June second I had surgery on my right foot which grounded me for three weeks! Not being able to drive was very difficult. And two days after the surgery, I started on my new HGC Diet. I figured if I was stuck at home all the planning and grocery lists could be made up. Amazingly enough the foot has healed great and the diet is working beyond my wildest dreams. Gary has been very supportive (which is great). I now weight less than I have for about 30 years. So far I can’t see a change but as long as the scales tell it’s happening I’m over joyed.

Haylee attended a Fairy Dance Camp for three days. She had a great time and is dancing all the time now. This was her first dance experience. Here she had gotten her Pixie Stik.

Haylee Fairy Dancer

Beyond my dancer, day school and dealing with the heat I guess it has been quieter than I thought.

I hope to get back to working on my rock garden soon. Tommy has brought home some more rocks. Some are so beautiful I must figure out how to place them for best effect.

Most of the birds around now are summer residents. We have had several batches of Swallows. They are working 4 nests around the house now. Our Black Bellied Whistling  Ducks, who have been absent for several years have returned to the pond. We still have a few Hummingbirds, that chose to stay around. The Cardinals are raising their young fast and furiously. We love to watch the birds and the crazy squirrels. There have even been several tiny green tree frogs around lately. Hope they don’t become someone’s lunch.

So drop by Muses Acres and sit a spell. The breeze in the shade makes the outdoors almost bearable.

You need to understand this rock garden is truly a Rock Garden. I have a large amount of petrified wood, large and small pieces, as well as lots of quartz crystals. These will be used to fill the medium size area on the slope in front of the white gazelle, that Haylee calls her castle. The area doesn’t grow much and is a run off area, if we ever have rain.

This last weekend Tommy, my son and Haylee, his daughter went to the Hill Country to hunt rocks. We spent one day at a ranch hunting quartz and Topaz. Not sure we found any Topaz, but brought home lots of pretty rocks. It was a beautiful area, but hard work sifting gravel looking for treasures. (I plan to go back by my self and wander around more.) I saw a new bird for me, a Scott’s Oriole. The breasts on these birds glows yellow.

The second day we went to Llano to collect Llanite, which is a hard dark granite with pink and blue sparkles. The only place Llanite is found is in Llano in a long ridge that the road cuts through. So we picked up chunks from the road cut and a few more crystals.

We will wash all the stones and sort them to decide what will go to the Rock Garden and what will be tumbled and possibly a couple of pieces for jewelry.

It was a lot of work but a fun weekend. We even got to play in Lake Buchanan for a couple of hours.

Stay tuned for more on the Rock Garden project.

With all this family fun, I also saw a Painted Bunting at my bird feeder. He is beautiful!

Bella's 4th Birthday

Heaylee'Haylee's 3rd Birthday

Golden Fronted Woodpecker

Life at Muses Acres has changed forever this month. Some good changes some sad. Guess that’s just life, but sometimes it isn’t easy.

April brings us two wonderful Birthdays, both granddaughters move up a year.

Renee my daughter threw a fantastic Princess Party at her house for Bella, who turns 4 on the 16th. It was the party of the year! Held early due to other conflicts, but Bella didn’t care. Renee hired a woman who goes by the name of Kiwie to provide face painting and balloon creations. Kiwie came dressed as a mermaid and was fantastic as well as very skilled.

While we were in the Hill Country for the Birthday Party we did some bird watching at Lake Buchanan. Gary tried out his new camera and found a new bird for his list. Turned out there was a pair of the Golden Fronted Woodpeckers and he got pictures!

Haylee’s birthday is the 23rd and we will do a Play Day Park Party. Nothing real fancy especially since Easter is the next day. She has requested a strawberry cake and a chocolate cake. I think I’ll do cupcakes to meet those needs.

Well those are the fun news from Muses Acres and family. Now for the not so fun.

We are in the middle of a huge drought and our pond is suffering. Plants must be watered daily to keep them alive. Burn bans are in place and it is dry …dry…dry.  And there is no rain insight.

The other reason the drought is an issue is digging in this rock hard earth is a major problem. We must dig a grave. On Monday the 11th , Othello our “ten pound puppy” began having a seizure that couldn’t be stopped. I took him to the Texas A&M Small Animal Emergency services and they couldn’t do anything for him. I had to have him put to sleep. So after almost ten years as our best friend, one hundred and thirty plus pound lap dog Othello went to sleep for the last time. I brought him home so he can be buried next to Duke, our other sweet missing friend.

