More Water, No Pain

From the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive and Kidney Diseases, more than 16 percent of the 3 million people who require medical attention per year people suffer from kidney stone problems.

A kidney stone is a solid piece of material that forms in the kidney from substances we digest that show up in the urine. 

WebMD says most stones leave the kidney and travel through the urinary tract when they are still small enough to pass easily out of the body. No treatment is needed for these stones. But if it is bigger, the stone will stretch the tract as it passes which will cause the pain.

Also from the NIDDKD, a kidney stone can be as small as a grain of sand or as big as a pearl, but in rare occasions they can grow to be as big as a golf ball.

Most kidney stones pass out of the body without help from a doctor. But sometimes a stone will not go away. It also may get stuck in the urinary tract, block the flow of urine and cause great pain.

Also from the NIDDKD, stones occur more frequently in men. The occurrence of kidney stones rises dramatically as men enter their 40s and continue to rise into their 70s. For women, the prevalence of kidney stones peaks in their 50s.

Mount Saint Joseph High School teacher Mike O’Donnell has passed a kidney stone in the past year.

“It took about 20 minutes or so to pass and it was very painful,” said O’Donnell. He said he had never experienced something so painful in his life.

There are five different types of kidney stones. This information, as well, comes from the NIDDKD.

Calcium oxalate stones are the most common. They tend to form when the urine is acidic, a low pH. Some of the oxalate in urine is produced by the body. Dietary oxalate is an organic molecule found in many vegetables, fruits, and nuts.

Calcium phosphate stones are less common. Calcium phosphate stones tend to form when the urine is alkaline, meaning it has a high pH.

Uric acid stones are more likely to form when the urine is persistently acidic, which may result from a diet rich in animal proteins and purines-substances found naturally in all food but especially in organ meats, fish, and shellfish.

Dime, Average Sized Kidney Stone, Safety Pin

Struvite stones result from infections in the kidney. Preventing struvite stones depends on staying infection free. Diet has not been shown to affect struvite stone formation.

Cystine stones result from a rare genetic disorder that causes cystine-an amino acid, one of the building blocks of protein—to leak through the kidneys and into the urine to form crystals.

Local nurse, Elaine Johnson says that she has worked closely with patients who have needed medical assistance and guidance on their situations involving kidney stone.

“[Kidney stones] are organic material from your body. They’re hard, they go through your body from your bladder and they hurt,” Johnson said. “I’ve never had one but I heard it’s very painful.”

Once a person has passed more than one stone, other stones are likely to develop in time. A very simple solution can be performed to make sure this does not happen.

A way to prevent from having to experience the passing of a kidney stone, one must make perform one simple task.

“Because I don’t encourage taking medication to dissolve the stones, I encourage everyone to drink more water,” Johnson said. “It’s as natural as it gets.”

Water is the most pure substance that is edible. It is inexpensive and the most natural of beverages that are the easiest to come by.

Water can be taken into the body and it will filter your body system. Drinking water cleans and clears out your body and definitely does not leave any substances like colas or energy drinks may as well do.

Anthony Swain, a lifeguard at a Fort Meade pool, has had his experience with passing a kidney stone. Every day when he comes in to work at the pool, he is never seen with any drink other than water.

“Having a monster [energy drink], red bull, or five hour energy raises your chances of passing a kidney stone,” said Swain.

The minimum amount of water that an average person must drink per day is 8-10 glasses per day. This is best in order to lower the chances of having to pass a kidney stone. The best thing to do is to bring a refillable bottle with you wherever you go.

“Every day, I bring in my eco-friendly reusable water bottle into class with me,” said O’Donnell. “Other than my morning coffee, water is basically all I drink nowadays ever since my experience.”

Buying Thanksgiving

Holiday cartoon depicting how Christmas is overshadowing Thanksgiving.

Every year, it's the same. Families gather on the third Thursday of November for a grand feast and to give thanks to all they have and are blessed with.

Later, the families pull a "Gone with the Wind" and take a nap in the same house together right after they had their full of food, if they didn't already watch a football game.

After resting, they would all head down to the nearest or most popular department or high-tech store to stand in line and wait to go in to take part in the big sales as the Christmas season officially begins.

But this year, it seems as though materialism is more overshadowing Thanksgiving.

