Terry's Thoughts and Threads: Internet Search

Showing posts with label Internet Search. Show all posts

Sunday, August 19, 2012

More Mystery Reviews: Susan Santangelo

I've been reading, and it's now time again to review the best of those I've enjoyed in this miserably hot and humid August. My Kindle has been a blessing as I've spent many days this summer sitting in a doctor's office awaiting treatment. Rick is always at my side, and we've had many conversations during the ride to the city. But in the waiting rooms we both read. So here's what I have for you today.

Every Wife Has A Story

A Baby Boomer Mystery Series

Susan Santangelo has begun a series of 'baby boomer' books, following Jim and Carol through a series of events that many in this age group are experiencing, or soon approaching. The subtitle for each book is "Every wife has a story," and the point of view in the books is that of Carol Anderson, who is a wife, freelance writer, mother of two, good friend and devoted companion to two English Springer Spaniels, with whom she shares many conversations. Carol's husband is employed in public relations in New York City, and they share a lovely home in a Connecticut suburb just a commuter train track away. Their son Mike is a well educated individual living on his own, and their daughter Jenny has just returned home, leaving a controlling boyfriend on the west coast to continue working instead on her graduate degree.

In the first book of the series, titled Retirement Can Be Murder, Jim is considering retirement, and Carol is fretting what may signal the impending loss of her alone time at home. Believing that Jim will need the structure and responsibilities of a retirement hobby or avocation, she uses the internet to look into possibilities. But what she finds leads both Jim and Carol into frightening consequences...

The second book, titled Moving Can Be Murder, finds Jim and Carol facing the reality of mortality, and the recognition that living in an old house requires a great deal of maintenance. While they have addressed such problems through the years, Jim's financial awareness and tight purse strings have always been appeased by his willingness to do much of the work himself. But he is older now, and health is at the forefront, right there next to saving money on a tight budget. Carol begins researching condominiums and 'active adult lifestyle' communities. Jim unexpectedly takes the lead in finding such a setting, and encourages Carol to consider it seriously.

Leaving her home is an unsettling proposal for Carol, but leaving their dogs is unthinkable, for both Carol and Jim. They continue looking. They list their own home for sale with Carol's competent realtor-friend, Nancy. But when the first sale falls through due to an unexpected death, things take an unusual twist, involving many more people than would be involved in a typical home sale, as their home is now to be offered as a 'show home' to benefit "Sally's Place," a charity that supports victims of domestic abuse. Little does she know that her once-intimidating teacher, a nun with a firm standard and glare to match, is in charge of Sally's Place.

Susan Santangelo weaves the two stories together skillfully, and in the second book, introduces her readers to not only the world of maturing baby boomers, but also the world of realty and of domestic violence, and to the realization that there is much more to retirement than just finding a hobby to fill the hours. Five stars for both of these books; I am looking forward to the third book, due soon. Both of these are available for kindle and for nook and other e-readers, as well as in paperback.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Reputable Medical Websites

We have the internet at our fingertips. We have a medical condition that we know is a topic of some websites. Which sites do we choose? Which sites do we trust? And do we share with our doctors what we find online?

Today's internet users have to take ownership of their responsibility in assessing their travels through informational sites. This obligation remains whether one is seeking medical information, historical data, or current event coverage. Every website has a webmaster, an editor or program director who selects what will be uploaded to their page(s). All have their own agendas.There are plenty of search engines available to help you find a plethora of sites dealing with the topic you are researching: Bing, Google, Yahoo, and more. Innumerable data bases exist, and consumers must learn how to create a library of trust.

What are the keys to unlocking this treasure house of information? Begin with the url (the web address) and start at the end: most will end with .com, .org, .net, .gov, .edu here in the United States. Students are taught early to expect a .com site to be one sponsored by someone with an agenda, true or not, and .net as being like a co-op of users with a common interest. Urls with the suffix .org are most often linked with organizations like museums or other private institutions that have a reputation to maintain. Those with.gov are government sponsored which, depending on one's political outlook, may be a positive or a negative. And I learned soon enough as a teacher leading young adolescents through research projects online that the suffix .edu can be widely variable: .edu may mean it is hosted by a college publishing highly qualified, scholarly articles, or it may be a classroom site hosted by an elementary school and showcasing third grade student compositions with factual errors, neatly typed.

Medical issues are also addressed in a wide range of sites, and so may be no more reliable than one patient's personal journal, complete with singular bias, or a site filled with many chatters sharing their experiences and differing amongst each other in their replies. These sites may be both confusing and misleading to a person recently diagnosed just trying to 'get a handle' on the terminology and stages of a condition. Other websites may be owned and thus influenced by the large pharmaceutical companies producing and marketing specific solutions at great expense toward greater profits. Most medical information sites will responsibly remind readers to always check with their own doctors before accepting any advice or practices sponsored by the site.

I've learned a great deal about multiple sclerosis by reading at the National Institute of Health's site. I've also learned a lot of vocabulary, and gained second hand knowledge of many medications, at the NMSS message boards; I'm careful, though, to remind myself that they are personal stories that differ widely in viewpoint and in credibility.

Many doctors don't want to hear what you've learned at a website, reputable or not. They may be offended that in reading there you are less dependent on their professional knowledge. Yet they haven't the time to spend educating you about your condition at the level of detail that you may wish to be educated. Nor do they expect you to take medical courses at a university. This lack of professional information sharing within a doctor's tight schedule is what leads to patient frustration and reaching out to the internet for further information.

There are new sites appearing almost every day on every medical condition. Doctors haven't the time nor the interest in screening those sites for their patients. But they may have experience and knowledge of some sites that they believe are reputable, and it doesn't hurt to ask for a list that you can turn to when the doctor is not available.

The articles below are sites that I have found trustworthy, and have shared at my Facebook page for others looking for online resources. But I, too, must ask you to always check with your own medical team before choosing to follow a practice learned online.

And I'll remind you to go to my online store, or CreateSpace, or Smashwords, for a 50% discount on my book, Multiple Sclerosis, an Enigma. The links will be listed below the related articles.

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