H1N1 Prevention Tips

Prevent H1N1 (Swine Flu) - Good Advice


Dr. Vinay Goyal is an MBBS,DRM,DNB (Intensivist and Thyroid specialist)
having clinical experience of over 20 years. He has worked in
institutions like Hinduja Hospital , Bombay Hospital , Saifee Hospital ,
Tata Memorial etc... Presently, he is heading our Nuclear Medicine
Department and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical
Centre, Malad (W).

The following message given by him, I feel makes a lot of sense and is
important for all to know

The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a
global epidemic of this nature, it's almost impossible to avoid coming
into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is
not so much of a problem as proliferation is.

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1
infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms
and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not
fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced
(instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official
communications).

2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any
part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or slap).

3. *Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't
trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/
nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple
gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has
the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected
o ne. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful
preventative method.

4. Similar to 3 above, *clean your nostrils at least once every day with
warm salt water.. *Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti
(very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but *blowing the nose
hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in
warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.*


5. *Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C
(Amla and other citrus fruits). *If you have to supplement with Vitamin
C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.

6. *Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can.
*Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the
reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat
into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

I suggest you pass this on to your entire e-list. You never know who
might pay attention to it - and STAY ALIVE because of it.

Giving the blog another chance...

I've been totally out of the blog world for a verrrrry long time. However, I'm starting a new project and thought that might be a good time to give posting another shot.

Found some yarn that I thought would make a pretty sweater for Ashlyn, so thought I'd give sweater knitting a whirl, too :) (I did start a Wonderful Wallaby for myself years back, but never got past picking up stitches for the pouch in the beginning, so it's still on the needles someone in UFO land, which is a HUGE community, by the way lol.)

Knitted a swatch for "The Twiggy" while watching the Browns get the pulp beat out of them by the Packers this afternoon and am just about the cast on. So excited to start something for my lil girl and really hoping I can stick with it and see it to the end.

Here's a pick of the swatch next to the pattern pic, and then one of Ashlyn looking adorable in one of her new winter coats...





By the way....she turned one last week (unbelieveable, I know!), so if this blogging thing picks back up for me, I'll have to post pics from her party...soooo cute :)

Sleeping Beauty

bonus pic post

forgot to add a few more pics to the post below...

ashlyn n mommy on 2/24/09


ash trying to eat my face yesterday


'yay - i heart my toes!'

4 mo appt

just a quick update, more as a note to self than anything else..

ashlyn had her 4 mo check-up on 2/25, which makes her actually almost 4 1/2 mo, but who's counting, right? anyway, she weighs 14lb 2oz and is 25" long, which puts her in the 50th percentile in both catagories. her head circumference is 16", so she's in the 75th percentile there.

the doctor said that ashlyn is the first ashlyn she's ever met, that she was her favorite patient of the day and was thrilled that she was her last...said she was the best way to end the work day :) she also said that she will be crawling before we know it based on her head and neck control, and the way she handles tummy time (which ash still doesn't love, but is getting better at every time we try it...she started rolling from her belly to back, too, which is super-fun to watch and hopefully i can get it on video one of these days). she said she's developmentally like a six mo old, which is awesome to hear and set my mind at ease about how she measures up to other babies i read about her age.

she said we can start her on cereal around five months if we want, but that exclusively breast-fed babies really don't need the additional iron (or anything else for that matter) until six months. when the time comes, we'll try rice cereal first for a few days, then oatmeal (both single grain). once she's used to both, we might do rice in the morning, oatmeal at night (as rice is a binder and oatmeal should loosen things up - the two will help regulate each other). orange veggies like squash and carrots will be introduced next, one at a time for 3-4 days before a new one is given, then green veggies and finally fruit.

obviously that stuff is for my own records, and what better place to put them, right? the baby book you say? hogwash...who has time to actually write something down these days ;)

in other news, ash used to think her fingers were the coolest thing on her body, then it became obvious that her tongue was waaaay cooler and she stuck it out and showed it off to everyone. now she has moved on to bigger and better things...her toes! she found them yesterday and thinks they are awesome!

and since i've been awful about posting pics, here are some from my cell phone from this month (since i'm not as good about taking them w/ my camera for some reason...shame shame, i know)...



ol' blue eyes


ashlyn's first valentine's day!


four month pics - pic of a pic taken w/ the cell


that warm day we had on feb 10...took a walk in the moby wrap

Baby Chicken Dance

Here's Ashlyn having a lil dance party with her aunties...

She'll be four months old on Friday and getting sooooooo big! I really hope to be able to blog more as time goes on, but things sure are pretty busy these days with baby girl to tend to. We'll see if I can start devoting a little time to it soon....
In knitting news, I finished her blanket FINALLY but of course haven't photographed it yet...soon, though. I think my next project will be a sleeve for my laptop...haven't looked up a pattern yet, though. Maybe I'll just wing it...any suggestions?

Happy Snowdays!

this makes me laugh...

what makes me laugh even more is that my sisters, brother in law and i were going to buy them to be funny until we realized that w/ shipping, they were $18/snuggie. we're dorks. and we know it lol