Straining, squinting, craning his neck forward…none of it seemed to help. Hal simply could not see the face of the girl who had just waved at him from across the park. As she disappeared behind the row of bushes which lined the grassy commons, he said to his brother, Sal, “Man, I need my Superman x-ray vision glasses.”

Sal peered at him with a quizzical look and said, “Dude, you don’t need x-ray vision glasses. Like I keep telling you, you just need glasses glasses.”

Hal slapped at Sal’s upper arm and responded, “I do not!”

“Yeah?” queried Sal. “OK, so who was that PYT who just waved at you?”

“Right…like you could see her,” answered Hal.

“Sure could,” said Sal. “Plain as day.”

“Nuh uh,” replied Hal. “No way you could make out her face from clear across the park.”

“Could to,” answered Sal. “Wanna know who it was?” he asked.

Sheepishly, Hal looked at his little brother and said, in a much less argumentative voice, (more…)

Hal’s mom walked up behind him as he sat at the kitchen table, thumbing through some old photos on her iPad. She noticed he was looking at all the “Water Baby” photos, as she called them, from when he was an infant. “Don’t think I gave you permission to swipe my iPad from my bedroom, mister,” she said with her obviously phony stern mom voice.

Hal didn’t even turn around as he knew she was just teasing. “Yeah, ‘Swiper, no swiping,’ I know, Dora,” Hal joked.

“I’ve told you a million times, my hairstyle is not copied from Dora the Explorer!” Hal’s mom quipped. “Joseph at the salon says it is super chic and highlights my sensuous features.” She struck a profile view pose with her nose just slightly tipped up.

Hal chuckled, “Yeah, you’re the ‘chic-est’ mom in the South Side, Dora.” (more…)

When he turned the corner into the living room, Hal almost fell out on the floor in full blown laugh mode. His little brother, Sal, was dancing – or his fairly poor version thereof – to Hal’s old fetal ultrasound video.

Years ago, Hal’s mom had decided to digitize all of her old VCR tapes. For some strange reason that Hal never fully understood, when she got to his old fetal ultrasound recording, she decided to add a music track. The song was by one of those ancient groups she loved from back in the “disco era”: the Cee Bees…or the Bee Gees…or something like that. Anyway, the beat of the song matched perfectly with the beat of Hal’s little unborn heart in the video and his mom said she just couldn’t resist turning out this “music video.” (Thankfully, this was both her first and her last such effort.)

Anyway, as Hal started to howl with laughter, Sal stopped dancing. He turned with a sheepish grin and said, “What?…shut up (more…)

At the recent Planetree Conference, promoting patient-/person-centered care, we heard some of the best “evidence” that Health Nuts Media animation was having a truly wonderful impact upon patients. These patient success stories came from one of the good folks at JFK Medical Center in New Jersey where they are using HNM content via their interactive in-room patient video services system provided by our channel partner, TVR Communications.

Adriana Rizzolo, MSN RN CRNP, spoke about some of her experiences using Health Nuts Media’s patient education content. She is a Pediatric Clinical Nurse Specialist who serves as the clinical leader for Pediatric Nursing within JFK Medical Center. Her skills include clinical expertise in pediatrics, evidence based practice, collaboration, consultation, education, mentoring, and change leadership.

Adrianna’s clinical expertise stems from 6 years experience as a Pediatric Acute Care and Critical Care Nurse at a level one trauma center. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing and her Master’s degree as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. She is board certified (more…)

“Pneumonia: the forgotten killer of children” is a joint publication from UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO). The title is both disturbing and succinctly accurate.

While pneumonia isn’t limited to children, it certainly has a disproportionate impact upon them. It kills more than 2 million children every year – more than any other illness and more than AIDS, malaria, and TB combined. It the the leading cause of death in children across to globe.

The saddest part is research has shown that, with proper prevention efforts and adequate treatment, 1 million of those children don’t have to die. (more…)

Hal kept twisting the knob forward and back, back and forward trying to get a clear view of the tiny little pneumonia germs. For some weird reason, he always enjoyed looking at the miniature world made large by the microscopes in science class. He didn’t really think of himself as a science guy – certainly not one of those brainiac nerds who lived and breathed the stuff. But he did always look forward to science class.

This week, Ms. LeClair had everyone looking at slides of germs. Today they were focusing on germs that cause infection in people. And, right now, they were examining bacteria, viruses, and fungi that commonly cause pneumonia.

On Hal’s slide at the moment, he was focusing on something that looked like little pairs of round balls. Sometimes the pairs hooked up with other pairs to form chains. According to the workbook, these were “diplococci” which meant – surprise, surprise – two round balls. These particular ones were “Streptococcus pneumoniae.” They are bacteria and can cause pneumonia in people.

Ms. LeClair stepped over to Hal’s lab bench and saw what he was reading. She said, “Hal, did you know that there’s nothing new about NEW-monia?” (She stressed the “new” sound.) (more…)

Holistic, wholistic, alternative, complementary – whatever name you want to put on so-called “non-traditional” approaches to healthcare, rarely do you see them combined so seamlessly with “traditional” Western medicine as in Dr. Larry Rosen’s new book, Treatment Alternatives for Children: Reduce Serious Side Effects with Natural Equivalents to Conventional Remedies for Common Childhood Ailments (“TAfC” for short).

Just because it says “Natural” in the title, don’t expect some hippy-dippy, New Age collection of pyramids, crystals, and healing stones. Larry Rosen, MD, is a respected pediatrician, an alum of MIT, and a very grounded and practical clinician. Along with co-author Jeff Cohen, Dr. Rosen presents a well-balanced look at treatment alternatives for some 100 or so of the most common childhood ailments. The book combines traditional Western scientific methods with the cross-cultural and time-tested methods of healing help from a variety of sources. (more…)

Hal just kept working. He worked and he worked and he worked. He worked through breakfast. He worked through lunch. He worked clear through until almost dinner. He just couldn’t stop until his work was done.

He hammered the last nail to a flattened finish. Then, he stepped back to take a proud look at what he’d made. That’s when he suddenly got “low.”

As Hal took that step back from his just-finished project, he knew something was very wrong. He became sort of dizzy, feeling light-headed. His felt weak. He noticed he felt sweaty even though it was a cool 72 degrees in the garage. He felt nervous and kind of shaky.

He sat down on the sawhorse sitting next to him. He took a few deep breaths and tried to clear his head. That’s when his little brother, Sal, walked in. He noticed the look on Hal’s rather pale face (more…)