HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. SALK!!!!!!!!!

As I logged onto the interwebs this morning, I discovered Google has changed its logo to honor the late Dr. Jonas Salk. It looks like this:

This simple little cartoon sure made me smile this morning. Without the work of Dr. Jonas Salk, I would likely not be here. Lots of people would not be here for that matter! You see, Dr. Salk invented a vaccine to fight Polio in 1955.

Polio (poliomyelitis) is caused by a virus that is spread through person to person contact. It attacks the nervous system and in a matter of hours can cause paralysis that is irreversible. Most people who are infected show no symptoms and are often misdiagnosed. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, headaches, vomiting, limb pain & paralysis. 

  The milder cases are often just thought to be the flu. It is possible to be totally symptom free yet be able to spread the virus. Leg paralysis is most common however more severe cases can have brain stem paralysis which causes breathing difficulties as well as issues swallowing and speaking. About 10% of deaths are due to not being able to breath once the diaphragm becomes paralyzed. 

Polio is still alive and well in our world. It remains an epidemic in Afghanistan, Nigeria, & Pakistan. As long as a single person is infected with polio, the entire world is at risk. The polio virus can easily be carried into a polio free country and can spread like wildfire to those not immunized against it.  

The last known case of polio in the United States was in 1991 and now days, people just aren't taught about it the way previous generations were. So many people died from this virus and many more are still living with the after affects, now known as Post Polio Syndrome but its just glossed over in the books as some "past issue". 

I probably know more than most people my age about Polio because my mother had Polio as a child and it has been a rather prevalent topic of discussion my entire life.  I have been to countless doctor visits with my mom, support group meeting for people with Post Polio Syndrome and have watched her steady decline as long as I can remember.

PPS is a further weakening of muscles that were affected by the polio virus. Common symptoms include slowly progressive muscle weakness, fatigue & muscular atrophy. Pain from joint deterioration & scoliosis are common as well. 

Most people have never heard of Post Polio Syndrome. Even now, most doctors are just now becoming aware this exists. Not everyone who contacted Polio will suffer form PPS but so many do. Doctors who had no knowledge of this often misdiagnosed patients with Multiple Sclerosis. MS affects the nervous system and so the doctors just made the link to it because so many of the symptoms were the same.

 Hoss grandfather, Jess, had polio and suffered greatly as an adult. The doctors just didn't know what he had so they called it MS (pretty common practice in the late 70's & early 80's). With all the advancements in medicine today, I would be willing to bet he would be correctly diagnosed with PPS now. It just fits his condition so much better, it makes perfect sense. 

I like to think Dr. Salk understood the magnitude of his vaccine. How could he not? As a parent, he knew all too well the fear that Polio brought with it. Dr. Salk did so much more than save lives, he brought relief from that fear to millions of parents worldwide. 

Dr. Salk never tried to patent his vaccine. When asked he said, "There is no patent. Can you patent the sun?" As far as he was concerned the vaccine belonged to the people, not one person or country for that matter. His vaccine has changed entire nations and made the world a little less scary for us all.

Happy 100th Birthday, Dr. Jonas Salk! My family thanks you for all you did!

  

Thank you Panera Bread!

While on vacation with Hoss, we took a run over to Pensacola Beach. We stopped for a lunch at a Panera Bread restaurant some where along the way. Having never been to a Panera before, I took a relatively safe chance on their BBQ chicken pita and a bowl of cream of chicken with wild rice soup. I was not disappointed! It was so good, naturally I had to try and make it once we got home.  I found a few recipes online that looked promising but needed a little tweaking so I got to work. This is what I ended up with!

Crock Pot Cream of Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

4 1/2 cups chicken broth 

2 cups water

1 package Rice-a-Roni Long Grain & Wild Rice (including the season packet)

1 cup chopped carrots 

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped onions

1 tsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp. dried basil

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp black pepper

2 cups half and half

In a large crock pot, mix the first 9 ingredients, stirring to combine. Cook on low for 7 to 8 hours or on high 4 to 5 hours. 

After cooking according to the time allotted, remove the chicken breasts and shred them with a fork and return to the crock pot. 

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter. Whisk the flour into the butter and then slowly stir in the half & half until well combined and smooth. Add pepper. 