It is hard to loss a good friend, but he was luck enough to be a dog so I could make the decision to release him from the stress of the seizure and fever that burned in his body. We love Othello and will miss him.

As I said, all is life taking it’s turns – growth

Pretty Faces

and death

Kewie's Magic

Josh and Othello

Over the next few posts I plan to discuss the Overarching Goals and the determinants that Healthy People 2020 has set forth. The determinants identified by Healthy People 2020 are Physical Environment, Social Environment, Health Services, Individual Behaviors, and Biology &Genetics. These are large groupings and run the gamut from individual responsibility to federal/political issues. Just looking at these determinants and their impact on health outcomes would be very educational. But first I’d like to look at the Goals.

Overarching Goal one: “Attain high quality, longer lives free of preventable disease, disability, injury, and premature death.” So states Healthy People 2020 Framework. Sounds like Utopia to me.

Let’s look at the first part of this goal -”Attain high quality, longer lives. . . “I wonder what “high quality” in life means?  Each of us will have a different value we place on areas of our lives that make the total what we consider high quality.

Each determinant will effect our personal judgments of a high quality life. Physical Environment can mean everything from where you live to the water you drink, parks you play in or places you work. So if we are all to have “High Quality Lives” the Physical Environment for each of us must also be high quality – great physical dwellings, safe from any physical hazards, outdoor areas from of dangers, no pollution, lots of uncontaminated food and pure water, no natural hazards, work for everyone that they enjoy and doesn’t create stress, schools that are safe, and fun to learn in, – for everyone! Great dream, but how can we accomplish this. Remember, what I think makes my life quality may not be what you or the Healthy People 2020 panel thinks makes quality.

That was comparing “High Quality Life” with just one of the five determinants; as you look at each of the others consider what these determinants encompass and how that effects your definition of quality life.

The second part of this overarching goal is “Longer Lives free of Preventable Disease, Disability, Injury, and Premature Death.” As I read that I picture each of us inside a special bubble to protect us from injuries. I’m not so sure how they will prevent disabilities unless each fetus will be engineered to be perfect at birth. But if we are all in bubbles the babies will have to be lab products to insure no injuries. As for the concept of premature death, who decides death is premature? If life is a process and death is part of that process and to date we don’t know the schedule each of us is assigned, how can we call it premature? Oh, I may digress.

Consider please, the five determinants and their impacts on “Longer Lives Free of Preventable Disease, Disability, Injury and Premature Death.” How can you have a social environment without injury and disability let alone death?

How can “Attain high quality, longer lives free of preventable disease, disability, injury and premature death.” be regulated or measured when just defining the concept is virtually impossible? And this is the goal for 2020 – 9 years from now!

I’m not even sure this should be a goal as stated. We as a country can look at eliminating preventable diseases world-wide since if the organisms or causative agents live anywhere they can always come here. We can do genetic repairs perhaps some day for disabilities. But so much of this goal seems nebulas and variable.

I would suggest a more reasonable goal would be: That 90% of our society feels they have a quality life, live longer than their parents’ generation, are immunized against currently preventable diseases, do not suffer debilitating injuries and have a good death. The determinants remain the same and will have powerful impact on the members of society’s perceptions.

What are your thoughts and comments?

I have been promoting the concept of the educated health consumers for a long time so I’m delighted to discover this new awareness program. I will be offering programs on different aspects of becoming an educated consumer of health. The programs are listed under Press on my site. American Institute for Preventive Medicine’s website offers suggestions for programs as well as tips.

Educated Consumers of Health protect themselves, their loved ones and in the end our society benefits. The more you know as you purchase health care services the better chance you have of receiving effective, safe and cost responsible products.

One person can’t make the changes needed in society to improve the quality, safety and effectiveness of our health care system, but together we can make a difference. So join together and become Wise Consumers of Health.

This is a huge project that began with the 1979 Surgeon General’s Report, Healthy People as a the foundation for a national prevention agenda. In 1980 Promoting Health/Preventing Disease: Objectives for the Nation, continued the drive with specific objectives. Healthy People 2000: National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives, also established national health objectives and created the framework that served as the basis for the development of state and community plans. Health People 2010 has just ended and we’ve begin our next 10 year initiative with Healthy People 2020.

The Vision, Mission and Over Arching Goals are found in a simple statement found at www.healthypeople.gov . From this site you can travel to other sites that spell out in more detail the different goals and outcome measures that will be developed or improved. This is a wonderful plan that starts at the top with the federal government painting the broad picture, from there the states will make their goals and plans, down to the communities that will implement programs as supported by the state and federal government.

