Presumed consent

On August 1^st 2010 Finland got a new legislation concerning organ donation.

Earlier you always needed expressed consent of the deceased in order to use organs in transplantations, but from now on you are presumed to have given your consent for organs to be used, if there is no knowledge of you having being opposed to organ transplantation. Here you can read more about it, if you’re interested.

In a worst case scenario, if you have stated being opposed to organ donation in a will, and even made your will known to your nearest family and had it registered in your medical files, Finland has not yet got any electronic patient record database covering all health care units through out the country, so until then, when ever that may be, people are encouraged to keep a donor card with them at all times to express their will for, or against, organ donation.

So, where do you stick it in a skimpy two piece swimsuit?

You don’t usually even carry your ID when swimming; at least I know I don’t.

Get to see your doctor

I really hand another subject in mind when beginning to blog today but today's subject just took overhand of my writing.

I had a call from a girl friend of mine about her husband who had noticed change in his behaviour of passing water as well as he's "the right age" and that's when you should see a doctor and so he did.

Or at least he tried to. He called his doctor to get an appointment but could not make an booking until the next day (which is today so I still don't know the outcome) as the booking system could not give any appointments until today, the beginning of the month. And as it is not considered as urgent, (which it might not be but still might as well be very urgent) he probably wouldn't get to see his doctor for at least a fortnight, he was told. But how on earth can you not book appointments for more than one single month at a time?

What kind of stone age booking system is that?!?

According to my experience, men tend to take their time to get an appointment to the doctor even when concerned with minor things as a common cold, and when they think it might be something wrong, as in a case as sensitive as their prostate, even more so.

Taking in concern the threshold for a man to call about his prostate and being ready and willing to go and have it handled, maybe even tampered with, his most private parts, well that's completely another thing than the annual visit for us women to our gynecologist, the old usual bore, so I think it was urgent and should have been taken more seriously.

This worries me quite a lot, not his prostate, but the way the health care act. First they want to educate us about what to look out for, then when you notice what you hopefully should not see, then you act as you have been told, and the result still is null and void. So in the end, what's the use? Given a little time you get used to the nuisance and forget about it.

And this is just one single case, how many are there out there?

Yes, you might save your life if you get to see the doctor but you might die trying to see him.

Who's in charge?

I have been quite satisfied with the Finnish health care system, especially the use of family doctors.

Instead of seeing someone else every time you go to see a doctor, like when I first moved here, you today get to see the same one who already knows you, and about you, and you don't have to "tell everything from the beginning all over" about yourself. And there is of course the language question, being a foreigner, I am very comfortable with my "old" doctor.

So, when moving, if you do not choose your new address well, you have either change doctors or take charge of your affairs, which is not easy I tell you, and me having moved again of course imposed new stress to the system, but as I am now quite well schooled in paper pushing Finnish style I got to keep my old family doctor, which was a major achievement I tell you. If anything, it takes faith to stick to your guns.

When trying to get something done in Finland, bureaucratically I mean and this seems to apply to everything, the hardest thing normally is to find the person who is in charge. And according to my experience so far, this applies to most of municipal and governemental authorities. Everybody you talk to, you have to explain the whole thing, and then they just pass you along to someone else and you have to go through the whole story once again. Seems like the whole idea is to wear people off.

Doing these inquiries by phone seems to be the most reliable way to go on about it, as turning up in person, the person you want to talk to might not be available at the time present, and you will definitively have to return later. Letters take ages too long to get answered, sometimes even months if you are lucky enough to get an answer in the first place, and e-mail inquiries are not always even answered "as safety precaution", anyway, that is the reason you never get an answer by e-mail. There is actually an "accustomed time to answer" according to Finnish law, but I have yet not been able to establish the exact durance of it.

So, you have to get past your language problem, and it is much easier to get by in broken Finnish or even bad English instead of trying the "second national language". Take it from me, I have tried, and it is a great disadvantage, you just get passed around from phone to phone as nobody wants to talk to you until you get tired and hang up.

