Blog #5-Alaska home bound

I love to travel always have, when I was younger I always told my mom that I wanted to move down South I love hot weather.  First it was Florida, then it was Texas for a long time.  In a turn of events I ended up going the totally opposite way and moved out west to Wyoming.  After spending three years there I came back home to finish off my degree in Michigan, but I know once thats done i'll be once again back on the road looking for my next destionation to move to.  I've now turned my sights to the wonderous lands of Alaska, lot of people think Alaskas beautiful and a great place to visit for the hunting or to sight seeing but wouldn't really want to live there.  Me on the other hand, I love the thrill of adventure, and the since of doing something that most people don't want to. 

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area over twice the size of Texas the next largest state.  It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Artic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Straits. Approximately half of Alaska's 698,473 residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. As of 2009, Alaska remains the least densely populated state of the U.S. Alaska has a longer coastline than all the other U.S. states combined.  approximately 65% of Alaska is owned and managed by the U.S federal government  as public lands, including a multitude of nation forests, national parks, and nation wildlife refuges. Of these, the Bureau of Land Management  manages 87 million acres (350,000 km²), or 23.8% of the state.

The Artic National Wildlife Refuge  is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife. It is the world's largest wildlife refuge, comprising 16 million acres   The climate of the interior of Alaska is subarctic. Some of the highest and lowest temperatures in Alaska occur around the area near Fairbanks.

The summers may have temperatures reaching into the 90s°F while in the winter, the temperature can fall below −60 °F, The lowest official Alaska temperature is −80 °. Snow is sparse in the Interior of Alaska, often less than 10 inches but what snow falls in the winter tends to stay the entire winter.

 

I find Alaskas history very intreguing begining in 1867 with the United States Secretary of State negotiated the Alaska Purchase with Russian.  It wasn't until 1890 that Alaska shined during the gold rush it brought thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska. Alaska was granted official territorial status in 1912. At this time the capital was moved to Juneau. The 1968 discovery of oil led to an oil boom and in 1977 completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. 

In addition, American Indians and Alaskan Natives or Esquimos are the largest minority group.  This makes for a great vibrant Native culture that is promoted and upheld by the locals.  The oil and gas industry dominates the Alaskan economy, with more than 80% of the state's revenues derived from petroleum extraction. Alaska's main export product besides oil and natural gas is seafood, primarily salmon, cod, Pollock and crab

 

My favorite part of Alaska is the unique hunting and fishing opportunities its provides.  Alaska offers some of the most spectacular fly-fishing, saltwater fishing, freshwater fishing and even ice fishing in the world.  Varity of grizzly bear and black bear, moose, caribou, sheep, wolf, deer, and elk brings in a good part of revenue for Alaska for hunting.  As for me going into the health field I think it would be amazing to work there because with such extreme conditions, and the vast amount of wildlife the types of problems you would come across in a hospital setting would be nothing similar to what would occur anywhere else.  It would make my job unique and it would never get old because it would have that "today is never going to be the same as tomorrow" feeling.     

 If you have more questions about Alaska or just want to see some great pictures and what it has to offer visit the states web site

Travel Alaska

First Look: Sarah Palin's Alaska*

Blog # 4-When I grow up.....

 I am currently going into the health care field to get my bacholors in Health Education, On top of my bacholors degree I am also getting my RN.  Health education is the profession of educating people about health. Areas within this profession encompass environmental health, physical health, social health, emotional health, intellectual health, and spiritual health.  It can be defined as the principle by which individuals and groups of people learn to behave in a manner conducive to the promotion, maintenance, or restoration of health.Nursing shortages occur frequently within the health care industry.  As an RN or an Registared Nurse is graduate trained nurse who has passed a state registration examination and has been licensed to practice nursing.  With these two degrees combined it can open the door for so many different Nursing jobs.

 I'm doing my research paper on the importance and need of having health education in schools. I feel this topic goes very well with my career i've choosen.  This research paper highlights the importance of health education in academic establishments. The paper describes the alarming increase in health problems in school-going children, and presents extensive research carried out by some of the best experts in the related field, that suggests urgent need for the enhancement, improvement and amendment of health education in both public and private educational institutions. 

 3 Overweight and obesity is a crisis among children. The number of overweight children aged 6-11 has tripled over the past three decades. Approximately 17 percent of today’s youth are overweight.

Recent statistics show that 1 in 5 high school students are current smokers; approximately 80 percent of studentsdo not eat the recommended 5 servings of vegetables and fruits per day; more than 830,000 adolescents become pregnant each year; and approximately 15 million school days are missed due to uncontrolled asthma each year.

