Three Shorts Today to Delight, Help, or Think About...

The Gift is a gift for all readers who need a bit of heartwarming joy to brighten the day.

Stacey had been putting up Christmas decorations and asked her husband to go shopping with her. Ralph simply replied, "What for?" and would not go with her.

Trying to help Ralph come out of a depression, she wasn't having too much success...

God, how she hated seeing him this way. His sour mood was almost an every-day thing now, and most days she alternated between great sadness and even greater anger. Sometimes she just wanted to shout, "Get over it already!" Ralph had been in a deep dark hole for over a year now. Terribly depressed and refusing to get any kind of help. Sometimes she could jolly him out of the darkness by being incredibly cheerful herself, but that always took such an effort. She felt like her cheeks were going to split with the effort to keep a smile and her heart was going to break from the sadness.

Many people do not understand that a depressed person cannot just snap out of it. Stacey realized that she needed to step in since her husband wouldn't seek help... You may think that the picture of the cute puppy was the answer, but you'll be wrong.

What really happens is a tiny little miracle that could not have been anticipated... That makes this story all the more heartwarming. Read it and give it to a friend...

~~~

I have no idea how I got an English Version of this book, which I can no longer find; however, I hope this will be useful in this language.

I bought the book because my sister has Fibromyalgia. She is constantly reading material, so I wanted to share about this book. There is one basic methodology that the author describes for how he helped getting to a lower pain level for this problem. I was able to fully understand what and how he accomplished this. Both my sister and I could see an advantage to those who suffer from Fibromyalgia should at least consider this option...for it really can't hurt. It involves drinking water with an additive.

The key limitation for this book for a general reader is that the author obviously has considerable expertise in the health field and instead of spending time on the one topic covered, he went on to provide other information for other uses.

I would have given him a higher ranking if he had stuck with just one topic, the Fibromyalgia and given his personal story in detail of what was happening. While he did go into the fact that he tested on and off, using the methodology, I personally think it would have been more beneficial to sufferers if he'd wrote it like a personal story as if he was telling me, a friend, and did not get into the other chemical issues that many would not understand... I am adding this last paragraph because the author asked for such feedback.

Note: I am including this review in case any of my readers are able to read the version that is now being sold...

~~~

She told her parents she liked girls when
she was 10 years old. They beat her with
sticks, brooms, belts, and anything else
they could get their hands on. Day after
day, she was locked in the basement and
beat until she could no longer stand.
This went on until she was 13 when they
beat her too hard. She was
hospitalized and then placed in a group
home for abused children. While that
was better than home, it was still bad.
!!!

For those who enjoy short stories, this is a sweet love story about losing the love of your life and not being able to get pass the time you once spent together...

Sasha had been Mickey's soul mate. She had been killed one day while they were on the road, having so much fun...

Once they hit the road, Sash cranked the volume up on the radio. Both of them like oldies rock and playing on the radio was "Wayward Son" by Kansas. They both started nodding their heads to the beat.




Years went by... And then someone else comes into your life and the attraction, something that you thought was over, has come back...

Mickey was a vet and had a dog who was hurt brought in for treatment. Tabby had said it was her dog but really she had hit the little dog and was so upset she had to do something. Mickey reassured her that she would treat the animal, no matter if it was a stray...

And it was through this little dog that Tabby came to spend time with Mickey, in order to learn how to treat the dog and to exercise his leg...and while they helped the dog, they got to know each other... Then Tabby asked Mickey to dinner, but Mickey wasn't sure whether it was actually a date...

Some drama is added to the story when another character enters the picture late in the story, but, mostly this is just a heartwarming story of love the second time around... well, actually, the ending is...just the beginning... Enjoy!

GABixlerReviews

The Renaissance of Aspirin by Glenn Parris - First Medical Thriller Featuring Fibromyalgia! Finally!

"You know what Fibro is? It's the Devil's favorite torture. Hurts like hell, but doesn't leave a trace of evidence. Not a mark..."
--Dr. Jack Wheaton

March 12, 2010

Boston, Massachusetts

FaM DaS Study Phase II subject #328: account of protocol deviation

They made an unlikely pair that first day in the waiting room--a plump, middle-aged southern divorcee and a skinny, sixty-year-old African American hotel worker from Roxbury, Massachusetts. They huddled over a Sudoku booklet like two schoolgirls: subjects 328 and 329, respectively. Going over the details of the process and recounting their late autumn introduction into the clinical research project, they crafted their plan.

The induction chaos had settled down to an organized crowd of mostly women with something in common to talk about: pain and misery. That's when Helen and Annie had found one another and clicked right off the bat. Their attention had refocused on a distinguished figure passing them in the aisle between chairs. One of the principal investigating physicians had made her way to the front of the room. The attractive woman looked serious and bore the smooth contoured face of one who didn't laugh enough...

Dr. Thomas was young, younger than any of the other PIs, but her voice carried the same self-assured confidence. She asserted  a commanding presence. "Those candidates assigned odd numbers to my left, those with even-numbered cards to my right...

When the randomization process was over, Helen and Annie found themselves headed toward different rooms and down different paths. Helen was in the active arm while Annie was in the control arm. Neither they nor the study investigators knew who got what, as all participants were blinded to placebo versus active drug. That had been three months ago. But this time, before they split, the twosome sat side by, conspiring to beat the system.