So first, various inquiries to the authority in question are needed to find out who to turn to. Then finding out what kind of paper work you might need filled in is a completely different matter. If you're lucky there might be some form you can fill in available on-line and print out.

Now having done all the required questionnaire answering, or letter writing and signing it, you then hand in, or post it, to the authority in question, and wait. The longer you wait the more important the authority seems to be and if you're lucky your request is granted instead of being turned down.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you can always appeal against it, and that takes years, or at least so I have heard. Makes you wanna give up to begin with.

Anyway, about a month ago, the President of Finland and the Finnish Prime minister apparently both were surprised to on the news learn about the Finnish UN peacekeepers coming home from Afghanistan.

This incident was in the media called a "lapse in information". The President and the Prime minister had apparently not been properly informed in the matter by the minister of defense, as they were "left out in the cold" and learned the facts the hard way, something unheard of anywhere else but in Finland. Well, in this case the Finnish foreign minister was diplomatic enough to take most of the blame.

But still fact remains, Finland is in a unique situation constitutionally, as the foreign policy is not in just one hands but divided between the responsibility of more than one and maybe some clarifying in who's responsible for what is needed, to know who is in charge.

Or else the right hand does not seem to know what the left hand is on about and we're in for a real hot stirred up soup, sooner or later.

Beware of removing tattoos

Body art such as tattoos and piercings have become very popular here, and also with it the removal of permanent tattoos has risen. The piercings you just leave without attention and it heals itself, I guess.

Anyway, the easiest way is to remove a tattoo is by laser, which vaporizes, or rather dissolves, the colour of the tattoo in the skin layers. Many beauty salons now offer this service and normally it results in a skin burn wound that heals in time.

But the laser has to be powerful enough, a so called class 4 laser, to get into between the skin layers to be able to make the tattoo disappear. Now the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland recommends that the removals only is done by either doctors or medical staff under the supervision of a doctor, as removing a tattoo wrongly or on a person with very sensitive skin by unskilled and not properly trained personnel, can cause permanent skin damage.

So I guess I´ll better stick to my henna tattoos also in the future.

Specialized in a generality

How strange does it not sound when somebody has specialized in general medicine?

I know that the word is used in many other languages, but it just occurred to me the other day how stupid it really sounds.

Anyway, I was admitted into hospital for some major surgery, just routine stuff but minding the rumour the hospital in question I was an outpatient, I was quite a bit worried about having it done there. And it turned out excellent.

The surgeon that was performing the operation took his time to see me before the procedure, to talk things through and chat about common trivialities such as the weather, which I normally find boring stuff but this time joined in out of sheer pleasure, it really took the edge of my by then almost panic stricken fear. Nest came along the anaesthetist, to interview me about possible allergies, when I had eaten and if I’d taken any medication in the morning. Same questions, which was asked in the pre-interview the precedent week by a nurse. The longest time it took was the waiting for getting in to the theatre and estimated time had been mentioned as 6-7 hours before I could leave for home loaded with a stock of heavy painkillers. I was quite amazed that just after having had major anaesthesia when I was sedated and the drugs totally knocked me out and 3 and a half hours later I was ready to leave for home in perfect condition!

Oh, and about the huge misunderstanding that Finland should have health care free of charge, well that is a huge lie as they do bill you for it afterwards.

Temperatures rising

The negotiations in the nurses' wage dispute have unanimously agreed on a proposal for a settlement on a four-year contract plan but no details of it will be made public until and if, it has been accepted by both sides.

There is still time until midnight today to avoid the almost 13.000 nurses quitting their jobs in protest with a couple of more thousands to follow suite.

The pharmacists and dispensers union wages negotiations has failed and their strike has begun and the union is threatening to further expand the strike later this week if no agreement is reached.

Most of the pharmacies are remaining open despite the strike as it affects mainly smaller pharmacies to begin with. In the meanwhile people are warned about longer waiting times than usual when collecting their prescriptions from the pharmacies.

