Take a Break: South of the Border Holiday-Stars

Lots of stars to try

Dimensional 5-Pointed Stars: You can use scrap booking, construction or even newspaper for this star. 

Yarn Wrapped Star: If you don’t have yarn on hand, ribbon and even raffia works. 

 

Three Dimensional Star: Love this pattern. Just print the template off of Pinterest 

                                  Aluminum Star from a soda or beer can. 

Other South of the Border activities

 • Poinsettias 

Avoid Fake Health News: How to Fact Check

With 62% of Americans getting their news from social media and 44% relying on Facebook, it’s not surprising that ‘”fake news” is big business. In fact, it’s considered to have played a role in the recent election.

Those with chronic and life threatening conditions are particularly vulnerable as those touting “Miracle cures” use phony news reports to boost their products and scams. Fake health news can pop up on everything from Facebook pages to the inbox of your e-mail account.

If you do a search on a particular health item, you’ll notice in the days and weeks to come all sorts of stuff relating to that condition will appear  Don’t buy into it. Protect yourself and others by following these simple rules:

Rule # 1: Fact Check before posting information or passing it along to others. Even a trusted friend can buy into fake news, so make it a regular practice to check before forwarding. Use the following resources:

• Snopes:  Best place to make sure you aren’t falling for an urban legend, folklore, myth etc. They include their source at the end of each article. You can also do searches at the website

• FactCheck.Org: Because of the political nature of healthcare, this site, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, is one to bookmark as well. With all the rumors about the end of Obamacare, this is a good place to check for what’s fact and what isn’t. They have a very good article ‘Broke’ and Because of ACA? About Paul Ryan’s falsely claiming that “because of Obamacare, Medicare is going broke.” 

• Health Info Lines:  From the National Institutes of Health, pick up the phone and call to find out if information you are reading about on line, learned about at a support group etc. is accurate

• Medline Plus  When people tell you they read about new health research, if it’s actually been published, it will appear under Today’s Health News at Medline Plus. This is a good one-stop shop, because you can also check out the Clinical Trials that are currently recruiting. Another site that’s good to check for health research is Science Daily. 

• Compare article to other sources. If other reputable news sources aren’t picking it up it’s likely to be fake news.

• Take a closer look at the website and check the URL. Some fake news groups post slightly altered URLs making you believe the source is a reputable one.

• Check the date: Health information changes rapidly and if this is a story that was popular three years ago, it may have been disproven since then.

• In general be careful of social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter. Their purpose is social not news.

Rule #2: Recognize that some things are intended to be fake, such as The Onion; The Borowitz Report-New Yorker column; Duffel Blog; Newslo; Weekly World News; Clickhole, which are designed to be satirical in nature should not be considered a reliable source of health news. As far as outright hoaxes avoid American News; and Activist Post.

Rule #3: Do not pass on any information until you have checked it carefully. Review Rule #1

So what happens if you do fall victim to fake news? Besides alerting others  in your situation, and your state’s attorney general’s office, according to Derigan Silver, a professor of media, First Amendment and Internet law at the University of Denver, you can take legal action. You can learn more about this at “What Legal Recourse Do Victims of Fake News Stories Have? 

Take a Break: South of the Border Holiday-Poinsettias

With Christmas just a few weeks away, the next three “Take a Breaks” will be celebrating the holidays “south of the border” style.

Poinsettias are an important part of Mexican and other cultural traditions, so below are directions for making paper ones as well as the Poinsettia Legend as told and illustrated by Tomie dePaloa 

• Paper Napkin Poinsettia 

• DIY Paper Poinsettia (Includes free template) 

• How to fold a Poinsettia Flower 

No, Your Doctor May Not Know

After writing this post, I came across this article in The Washington Post, which is a physician's experience dealing with "one size fits all medicine."

In relating her experience with the need for a second replacement of her knee, a friend noted how one of her colleagues had sent her a lengthy e-mail before her first replacement explaining what she needed to look for in an orthopedist. “They should offer different types and options to knee replacement as well as a wide variety of sizes for the implants.”   In reading the e-mail her thought was, “but surely my doctor must know this.”  “I didn’t say anything and I paid the price,” she said more than once.

As it turned out,  first orthopedist had a “one size fits all” approach compared to the second surgeon who offered 38 sizes of implants. The latter provided a much better fit and consequently a much better outcome.

Another friend is in need of a particular type of eye surgery where there are two approaches: one that requires the person to lay face down for a day to weeks following the surgery, and has a high probability that cataract surgery will be needed, while the second requires no lying face down and makes cataracts very unlikely. There are a lot of variables certainly to consider, but unless she asks questions she’ll end up spending a lot more time in uncomfortable positions with more surgery and a longer recovery time.

Whether it’s a surgery, treatment, medications or something else, don’t assume you medical provider is up on all aspects of care and treatment. Health care is a very changing field and it’s easy to miss something particularly if your provider has a very busy practice.  You can help yourself and your provider by:

• Learning about your condition from reputable sources: Sites like Mayo Clinic’s Diseases and Conditions  and Medline Plus  are  good places to start. Look for current information and sites that end in .org, .edu, or .gov. Be wary of drug manufacturers and the commercial sites that end in .com. Be on the look out for quick and easy cures, which can be scams. If it Sounds to Good to be True:Scams, Frauds, and Quacks is a good resource to check to determine if it might be a scam.

• Be an e-patient:  You can learn a great deal from others with your condition by participating in support groups, particularly if you share data.

• Bring information you have questions about to provider’s attention and don’t assume that they know everything.

Keep in mind that your relationship with your medical provider is a partnership where you are ultimately responsible for the choices you make regarding your care. 

Take a Break: Watch Pixar Shorts

Escape for a few minutes or longer into the magical world of Pixar Shorts. This is just a small sampling for what’s available for free on-line.

La Luna 

One Man Band 

Knick Knack-What fun watching a snowman trying to escape from a snow globe. 

Tin Toy 

Mike’s New Car: For the Monsters Inc. Fans

Hawaiian Vacation: Featuring the Toy Story family 

Not interested in today’s activity, go to the Take a Break Pinterest Board. and pick out something else.