Tropical diseases finally get attention

Drug companies are teaming up to tackle hitherto-neglected tropical diseases, from leprosy to tropanosomiasis and many in-between. Thank you to the Gates Foundation for ponying up enough money to get the attention of Big Pharm firms, which usually (and understandably) prefer to focus on developing drugs aimed at rich westerners with first world problems.

Update

I can't believe I let nearly two weeks pass without posting anything on my blog. To be honest, though, life has been kind of boring. I live in the midwest. It has been cold and snowy. The Little Bug and I have both been afflicted with the particularly virulent strain of flu that is going around this winter. We go to daycare and work, and make regular forays to church and the store as necessary.

Any energy I have to spare has been funneled to a giant cleaning/decluttering/organizing project that I have going on this winter. You can read about those efforts over at Simple Pleasures Magazine.

I've never liked winter, and I was ready for it to be over before it even started. Now, I'm VERY ready for it to be over. I'm hoping for it to get above freezing, at least, by the end of February. *shiver*

World AIDS (not confined to just a) Day

This is what God our Father sees as authentic and pure-hearted religion: To take care of orphans and widows in meeting their needs and countering their despair, and to refuse to participate in the filthiness of sin in the world. (James 1:27, NIV paraphrased by Deb)

There are millions upon millions of orphans all over the planet. In the reality of this cruel world, orphans have little chance of survival, and what lives they have are usually marked by abuse, neglect and abandonment, exploitation, starvation, disease... Any human being with a heart must be moved by the fate of helpless children lacking any caring parent to provide and protect; as a mother, I can barely handle even thinking about the lives that most of these children lead. Small wonder that God in His Word has made it abundantly clear, over and over, that the righteous, His people, are commanded to shoulder the roles of provider and protector on behalf of the disenfranchised. But there are so many in need; the problem is so huge as to be overwhelming. I am a single mom who can barely deal with one child. How can I confront the needs of millions?

Willow quoted Mother Teresa as saying that "we cannot do great things, we can do only small things with great love". Many of us give sacrificially but even in our sacrifices, our resources meet only a few tiny needs. But if each one of us does even just one thing, that's a lot of little things adding up to something bigger. And if we each do our one little thing with love, all of us together will become something even greater still!

There are many organizations dedicated to the care of orphans, and probably the majority of them are reputable and provide incredible positive impact on behalf of the people that they serve. My family have been fortunate enough to become aware of Ugandan Lambs, and we personally know many of the people that work with and for them. Ugandan Lambs is unique in that it is designed to provide for the children of one extended family whose older members have slowly been destroyed and killed by AIDS. Ugandan Lambs really focuses on keeping the children's lives as stable and family-oriented as possible, for they are not sent to institutions but rather remain together with siblings and cousins in their village, cared for by surviving relatives (many of whom are AIDS widows). Ugandan Lambs provides education for the orphans, so that they become self-sufficient adults who can break the cycle of poverty and dependence and are then able to reach out and care for orphans and widows of future generations. My parents have sponsored one particular young man for several years, whereas my choice has been to offer gifts that meet needs for the group of children as a whole. If you are a believer and God has impressed upon your heart His command to care for orphans (or if you are an unbeliever but still have compassion for orphans) and you are looking for a responsible organization to support, we heartily recommend Ugandan Lambs. Please feel free to explore the website (it's http://www.ugandanlambs.org/) and contact them for more information. If you have a different organization that you choose to support, we are excited and encourage you to continue in that.

I should have mentioned this first and not as an afterthought, but remember: Prayers are free. Find even just a name of an orphan and intercede for him or her daily.

World AIDS Day

Today, 1 December, has been designated World AIDS Day by whomever it is that tells the whole world what to do and when to celebrate (probably FIFA, come to think of it). I’m not particularly known for my AIDS activism, although I have been quietly trying to raise awareness of certain aspects of the AIDS epidemic for several years. In fact, I found a post that I wrote 5 years ago pertaining to this very topic, and sadly, very little has changed since then. Perhaps I’m not working hard enough on that awareness-raising stuff. I don’t know.