And the Finnish prime minister has sought for medical care again due to lower back problems; maybe his kidney stones are troubling him again so he was admitted to hospital as he was last week.

Weather is bleak and gloomy, moist as the temperature has risen to above zero and the snow has begun to melt. All the joy of winter sports of last weekend is melting away, at least here in the southern parts of the country. Better get my wellies and woollen socks out to avoid spoiling my new winter boots when going shopping later this afternoon. So it seems that the temperatures are rising in more than one way here in Finland. Will just have to wait and see when the new doctor’s appointement arrives.

Cancelled doctor’s appointments

Apparently the Finnish prime minister sought medical care yesterday because of lower back pains and found out he has a kidney stone problem.

The right time for seeking medical advice is right now, just before next week when the health care professionals union, the nurses walk out of their jobs having handed in their resignation. So far there has not been any solution in sight to the disagreement about their pay rises and a brand new law has been rushed through the parliament in order to maintain patient safety for the ordinary citizens who do not have the means to seek medical help with private doctors.

I just received a letter about a doctor’s appointment next week, in the letter was stated that my appointment had been cancelled due to the working conflict and that I would receive a new time for appointment when the situation is off. I was also directed to a homepage where info will be posted about what is currently going on.

Anyway, the weather has been splendid but unfortunately I have come down with a fever and have not been motivated enough to go outside even to catch any beautiful photos of the white winter landscape that has surrounded us. The ever so eager fisherman colleague of my husband’s has already been on about going ice-fishing since last weekend and he is hoping for it to be cold enough for the lakes to freeze over, preferably overnight for tomorrow morning. I guess we could do with some pike as it is very delicious especially in the winter, but I doubt the any ice on any lake will be safe enough to go fishing on yet.

Majority for euthanasia

According to a recently done Gallup 3 out of 4 Finns are in favour of giving euthanasia to their loved ones with a terminal disease to diminish the time and amount of their suffering.

Only just a little fewer, 70% of the interviewed said that they would use euthanasia themselves should the need for it should occur. Euthanasia is currently prohibited in Finland and so far there is no change on the laws concerning it in sight according to my knowledge.

Even with this liberal point of views of the Finns still comes the question, who would in fact do it for their loved ones? Talking is still is just words and an opinion is still what you only think, but would you act accordingly to what you think, that is the real question.

Anyway, the nurse’s union still have not come to an agreement with their employees, the Union of municipalities; about their pay rises and the mass resignation of almost 13.000 nurses seem likely to be effective on November the 19^th. There is also an ongoing dispute about the lawfulness of these resignations and a lawsuit about endangering the health of patients. So strikes seem to be the general issue one way or another these days here in Finland.

You are asked by your friends and people you meet about your opinions in the rightfulness of this or that unions’ actions but I guess this makes a change to what variety of potatoes you prefer at every dinner party.

Lack of alcohol

There might soon be shortage of alcohol in Finland.

At least that is if the of the employees of the Finnish Government monopoly alcohol shop, Alko, are going ahead with their threats about a strike. As 85% of all employees in Alko are part-timers, they are paid less than full-timers and thus also having fewer benefits.

A strike closing down the Alko shops would probably be more devastating on the Finns than the nurses’ unions’ strike with their mass resignations that are likely to be effective later this month. The nurses having signed the lists have received a letter from their employers about their personal point of view of the resignations and 300 of the 12.800 nurses having changed their minds so far. The union is at present making new lists to replace the old ones for their mass resignations in order to obtain better pay for their performed job.

Considering that about 25% of al casualties in Finland are either direct causes of alcohol consumption or side effects with accidents such as falls, fights and so on, so having the Alko shops closed at the same time as there is going to be a shortage of nurses and health care staff due to their strike with resignations would be well timed. 25% less casualties requires 25% less medical staff, does it not?!?