For the first time ever, Wal-Mart, as well as others, opened their stores at 8 p.m. Thanksgiving night for the customers to start the sales.

This actually scares me. Stores are opening their stores up earlier into the holiday so they can get a head start on sales. It won't be long until store sales happen all day on Thanksgiving and families forget to keep what we do on that holiday a tradition.

As for my holiday season, my sister went to visit my other sister in New Orleans for the holiday so it was just my parents and I celebrating here in Maryland.

On Thanksgiving morning, we watched the 86th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, as it was traditional. I didn't enjoy all that much. It had too many pre-teen celebrities and the parade isn't usually all that children oriented like it felt this year. For once, I watched the televised Dog Show that followed the parade. The dogs were so adorable.

Afterwords, we went to the chow hall on Fort Meade where we enjoyed are dinner in the mid afternoon.

That's funny how the early to middle afternoon is when families usually have Thanksgiving dinner. Must be that way to get enough rest before having to go to the many Black Friday sales at midnight.

After we prayed, we ate all the essentials: turkey, gravy, stuffing, ham, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, green beans, with mac & cheese, salad, and soup.

We left to go home and take our naps. My mom went to Wal-Mart at 8 p.m. and I went to Best Buy at midnight. I got in line at 10:30 p.m. and didn't get in until half an hour past midnight. All the sales I wanted to take advantage of were buy the 32 gb 5th generation iPod touch and get a free $50 gift card and buy a $100 iTunes gift card for only $80.

My rule for Black Friday is only take part if there is something you really want to buy and you must take advantage of the amazing sale. Also go by yourself in your own car so you and only you control when you leave in case you get annoyed by the crazy, bustling scenes.

Catholic Law Causes Death

Savita Halappanavar died after being denied an abortion.

Time and time again, humans have debated over the delicate subject of abortion, but for an Indian woman living in Ireland, she was denied one which cost her life.

On October 21, 2012 in Ireland, 31-year-old Indian woman Savita Halappanavar was refused an abortion because of the strict nation-wide anti-abortion laws.

Halappanavar and her husband went to the hospital because she was complaining of back pain. From a CNN report, the examining doctors informed Halappanavar that she was in the midst of a miscarriage that would end in a matter of hours.

From a an Irish Times report, Halappanavar spent the next three days in agony until the fetus' heartbeat stopped, while she also asked several times for her demanded pregnancy termination. The doctor's refused because of the Catholic anti-abortion law.

Savita and her husband, Praveen, dancing.

Praveen Halappanavar, Savita's husband, told CNN, "On Tuesday morning, she came back and [the doctors] said that 'I'm sorry, we can't help you because [Ireland is] a Catholic country. We can't help it, it's a Catholic thing.' So we just said that she's not Catholic, she's a Hindu, so why impose the law on her?"

Halappanavar was 17 weeks pregnant and she died from, what IBN Live says doctors said was, blood poisoning a week after abortion denial.

Two women protest for Halappanavar and women everywhere.

Ever since then, many organizations have made public protests throughout other nations around the world in Halappanavar's name. Some of them coming from the side of pro-choice and others from the side of women's rights.

This having happened has sparked major controversy and further question on when, if ever, is it ok to terminate a fetus. The Catholic Church  says never but then others say women have the right to do what they please with their own bodies. This grueling and hurtful debate between pro-life and pro-choice organizations has been going on for so long and it's difficult to say when it will end, if it will ever.

No Shave November

As curious as I am and as my friends are also taking part, I have decided to shave off all my facial hair and not shave or even clean it up as it grows as part of something called No Shave November.

This is obviously something that is meant for men, (unless women also take part but with their legs, ew!), and I imagine it is very popular between friends and classmates in high school as well as college. I am not usually this immature or at least I hope I don't seem that way, but I wanted to try it out and see how long I can go without cleaning my face of its "caveman" look, if it ever gets that way.

I have not shaved all of my facial hair off at once since my high school graduation in June 2011 and I wanted to see how I look without any hair on my cheeks, chin, or neck.

As it has been only half a week since No Save November had started for me, I have already decided that it may have been bad idea because I hate the way I look without facial hair and the coldness of the weather is not helping me as I am without a face warmer. But it is also an interesting experience to be in when I once had all the hair on my face, then I took it all off and hear someone in my class ask"what are you going to do with your hair next week?" referencing the fact that got a haircut the week before I shaved off my facial hair.

