Health Notes

A little late today because I just got back from taking Mom to her doctor for an evaluation of the medicine she is taking. That task had me thinking about drugs and health issues today, therefore, today's blog subject.

I am guessing Pat has already read then following article or another article with the same information. Even though the article is about California because people do move and whooping cough is extremely contagious I really hope that other states are paying attention to what is happening in California and promoting everyone in the danger group to get vaccinated.

http://www.parentdish.com/2010/08/16/california-faces-worst-whooping-cough-epidemic-in-50-years/?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl3|link5|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parentdish.com%2F2010%2F08%2F16%2Fcalifornia-faces-worst-whooping-cough-epidemic-in-50-years%2F

Another health note is it looks like due to pressure the FDA is recalling a drug that treats low blood pressure. Read the article here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100816/ap_on_bi_ge/us_fda_unproven_drug

Two things I learned from the article, that the FDA has an accelerated program for approval of drugs and that if a drug reduces tumors in cancer patients it bodes well for the success of that drug.

As always your comments are appreciated.

WHO AM I?

I taught history at a college not to far from where Ellen lives. I'm also was a visiting scholar at Duke. I was born in 1920 in Austria the first child of an affluent Jewish couple. Dad was a pharmacist and Mom was an artist. My dad resisted the Nazi's and spent my eighteenth birthday in Jail. My family was able to escape from Austria with the help of my young socialist lover and we ended up in the United States right before the invasion of Poland. I married the young lover and after working a series of jobs I divorced him. When I met a young theatre director I entered into my second marriage with a man that was active with the Communist party. I didn't start my college education until my kids were in college and I was in my forties. I received a B.S., M.A., and PHD after which we moved to Los Angeles where my husband successfully made movies. After my husband died I became increasingly involved in progressive causes founding of the fields of both Women's History and African-American History.At one time was president of the Organization of American Historians. I played a key role in the development of women’s history curricula and taught what is considered to be the first woman’s history course at the New School for Social Research in 1963. I would later go on the establish the nation's first Women History Graduate Program. I am considered to be one of the fifty Jewish women that changed the world. I was once quoted as saying "In our competitive society people are trained to be self-made and independent. But they also have to learn how to help others and how to accept help without feeling demeaned and diminished. Because modern society excludes or marginalizes old people and avoids dealing with death, the healthy and the living are full of fears and have no preparation for the process of aging. The steady courage of older people, their patience, their optimism, and their childlike willingness to experience spontaneous joy could serve as models for the aging generation of their children." I am credited for writing a screenplay of a true story about a man that went out of himself to become a member of a different ethnic group so he could understand discrimination against that group. Who Am I?