Anyway, I wonder how to avoid getting the winter blues. Now with last Sunday’s turning back of the clocks into regular winter time the sun sets earlier and darkness all of sudden prevails earlier than we are used to.

Now we are in desperate need of some light and warmth. Cuddling up under a warm blanket on the sofa drinking hot cocoa in the candle light is not always enough to do the trick. At least not in the long run, but soon will be Xmas time and then the days begin to grow longer again.

Depression as it happens is the most frequent reason of disabilities to work and for retiring because of health reasons here in Finland, and the more north up you are the more common it gets. Less sun hours means more darkness and I suspect that a winter night going on for several months can not be very good for you. Neither can a summer day that goes on for as long the winter night, for months and months.

Anyway, tomorrow is the real Halloween according to Celtic tradition, the night when the veil between the worlds is the thinnest, when the ghosts come back to speak to us and also the Celtic New year if I have not got it all wrong.

The trick and treating of Halloween has not yet got as popular here in Finland as in the Anglo-Saxon countries over the world. Even as it is not a tradition originating from the Nordic tradition still many kindergartens and schools have some festivities like costume parties in order to celebrate Halloween.

Mass resignations?

The Finnish health care union has announced that it is going to use the means of mass resignations for almost 13.000 employees in the public health care sector effective in about a month’s time in order to obtain their demands of a pay rise. Their wages are considered unreasonably low for the workload they provide and have not followed the over all trend in pay rises.

Now the question of whether these mass resignations would be lawful has risen, as a document with only names listed is no way to resign according to the law. It would depend on what kind of data is printed on the lists, but a personal note of resignation might be required in order for it to be effective instead of the name lists gathered by the union so far.

Ordinary citizens in general do not seem to be worried the healthcare might deteriorate or be worse than normal during the strike, but there is now great concern from relatives for the elderly and for their care taking when an acute need would arise.

Anyway, fall break always is annoying as well as a hard time for me and so is this week too with the offspring being home from school. With the offspring having turned to their teens, they nowadays come and go uncontrollably, taking charge of kitchen utensils without a warning in no way taking notice of mum’s possible need of them. TV sets and PC are occupied all day around, music played on stereos on loud volume and their friends drop in unannounced. Normally at this time of the day I am home alone enjoying my solitude with our cat, but now I am seriously considering fleeing from home going shopping or just anything to get away from all the noise. At least I am absolutely up to date with the latest popular music!

It is not the noise, or the offspring itself being at home, it is the irregularity and havoc that prevails I am trying to avoid. I am not a very orderly person, I like my own kind of organized disorder, I know where the things are just as long as nobody moves them and there has been a lot of moving around my stuff going on these past few days. I like to get things done in my own time, at the time of my own choosing and here I am now queuing to get on-line to post my Blog, which normally is among my morning routines. A cup of tea with morning TV and blogging after having watched the news for some fresh ideas.

So now I at least I get to write my post, when I get to publish is an entirely different matter that nobody seems to care about at the time being.

As the offspring and their friends are not very sociable, at least to old dinosaurs like someone’s mum, I get pretty much ignored and just walked past in the hallway without even a hello. I am home alone in a crowded house until the time when dear spouse of mine comes home the going calms down a bit. Fortunately some outings have been planned by the offspring and are effective to take place commencing today.

By the way, I was worried about having to stock up with some groceries as the Finnish Service Union had warned about a strike for warehouse workers, which would have halted deliveries to most of the larger food chains. The walk out was planned to be effective today at 2 PM but the union reached an agreement with their employers about their pay rises in the early morning hours.

Passing it on

Ever since the first portable telephones arrived for the public to use an endless discussion about the health hazards of mobile phones has been going on and just recently one more Finnish study discovered no health risks from the electromagnetic radiation of the mobile phones.So no health hazards there.

