What’s Up? with Merlene

Last week, my 19-year-old son had an ingrown toenail removed, but not before an infection had set in.
The podiatrist gave him an antibiotic, and I, his loving mother, made sure he took it.
On Thursday, the podiatrist called him and said she was changing the ­antibiotic because his infection was resistant to the first drug prescribed.
My son always reads the printout that accompanies his prescriptions. We laughed at hearing that possible side effects included going bald, becoming constipated and becoming drowsy. My son didn’t read aloud the first paragraph, and we all would later regret that.
One objective of American Pharmacists Month, celebrated nationally in October, is to emphasize to people the importance of becoming more aware of the medicines they take and being familiar enough with their pharmacist “to ensure drug therapy is as safe and effective as possible.”
Brad Hall, executive director of the Kentucky Pharmacist Association, said pharmacists can be an integral part of our health care. They are the experts, he said.
“I am not a pharmacist, but I have three small children,” Hall said. “I ask the pharmacist how to pronounce the medication, what it is and what it is for. Take a minute or two to ask. There are no off-the-wall questions.”
People tend to trust the pharmacist, though. And I assume that the pharmacist will warn me when something looks suspicious or if I need to take greater precaution.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg didn’t bother to talk to her pharmacist before taking a sleep agent and cold medicine at the same time last week. She was rushed to a hospital after falling out of an airplane seat.
It is definitely a plus to know your pharmacist. But what if you don’t? Or what if all your information is on the computer and the pharmacist still makes a mistake?
My son took one of his prescribed pills about 4 p.m. Thursday and went to his room to work on his computer. At 11 p.m., when I passed by his room, he was asleep with the laptop still on. He had studied late the night before, so I assumed he was tired.
As I left, I told him to wake up and take another pill to get the antibiotics flowing.
Then I went to bed.
At 6 a.m., as I was about to start my devotionals, I noticed the printout on the table, and I picked it up and read it. The drug my son had taken was doxepin, an antidepressant. The dosage was 100 milligrams, to be taken twice a day.
It didn’t make sense to me. Why would a podiatrist prescribe an antidepressant for an infection? I headed to the computer and found nothing that said doxepin could be used for an infection. I discovered that 100 mg was a large dose of that drug for first-time use.
I called the pharmacist on duty and asked him to check the prescription. He said perhaps because of bad penmanship, my son had been given the wrong medicine. He should have gotten doxycycline.
I woke my son, who was still extremely drowsy, and I told him I wanted him to move.
He’s OK, but no one should have to go through that scare. The Poison Control Center said that had my son been smaller, had he obeyed his mother and taken more of the medicine, the results could have been tragic.
I couldn’t help but wonder that if there were questions arising from the interpretation of the handwriting, shouldn’t that have warranted a phone call to the doctor?
Mike Burleson, executive director of the Kentucky Board of Pharmacy, said situations like that could at least warrant questions. Pharmacists occasionally have difficulty reading doctors’ handwriting, and they have to call to verify prescriptions.
But, he said, we should have read the patient information sheet more carefully.
“I would encourage people, when I had my own pharmacy, to always call me,” Burleson said.
We have to be more diligent with our own health care. Consider this a lesson learned.

For about two years, United Way organizations collectively have been pushing toward more sustainable improvements to the lives of people in their communities.
In other words, the organizations want to help agencies teach folks to fish so they will be fed for a lifetime.
United Way of the Bluegrass Chairman Harry Richart said William W. “Bill” Farmer Jr. is the right man at the right time to push that initiative into high gear.
Farmer is the new president and chief executive officer of the local United Way organization. His first day on the job was Oct. 5, and he hasn’t slowed down much since.
“The United Way has moved from a fund-raising organization to an organization dealing with systemic underlying issues associated with problems,” Farmer said, “specifically with education, income and health.”