 

Check out generation healthy for more information

Generation Healthy for kids

RE-DO of movie review

The movie that I choose to do my movie review on was Alice in Wonderland.    And for anyone that has been around for awhile would also know that this is a remake, in fact a remake of several different Alice In Wonderlands. The original Alice in Wonderland or Alice Adventures in Wonderland, was made in 1903 almost 100 years ago. All the Alice in Wonderlands follow about the same story line, a girl who follows a white rabbit into a magical world. This Alice, although follows about the same story line, has a very big imaginative twist on the beloved story.  .

The first Alice in Wonderland's were originally called Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Alice Through the Looking Glass. Much of the film and play incorporate both novels together as one. The first book has a game of cards theme, and the second a game of chess. These are touched on in the new version on Alice where the Red Queen has her soldiers as decks of cards and the White Queen has pawn pieces. The most unalike common theme, is that Wonderland is taken over by the Red Queen, and Alice is the heroine, this never happens in the novels. But this isn't where the differences end between novel & film. The character's themselves have interesting meanings behind them.  In both novels Alice is 7 years old, but a smart and adventurous child that acts beyond her years. In Disneys animated version she's older around 12 or 13 or so. In the more recent film, she's 19, and now dealing with the threat of an engagement.

As for the movie having being a remake of course there was going to be already pre-expectations about the it. And for the mere fact the movie being made by Walt Disney which is leader in family oriented, children friendly animated films.  I think viewers expected the movie to be more geared toward a childerns genre of movie.  Where I think this Alice in Wonderland had a little darker and a little closer to the Middle of Kingdom and "Narnia"-style movies, in which a good queen has been replaced by an evil one.  I differently think with director Tim Burton use of characters such as Johnny Depp as mad hatter, Anne Hathaway as the white queen, Helena Carter as the red queen, and Alan Rickman as the blue caterpillar. I believe the director had more of an adult audience in mind where there is differently more violence in this Alice. In the film we encounter a skewered eyeball, bobbing heads, and Alice has to slay the jabberwalky and drink its blood in order to return back home.

This Alice in Wonderland is different right from the beginning with the 19 year old Alice, a girl who’s facing the possibility of being married off to a man she doesn’t love and on the verge of enduring a life she really doesn’t want. As she runs off to consider the proposal, she falls down a rabbit hole and finds herself in Wonderland. However, on her entrance to Wonderland, she finds she has a destiny to fulfill in which she must free the land from the Red Queen and restore happiness to the land she visited as a child in her dreams. But with the Red Queen on the war path, and the evil Jabberwocky to be unleashed, it looks like Alice really has her work cut out.

The genre of this movie is adventure, family, and fantasy. An adventure genre, in the context of a narrative, is typically applied to works in which the protagonist or other major characters are consistently placed in dangerous situations, and a fictional character who lives by their wits and their skills is often called an adventurer. Adventure films are both prominent genres in their respective media. I believe Disney brings this to Alice and Wonderland by the who adventure of a 19 year who is stuck between a rock and a hard place as they put it with her decision to marry or stay single. Who in a fit of furry runs off and goes to a fantasy word of unbelievable make believe character's. As for a family genre of movie I feel it fits this category because in all reality Alice in Wonderland was made as a childern's movie. As for this Alice movie with its bright colors, animated character's, fun, magical and whimsical era about it makes it designed for viewing for childern. At the same time the more adult Alice and a sort of darker side to this movie in slaying the Jabberwocky makes it also geared for a more adult audience as well. Combining the two makes it a suitable for a family genre of movie.

Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of ,plot, theme and/or setting. Many works within the genre take place in fictional worlds, such as in Alice in Wonderland, Wonderland being the fictional world where magic is common. Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction in that it does not provide a logical explanation for the scientifically impossible events that occur, though there is a great deal of overlap between the two. Alice endeds up going to Wonderland and the audience is very much in the dark about the fantasy world or the character's she meets and her real reason of being at Wonderland to slay the jabberwocky. So really there is no explanation for the the impossible events that occur or mythical character's in the movie. The genre of adventure and fantasy I believe visually are held up by Disney in this movie to be stunning if not anything are enough to attract people of all ages to this movie.  Costumes that are used and the animations I think are brilliant. 

I personally liked the movie, but it took me a few times to watch it before I understood it completely.  There was some parts of the movie that was kind of a blur as to what was going on.  The characters, costumes, and animates were all really good.  I personally love Johnny Depp and he made the movie an advent full one. The Hatter is indeed mad, his orange hair, stained hands and eyes are evident of that, his eyes often changing color when his mood goes into a more insane demeanor. For more about the movie check out Disneys site on the movie....

Why Not To Wear Metal During An MRI

Why you DO NOT wear metal into a MRI machine!

What is an MRI??