I have several concerns about the Healthy People 2020.

• The monies for most these programs will be made available through grants. This means agencies that have current programs addressing these issues will be competing with agencies that want to develop programs. Whomever writes the best grant gets the funding. No evaluation of local needs or current effectiveness of established programs are important in the granting process. This can cause duplication of effort, higher overhead and less effective programs for the targeted population.
• Some money sources may require matching funds. This can create a problem if the community is only willing to provide funds for the politically acceptable programs. This mindset can cause serious needs to go unmet. The population having the greatest needs is usually the one with no political voice and no empowerment. Only through unbiased community assessments can the real needs of the entire community begin to be identified.
• The greatest problem I see is the issue of motivation. Each person is responsible for their own health and wellness. The monies and programs can be fantastic, providing terrific information and benefits, BUT if the individuals can not or will not develop the practices that promote health and wellness then the community and country fails in its charge to have people live longer and healthier lives. There are a myriad of reasons for not adapting a healthier lifestyle and practicing preventive medicine. Some of these reasons can be addressed and must be, before preventative health practices, and wellness decisions become important enough for people to make better choices. Motivating others will be the hardest issue to overcome.  Providing quality information, even having demonstration of understanding the information won’t mean acting on the information. Each person must decide what choices they will make no matter what their knowledge about health and wellness issues is.

Health is a very personal issue that has a huge community and national impact. To help people become educated consumers must be done by touching individuals and their values and needs. Therefore, my suggestions are:

1. identify key lay leaders in identified areas of need;
2. educate them and provide them with the tools, supplies, and support they will need to help their peers (these include teens, young adults and older community members);
3. spend the monies on small viral groups not on classes for the masses;
4. send the messages and support into the homes and lives of the people with the greatest need;
5. address the safety and hunger issues at the same time as teaching health and wellness information – these issues go together;
6. spread the word far and wide about successes, how to participate, and who is participating.

Each of us is responsible for our own health and often are caregivers for others, to help us get the best care and take the best care of ourselves and others, we must become educated consumers. Healthy People 2020 offers the citizens of the US more resources to achieve these goals. Let’s use them responsibly and effectively.

Tell me what your thoughts are on this important issue.

Now the great day has passed and mostly we’re still cleaning up. I will attempt to post some pictures.

We did a local Christmas Bird count one day and later this week will do one out at the Gibbons Creek Reservoir. This is a great time to see unusual birds as they are migrating through our area. I’ll let you know If I find any interesting feathered friends.

As a Healthcare Advocate my goal is assist consumers of healthcare services to become educated empowered, no matter what their starting point of understanding is. First I guess I should state my definition of health literacy – The ability to understand and use information about health issues, disease processes and treatments; and the understanding of and the implementation of preventive and wellness practices.

So I offer these answers to your questions:

* Who is responsible for health literacy? Is it patients, providers, teachers, or someone else? I believe it is everyone’s responsibility to actively participate in communicating accurate usable information and to ask questions until the information is understood.
* What is the focus of health literacy? Is it about individuals or communities? The focus of health literacy must be both individual as well as community wide. If the focus become limited to either the messages will become diluted and often inaccurate. Much like teaching about sexuality, if some isn’t taught in the home and scientifically accurate information reinforced by the schools we get young people who make-up their own stories and more teen pregnancies.

*Where does health literacy happen? Does it occur in the clinic, at home, in school, or elsewhere? Health Literacy should be present in all areas of life. I do a weekly radio show about health and wellness. Our goal is to provide quality information in plain English so every listener has the chance to benefit. If we provided health and wellness information routinely in easily understood forms consumers would be better able to care for themselves and loved ones and navigate the Healthcare System.

*When is health literacy needed? Is it in acute care, for disease prevention, during self-management, or at another point along the continuum of care? Health literacy is necessary in every day life as well as when the consumer intersects with the medical system. Promoting wellness and preventive measures is important to health literacy as it lays the groundwork for understanding diseases, injuries, and treatment forms.

*How do we measure health literacy success? Is it with lower reading grade levels, improved health outcomes, increased levels of patient engagement, or something else? The measuring of the effects of increased health literacy can only be evaluated over time. Looking at improved use of Emergency Rooms, better patient comprehension and follow through (compliance), reduction in deaths due to preventable causes, National and community improved health scores, increased levels of immunizations, and many other factors can be evaluated that would indicate an improved level of health and wellness understanding, thus improved health literacy.

This is a worthy topic to continue discussion about since it effects each and everyone of us.