I think that AIDS has captured the world’s attention in a way that few things, and particularly very few diseases, have been able to simply because not only is it a tremendously harrowing epidemic but it is one that highlights the frailties of our societies and the devastating effects of sin. The suffering of the innocent, particularly the young and helpless; the sex trade and human trafficking; the abuse and marginalization of women; the constant drive of the fallen human race to turn to darkness and destruction rather than healing and hope: In a Ven diagram of the AIDS crisis, all of these issues would be circles having a hefty intersection with AIDS itself. Maybe I should work on making an actual diagram along those lines.

Well, one thing that I know is utterly important is the care of orphans and widows, and at this time, I am seeking to raise awareness of AIDS orphans in particular. So, it being nearly midnight and I being very much in need of sleep, we will continue to discuss this tomorrow.

Another night

Well, it's the end of Thanksgiving weekend, and while I can't claim to be completely healed, I am feeling slightly better with a little bit more energy. I'm able to eat things in the 9-12-month-old baby spectrum: mashed up food, applesauce, etc. I had yogurt and watery gruel for dinner. Yay. I wonder if I really have lost weight this weekend.

I'm hoping to be well enough to tackle work tomorrow, and as long as I go to bed and sleep soon, I just might make it. I just really miss food. And brushing my teeth.

The Question

The Question: Where have I been for the past few weeks?
The Answer: I have had the sickies, and so has the baby bug! I got a cold more than two weeks ago, and the cough and sore throat are persisting even now. My poor little bug got so sick that his sinuses got infected and overly congested and mucus starting seeping out of his eyes! Ew!! Right?! He is on antibiotics and well on the road to recovery.

I also just haven't felt inspired to blog, mostly because I just don't know how much to share or what would be interesting.

That's What I'm Talkin' About

see more Funny Graphs

Sick little boy

Nathan is sick today. Poor little Nater-bug. His tummy is upset, and he hasn't been eating much. He didn't even keep milk down this morning. I'm hoping the sickness passes soon.

Keeping Up

Okay, so I haven't been doing much that is blog-worthy these days. One thing I could mention is that we visited the ob/gyn (yes, again; Amanda is right: we should just get cots and move into the dr's office at this point) this past week, and Fuzzy is now in his proper head-down position, though there is no cervical dilation yet.

I've really been trying to do all the proper, healthy things while I've been pregnant, lack of sleep notwithstanding. I've eaten a fairly balanced diet and even done a bit of exercise here and there. Proof positive that I will do anything for my baby: I've even been drinking a glass of milk pretty much every day! I do this solely for the benefit of calcium and protein, as I don't much care for the taste of milk, and I'm always rather bemused as to why we humans are so enthused about consuming something that comes from the underside of a smelly, dirty animal such as a cow. Think about it, seriously.

I try to do something active almost every day. I started walking for 20 minutes or so, on days when it is sunny out. Our apartment complex also has a heated pool, and I decided to try something new for exercise: swimming. I've been swimming, after a fashion, for almost as long as I can remember, but I've never been able to really sustain any sort of fitness regimen related to aquatics. It's really not My Thing. [Contrast this with Jeff, who swam competitively for I don't know how many years, or with Mia, who swam competitively until a tragic accident derailed her promising athletic prospects. You can really tell, because my naturally athletic sister's arms and shoulders are very buff, whereas "buff" is the last word anyone would use to describe any part of my upper body.] I like to point out that I'm not a bad swimmer, i.e. obviously I've never drowned yet, but neither am I a particularly good one. But because I'm not that good, I really get a workout just doggy-paddling from end to end; my heart rate is elevated and my muscles really feel that they're being exercised, so something must be right. I know some "proper" technique, but I generally just do my own thing. Believe it or not, I actually remember learning the basics of swimming by watching the frogs in the river at Meyokda! I guess it's easy to believe it, if you observe my default stroke: a breaststroke with a very froggy motion in the legs.

I just don't compare my performance with Jeff's, who swims at least 80 brisk and properly performed laps, several times a week.