So growing up I've always had back problems, and I've gone to probably over a dozen chiropractors for them. I've always been a very athletic person all through high school and even after I've gone on to college.  I played basketball, soccer and ran a lot in my free time which most chiropractors say is the root of all a lot of my back problems.  Last summer I tore my acl and meniscus in my left knee playing softball, in which I had to get surgery done to repair it.  Was differently a bummer deal, I've never had surgery before and has put a huge dent on my athletics.  My left knee just hasn't been then same since the surgery, and now in fact I find myself when standing putting my weight on my right side. Two weeks ago on Saturday morning I woke up and felt my feet kind of having a tingly feeling in them, but really didn't think much of it.   As the day progressed into night it got worse and worse.  My feet felt like they still had the numb feeling to them but when I moved them they had a prickly sensation to them which the numb feeling continued up my legs and especially on my left side it was more prominent.  I had a very had time walking the first 3 or 4 days of this numbness.  It felt like I was helplessly drunk trying to walk with "prickly" numb feet, its a horrible feeling.  I ended up going to the ER the 3rd night of it because this had never happen to me before and I was scared that something was differently wrong.  Ended up the ER found nothing sick wise wrong with me, but all 3 doctors that I went to were sure it was a pinched nerve in my back and I was instructed to get an MRI.  EH! An MRI!  And this is were our story begins.....

So what actually is an MRI?  An MRI or magnetic resonance imaging, is the use of a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer to produce high electronic images of specific atoms and molecular structures in solids, especially human cells, soft tissues, and organs.   MRI is ideal for diagnosing multiple sclerosis, tumors, brain infections, torn ligaments, shoulder injuries, bone tumors, cysts or even strokes in their earliest stages.  Conditions that may be apparent from physical signs and symptoms may be clearly seen, providing better information to determine appropriate diagnosis and treatment. Meaning if you have a Torin ligament, cartilage or in my care nerve damage it can only be seen using MRI images.  X rays only posses the ability to view photos of bone or very hard tissue which is hard to make prognoses for soft tissue. 

When taking a MRI the patient comes into the room where the machine is.  The patient is instructed to have NO METAL on of any kind. When you are actually ready to have the MRI you will be asked to lie down on what is kind of like a long metal tray board attached to the long cylinder MRI machine. Depending on the part of the body to be scanned - you might or might not have your head inside the cylinder.  This becomes an issue for many people (including myself) who are claustrophobic seeing the inside cylinder is probably 2 to 3 feet around width wise and maybe 5 ft in length.  Which gets pretty tight, and the best way I can describe is is being pushed into a coffin. 

From there when you are placed in a MRI machine you will hear a variety of noises. I always relate these noises to men breaking up cement with those very noisy drills. These noises although very annoying to you, are very necessary for achieving a reading on the MRI scan. While you are in the machine and being scanned you need to lay very still. You can not move. If you move you will ruin the image or picture the technician is taking and it will have to be repeated.  And trust me you do not want to have to be in this machine any more time then you need to be, so my advice LYE VERY VERY STILL!  The whole process does not hurt you,  It is a non-invasive test. The only thing it will do is annoy you with the loud noise it makes through out the test. And I don't know about other people but I can feel sort of feeling as if I was in between two gigantic magnets fields pulling.

The best way in which I keep clam is to keep my eyes tightly closed and never open them while I'm inside the canister. That's the best way I think to get Thu it.  Sometimes they have ear phones you can listen to, which the previous MRI I had to do did.  If you are really claustrophobic you need to inform your ordering doctor about this fact. A sedative will be arranged for you to take before you reach the MRI Center. Always bring someone with you to drive and make sure you get home safely if you have taken a drug.  There are some open MRI machines and these are especially useful for people who are claustrophobic. I was just recently told by an MRI technician, although people prefer the open MRI machines, they are not as accurate in the testing results as the enclosed MRI machine. Which in fact I got to use one of the open machines to do my last MRI in, it helped more in the claustrophobic but I still had it.  The sides of the machine were open.  The best way I can put it is looking like a huge hamburger and you being slide in between the two buns.

MRIs have changed a lot from when they were first done On July 3, 1977.  It took almost five hours to produce one image. The images were, by today's standards, quite ugly.  Now a days it takes ruffly 35 minutes to an hour to take multiple images and complete the whole process.  I don't know if you couldn't get my take on MRI's but I am totally not a fan of them.  I get totally stressed out over the whole or deal and especially when they put me on the table and I look at the coffin looking hole there about to stick me into for an hour.  I start feeling my heart beating that its about to jump out of my chest, sweating horribly.  At the same time I know that if I don't do it, the problem I have going on with my feet and legs aren't going to get fixed and it a vital that I get the images done. This is now my 3rd MRI I've had to do.  First one was because I was in a car wreck for my back, 2nd was for when I tore my ACL which I acutally didn't have to go all the way into the MRI machine just my feet did.  And now this time for my numbness in the lower half of my body.  If you are ever in the situation that you have to have an MRI done I hope this short piece has answered a few questions and makes you prepared for whats in store for you.

 Photo of an open MRI

Blog #3-How the MRI works