Bill Farmer - photo by Charles Bertram

One big reason for the move, he said, is because donors want those areas fixed or at least targeted. And because the local agency has laid off employees, raised 4 percent less in 2008 than in the previous year, and cut the amount it gives agencies, donors carry a lot of weight.
“The reason donors donate is because they want to influence change,” Farmer said. “And what the donors are saying, what investors are saying … is we want to address the support on a long-term basis so as to ensure people don’t get into the situations that they are in today.
“Our response is to the donors,” he continued, “because they are the ones who are investing the money. They can make the determination on how they want their monies invested.”
Richart said the three major areas this United Way is concentrating on are “better education for all citizens, better health care and health habits, and financial independence. They impact us all and make us better. But he (Farmer) can’t do that by himself. It will take the whole community along with him.
“And one of his attributes is that there is nobody out there that Bill won’t interact with.”
That’s why Farmer hasn’t slowed down much. He said he has met with donors and agencies in Madison, Scott and Montgomery counties, as well as in Lexington, talking about the direction the organization is taking and asking several questions including, “What keeps you up at night?” and “If you were me, what would you work on?”
He wants to focus on programs in each of the United Way’s partner agencies that work to diminish systemic problems that hold Kentuckians back.
And he’s working hard, “meeting with as many people as is humanly possible,” because his family is still in Charlotte, N.C.
Farmer and his wife, Kehaulani, have an 11-year-old daughter, Alexis. His family will move here in November from Charlotte, where Farmer had been vice president of corporate development for Time Warner Cable in the Carolinas, before starting his own consulting firm. That firm, The Farmer Group, aimed to assist businesses and non-profits with public and social policy.
He worked for Time Warner for 28 years. When he started, cable consisted of 12 channels and HBO, he said.
Farmer said he grew up in Rocky Mount, N.C., in the northeastern part of the state. His father, the late William Farmer Sr., worked in the textile mills, and his mother, Retha Farmer, operated a pre-school and later became a kindergarten teacher’s assistant for 30 years.
Retha Farmer said her son became seriously involved in civic activities when he lived in Jackson, Miss., before moving to Charlotte. “I told him when he was in Jackson, God was grooming him for this job,” she said.
At Time Warner and through civic and governmental agencies, Farmer has been working with the same problems that this United Way is targeting.
With the “advancing common good” vision of the local agency and committed volunteers such as Richart, Farmer said, all the pieces are in place for the transition to a new day.
“It’s philanthropic capitalism,” Farmer said. “Some people still make decisions based on tugging of the heart strings. That is still important, but the overwhelming majority of them are making decisions based on ‘Why is this good?’ and ‘What is it going to do to improve the community?’
“I believe we can be one of the most effective philanthropic organizations in the country,” Farmer said.

I belong to the group of people 50 and older who thought our job seniority was ­assurance that we’d work until retirement age.
Now, though, as we watch co-workers in our age bracket pack up personal belongings and leave a workplace after decades of service, we no longer believe that.
Even more unsettling is that older workers aren’t ­always the first to land ­another job.
So what can displaced older workers, undereducated older workers or financially strapped older job seekers do to improve their chances of finding viable employment?
Two programs in the ­Bluegrass hope to answer those questions. One is geared to low-income job seekers 50 and older, and the other is open to any older job seeker who is computer-savvy.
“Making Age an Asset in Your Job Search” is a six-week online course offered through a partnership with AARP and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System for those who are comfortable working with computers. The course will help quell some of the uncertainties of where to turn next.
Mary Maggard, an AARP volunteer who will conduct an orientation for the course, said it will help those who are on the verge of ­retirement and need to hone skills for  a new career; for those who have been retired but want to re-enter the job ­market in another field, and for those who have been laid off and need to find a job.
Often, Maggard said, older applicants are told they are overqualified for some positions because of their ­experience. “We tell them how to address that,” she said. “Do you want ­hamburger or steak at the same price?”
The course, given in two lessons each week, helps participants in their job searches. They learn to write and build résumés, size up the job market, define job skills, prepare for interviews, and negotiate salary and benefits packages.
The last free orientation for the course will be at noon Monday in room N-110, North Building of Bluegrass Community & Technical College, Leestown campus 164 Opportunity Way. Go to www.ed2go.com/workafter50 for more information, and call 1-877-926-8300 to ­register for the orientation.
The course costs $42 until the end of the year. In ­January, the cost increases to $95. Scholarships are available by contacting Patrice Blanchard, AARP’s associate state director, at pblanchard@aarp.org.
For those less familiar with technology, the ­Senior Community Service ­Employment Program might be the answer.
SCSEP, an Urban League of Lexington-Fayette County program since 1987, is geared toward low-income people 55 and older who might need more help. It ­provides training and part-time employment for older workers, with ­preference given to the disabled, ­veterans and the wives of veterans, those 75 and older, and women and minorities.
Gladys Hayes-Moore, program director, said she has noticed an increase in the number of women seeking help, especially homeless women, in the 16 counties that SCSEP serves.
“A lot of these women got jobs in the ’60s and ’70s, when they weren’t as strict about (workers) having a high school diploma or GED,” she said. “They were assembly-line workers.”
Now, she said, many of them are getting their GEDs through SCSEP and earning a stipend while being trained.
Others are placed with non-profits or government agencies, where they receive on-the-job training, 20 hours a week, at minimum wage, until they are prepared to secure their own employment.
Hayes-Moore said that once they are accepted into the program, which has 116 slots funded by the Department of Labor and 20 provided by stimulus money, the wait might be four to six weeks.
Some, she said, are in school, earning certificates in fields such as medical coding. Others are learning computer skills to apply for jobs online.
Each applicant must ­undergo a physical, paid for by SCSEP, she said.
“You have to have income to have housing, and you can’t get food stamps without an address,” Hayes-Moore said. “We will help them find a job.”
For more information about SCSEP, call (859) 277-3979, visit the office in the Senior Citizens Center, 1530 Nicholasville Road, or e-mail scsep@windstream.net.
Neither of the programs will make losing a job less traumatic for older ­workers, but they do provide the ­proverbial light.