Now as we run towards the colder weather of autumn and the returning of winter in a few months time the influenza and the colds hit the population. There always is someone who knows best how to treat it and the treatment vary with the country they originate from and you try them out with great disappointment. Some say a hot bath and a brandy does it, well I have tried, was warm and nice and I got tipsy enough to have fun but it did not really help the flu I was coming down with. Some garlic boiled in milk served together with honey, well the cough just got worse with the slime the milk produced. Chamomile tea with honey is not a bad idea, it has been tried so many times in our family that we know it does the trick but it is not fast enough to stop an oncoming flu or cold.

Echinacea Purpurea is an herb that has proven good effect and when using it, the worse it tastes, the better you need it. Sometimes it kind of burns of your tongue when taking it as it is to be taken orally, and other times you don’t even feel a anything, not even the slightest sting.

Anyway, at last but not the least to cure a cold is by far the funniest way according to me. By the time of Beaujolais Nouveau arriving in the liquor stores on the third Thursday of November every year you buy all the sorts they supply to try at home, which here in Finland normally is just the two. Invite al your friends to try the wine in good company with some good food, then you at least have a nice time but it rarely does anything for your cold, except you passing it to your friends as a present. They still would have gotten it anyway, just rarely maybe not all at the same time and you all had a good time.

Looong words

A Dutch pharmaceutical company has developed a vaccine against the avian flu and it is now to be tried on humans in Finland and there have been ads in the newspapers seeking volunteers for the trial in two of the biggest cities. The vaccine in the trial is said to be “dead” but it still might have some beneficial effects with making the participants in the trial immune to the avian flu.

Anyway, Finland is a country that loves long words and as there are no prepositions to describe how things are done are by attaching a suffix to the end of the word to express for instance; with, by, at, out of, below, on top of are.

In the Finnish language the words can become very extensive. Maybe there are more languages that have even longer words that I am not aware of, but the Welsh language also has a great deal of long words with massive lengths of words attached to each other to express names of places for instance. The Finnish language also offers great opportunities to form log words and the longest word in use is: lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikko with 44 letters if I have not counted them wrongly. That would mean about “assisting mechanic of airplane jet motor turbines”.

The longest palindrome in the world, that is a word that is exactly the same read from both ways also is a Finnish word, saippuankivikauppias, which would translate to about “soap stone salesman” or woman as the word does not express the sex of the person selling the soap stones. I wonder what soap stones are…

Anyway, the longest name of a place ai have found so far in Finland is Kristiinankaupunki with its’ 18 letters , a beautiful place to visit on the coast of Ostro-Botnia if you ever are in Finland.

No more fish!

The law about fertility treatments has been altered here in Finland and from September 1^st the children born as result of donated egg cells and sperm have a right to know if they want to, who their biological parents are when they come to age and the decision about the law has already resulted in a waiting time up to two years time for fertility treatments and the amount of donors to decrease considerably.

Some people are meant to be parents and have a hard time to become parents and at the same time completely unsuitable persons have no difficulties in conceiving children into their abusive and unhealthy lifestyles.

I personally consider egg cell and sperm donation equivalent to organ donation, and as you do not know who you are taking the donations from, what habits of eating, drinking, smoking or drugs and neither can you be sure what inheritable illnesses there might be it is all about taking a risk and not a calculated one as you have no idea what you are up against in the end. Is it not a waste of resources and knowledge these fertility treatments in the first place?

I can not understand the necessity of the forcing reproduction of you against the nature as there surely must be some reason we are meant to either have children or not to have children, and as there are thousands of children around the world in need, why not instead give a helping hand to those children in need a good decent home, love and care?

Why is the fear of mortality as prevailing as it is in humans? Why do we humans yearn for immortality, if not by our acts or work valuable to the humankind but in the need to reproduce, to get offspring?

Well life just is unfair, and we just have to make the best out of what cards we have been dealt and ethics have never been an easy subject.

