Stages of Grief-Denial

The five stages of grief was made popular by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross In her book “On Death and Dying”, published in 1969. She presented 5 stages terminally ill persons may go through upon learning of their illness. It is now widely accepted that people can go through these stages of grief during other difficult times such as the death of a spouse, and divorce. Over the next few posts I will describe each of these stages from both a child and adult perspective along with potentially beneficial ways to work through that particular stage. These stages are not always experienced in … Continue reading

Diagnosing Cancer in Pets

I was chatting with an owner at the cats-only boarding facility about various health issues, and the topic of cancer came up. “How do you know if a cat has cancer?” he asked me. I was stumped for a moment, then managed to say that it was probably the same way we figure it out in humans. Biopsies and blood tests. Just to be sure, I did some research. Yeah, I’m the sort of person where if I don’t know the answer to a question, I’ll find it. Cancers that present as tumors on or near the surface of the … Continue reading

Do OTC Medications Affect Fertility?

The topic for this blog came from a question asked in our forums. In fact, there is some evidence that certain medications can interfere with fertility. Whether or not these medications would completely prevent pregnancy is unclear. It is actually widely believed that some common medications can interfere with ovulation. These are drugs known as NSAIDS, and sold under names like Aleve, Advil and Ibuprofen. In the book Stay Fertile Longer: Everything You Need to Know to Get Pregnant, the author talks about this link. The reason cited is that these medications block the production of prostaglandins, which interferes with … Continue reading

File Formats For Digital Scrapbooking Layouts (1)

File formats are important to understand when you are working with anything digitally on your computer, whether it is photographs or digital scrapbooking layouts or something else. For the purposes of this two part article, we will primarily be discussing digital scrapbooking layouts and the file formats that coordinate with them. There are seven standard file formats that a typical digital scrapbooker uses, or is familiar with. This is a brief summary of what they are and what they do. If you need more in depth information on file formats, you might wish to check out the Computing Blog here … Continue reading