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A blog about News, Health & Wellness, and Family & Home.
About ThePulse


Real Name:
The Pulse
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April 08, 2006
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April 23, 2009
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Previous Posts
When a trip to urgent care brings a visit from CPS
New ratings released for health plans, providers
My last B.com blog post: Thanks for everything!
Ombudsman: Budget cuts hurt long-term care
Kern's longstanding battle with the mosquito
Read the complaint filed against Dr. Freesemann, others
Tips to avoid hospital, school infections
BPD: Drug cache found in Dr. Freesemann's home, motor home
The budget dust settles: How did health programs fare?
Prominent doctor arrested in drug investigation
Archives
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January 08
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For more information

Here's some sites I find useful and interesting:
World Health Organization
National Institutes of Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Healthfinder
Medicare
PubMed
Kaiser Family Foundation
Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care
Knight Science Journalism Tracker
Health Hippo
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
California Department of Health Services
Medical Board of California
Kern County Health Department
Bakersfield Memorial Hospital
Mercy Hospital
San Joaquin Community Hospital
Kern Medical Center
Bakersfield Heart Hospital
Clinica Sierra Vista
Network of Care — Kern County — Mental Health
Stateline.org — Health Care
CNN — Health
MSNBC — Health

Some fun blogs I like, some health and some random:
Weighed Down
Bake Town, CA
Kevin Staker's blog on Medi-Cal Planning and Nursing Home Care in California
The Chicago Tribune's Julie's Health Club
The Detroit News' Health and Fitness blog
The Detroit News' Breast Monologues
The Orlando Sentinel's Healthy Living blog
Schwitzer health news blog
Over my med body!
The Wall Street Journal's health blog
The Health Care Blog
Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog
The Rural Blog

Got a blog or link to add to this list? Please let me know at ehagedorn@bakersfield.com.

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I feel like this week has been all about strokes. I toured HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital on Wednesday for a story I'm doing about a local choir director who has come back from a stroke. And last night, I had the honor of writing about the Hinojosa family. Gilberto Hinojosa, 54, suffered a stroke about a year ago. He is now on hospice care, but, with the help of Hoffmann Hospice and his family, he was able to see his daughter graduate from Bakersfield High School. He looked on from his...
Posted in the Health & Wellness interest group.
Topics: health, medicine, strokes, brain, Bakersfield High School, HealthSouth
posted by ThePulse on Friday, May 30, 2008 at 11:15 AM
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Listening to your parents talk to you about sex probably ranks high on the lifetime ick-o-meter. I can remember my mom launching into it while I was sitting with her and a bunch of her friends in our kitchen. She said, "You're becoming a young woman now." I said, "Oh no,"... you get the gist. But those tough conversations are the ones that are instrumental in a young person's decisions for years to come. Among the recommendations of a recent Public Health Institute...
Posted in the Family & Home interest group.
Topics: health, sex, Family, children, pregnancy, parenting
posted by ThePulse on Friday, May 23, 2008 at 04:58 PM
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Viewed 318 times
A new report ranks Kern fourth for its teen birth rate. Sad, yes, but not necessarily a big surprise is the gist of the comments I've heard. (Read "Kern fourth in teenage pregnancy" on the front page of today's Californian.) Besides breaking the rates out by county, the Public Health Institute report also broke out the findings by Senate and Assembly district. "The Assembly members and Senators are the ones who make the decisions," said Norman Constantine, a clinical...
Posted in the Health & Wellness interest group.
Topics: health, medicine, teen pregnancy, Politics, Florez
posted by ThePulse on Friday, May 23, 2008 at 04:24 PM
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Viewed 217 times
A Fresno broker is using West Nile virus and green pools to sell homes. Talk about spin. From the Blogging Broker blog: Help beautify Fresno by purchasing a home with a green pool through Lazarus Realty. I will *pay for the cost of draining, cleaning and refilling the pool. When complete you will have a sparkling BLUE pool. Did you know that Fresno has over 1000 **GREEN POOLS and that these green pools are a breeding ground for mosquitoes, and a single green pool can infect an area...
Posted in these Groups: Health & Wellness, News, Kern County
Topics: health, West Nile virus, mosquitos, green pools, Real Estate, housing, Fresno
posted by ThePulse on Friday, May 9, 2008 at 12:34 PM
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Location: 4821 Ming Ave., Bakersfield, CA