"Now you can't tell anyone that you'd already known how the real drug would work when you get it, okay, Annie?" Helen Holcolm looked furtively from side to side as she whispered to the woman seated beside her...

Annie waved back, hopped into her solid American car, and made for the parkway to Roxbury. She merged onto the I-90 and felt a funny little flush followed by a shiver...The sensation of an army of ants crawling on her scalp began building, and the image of the I-90 melted into a swirl of colors as she drove. That was the last thing Annie saw. The traffic reporters described  the accident as one of the most horrific in years...

The Renaissance of Aspirin

By Glenn Parris

The important part for me was that once I had read the statement about Fibromalgia that started the book, I learned two things: the pain my sister has gone through for so many years is far beyond my earlier comprehension, and, there is yet no cure for Fibromalgia. Dr. Parris is the first author that has used fibro as part of a novel. A shout-out to him for doing so! May it bring about interest to medical researchers in the field so that this silent torture of so many women and men, which leaves no trace of evidence, may someday end...

Dr. Jack Wheaton, a second-year medicine resident, came into the story by virtue of his position while Dr. Thomas, as a brilliant, young research investigator was part of a drug trial study being conducted... 

The most important issue is that she has realized and created a safe, inexpensive agent as opposed to the drug now formally being tested after years of research. Now, unfortunately, we all know where this is going to go, right?

Fortunately, one official got involved and relocated Anita Thomas, complete with a new background, and she becomes part of Wheaton's team. But he's soon concerned since her expertise seems beyond what it should be for her position...

And then Helen Holcomb showed up there as a patient! Seeing Dr. Thomas, she immediately called out excitedly, explaining where and how she had met her... Once Jack got over the shock, they grew closer and worked as a team... But then, Anita learned of Annie's death...and then Helen soon dies thereafter...

Dr. Thomas had come under watch because she had become involved with a small group of students doing research. All of them innocent, but eager to complete the project they were doing and Dr. Thomas had agreed to help...

Thanks to those watching, the team members had begun to die off...in ways that looked like accidents, of course...

Readers soon know who and why this is happening, but that doesn't detract from the suspense, especially as something new keeps coming up.

Hamilton Medical Center dealt with the problem [of overcrowding] the way most hospitals in that setting did: it allowed fellows and senior residents to moonlight for an hourly fee as long as they weren't on ward duty that months. This arrangement augmented the complement of four medical teams composed of two interns and a senior resident, two of which were on short call and two on long call.
This particular night the ER resident had burned through the two teams on call, the house esident who was to take the overflow in such situations, the three moonlighters, and even the three attending physicians on call. The cycle came back around to Jack's team for an eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth admission.
Triskaidekaphobia--the irrational fear of the number thirteen. Jack never believed in it before, always thought it was silly. But July 23 changed all of that.
Helen Holcomb showed up in the ER at 2:00 am, the thirteenth admission. The admitting resident assigned her to blue team directly without first assessing her. She was seizing when she rolled into the main hall by emergency medical services.
"Sam, come on. Give us a break, will you? We've already taken twelve hits. Now this train wreck as number thirteen? Are you serious? Where's the workup? Where's the prep and assessment? Scan her, tap her, stabilize her, contact the family, hell, hold her over till morning for God's sake," Jack pleaded...
Jack decided to do it himself and assign it to Al when the sun came up. Jac talked one of the EMTs, Karen Gleason, into helping him start an IV.
Mrs. Holcomb's right arm was thrashing around. She was conscious but not responding to verbal cues. Jack selected her left arm to start the the IV...

~~~

And one of the things was that while Jack and Anita had been called to work on Helen Holcomb when she was brought back to the hospital as an emergency patient, was that Jack had been infected with her blood as a technician had been trying to help and stabbed him instead of the patient, with the needle full of the patient's blood!  After that, he had demanded that Anita tell him what had been given to the trial members of that research program she'd been involved in! Whew!

While Anita shared with Jack, I found it ironic that Jack estimated there were probably a few hundred thousand individuals with rheumatoid arthritis and was quickly corrected to two million... Then proceeding on with the medical costs, she pointed out there are four or five times as many fibromyalgia patients alone as rheumatoid arthritis, not to mention those treated for chronic fatigue and other closely related diseases... In other words,  major drugs needed by millions on a continuous basis!

The tension increases as Jack Wheaton and Anita Thomas try to respond to the deaths that have already happened and to Jack's wound filled with infected blood of some sort... But there's also a little fun and romance coming up, so that by the end we have a quite satisfactory conclusion... Especially with the Afterword, where Dr. Parris claims, at least in his opinion, that the pharmaceutical industry is working to improve the world's health and together with the medical community using the best people and other resources to eliminate even more in the future. It might not be soon enough for my dear sister, Dee, but her daughter, who also has been diagnosed with it--I pray that relief is in the near future!

At the same time, Parris assures readers that we'll see more of the same characters in the future! Great, because I really did enjoy them, especially Khandi Barr... who protects Jack from being discovered by criminals in a very intriguing manner! LOL... Enjoy!

GABixlerReviews

As a board certified rheumatologist, Glenn Parris has practiced medicine in the northeast Atlanta suburbs for over 20 years. He has been writing for nearly as long. Originally from New York City, Parris migrated south to escape the cold and snow, but fell in love with the southern charms of Georgia and Carla, his wife of 22 years. He now writes cross-genre in medical mystery, science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction. The Renaissance of Aspirin is his debut novel.