Anyway, dear spouse of mine went on one of the last fishing trips for this summer, at least that is what he claimed, but by the sound of the wife of his colleague’s reactions to yesterdays catch, it might actually have been the last time this year. The reception of the jolly fishermen yesterday night was not a contended one at their house, at least not according to what I have heard. The words surely are not the same as repeated here in writing as some of the more colourful adjectives probably were left out by dear husband of mine but the content was something like: “No not fish again, I am tired of fish. I hate fish, and don’t you dare come home with any more fish again!” resulting in us getting the whole catch to the joy of our cats and I was not even asked to clean and gut it them this time, probably as a side effects of the previous reception of the jolly fishermen.

As the fishermen are used to going out I have suggested some mushroom picking trips and as their knowledge in mushrooms is limited I get to join them to my enjoyment and it certainly will make a change to the ever and always returning home with fish at the colleagues’ house. With the rain pouring down we will have to wait until next weekend anyway before going out checking some of my secret mushroom-picking spots.

License to kill

A 26-year-old nurse was to begin with last week arrested for two suspect deaths two at an institute for mentally disabled in Ylöjärvi, Finland.

The nurse denies any guilt and the investigations have now expanded to seven suspect deaths and two attempted murders. The National Bureau of Investigation has expanded their investigations into a series of suspect poisonings in the area around the city of Tampere. As all the deaths at the nurse's previous workplaces are looked into. They are also investigating if any insulin is gone missing from the premises where she has worked as an eight-month-old child was found with unnatural high levels of pharmaceutical insulin levels.

So far no reasons for exhuming the bodies of the investigated deaths have been found.

Wow, now it seems that there is on serious serial killer and a woman for that matter here in Finland, quite unusual according to the statistics, the serial killer being a woman I mean and quite young for that matter.

Anyway, the hunting season for ducks and bear was opened today and today is expected to be the busiest hunting day and you need a licence to kill. I wonder how many accidents happen on the first day you are allowed to hunt, sitting around excited waiting for the first legal bird to shoot to fly by you. Or the first legal bear to pass by you missing to see that it is your neighbour out picking mushrooms or berries? Even better if is the annoying neighbour you want to get rid of instead of the ducks.

One hot meal a day

According to the newspaper Keskisuomalainen malpractice in the public health care by is becoming increasingly costly and they paid out around 27 million euros to patients in compensation for incidences of malpractice last year.

At the same time statistics show that around one percent of Finnish girls under the age of 20 had an abortion last year and in many cases it was not the first time. One in seven girls refuses the counselling that is offered to all women seeking abortions in Finland and this is suspected to be a sign of the general indifference and carelessness that has become ever prevailing and life just goes on and the emotions and feelings are just suppressed and the abortion itself is forgotten about and health care professionals fear the burying of the experience might have serious psychological consequences later on, especially having had several abortions done.

Anyway, home was still here when we got back this afternoon looking just like when we left it yesterday as husband of mine had gone off fishing in the evening leaving me with the gutting and cleaning of them for this afternoon. So here I am once again smelling fish with cuts all over my fingers from the perch I had to clean. Two cats were sitting on the kitchen floor making not so cheery sounds, more like demanding fish right now, “give me fish” meows if you know what I mean. And with this heat on I can not even think about what we are having for dinner tonight as it is once again the offspring’s time to cook today, Spaghetti Bolognese or something similar does not feel like my cup of tea, if you know what I mean.

That is one thing I can not quite understand with the Finns, no matter how hot it is, they want a hot meal in the evening. Like mashed potatoes and meatballs to mention one. I’m more for a nice, cool salad in the heat but I guess that will not be the case as the offspring has gone Finnish in this case, one hot meal per day it is.

Healthcare guaranteed

According to research from an ongoing study at the universities of Tampere and Helsinki based on material gathered from five Finnish-language and two Swedish-language newspapers, four magazines and five television channels in Finland the covered side of Muslims is mostly linked to terrorism and political violence abroad and there is almost no coverage on Islam as a religion or a culture. Does anyone ever make any research how the Muslims cover the Christian world, what they write about the rest of the world? Are all so called western countries terrorist countries according to their newspapers or what?

