Wednesday, September 28, 2011

September 26, 2011 Book Dinner at Maggie's

We had a glorious conversation about Wolf Hall and a delicious dinner at Maggie's beautiful home on Monday.  A review will follow, but I thought I'd post the list of recommended books so that we could all take a look and see.



Game of Thrones and all in the series A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Under Heaven - Gavreil Guy Kay
Ysabel  - Gavriel Guy Kay
Room - Emma Donaghue
Born to Run - Christopher McDougall

Cleopatra - Stacey Schiff
Just my Type - Simon Garfiels
The Dante Club - Matthew Pearl

State of Wonder - Ann Patchett
Blink and  Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

Home... - Bill Bryson
Please look after Mom- Kyung-Sook Shin
Red Tent - Anita Bryant
The Known World - Edward P. Jones
Autobiography of Henry the Eighth,  With notes by his Fool - Margaret George

The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy (winner of Booker)
All the Names and The Double - Jose Saramago (Nobel)

A book for lovers of the "real" book:  Double Fold by Nicholson Baker

Tuesday, September 27, 2011


Herewith  is my first attempt at blogging - the email I sent some of you already about women's symptoms of heart attacks.
Fiona, I must get with you to see if there is an even easier way to do this than the cut, paste & edit method....... 


First, verification from my sister-in-law nurse practitioner ~

Mary,

 From my 18 years working in the ER,  I would say this is accurate.  Sensations are unreal, familiar but unfamiliar at the same time.  Impending doom and women's sense of denial also slows evaluation and treatment.  Personally, I get very irritated with pink ribbons, and Susan B. Komen's campaign. Women know much more about breast health than HD and its urgency is not so pressing.  Heart disease has a 3x greater incidence than breast cancer, and mortality is much greater within 5 years of diagnosis.  Women just don't get info on heart disease
Hope this answers your question.
Suzie

Second, the email itself that I received with all email addresses, etc deleted ~

FEMALE HEART ATTACKS

I was aware that female heart attacks are different, but this is the best description I've ever read..

Women and heart attacks (Myocardial infarction).  Did you know that women rarely have the same dramatic symptoms that men have when experiencing heart attack..  you know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the chest & dropping to the floor that we see in the movies.  Here is the story of one woman's experience with a heart attack

'I had a heart attack at about 10:30PM with NO prior exertion, NO prior emotional trauma that one would suspect might have brought it on.  I was sitting all snugly & warm on a cold evening, with my purring cat in my lap, reading an interesting story my friend had sent me, and actually thinking, 'A-A-h, this is the life, all cozy and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet propped up. A moment later, I felt that awful sensation of indigestion, when you've been in a hurry and grabbed a bite of sandwich and washed it down with a dash of water, and that hurried bite seems to feel like you've swallowed a golf ball going down the esophagus in slow motion and it is most uncomfortable.  You realize you shouldn't have gulped it down so fast and needed to chew it more thoroughly and this time drink a glass of water to hasten its progress down to the stomach.  This was my initial sensation--the only trouble was that I hadn't taken a bite of anything since about 5:00p.m. After it seemed to subside, the next sensation was like little squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my SPINE (hind-sight, it was probably my aorta spasms), gaining speed as they continued racing up and under my sternum (breast bone, where one presses rhythmically when administering CPR). This fascinating process continued on into my throat and branched out into both jaws.  'AHA!!  NOW I stopped puzzling about what was happening -- we all have read and/or heard about pain in the jaws being one of the signals of an MI happening, haven't we?  I said aloud to myself and the cat, Dear God, I think I'm having a heart attack! I lowered the foot rest dumping the cat from my lap, started to take a step and fell on the floor instead.  I thought to myself, If this is a heart attack, I shouldn't be walking into the next room where the phone is or anywhere else...  but, on the other hand, if I don't, nobody will know that I need help, and if I wait any longer I may not be able to get up in a moment. I pulled myself up with the arms of the chair, walked slowly into the next room and dialed the Paramedics...  I told her I thought I was having a heart attack due to the pressure building under the sternum and radiating into my jaws.  I didn't feel hysterical or afraid, just stating the facts.  She said she was sending the Paramedics over immediately, asked if the front door was near to me, and if so, to un-bolt the door and then lie down on the floor where they could see me when they came in.
NOTE: the latest they are saying is to take an aspirin & do NOT lay down.