As it says on Noshember's site, "Everyone, young and old, male and female can participate in No-Shave-November..."

The site also tells its viewers what to do on certain days of the month such as to stowe away all razors on Nov 1, to control the desire to shave in the week of Nov 1-7, and Nov 30 is known as Photograph Day where pictured are taken of the hairy people who took part.

This activity is quite interesting I must say, but for me I think this will be the only time I will be apart of it.

For or Against Equality

All Anne Arundel Community College students, in an unofficial survey, said that they are for same-sex marriage rights.

Etienne Brown, 18, a graphic design major, agrees to grant same-sex couples the right to marry. "I believe love is love," said Brown, who is openly gay. "I want to be able to get married to someone I love."

Question 6, which is on the Maryland election ballot for November 6, will allow same-sex couples, in Maryland, to obtain a civil marriage license if the majoraty of votes is "For."

Jacob Ledezme, 21, a history major, says that he is for question 6. "A good friend of mine was gay," Ledezme said. He also said that he has no problem with same-sex marriage. "It doesn't matter what someone's sexual orientation is. If you love someone, you should be allowed to marry them."

Question 6 is a responce to Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley's Civil Marriage Protection Act that was brough up on March 1, 2012 that would allow same-sex marriage. Question 6 is a referendum that was brought up after a signing of signatures by Md. people who oppose same-sex marriage.

By November 6, 2012, people of Md. will be out voting either for or against Question 6 and we will see if we are moving forward in nation-wide marriage equality or not.

Restoring classic films, but not in a crappy remake way.

Working at Cinemark theaters at Arundel Mills always seems to have its benefits. Half off concession items, flexible hours, and let's not forget the free admissions to every movie showing (excluding midnight premieres for big films). One other benefit I can reap is that I always know what special films we would be showing, even weeks or months in advance through the discussion with any senior or general manager.

One spectacular special we always have is the showing of classic films called Cinemark Classic Series. Such films we've had in the past are "The Godfather," "The Birds," "Casablanca," and "Cabaret." But one that was recently shown this very night of October 10th was Victor Fleming's "Gone with the Wind" starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.

I went to see it with my mother and sister. This was my first experience of the 1939 classic and I was glad to have shared it with part of my family.

I won't get too much into the movie but I have to say that it is quite a film and I am extremely mad at myself for not having seen it sooner. It is so superb in so many ways. The acting is phenomenal, especially with Gable and Leigh, the cinematography and lighting is stunning, and the emotion proposed that the audience and I felt was so touching.

It has a pretty depressing ending, I might add.

"Gone with the Wind" is the first film of Cinemark's current Classic Series sequence. The next one to show is the supercalifragilisticexpialidotious film that is, of course, "Mary Poppins" starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Even though I have already seen this wonderful film, I'll definitely still see it.

Other films we have coming up in the next month in the Classic Series are "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," "Young Frankenstein (just in time for Halloween)," "The Great Escape," and "The Sting."

This is a fantastic way to expose people who roam Arundel Mills mall to classic films that inspired others today to follow in their glorious footsteps, for example Adam Sandler*.

*I'm kidding of course

Grand Theft... Leg?

After having lunch with a friend last Thursday Sept. 27 in Louisville, Roy Jones discovered that his $8,000 artificial leg had been stolen right out of his car.

“I’m disgusted as hell,” Jones said. After suffering an industrial accident 30 years ago, Jones of Germantown lost his leg. He started using a wheel chair to get around outside and also used another previously used artificial leg to move around his house.

Two years ago, Jones needed further amputation and the artificial leg that was stolen was his new one. “I bet whoever took it, when they opened the package, is as disappointed as I am.”

Inside Jones’ car had the leg in a package wrapped in a plastic bag on the floor. When he returned to his car 30 minutes after lunch, it was gone and the back door was open.

“I just hate to go through all the hassle of getting another [artificial leg] made,” Jones said. The stolen artificial leg was created by Falls City Limb and Brace Company.

“You have to go down there for a fitting, and then you have to go down there again.” Jones said the leg is probably covered by insurance but that doesn’t make him feel any better.

The Louisville police Sgt. Frank Lavender says that no one has been arrested and the item that was stolen has not been found.