We always only see the one side of the matters that we personally are on as we do not know the other side’s truth or living conditions. How much of how we react is a result of the culture we live in and how we were brought up and how much of it is really ourselves, a result of what knowledge we have acquired during our lifetime and based on own our freewill? How good is the Internet as there is no one censoring what is in it, who is to publish and what?

I am myself quite disturbed by all sex-related spam that turns up in my mailbox and sex ads that pop-up as windows visiting some site covering a completely different issue. Yes there are net guards to adjust for avoiding it, but running the latest scan with the filters even this Blog turned out as being offensive containing sex!!!

Where, what, who, why?!? Having content in another language than English twists the results even more it seems.

Anyway, with the new so called health guarantee here in Finland you are supposed to get medical care in six months time through the National healthcare. Same goes for dental appointments with the municipal dental health, and having been on the queuing list since September last year I have finally received an appointment to a dentist in end of august. This makes almost a year counting any way, making more than six months in all ways.

I have been very fortunate with my genes and my teeth have been in good condition, I have not had much work done on them apart from a job done more than two years ago by this particular dentist I am appointed to again. The tooth that was fixed then is still not well and took 9 months then to get to quiet down, nothing major just a small cavity filled but apparently not with enough care.

My problem now is that you have to go to the dentist you have been appointed to, you can not go to someone else, not one of your own choosing. I used to be carefree about going to the dentist when young, even a couple of years ago before visiting this dentist but now I am horrified about it and the thought of going to this particular one…When asking about how to go on about changing dentist the answer was that it can not be done. In the end it was admitted that I could contact this one person about the issue, well, July being on all offices in Finland are understaffed if not closed as the officials are on their vacations and having to get in touch with a person in particular, well that is impossible.

The person in question as it happens is the same person I had to complain about the dental job to, but time running out before my appointment and in the worst case having to cancel it, well the result will surely be another waiting time of six months, the guaranteed time to get help in, which already turned out to be eleven months, almost a year!

Perfect recipe

Many elderly people are suffering from malnutrition in Finland, especially the ones living in care units about 80% are either malnourished or at risk to becoming so according to research published by the University of Kuopio and the problem seems to be even worsening.

Quite often the elderly first suffer from an illness that makes it difficult for them to either eat or decreases the appetite and in this way impeding the recovery. This is said to be a consequence of personnel with no nutritional education at all together with too few care personnel in the units to aid the aged.

Yesterday Finland had its’ share of gale force winds with trees falling over cars and lifting roofs of cabins.

It was a nice day to stay indoors and just lie around on the sofa watching some old favourite films. I have always been very fond of the films of Akira Kurosawa and I yesterday watched Seichi, the seven Samurais. Even it being a black and white film I am amazed by the views and the camera angle. It being a Samurai war film there are beautiful scenes with blooming cherry being passed and blooming forest with chrysanthemums but the end is always as sad. I can not remember seeing another film with as much rain falling down as this one; the muddy puddles are half way up to the knees. Sometimes I wonder how beautiful old films would have been if in colour. Kurosawas Ran is a masterpiece, not maybe in the story as it is a copy of an original play by Shakespeare, but the colours, the views, the whole visual world is absolutely fabulous!

Anyway, today there is gastronomic activities performed by the offspring in the kitchen again but this time I am going to have to make you all disappointed it is all strictly following a recipe this time. No experiments today, the sweet tooth was aching and as there already is a favourite recipe it is used, unfortunately in no need of perfection according to the cook in question.

If all the experiments that have been tried out in my kitchen, including both mine and the offspring’s, and they had to have been eaten, well guess we would be quite malnourished too in this family. Take home is very convenient when cooking turned out badly out of one reason or other.

Finally Friday 13th

Finnish scientists have discovered a new amino-acid suspected to contributing in the transformation of healthy normal body cells into cancerous ones.