Pour the cream mixture into the crock pot and mix well. Cook on high for about 15 more minutes.

Here is a shot of the yummy goodness you will end up with! Prepare to eat way too much!

A few notes on this recipe, for the chicken broth I use this: 

It is instant chicken bouillon and it is really cheap! A little goes a long way, just follow the instructions for making broth and use it instead.

I also use this for the veggies: 

I would use 2 bag just if you wanted a nice healthy amount of veggies, 1 bag if you don't. 

Oh and if you don't have half & half, just use half milk & half whipping cream.

Let me know what ya think of this recipe, we loved it!

Good Guys Finish Last

We all know the old saying, "good guys finish last". Have you noticed people say this a lot when things don't favor the "good" guy? Not exactly sure where this started but I'm going to bet it wasn't a good guy who coined it. It is said with pity and is not meant as a compliment. This confuses me. 

Why is the fact that good guys finish last a bad thing?  We throw this phrase around with a tone of resentment and resignation, like being a good guy is a bad thing because you will never be first or as important as the "other" guy. You will never have the prime spot on the team or the job with the six figure income, all because you are a good guy and "good guys finish last". 

Let think about this for a minute or two. Our society does seem to reward those "other" guys. We all know them. They seem to be the ones who have it all.  The ones who will just as soon stab you in back as look at you to get what they want. The ones who skirt their responsibilities at every turn, leaving their jobs for others to do, yet once finished they scoop in to take the credit. Let something go wrong though and they are the first to throw the you under the Greyhound.  The ones who will say one thing but when pressed deny ever opening their mouths, leaving you to look like the Lone Ranger without Tonto much less Silver.  They seem to have sold their souls to get where they are cause they sure act like being ahead is more important than doing what's right.

These types of people always seem to come in first in life and at an initial glance, it seem so very unfair. I am here to tell you that is just simply not true. As someone who has watched her husband always be the good guy no matter who is watching or what the situation is, I can tell you it gets really old seeing him get kicked in the teeth time and time again. I have asked on more than one occasion why he just can't catch a break but then it occurred to me.

My Hoss is a Good Guy. He will always finish last. He will always be cleaning up someone else's mess, always helping someone who does not appreciate it, always taking crap for someone else's problems, and always giving when it is a hardship for him. It's just who he is and he is not alone. The world is just full good guys and for that fact I am so thankful! 

Being a good guy is not a bad thing. Its the most wonderful title in the world if you ask me. Know why? Because it means you win. Not matter what life throws at you, you win. It may seem that you spend your life coming in second to people are less than honorable but the real truth is that you aren't last, you finish it.  They burn out and are forgotten but you endure. You finish.

No matter what it is, you finish it. That is something to be in awe of. Life keeps throwing you to the ground but you just keep getting up and you keep going until you finish whatever it is that someone else started. Oh, they run ahead and leave destruction behind them but you come along and you fix the wake they caused. You fix the mess they leave as they hastily run through never thinking about who they step on in the process. You pick up the people they cast aside as they use them for stepping stones to the top. You pieced back together the broken parts. You are there to speak the truth when they tell lies or keep silent when they should have said something. You are the one who fixes it all. You do what they are not capable of doing. You finish.

I am reminded of this other Good Guy. He lived a long time ago, and he just never caught what the world considers "a break" but He was perfect. The Ultimate Good Guy. He came to cleaned up an entire world's worth of mess and what did he get for his trouble? Crucified, literally. He was hung on a cross and gave His life for people who did not deserve it. Like I said, the Ultimate Good Guy. 

He finished what the world started. Jesus didn't make the mess but He cleaned it up. There is nothing else to say except that while the other guys think they won that day, the simple truth is, they didn't. They don't win, ever.  Sadly, the same battle keeps playing out day after day in small ways all over the world. In homes, in churches, at work, at the store, everywhere. Satan can battle all he wants, in the End, God finishes and He wins. 

So the next time someone looks at you with raised eyebrows, shrugs their shoulders and says with a hint of sarcasm in their voice, "Well, you know what they say..Good guys finish last!" Just raise your head, spread a smile from one ear to the other and proclaim proudly "Yes They Do!" Be proud to be a Good Guy, you are in some amazing company!