While growing up in Lexington, James P. Owen said, he always loved watching Westerns every Saturday at the Ashland Theater that once stood on Euclid Avenue.
He said there would always be a Gene Autry feature and one starring Will Rogers, and he couldn’t get enough of cowboys.
“They stood for something,” Owen told members of the Rotary Club of Lexington last week. “Authenticity. You can’t fake being a cowboy.”
Those memories became particularly poignant to Owen as he neared the end of 40 years in the field of financial investments a few years ago. The corruption, greed and scandals he saw around him began to turn him off.
At first, Owen said, “I thought it was a few bad apples. Then I learned it is embedded in our culture.”
Owen, who has written two books on investing — The Prudent Investor: The Definitive Guide to Professional Investment Management and The Prudent Investor’s Guide to Hedge Funds — said we celebrate celebrity, acquisition of material goods, and the “anything goes as long as you don’t get caught” philosophy of life.
Then in 2003, Owen watched Open Range, a Western starring Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall. Owen recalls Costner’s character saying, “There are things that gnaw on a man worse than dying.” He knew then what he had to do.
The following year, his book Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn From the Code of the West was published. It explores the lives and principles of working cowboys who placed a higher value on personal character than on material gains. That book was followed last year with Cowboy Values: Recapturing What America Once Stood For.
The success of the first cowboy book led Owen to set up a foundation, the Center for Cowboy Ethics and Leadership, in Denver in 2006 to teach those ethics to schoolchildren. “I never believed I could change the 50-year-olds,” Owen said Thursday.
A couple of his classmates from the class of 1958 at Henry Clay High School were impressed with the book and the success stories of the first children to take the ethics class at Cherry Creek High School in Denver. They asked Fayette County Public School Superintendent Stu Silberman whether the code could be taught here.
John Nochta, principal at Henry Clay, said Jody Cabble incorporated the code last year into a leadership class she teaches after school there.
Nochta said about 40 kids in two classes attend. Each class lasts about three hours once a week. “They’ve got to commit to it,” he said. “It’s on their own time.”
The code of ethics is good common sense, he said.
“I am very scared,” Nochta said, “of what the world will come to when our kids get to be our age.”
Owen said the program has been in place for two years, and a dozen schools have adopted the curriculum.
The cowboy ethics are the home-grown teachings we older folks grew up with and then lost along the way in favor of acquiring possessions. Some of us might recognize Biblical teachings in them.
They basically tell us, treat everyone fairly, don’t lie or cheat, and give a good day’s work for a good day’s pay.

“I thought (the program) would build character,” Owen said, “but that ended up being only about 5 percent. It is instilling pride and self-esteem.”

