SELF CPR

You are home alone after a long day’s work.

If you suddenly start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to drag out into your arm and up in to your jaw, you may be having a heart attack.   You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home but you don’t know if you’ll be able to make it that far.  First, CALL 911 and unlock                             the front door.

HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE?

     Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness. 

    However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. 

    A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

    Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughingmovements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital. 

This information was sent to me by a friend two days after several other friends were talking about Self CPR.  And with several people in my world bringing attention to this, I  thought it necessary to share the info with my blog followers.

The symptoms mentioned appear to be for men since women can have other symptoms.  Nonetheless, coughing may save your life. 

Note:  I have also heard that people should chew an aspirin if they feel a heart attack coming on.  Unfortunately, sometimes the medicine is not readily accessible.  

Has anyone had any real life experience with Self CPR?  Please comment in the space below on the web version of The Mindful Files.

Flossing

I hate to floss. I have always hated to floss.  BUT, last year I decided that if I were going to save money, I needed to develop the habit of flossing.  After talking with the dental hygienist, I decided that my way of flossing, while not the best, was the one I could follow.  The 2015-2016 year was going to be an experiment.    The first checkup was good but the dentist told me I needed to floss every day;  I was only doing it a few times a week.  So, with new resolve, I started flossing every morning after brushing my teeth.  Again, not the optimal plan but better than nothing.  I am pleased to say that my next 6 month checkup was much better...keep doing what you are doing the dentist told me.

The point of this rant is the importance of prevention.  Since I no longer had dental insurance, keeping my teeth and gums in good health was necessary to keep costs down.  Yes, I have to pay for my dental checkups and for one cleaning per year and if I keep my teeth and gums healthy, I can save money in the long run by not having the expense of cavities, root canals, etc. 

While I can’t say, statistically speaking, that because I am flossing daily that my dental bills will be smaller over the long run, I can say that I feel virtuous because I am being proactive.  I am doing what I can to have healthy teeth and gums and perhaps to help ward off  heart disease.  The science is not making a correlation between healthy teeth and a healthy heart; however, there seems to be a link.  Could the link be habit related?  People who floss and have twice a year dental checkups may also exercise and eat better, thus reducing their chance for heart disease. So I start off my day with a healthy habit and plan to implement other healthy habits throughout the day.  Yes, plans can go awry.  I have noticed that since my new habit of flossing daily has become second nature, I am thinking more about other healthy habits.  Still working on moving from the thinking stage to the action stage – at least I’m thinking. 

What healthy habits do you have?  Have you tried overnight oats?  This is one of the easiest and most nutritious breakfasts I have ever made.  Google it and create your own variations.  Respond in the comment section on the web version….

I Don't Know Where to Start

The subject was “death”.  The panel was made up of a clergy member, a representative of a funeral home, and a nurse who prepares bodies for burial.  The attendees, about 12 of us, ranged in age from 40s to 80s.  We learned the ins and outs of what happens when someone dies in our community.  Most of the information I knew as I have already preplanned my funeral.  But there is always something to learn or relearn.  There were lots of personal stories shared and I mentioned my blog and passed out cards with the blog address.  As I was leaving, one of the participants came up to me and said she had always wanted to write about her history, her thoughts, etc. and she didn’t know where to start.

Those of us who want to do all things perfectly get stuck in the “never starting” because we may be afraid to fail.  Many people over 50 have boxes of photos in a corner.  Our intention is to label those pictures, and perhaps categorize them so that our family will know who’s who.  And how many of us really get that task started, let alone completed?  And again addressing my initial reason for starting this blog- getting important papers in order and putting them in one place- is another area where people are bogged down.  Many of us think about the problem and we never start addressing it.

My advice to this individual was to start now; don’t wait.  I suggested she go home and begin writing- writing about the meeting and the discussion- what her feelings were about the topic and what her  thoughts are about her spiritual, moral and ethical values.  Just start.  Computer keyboard or pen and paper. Either is fine.  Whatever is more comfortable and whatever makes sense to you is the right way of dealing with the situation.  Just Start.

I wrote down a quote from one of Ellen Goodman’s The Conversation Project newsletters:  “it’s always too soon to have these conversations before it’s too late.”  

Have you started a project that has been sitting for a long time?  What made you take the first step?  Did you complete it in bits and pieces or did you tackle it until it was resolved?  Let me know in the comments on the web version of this blog.

Procrastination

My friend Alice was a vivacious woman.  She always had a smile for me and was delighted by my stories of my grandkids.  Unexpectedly, she died last month.  Alice was a woman who always took care of others- her husband, her kids, her grandkids.  She thought she was invincible.  Not feeling well for a few days, she went to the doctor and was told she had a virus.  Plans to go to a cousin’s wedding were looming; plane tickets and hotel reservations had been made weeks before.  Alice thought like most of us- nothing bad will happen.  Unfortunately, she became very ill on the plane.  Although an ambulance was waiting for her when the plane landed, she died several hours later. 

Her story reaches deeply to my sole.  The lesson:  we don’t know what will happen tomorrow.  And if we want to make things a bit easier for our loved ones- again another caretaking role- we have to allocate time and energy now- not tomorrow. 

Taking time and energy now can also contribute to our own well-being.  Prepping meals for the week, shopping lists, to do lists and reading lists are several helpful ways to help us with the habit of “doing” and not just “thinking”.  I haven’t figured out the entire answer myself.  Yet the divide between thinking and doing can be massive.  Accountability comes into play here.  If I tell someone about my thoughts and commit to a timetable, will I be more inclined to actually take the steps to action?  I guess it depends on the situation.  How do you get yourself to do things that are not urgent?  How do you change the mindset from “I can do it tomorrow” to “I need to do it today”.  Please comment in the web version of this blog.

I have been thinking about labeling my photos and  artwork.  Just a sticky note on the back to tell my kids where it came from or why I bought it could be of interest to them.  And I need to do this now in the event my memory fails later. 

Perhaps enough talking and thinking…action is required now.