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A local man is selling tacos tomorrow to benefit the family of a Bakersfield teen battling a severe case of valley fever. Eugene Alonzo, owner of L.A. Tacos, will be selling his special-recipe tacos from noon to 6 p.m. at Sports Authority at 4821 Ming Ave. All proceeds will go the family of 17-year-old Jacalynn Hernandez, who has been fighting valley fever for almost two years and has gone from 180 pounds to 96 pounds. She is getting care at UCLA’s Mattel Children’s Hospital....
Posted in the Health & Wellness interest group.
Topics: health, valley fever, bakersfield, Kern County, Jacalynn Hernandez
posted by ThePulse on Friday, May 9, 2008 at 11:56 AM
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Viewed 92 times
I've heard from several people that Bakersfield is not a friendly town toward cyclists. Take Arin Resnicke, for instance. This avid Bakersfield cyclist has not only been hit by a pizza delivery driver but has had objects thrown at him, insults shouted at him and a group of guys hit him with their jackets as they drove by. (I just finished writing a story about Resnicke and his work with the American Lung Association. Read "Cyclist lunging forward with Breathe Easy Ride" on...
Posted in the Sports & Recreation interest group.
Topics: health, exercise, fitness, Bicycles, cycling, bikes, cars, transportation, bakersfield
posted by ThePulse on Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 03:34 PM
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Researchers at the University of Washington are looking for people who have tested positive for West Nile virus. And considering Kern County had the most cases of any county in the country last year, this area seems to be a good place to look. Below is an e-mail I got about the study. If you are interested, the contact information is at the bottom. Under the direction of Dr. Michael Bamshad at the University of Washington, we are conducting this study to understand the genetic...
Posted in the Health & Wellness interest group.
Topics: health, medicine, research, West Nile virus
posted by ThePulse on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 10:28 AM
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A large coalition of California medical organizations is suing the state over the planned 10 percent cut to Medi-Cal. Locally, this cut will mean Kern Medical Center will lose $4 million per year in Safety Net Care Pool Funds and $1 million per year in outpatient Medi-Cal funds, KMC CEO Paul Hensler said in an e-mail to county reporter James Burger and me. The loss of more Medi-Cal providers will also mean more reliance on local emergency rooms, which means longer wait times for everyone,...
Posted in the Health & Wellness interest group.
Topics: health, medicine, Medi-Cal, Politics, government, California, Kern Medical Center
posted by ThePulse on Monday, May 5, 2008 at 01:43 PM
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Using common sense never hurt anybody. Here are some tips from Canadian Living on how to avoid West Nile virus: Fill any holes in the ground around your property with dirt. When it rains, mosquitoes breed in these damp, wet spaces. Turn over any unused flowerpots in your garden. They provide ideal egg laying ground. Clear your eaves trough of leaves and twigs. They are magnets for mosquitoes. Cut your grass frequently — mosquitoes are attracted to long grass for...
Posted in the Health & Wellness interest group.
Topics: health, medicine, West Nile virus, mosquitoes, DEET, insect repellent, water
posted by ThePulse on Friday, May 2, 2008 at 02:23 PM
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't given up on passing a health plan that covers all Californians. According to the Associated Press, his staff is working to fix the previous plan.  "Now we'll try again," Schwarzenegger said. "We will continue on, keeping the stakeholders together, fine-tuning it and seeing if we can improve on it since we have the time now, then be back again. We feel very confident." He said he is not willing to break apart the plan, as some have...
Posted in the Health & Wellness interest group.
Topics: health, health care, Politics, Schwarzenegger, California, uninsured, government
posted by ThePulse on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 10:03 AM
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