The Monster called Addiction

She lay in her bed and looked up at the ceiling. The ceiling tiles looked like they were about to crumble. The edges were stained a light shade of brown with only the center still showing the original white color. Susan knew that the ceiling tiles had been there for far too many years, just as she had.
It had been another night of tossing and turning. She remembered kicking her husband at least three times to stop him from snoring. He had grunted and gone back to sleep. Within minutes, he was snoring again.
Susan would turn away and quietly curse. She wanted to sleep so bad, but it only seemed to come in small spurts, teasing her to the point of insanity. She had tried sleeping pills but they didn't do any good. Her husband said that she thought too much. That she kept her mind far to active and full of unnecessary worries and anxieties.
This only made her mad. Of course, she had worries and anxieties. She blamed her husband for a lot of them. If only he would be more understanding of her problems and needs. She had just gotten over her tenth surgery and next week she would be going for her eleventh.
Susan looked at the bottles of pills on her nightstand. She had three different kinds of pain pills, a pill for depression, a pill for stomach cramps and a pill to help her sleep. She had gotten to the point that she took three pills from each bottle. Her husband complained that she looked stoned all the time.
"Of course I look stoned," she'd yell to her husband. "You'd be stoned as well if you had to take pain medication on a daily basis." What she did not tell her husband, was that she was taking three times the recommended dosage and that she was taking all three types of pain pills at once instead of just one.
It was not that she wanted to hurt herself. She only wanted to numb herself from the emotional pain and the physical pain, which just seemed to be getting worse every day.
She sat up in her bed, continuing to look at the bottles of pills. She quickly turned around to make sure her husband was still sleeping, and then she quietly opened each bottle taking three pills from each one. Once she had all her pills, she took the glass of water that also lay on the nightstand and swallowed all the pills at once. She remembered a time when it had been difficult to swallow even one pill.
She started to cry as a deep desperation suddenly came over her and she quickly took one more pill from each bottle and swallowed them before she could change her mind. Anger welled up inside of her as she looked blankly at the white walls of her bedroom. A few minutes later the anger left and was replaced by an emptiness, as though every nerve had been turned off.
Susan got out of bed and limped to the living room. She pulled up the shades and looked out at the dreary street below. She really hated this town. She hated everything about this place.
Quickly turning away, Susan headed to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was a mess. She hadn't combed it in four days. Her eyes looked glassy and her pupils were dilated from the effects of the medication. She felt a wave of nausea come over her. The nausea had started two days ago and it seemed to be getting progressively worse. She was also having trouble urinating.
A tear fell down her check as she exited the bathroom and went to the refrigerator to grab a piece of cake. She heard her husband stirring in the bedroom. She knew he would ignore her as usual. She did not care. She did not care much about anything, anymore. As long as she had her supply of pills, she was all right. It was getting more difficult to get prescriptions filled. The doctors were beginning to question her motives.
Another wave of nausea suddenly came over her and she had the sudden need to vomit. She made it to the bathroom just in time. She had made sure to close the bathroom door so her husband would not see her like this. He complained enough about her taking medication. She didn't want another lecture on the dangers. She also did not want him finding out just how many pills she was actually taking.
Once she had wiped her mouth, she tried to go to the bathroom because she felt the need to go, but was unable too. Her bladder was beginning to hurt. Something wasn't right. Susan suddenly became a little frightened. She pushed the fear away when her husband knocked on the door.
"Can I come in?" He said in a neutral voice. "I'll be right out." Susan said. She put her pants back on and flushed the toilet. She opened the bathroom door and looked at her husband. He walked right by her without saying a word.
Again, anger filled her. Why couldn't he give her the courtesy of saying good morning? She hated it when he got in these quite moods. She always felt so alone. She couldn't stand the loneliness. Why did she have to be lonely when she had someone who supposedly loved her living in the same house?
Susan slowly walked back to the bedroom as she tried to push the feeling of anger and loneliness away. After getting dressed, she went back to the kitchen and sat down next to her husband.
"Are you still going to visit your mother in the hospital today?" She asked. She had planned to sneak to the emergency room and get herself checked.
"Unless you have something else planned, yes, I want to spend some time with my mother."
"Good, I have a doctor's appointment in the hospital," She lied, "so I'm coming along."