I actually had swimming lessons once: When we lived in Wheaton, my parents sent Dan and me to the Wheaton College athletic center to "learn how to swim" from a nice student named Stu, who was a PE major or on the swim team, or maybe both. Dan took to it and turned out to be pretty good, but eventually, Stu went to my mom and said, "Look, I'm not going to take your money for Deb's lessons any more. She hates it, and she won't work with me." Yes, I got dumped by my swim teacher, and I deserved it. I did hate swimming lessons: the pool was always COLD, which was horrible for me even back then, and I really didn't see the point. I could tread water, would be able to stay afloat if I got thrown in deep water, and I knew I wasn't going to be swimming in any stupid Olympics, so why did I need to know fancy strokes?

No doubt my punishment for lack of swimming discipline will come when Fuzzy turns out to be a swimmer like his daddy, and I'll be forced to spend many an hour at swim team practices and meets.

Irritated

I have been stricken with insomnia again. In this case, I know it's normal: I'm in my eighth month of pregnancy, and most women at this point struggle with sleeping through the night. After all, we're sharing our bodies with a very squirmy person who's getting bigger every day (and who thinks it's fun to kick our ribs and diaphragms), it's impossible to find a comfortable position while lying down, and if, by wildly crazy chance, we DO get comfortable, we immediately have to get up and visit the bathroom to empty our bladders.

It's really such a pain to get just 2-4 hours of sleep at night, because not only is one perpetually exhausted, but there's really nothing to DO at 3:00 AM. Can't go anywhere, can't do anything around the house (since Jeff is sleeping like a normal human being), and can't even read productively, since perusing anything serious (like, say, the Bible) isn't useful because even though I'm wide awake, at the same time, I'm groggy (other insomnia sufferers will know what I mean). So, I'm generally reading "Bones" fan fiction (courtesy of Sara) or playing WoW with all the other sleepless losers.

Happy Christmas Days

Well, this is the fourth day of Christmas. Keep that jolly post-solstice cheer flowing! I've been busy in the past few days. I've been working on setting up the apartment (still), puttering around the house, hanging out with the cats, and occasionally leveling my various characters in WoW. Jeff went to Mt. Shasta on business travel on the morning of Dec 26, and was gone for a few days. So in the meantime, I have ended up taking an impromptu trip with Dan and Jennifer. I initially had not intended to go, when they invited me to hitch a ride with them to SoCal to see our family there. But Jeff reminded me that he would be working out of town, then working in-town, during the days (Dec 27-30) that I'd be gone, and ALSO, it is just about my last chance to just drop everything and go visit the fam on a spur-of-the-moment whim.

SoCal friends, I decided to come along late during the night before we left, so I didn't get a chance to contact you and make plans. I will call as many of you as I can, and see if I can work with Dan and Jennifer to meet up with you (I don't have a car to drive myself, so I'm dependent on them). We're staying with Mumsie Willow and Dad, and Mike is here, too, along with one of his nice friends from HMC (seriously, I almost always like Mike's college friends). We will see Mia and Tim on the weekend, when they've returned from visiting Tim's family in OR.

In other news: Yesterday before I left, I had another visit with the ob/gyn (it's lame, but in the final two months, I guess a pregnant woman has to have doctor visits every two weeks). The verdict is good: Both the baby (nicknamed Fuzzy) and I are in great health, my blood pressure is normal (120/70, when it is usually in the 90/60 range), my blood chemistry is fine, and my gestational diabetes test was negative.

Well, as far as Holidailies is concerned, there isn't much I've offered that is in tune with the festive holiday time. In the exchange of gifts, I must admit that my favorite present this year was Super Scrabble, from Jeff. I'm really looking forward to playing with friends and family.

Is it too soon to say "I told you so"?

Finally! Research has confirmed what I've been saying for years: Extreme low-carb diets can be very hazardous to your health!!

Of course, my dietary opinions are coming from a person whose motto could be "I never met a carb I didn't like." But still, I think it is intuitively obvious that it is unhealthy to eat an imbalanced diet of any kind. Our bodies were designed to subsist on certain types of fuel (carbohydrates, proteins, fats), in certain proportions, and severely cutting one's intake of any one of the three can only lead to bad things. Moderation in all things, I tell you!