I unlocked the door and then lay down on the floor as instructed and lost consciousness, as I don't remember the medics coming in, their examination, lifting me onto a gurney or getting me into their ambulance, or hearing the call they made to St. Jude ER on the way, but I did briefly awaken when we arrived and saw that the radiologist was already there in his surgical blues and cap, helping the medics pull my stretcher out of the ambulance.  He was bending over me asking questions (probably something like 'Have you taken any medications?') but I couldn't make my mind interpret what he was saying, or form an answer, and nodded off again, not waking up until the Cardiologist and partner had already threaded the teeny angiogram balloon up my femoral artery into the aorta and into my heart where they installed 2 side by side stints to hold open my right coronary artery.

I know it sounds like all my thinking and actions at home must have taken at least 20-30 minutes before calling the paramedics, but actually it took perhaps 4-5 minutes before the call, and both the fire station and St. Jude are only minutes away from my home, and my Cardiologist was already to go to the OR in his scrubs and get going on restarting my heart (which had stopped somewhere between my arrival and the procedure) and installing the stints.
Why have I written all of this to you with so much detail? Because I want all of you who are so important in my life to know what I learned first hand.

1.  Be aware that something very different is happening in your body, not the usual men's symptoms but inexplicable things happening (until my sternum and jaws got into the act).  It is said that many more women than men die of their first (and last) MI because they didn't know they were having one and commonly mistake it as indigestion, take some Maalox or other anti-heartburn preparation and go to bed, hoping they'll feel better in the morning when they wake up... which doesn't happen.  My female friends, your symptoms might not be exactly like mine, so I advise you to call the Paramedics if ANYTHING is unpleasantly happening that you've not felt before.  It is better to have a 'false alarm' visitation than to risk your life guessing what it might be!

2.  Note that I said 'Call the Paramedics.'  And if you can take an aspirin.  Ladies, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!
Do NOT try to drive yourself to the ER - you are a hazard to others on the road.
Do NOT have your panicked husband who will be speeding and looking anxiously at what's happening with you instead of the road.
Do NOT call your doctor -- he doesn't know where you live and if it's at night you won't reach him anyway, and if it's daytime, his assistants (or answering service) will tell you to call the Paramedics.  He doesn't carry the equipment in his car that you need to be saved!  The Paramedics do, principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP.  Your Dr will be notified later.

3.  Don't assume it couldn't be a heart attack because you have a normal cholesterol count.  Research has discovered that a cholesterol elevated reading is rarely the cause of an MI (unless it's unbelievably high and/or accompanied by high blood pressure).  MIs are usually caused by long-term stress and inflammation in the body, which dumps all sorts of deadly hormones into your system to sludge things up in there.  Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep.  Let's be careful and be aware.  The more we know the better chance we could survive.

Monday, September 26, 2011

July 2011 Book Club Soiree

Celia's Book Club in the Blue Goat's Seminar Room.
 Those of us who were able to gather at the Blue Goat had a blast, what a great place! We had our own room, surrounded by lux wine bottles with a window into the kitchen. Since the chef was really good-looking, all worked out really well and I think there are pictures to prove it. If you have some, send them on to Fiona to post unless you are already blog-savvy! We enjoyed the venue so much, Fiona and I brought our husbands there on the following Friday.


Mary and a tasty frite.


As for the book, Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind which now seems so far away, the general consensus was positive, although not so enthusiastic. While we all enjoyed the book, it generally qualified as a "light read" and fell into the "isn't that interesting" category. Good, but not great. The business aspects of the story were of particular note, and the issues with international copy writes were eye-opening to me.

Also eye-opening was the casual and cavalier attitude that Mitchell's publishers had toward her interests versus theirs. Over and over, the publishers failed in their duty to protect her and also to get the most for this very valuable property, in favor of their vacations and their related interests. Yikes! Not a positive portrayal, keep that in mind when you publish your next blockbuster best-seller. Margaret Mitchell and her husband also came across as a bit persnickety and a bit rigid, particularly in their relationship with David Selznick which would have improved greatly with just a tiny bit of open communication.

All in all, a fun read, an interesting view on the business end of an industry that has brought me endless joy and a great night with wonderful, interesting friends and excellent food. You can't beat that.

As for our next event, alas the calendar gods are against us. Our next meeting will be September 26!  The book is Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel. This is an historical novel mostly about Thomas Cromwell that won the 2009 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, which some were anxious to re-read, always a good sign. See you on the 26th!!