"Okay." Her husband said as he got up from the table. Susan watched him walk into the bedroom as another tear fell down her cheek. He had still not said good morning to her. She quickly wiped the tear away. She didn't want her husband to see her crying.
An hour later they arrived at the hospital. Susan followed her husband to his mother's room. After saying hello, she left to go to the emergency room. Her bladder felt like it was ready to burst but she was still unable go to the bathroom. Susan also had a rapid pulse and she suddenly felt very dizzy. She had an urge to throw-up again but there was nothing left to throw up.
Susan stopped in a bathroom, on the way, to try to throw up but she only dry heaved. When she got to the emergency room, Susan walked straight up to the nurse sitting behind the counter.
"May I help you?" The nurse asked as she looked up from her work.
"I'm not feeling very good. I am unable to urinate and I feel so sick to my stomach." She looked at the nurse, trying hard to concentrate. She felt like collapsing.
"Do you know what brought this on?" The nurse asked kindly.
For a moment, Susan wasn't sure what to say. She felt embarrassed that she had been taking so many pills for so long but at the same time, something inside of her said to tell the nurse the truth. Susan looked at the nurse crying now.
"I don't know how much longer I can stand." Susan said with a shaky voice. It was hard to speak. She was concentrating so hard just to stay standing. She told the nurse what she had been doing.
Within minutes, she found herself lying on a stretcher with EKG wires on her chest and an IV in her arm. The phlebotomist came to draw her blood. As the phlebotomist was finishing, the nurse arrived with a Foley to help her urinate. It was extremely painful getting the Foley put in but Susan felt the instant relief as the urine flowed into the bag.
Just then, her husband appeared looking very worried, also a little angry. Susan burst into tears when she saw him. All her pain, tension, and hurt that had been building up for months finally exploded out of her. Her husband took her in his arms and let her cry. She apologized for all her stupidity.
Her husband looked at her and apologized for not being there and not seeing the signs. He had been so busy being angry that he didn't realize that his anger was killing his wife.
The doctor came in looking very worried. Susan's liver function panel was extremely elevated.
"What does that mean?" Susan asked with tear filled eyes. She had already calmed down a little.
"It means that your liver has been poisoned to the point that it cannot handle that poison anymore. I just hope you do not have permanent liver damage. That is a horrible way to die.
Susan could not believe that taking all those pills could do that much damage. It wasn't fair. There were people who did hard core drugs everyday and they weren't in the hospital with liver damage. She also had not been taking the pills for more than four or five months. Her husband saw the confusion in her face and asked what was wrong.
"It's not fair." Susan said. "Why is my liver damaged? I never did any hard core drugs." Her husband looked at her with serious eyes. "Maybe it is God's way of telling you to stop."
Susan looked at her husband in disbelief. She thought about what her husband had said for a moment. Then she became angry. "Why didn't he listen to me when I asked him to help me with my depression, my pain, and my loneliness?" She looked at her husband defiantly now.
"Maybe you were too numb from all that medication to hear him. Maybe this is his way of opening your eyes and ears so you can hear him and finally listen to his answer."
Susan burst into tears when she realized her husband was right. She had called but hadn't listened for an answer. It suddenly became very clear that the medication had made her depression seem beyond help. It was the medication that had made her feel so lonely because it numbed her to the point that she couldn't hear anyone. She only heard her own mind. A mind warped by drugs. She had been making her own personal hell. Why hadn't she seen that all along? She had to hit the bottom before she finally saw the light that led to a new hope and a better life.
Susan looked at her husband and smiled. "I guess this was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I'm glad that God warned me before it was to late."
At that, they both hugged. The monster called addiction had been destroyed.
Susan was lucky because her liver returned to normal the next day, which was a miracle as far as the doctors were concerned. She got a second chance on life. So many other people never receive that second chance or miss the light, even when it is shined straight into their eyes.
The point I am trying to make is that prescription drugs and over the counter drugs are just as deadly as the hard core street drugs when used the wrong way. It was the acetaminophen in the pain medication, when taken in large dosages that caused Susan's liver, to go haywire. Taken in recommended dosages, acetaminophen works fine and causes no problems, but when overdosed, it becomes a deadly toxin. This is true for most over the counter drugs and prescription drugs.
If you feel the need to take more medication than your supposed to, seek help before it's to late, because it won't take long for you to become so numb that you don't care anymore. It's a vicious cycle. Once the monster called addiction grabs a hold of you, it doesn't easily want to let go.