Instead of presenting more rules, the program establishes principles, he said. “You can bend rules, but you can’t bend principles.”
America is experiencing a general lack of civility, Owen told the Rotarians, and that is evident in calling the president a liar, cursing a tennis line judge, and stealing someone’s thunder at an awards show.
Add that to the increasing greed we see permeating businesses. “When there is money on the table, the temptations are huge,” he said.
It is obvious some Americans are yearning for a simpler life, and we can get that by returning to core beliefs, regardless of what we call them.
Although cowboys are his heroes, Owen said, a hero can also be a single mother of two who finds time to do homework with her children. Or a hero can be the adult child who gives up his or her career to care for ailing parents. Or even the businessman who cuts his own salary to avoid laying off workers.
In other words, Owen wants us all to grow up to be cowboys. This society won’t survive unless we do.

It won’t be exactly like an episode of American Idol, although there might be some folks who sing better in their minds than they do in our ears.
Still, First Baptist Church Bracktown’s “Kentucky’s Sunday Best Voices” gospel music competition promises to be just as entertaining as that TV reality show.
Based on BET’s Sunday Best talent competition for gospel singers, Bracktown’s venture is a fund-raiser for its Black Males Working program, open to African-American boys in grades six through 12.
For nearly five years, BMW, which meets on ­Saturdays, has stressed ­intense academics and personal responsibility. It was founded by former ­Lexington public schools educator ­Roszalyn Akins.

Roszalyn Akins

The students learn ­German, history and math, and work on reading during weekly three-hour ­sessions. If any have behavioral problems or excessive tardiness at school during the previous week, they must stand before their fellow BMW students and apologize.
And the program has big plans.
“We are trying to take the 20 young men with the highest GPAs (grade point averages) to Europe next year,” Akins said. “On June 13, 2010, we’re going to get on a plane and go to Europe. I don’t even talk about it not happening. God gave us the vision, and we’re trusting him for us to have the opportunity to take these young men.”
The idea of the talent competition was born during a brainstorming session with the BMW parents advisory board. Akins said there are a lot of people in Lexington who sing gospel and would welcome the opportunity to “show off the gifts they have been blessed with.”
The competition will run for six Sundays, beginning Nov. 1, skipping the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and concluding Dec. 13.
The winner will receive two tickets to the 25th ­annual Stellar Awards in Nashville on Jan. 16 and $500. The Stellar Awards celebrate gospel artists much as the Grammys focus on all musical genres.
“We’d like to send them to see the people whose songs they sing,” she said.
Participants must be legal residents of Kentucky and at least 16 years old. During the two first-round trials, ­contestants will select from a pre-approved list of songs that must be sung a ­cappella in their chosen style. ­Thereafter, contestants may choose their songs and ­accompanists.
Judges for the ­competition include noted singer, ­organist and music workshop ­instructor Delma Peoples; Sandra “Cissy” Williams, who has performed in ­local ­musical productions, ­including Mahalia in 1981 and Above My Head in 2007; Clay Coffey of the R&B duo Black Coffey; and pianist and accompanist Charles F. Little.
All applications and the $25 entry fee must be returned by Oct. 18. ­Applications are available at First Baptist Church ­Bracktown, 3016 Bracktown Road, or by calling (859) 231-7042.
Tickets for the first rounds, on Nov. 1 and 8, are $5 each night. Tickets for the second round, scheduled for Nov. 15 and 22, will be $10 each night. The semifinals, on Dec. 6, will be $15, and the finals, on Dec. 13, are $20. A $50 ticket is available for the entire competition.
Not only will the trip ­benefit the 20 young men who earn a chance to go, but it also will help change the image of young black males that Europeans see on television.
“They will see that they are not gangsters and thugs,” Akins said. “They will be ambassadors for the United States. It will take all the things that they read and bring them to life.”

