In Remembrance

American Flag flying over Main ISU Campus (State flag of Iowa beneath)

Today is Memorial Day, the day Americans remember those who have given their lives for our country. It is usually celebrated by spending time together with family and friends, often involving a cookout. Most towns across the US will be decked out with the US flag and have a parade. My niece will march with her girl scout troop in the parade of the town I grew up in and this Auntie couldn't be prouder! I feel this is an appropriate time to dust off one of my favorite patriotic songs of all time:

Thank you those who have died so that I can live free in the best damn country in the world! I'd also like to thank the family and friends of those who have given their life for this country and the soldiers currently serving us along with their family and friends. God bless you all and God bless the USA!

*Check out NukeDad's post, he links ways one can give back to help soldiers and their families.

Pray for Dakota

This little girl is very sick, she has a blood clot in her leg and a blood infection. This is a very bad combo, the bacteria in her blood are growing/hanging out in the clot in what is called a biofilm. Biofilms are microorganisms living and interacting together in a goo matrix (goo is not the technical term), they are highly resistant to stress that would kill them if they were going it alone, this unfortunately includes antibiotics. So the bacteria in her blood get knocked down by the antibiotics (she is on several very potent ones) but they are replaced with ones coming out of the biofilm/clot. They are using medication to try and dissolve the clot, which is a problem by itself, so the antibiotics can do their job but this is not without risks. They are using very aggressive treatments to try and knock this out once and for all so that they can save Dakota's life. She was born prematurely and so has been a fighter since the day she was born, please pray, send positive thoughts or whatever you believe in that the doctors have gotten her on the right treatments and that she has the strength to beat this thing! Thank you all!




Note: Thank you to all my regulars who are still reading this blog, I am sorry I have been too busy with work and life to keep up with both writing this blog and keeping up with your blogs. Once I get my life balanced and some issues worked out I will hopefully have the time to resume blogging more, so much has happened of the past few months I am pretty overwhelmed. I've been trying to stay in touch using twitter, if you have it and want to chit chat with me on there I am Microblogology, send me an @ message so I know you are one of my bloggy friends and not a spammer. If you have skype that is even better than twitter. Miss you all!