Apple's future without Steve Jobs

The rather inelegant question of who will lead Apple when Steve Jobs "goes" is being bandied about virtually everywhere at the moment. Speculation about his health has prompted the rumour mill to go into overdrive with Apple seemingly doing a poor job to dampen down the feverish speculation.
It all started last month when a gaunt Mr Jobs appeared at the company's developer conference in San Francisco. There was an almost audible gasp in the auditorium when he took to the stage in jeans that were practically hanging off his thin frame. But for a short while the issue faded as the crowd went nuts over his announcement about the new 3G iPhone.
Afterwards, spokespeople at Apple said Mr Jobs was recovering from a common bug. It was no secret that he had pancreatic cancer and four years ago underwent surgery which was hailed a success.
But the topic took centre stage again this week when analysts were involved in a conference call following the company's quarterly results. Chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said that Mr Jobs served as CEO "at the pleasure of Apple's board and has no plans to leave Apple".
Not sure if that line was borrowed from the West Wing script where the characters were constantly intoning how they "served at the pleasure of the president".
Arguably the matter might just have withered on the vine if Mr Oppenheimer had left the issue there, but he added that Mr Jobs' health was "a private matter".
That got people Twittering like mad and now the big question being asked is just how much investors and analysts should know about a top exec's health. Especially, they are suggesting, one like Steve Jobs who is such a visionary for Apple and whose success seems to be closely bound together.
You might well think that this is a lot of brouhaha for nothing, but in the world of commerce this is a big deal. Reuters news agency reports that one investor was considering adding to his $2bn fund but was hestitant because of all the talk about the Apple guru's health.
There are now reports that the "common bug" that led to the weight loss was due to a "surgical procedure" Steve Jobs had earlier in the year. And also being highlighted and bandied about by unnamed sources and unnamed friends is the story that "in recent weeks, Mr Jobs has reassured several people that he is doing well and that four years after a successful operation to treat a rare form of pancreatic cancer, he is cancer-free".
You might wonder how Apple ended up handling this bit of public relations so badly? They are, after all, regarded as masters of the art when it comes to hyping their products and controlling the "message". But it does seem they have been wrong-footed.
The debate all just underlines the $64,000 question of who really will eventually follow in Steve Jobs' footsteps? And can or should any one person be allowed to be bigger than the company he or she runs?

'Pets Need Suncream Too'

We are used to warnings about protecting our children from the sun, but now animal lovers are being told to protect their pets too.Animal charity The Blue Cross says animals with thin hair or bald patches should have suncream applied before they go out.
Sunburn in prominent areas like ears and noses can lead to skin cancer, extensive surgery and, in serious cases, amputations, they warned.
A spokesman for the charity said: "Animals with white fur or bare patches of skin - especially around the face - can get sunburnt like the rest of us."
Cases of heatstroke, sunburn and other preventable illnesses in hot weather are common, they added, so owners should be careful to give their pets plenty of water.
Other precautions include not leaving pets in hot cars and keeping them indoors when the sun is strongest, between 11.00am and 3.00pm.
They added that vulnerable areas should be covered with a non-toxic waterproof human sunblock or a product specifically for pets.Long-haired animals should be kept well groomed - especially longhaired ones. A tangle-free coat will help keep them cool.

Choosing Liposuction

Beauty of the face and an attractive sculpture of the body always go hand in hand. In the recent years there is a rapidly growing trend for looking young and attractive, especially the people who are working in social environments. There are a number of cosmetic procedures gaining interest in order to prettify ourselves, so is burning of the excess fat from the body. After puberty the fat cells remain constant in number. All that changes is its size that depends on the fat content present in them. A normal ratio of number of fat cells in different parts of the body gives a natural well built feature to the body, whereas deposition of fat cells in abnormal proportions modifies the shape of the body.
As people age, excess fat tends to crop up in the most unsightly places. For some, diet and exercise can help to improve one's overall appearance. Others, however, can diet and exercise unceasingly, while still having certain problem areas that refuse to become more attractive.
Here is where Liposuction enters the picture, and if you are frustrated with problem spots on your body, you may want to evaluate whether this advanced, minimally invasive surgery is right for you.
As the proverb says, beauty is only skin deep, the fat globules that spoil one's charm also lie skin deep. Fortunately, by latest advances in cosmetic procedures, it is possible to remove excess of fat in specific areas that does not respond to controlled diet and exercises. This process is called as Lipolysis. Liposuction is the surgical removal of fat cells through a cannula.
Liposuction was first performed in 1974 and was a great improvement over other surgical body contouring techniques. There have been many advances in liposuction procedures over the last few decades, making it one of the safest and most popular body contouring surgeries in the world.
There are different types of liposuction procedures available, all of which use the cannula to remove unwanted fat. Some of the procedures are: Tumescent liposuction that involves the injection if a large amount of anesthetic into the area being treated; the wet and super-wet techniques are variations of this type of liposuction.
The ultrasonic assisted liposuction (UAL), where sound waves are used to liquefy the fat before it is removed. The procedure LipoSelection that uses the same concept without disturbing the surrounding tissue. The Power assisted liposuction (PAL) that uses a motor-powered cannula, which allows the surgeon to use smaller movements and make the experience more comfortable for the patient.