Summer 2011
The Emergency Room doors whoosh open, welcoming a middle-aged couple. One side of the man’s face droops and his slurred words try to quiet his wife’s worst fears. The triage nurse, trained to recognize these symptoms, alerts the team that a possible stroke victim needs diagnosis and immediate attention.
“When stroke happens, time is brain tissue,” says Dr. Mounang Desai, co-medical director of the emergency room at North Cypress Medical Center (NCMC). Stroke is the third-leading cause of death and foremost cause of disability. When a “brain attack” occurs, brain cells are deprived of blood, which carries oxygen and nutrients, so it begins to die. Reacting quickly is vital. Continue reading “Surviving Stroke”
The evening the French Consulate’s cultural attaché to Houston, Patrice Vanoni, graciously spoke the customary prose to bestow the honor of chevalier and pin the ruban violet to Georges Detiveaux’s left breast, Detiveaux was nervous. Such an emotion seems an appropriate and reverent appreciation to being knighted. “They were beautiful words, and then, as is expected, I gave a speech to welcome and thank everyone for coming,” says Detiveaux, the awe of the night reflecting on his face. 
May 2011
When Ed Smaglik finished up his practice games before the U.S. Bowling Congress Open Championship in June 2009, he sensed something was amiss. He’d suffered lower back issues a couple of times a year from overuse.
When asked how she began quilting 20 years ago, Joan Scott laughs and says, “I took a class, and it took over my life.” Looking around her Cliff Rose studio, it is easy to understand how the patterns, textures and palettes could mesmerize a soul.
Waves of sound float up as I lie on the monochord Soundwave bed. Thrumming bass notes resonate through my body. Sitting beside me, Kelly McCabe chants, his cascading vocals trailing into a breathy falsetto. A rushing in my head drowns out the world, and I am encouraged to let go, to join something greater. The lyrical grandeur builds, and in my mind’s eye, a ring of rocky ridges appears. Light lifts from these peaks to form immense balls of flame, and then, disintegrate. 
Every mother is a working mother whose job is never finished. With a career added to the already busy mix, these Cy-Fair mom doctors have learned a few things about straddling the double-duty roles of being a mother and physician. Their warm, candid thoughts on caretaking will help any woman make the most of her time both at work and at home. 
When people think of midwifery, antiquated notions of a granny in homespun might come to mind. The journey an infant takes to be born hasn’t changed since before cloth was woven on a loom, yet the ways a midwife attends to births today are both older than homespun and as updated as modern technology. As a practicing midwife, Ramona Colas assists Cy-Fair mothers-to-be as they eagerly await their new bundles of joy. 
The son of German immigrants, Elmer “Lumpy” Kleb happily lived out his 92 years on his family’s farmland, in a farmhouse lacking in modern utilities but surrounded by the beauty and bounty of nature. Kleb felt a deep attachment to the land and chose to plant trees on it instead of farming cotton or corn like his neighbors. Over time, he produced a wooded retreat and often nursed injured birds. 
When the scale creaks and so do your joints, don’t despair. With some new habits, that creak could become the soothing whir of a spinner bike and restful sleep. Most of us eat too much over the holidays, but even a month-long eating extravaganza won’t create stiff muscles and double-digit poundage. Aging, a sedentary existence and busy schedule, plus food on the go for eleven months might be the culprit though.
And within those eleven months lies the solution. Consider this: If it took eleven months or even eleven years to slowly morph from toned to tubby, give yourself at least a reasonable amount of time to build a better self. One of the biggest killers of a resolution to lose weight or shape up is overdoing it. So start slow, not gung-ho.