, really important post: “The Russian”. Kay uses a ventilator to breathe. After a recent ICU stay in which a new tracheostomy was inserted, she transferred to a rehab hospital. She was… Read More ›
health
“My Beautiful Mummy” book: Newsweek beat-up sucks most in
A dementedly objectifying book, aimed at kids, about why “Mummy” might want to have plastic surgery was profiled in Newsweek recently, and got a lot of people hot under the collar: WhatAreWeTeachingOurChildren, ThisWillCorruptTheValuesOfOurYouth, etc etc etc. Now, the author of… Read More ›
Quick summit observations
Edit: My Blogging Against Disablism day contribution on this issue is now up here: “BADD: The radical notion that people with disabilities are people, and Australia’s 2020 Summit” ~~~ A couple of things I noticed about the Health section of… Read More ›
This week, I shall be mostly googling ‘diabetes’
My darling husband spent hours at our local Emergency Department today, hooked up to a saline drip and being injected with insulin. His blood glucose level (BGL) was scarily high, yet he’s never been diagnosed with high blood sugar by… Read More ›
Prostitution: regulation, exploitation and death
prostitution is literally killing women, by murder more than any other cause, and a whole heap of people simply don’t care.
No other industry with a comparable mortality rate is unregulated by the state, and in none of those industries would the workers be allowed to sign away their basic health and safety guarantees in order for more pay. Employers who try to coerce miners or firefighters to go into work without adequate safety measures are quite rightly prosecuted and socially condemned, yet the workplace death rate of those professions combined does not match just the homicide rate amongst prostitutes, let alone the death rate once drug overdoses are taken into account.
Hurrah for librarians
If you are restricting access to information, they will notice during the course of their normal duties, and they will let the world know, and then you will look like censoring buffoons. In February, in line with various other information-stifling… Read More ›
Estrangement, entitlement, evaluation: questions arising
I have four questions for you all. ~~~ Question 1 to the Hoydenverse: Have you ever broken up with someone (or been broken up with) via text message? (feel free to switch to an anon handle if you prefer.) ~~~… Read More ›
Fetal presentations: an economist’s guide
Image Source: Dorland’s Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers. © 2007 by Saunders, an imprint of Elsevier, Inc. Because at least one doesn’t seem prepared to acknowledge that foetal presentation makes any difference to birthing outcomes. Lauredhel has been astonishingly civil… Read More ›
The WHO on Birth: the “Fortaleza Declaration” and “Safe Motherhood: Care in Normal Birth”
Because I seem to be on a bit of a theme right now (Easter and birth? Why not!), I thought some of you might like a look at the recommendations on birthing care from the World Health Organisation. The WHO,… Read More ›
How to intimidate a personal trainer
Laugh in their face when they suggest that your target weight loss in middle age should take you to 5kg below the weight you were as a superfit teenager (competitition squash, cross-country running, speed-skating, bushwalking, bodysurfing, school softball and soccer… Read More ›