Quite interesting? If you read my previous writing, I was once telling about prescriptions that the doctor gave to me during my pregnancy since I did not like milk at all. Well… except for yoghurt and yakult (it is a Japanese probiotic milk-like product made by fermenting a mixture of skimmed milk with a special strain of the bacteria Lactobacillus casei Shirota).
It happened last December when Maxwell still breastfed by me (he stopped breastfeeding at 13 months old and he stopped it by himself). I was traveling to another island for three days and during that time Maxwell was still 9 months old. I was so upset at the beginning for not being able to bring him along with me (Cane did not allow me). I missed him so much on the way and missed to cradle him in my arm, fortunately I was so busy with the work that it killed my yearning for several hours. When the evening started to crawl and I was left alone in my chamber… I could feel all the pain of being lonely as well as being full. I got a short headache and felt that my breasts were full and leaking at the same time. I need direct breastfeeding since I was not prepared for weaning yet.
When it was not possible for direct breastfeeding, I started to express (artificially remove and store) my milk in the bottle. A manual massage was applied at the beginning (for 1 minute) and then followed with a breast pump. Before expressing, I used warm towel to compress both breasts and this would stimulate both breasts to produce more milk, a warm shower would work as well. A 15 minutes express could produce 150 ml milk and I did one time at 18.00 and again at 24.00. After expressing the milk and put in the bottle, I realized that there was no fridge to freeze the milk and I could not bring the milk back to Jakarta within 3 days.
I stared at the milk and observed carefully that there were two different colors that showed in 2 different bottles. The first bottle which filled with the first express were almost white transparent which is called foremilk (the watery milk coming from a full breast). The second bottle, with later express showed thicker white color which is called hindmilk (the creamy milk coming from a nearly empty breast). My curiosity tickled me that night and I wondered why Maxwell loved this milk. Every evening he eagerly waited for my return and would cry out loud if I did not breastfeed him as soon as his eyes spotted me. I did not like milk but willingly to take a try for enhancing my experience.
I took a sip and I love it… it was so sweet and smell like my baby. I drank from both bottle and felt no different taste between one another only the hindmilk felt thicker. On the day two, I took different meals that used more ingredients in it. People said that the taste of the milk will be different from one meal to another, so I took a try to fulfill my eagerness. In the evening, I did the same thing again and I found out actually there was no different with milk taste no matter what kind of meals that the mother took during that day, but there was a different in the aroma produced that night, still I love the taste.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breastfeeding it is said that the research shows that between the ages of 12 and 24 months, 448 milliliters of human milk provide these percentages of the following minimum daily requirements: Energy 29%, Folate 76%, Protein 43%, Vitamin B12 94%, Calcium 36%, Vitamin C 60%, Vitamin A 75%. If human milk contains such benefit, why adult did not consume it as well instead of having cow’s milk?
11 June 2009
Breast Milk for Adult
02 June 2009
Cat's Medicine
Do you have a sick cat at home? I am not a cat lover (but my mother is) and sometimes I help my mom with caring her cats. My mom can teach her cat to sit on her lap and handle the milk bottle during nursing time. She can also teach her cat to massage her tight whenever she sits on the floor. She can teach lots of tricks to her cats that sometimes amaze our neighbors.
The worse part is when the cat got sick, she would be very sad (and upset) and would try every kind of medicine that she could have. She learned about medicine since she was young and she also learned about modern medicine from my brother (he is a medical doctor), until one day she found a small plant that gave a medical effect for the cats.
This plant has leaves look like spinach and wildly grow in the field. The cat usually eats the root of this plant and it will roll over for the sensation caused by the plant. Sometimes, just by smelling the root, cat can jump and start to roll its body on the leaves. I observe this behavior carefully and start to smell the plant, however I can not get the same sensation that cat has. No matter how sick the cat is, you can just give this plant to it and it will cure by itself.
There is a wounded cat in my neighborhood and he usually comes to my house for the cat’s nips. This time he was badly injured that he could only use three of his legs, he has no appetite for foods and stayed under the shaded tree all the time. My mom was visiting me when she saw the cat and she asked me to look for the plant (which I forgot before). I pulled several plants (we called it “root of the cat”) and gave to the cat. I kept doing it for two days and now he can move here and there and eat a lot.
Dr. Lie, once told me about this “root of cat” but he could not explain why this kind of plant can help to cure the sick cat. If you just happen to have a sick cat, try to find this wild plant near the gutter or field and let you cat have it…
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01 June 2009
Ice Theraphy
Articles from "The Second Edition of Introduction to Massage Therapy" (ISBN-13: 978-0-7817-7374-4)
Ice is useful because it has five important effects on the body:
First, ice reduces sensations, including pain sensations, by slowing the transmission of sensory messages from local nerve fibers to the brain. This numbing effect is used in medicine for everything from reducing discomfort right after injuries (such as bruises, burns, muscle strains, joint sprains, hematomas, and fractures), to reducing pain after orthopedic surgery, to numbing areas that are going to be injected with anaesthetic or stung by bees in beesting therapy. After an area is cooled, it may take a long time to return to normal temperature: in one study, the intramuscular temperature of the gastrocnemius muscle took 1.5 hours to return to normal following a 20 minutes of ice pack application, and 3 hours to return to normal following a 20-minute bath in 10 degree Celcius water.
Second, ice reduces inflammation by decreasing circulation: as blood vessels constrict, blood supply to the area decreases drastically. This anti-inflammantory effect is used in medicine for many conditions including the itching andoozing of mild poision ivy, swelling from certain cancer chemotherapeutic medications, and cancer itself, arresting herpes blisters when they first begin to erupt and reducing swelling after orthopedic surgery. As massage therapists, we can use ice to treat swelling from bruises, sprains, strains, and pulled muscles.
Third, ice can stop bleeding in a local area under the ice application. In an emergency situation such as an impact injury, shutting off the flow of blood into an area can be accomplished very quickly. In one study, an ice wrap applied to one knee was compared to a room temperature wrap applied to the opposite knee. Researchers found that the ice wrap caused a 38% decrease in arterial blood flow, a 26% decrease in soft tissue blood flow, and a 19% reduction in blood flow to the bone itself (1). As little as 5 minutes of icing a knee can decrease blood flow to soft tissue and bone in the knee (2). Ice applications generally should be limited to 15 to 30 minutes because the tissues under the ice may become so ishemic that they are damaged: frostbite and nerve palsy have resulted from longer applications.
Fourth, ice decreases muscle spasm. Drs. Janet Travell and David Simons, authors of Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction, recommend ice stroking of muscles tension long enough for individual muscles to be gently but thoroughly stretched.
Fifth, ice slows the transmission of motor messages from the brain to local nerve fibers. Known as cryostretch, the use of ice massage before stretching can increase range of motion dramatically.
For further reading Ice Therapy see the link above...
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