This new discovery is believed to help in developing new treatments and to cure cancer and the research results are published today in the “Cell” an international science journal where only five studies from Finland have been accepted so far for publication according to the news. I must confess I have never heard of this particular journal and I have read quite a few medical journals as I am interested in health issues, but then there are so many new journals popping up all the time.

Today is Friday the 13th once again, the unlucky day according to so many, a day to avoid. And how exactly should you avoid a day?!?

The photoshop owner just called back about a warranty check up of offspring’s digital camera. The camera was changed into a new and better one, once again. If you have been reading my Blog you know by now that this is the fourth camera in a row to be changed. I just wonder if this is good fortune or just bad luck, the old cameras were much better, you could handle them with much less care than these today.

I have always wondered about fashion and these silly little trends that pop up. For some time now Burberry has been in, and that I still can understand as their brand is not bad, even though Scottish tartans can be quite boring as there is not much to vary them with stripes forming squares in various colours.

The new thing this summer here in Finland are these colourful plastic clog-like shoes that come in yellow and blue. They look very clumsy and uncomfortable to wear but are said to be very nice to walk in, well so are nurses proper shoes to walk in, nothing to compare with a nice pair of high heels that you can wear on a nice, hot summer’s day and get sore feet.

I am going to spend some of my frequent buyer points wearing high heels even though the weather might not be good enough to be sitting on a patio sipping drinks. Still a nice meal with the family should be good to celebrate it is Friday today.

Still need luck

A new revolutionizing treatment for threatening cerebral stroke has been invented in Finland and is to be published in a medical journal today.

The new diluting treatment is said to be less damaging on the cerebral blood vessels than the traditional ones .

The only problem is to know when you are having a stroke!

The blood clots usually form somewhere in our legs and then follow the bloodstream and cause a stroke corking up the oxygen supply to the surrounding tissue and causing damage to the same. If you have never had any previous symptoms, how are you supposed to know when to seek medical advice?

It’s like having an aneurysm, you most likely don’t find out about it until the aneurysm has broken, you either die or have a cerebral haemorrhage surviving it and there you need luck in order to fully recover. Well, if you are lucky enough to be in hospital you might get the right treatment, but hey, that‘s with everything in life, it all depends on your luck.

Anyway, I was surprised to hear that there are only about 200 proper post offices here in Finland with a population of about 5 million. To tell you the truth, there actually are 1200 more post offices that are combined with something else, like a supermarket or something, and they run the business for the postal service which in Finland so far has been governmentally run. I guess it is more convenient to go buy your groceries and at the same time get your parcels from the post even if at 9 PM when shopping for your groceries outside the post offices normal business hours.

Well guess this will not improve things for me anyway, still with more liberal opening hours I still need lucky to remember the opening hours for the supermarkets as they vary with the weekdays and the seasons!

Soup day

A friend of mine suffers from soft tissue neuralgia, so called fibromyalgia with pains since years. She was just recently diagnosed and has since then been trying different medications for her condition with various results.

She has tried all the antidepressants which are said to be good use in this particular condition but has had to discontinue using them due to everything from violently itching rash to allergic reactions with her throat swelling up and difficulty to breathe. She continued with some beta-blockers but they did not do the trick as the anti-depressants did disregarding from the side effects.

Now the latest one for her to try is a medication also used for epilepsy and neuralgia. This medication is told to have the side effects of making you drowsy and giving you nausea. Well, quite the opposite, for her at least. She has now been on the medication for three days with first dose taken at nights to taper on steadily increasing her dose for two months time. Well, she has so far been sleepless with her pains increasing since she began to take the medication.

Three hours sleep since she began with it, no need for uppers for her but need for more painkillers though.

Anyway, off-spring is quite quiet today, there is a flu that is passed around and bed is the place to be with mummy making soup and chamomile tea. So I guess I could do with some of her medication to keep up with the cooking.

So I better get some more soup going on the stove!