Carry a Card!

I just read a CNN article on food allergy travel telling us we can order cards from SelectWisely.com that will list our food allergies in a foreign language. They also have emergency cards for conditions like diabetes.

Food allergy cards are also available at AllergyTranslation.com.

Another good idea is to carry a Medical ID card. You can order them online (at ebay, for instance) or print one yourself. See this form at State Farm's site.

You're No One 'til Somebody Links to You

I want to thank Linja dot com for linking to this blog!

Antibacterial Soap Not So Good

Care2 has an interesting story on "The Trouble with Triclosan in Your Soap." Aside from the basic uselessness of antibacterials in hand soap, read this paragraph:

"Antibacterial resistance is not the only health concern associated with triclosan. The increased use of antibacterials in general has been linked to increased allergies in children. Further studies specific to triclosan have shown that it affects reproduction in lab animals, produces toxic chemicals such as dioxin and chloroform when it reacts with other chemicals like the chlorine in water, irritates skin in humans and might even cause cancer. New laboratory studies on rats and frogs show that triclosan can disrupt thyroid hormone, alter development and impair important functions at the cellular level. And a study by British researchers found that triclosan has estrogenic and androgenic hormone properties and exposure could potentially contribute to the development of breast cancer."

Unfortunately, it's easier to find liquid soaps that contain antibacterial chemicals than to find them without them.

Encouraging Results on the PSA Score

In April, I wrote about my husband's PSA score going up a year after his prostatectomy. The rise in PSA slowed after that and this past quarter, it actually went down a little. His urologist said the decline is not significant; small changes in PSA may be due to lab test inconsistencies. Still, we are much encouraged that it is not rising quickly.

Eventually it will probably reach a point where the cancer needs further treatment to keep from spreading. Right now they can't tell where it resides so they can't treat it. My hope is that it will grow so slowly that by the time treatment is indicated, treatment options will have advanced. For instance, the hormone therapy that the doctor is talking about has side-effects and is only effective for a few years anyway. In the future, doctors should know more about lessening the side-effects, and may even have medications that are effective for a longer term.