My friend and I were saying last week that 60 is the age to dread. That’s how old our grandparents were when we were young, and we always saw them as ancient.
We obviously need to spend more time with Catherine Ledford Duff of Lexington and Alexander (Al) Feher of Lynch. Duff told me she is “1011/2.” Feher is 85. They look back on 60 as a part of their youth.
Duff and Feher, along with five other Kentuckians who have aged gracefully, will be honored at the University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Foundation’s 23rd annual dinner tonight at the Griffin Gate Marriott Resort.
And rightfully so.
Duff was born on a farm in Mt. Sterling and moved to Lexington when she was 17 to take secretarial courses at Fugazzi Business College.
She never became a secretary, though, because those choice jobs were “scarce” in the late 1920s, she said.
Instead, she married, worked in retail, reared two sons and found time to volunteer as a nurse’s aide three days a week during World War II. When her boys were 7 and 11, she said, she returned to work and soon became a buyer and bridal consultant at Wolf Wiles.
Her neighbors nominated her for the 2009 Dr. David R. Wekstein Centenarian Award because she is still independent, still has a zest for life. Duff gave up her driver’s license last November, but only because her insurance rates had increased $200 a year.
“I wasn’t going to pay that,” she said last week.
During the ice storm last winter, when most of Kentucky was covered in ice, Duff remained in her home for five days without electricity. She wouldn’t hear of leaving.
“I didn’t get cold,” she said. “I had the gas logs in the living room. I cooked oatmeal and warmed up food. I had candles and flashlights when it got dark. I was fine.”
During the 2003 ice storm, she stayed in her home seven days without electricity.
Duff said she thinks we are now too reliant on organizations and agencies for help when we can help ourselves or our neighbors who are in need.
Feher seems to think that as well.
On his daily 1-mile walks, Feher carries a large bag and a stick with a nail protruding from one end, and he picks up any trash he sees around Lynch. Why wait for others to do it?
Born in Manhattan, N.Y., Feher enlisted in the Army in 1943 and served in Europe.
When he returned to the States, he earned a degree in education, and in 1957 he moved to Lynch, where he worked for U.S. Steel until 1986.
He has been a police judge, a city councilman and a commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post for several terms. He was well known as the announcer for Lynch High School football games for many years.
Feher, whose parents migrated from Hungary, also has written two books: Escape from Hungary, written three years ago, and Ellis Island to Lynch, Ky., written six months ago. And now that his beloved city is in a deep financial bind, Feher has organized the City of Lynch Golf Classic on Oct. 10 to help raise money. It will be in conjunction with the city’s Coal Miners Day.
“I’m the chairman of the tournament,” Feher said. “I came up with the idea. We’re hoping to get some good money.”
Why not just rest at 85?
“I am a Virgo,” Feher said of his astrological sign. “I can’t sit still. Virgos usually take over; they want it done right. I am a pest, a pain in the neck, but things get done.”
Three of this year’s Sanders-Brown honorees — Pearl Greer, 101, of Glasgow; Hazel M. Dillon, 100, of Maysville; and Duff — will receive the 2009 Dr. David R. Wekstein Centenarian Award, named for the former associate ­director of the Sanders-Brown Center, who also was a UK physiology and biophysics professor emeritus. Wekstein initiated the nationally recognized Biologically Resilient Adults in Neurological Studies, an extensive research collection of brain tissue.
The four other honorees — Maurae Hunley Foster of Glasgow, who died Aug. 12 at age 86; Joseph Elias Isaac, 83, of Lexington; Effie Kemp, 82, of Murray; and Feher — will receive the 2009 William R. Markesbery Senior Star Award, named for the director of the Sanders-Brown center who is widely respected for his Alzheimer’s disease research.
Pearse Lyons, founder and president of Alltech, sponsor of the Alltech FEI world Equestrian Games, will be the guest speaker.
A few tickets for the dinner are available for $150. Call (859) 323-5374.

We often hear of organizations holding this event or that one, trying to raise awareness for a particular cause. Most of the time, many of us ignore the pleas.
In 2005, Yolonda Kelsor Clay had planned to do the same thing: ignore the efforts of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Lexington, to make Central Kentuckians aware of how prevalent mental illness is in our families and how much we don’t want others to know that.
But a friend insisted she accompany her to a free showing of Out of the Shadow, a 67-minute documentary about recognizing and treating depression.
At that point in her life, Clay was a mess behind her smile. She had survived two failed marriages and was enduring severe back pain from a fall a decade before. She was a school teacher who couldn’t teach, a single mother of two children, a real estate consultant, a cosmetic home-sales representative, an ordained minister and people pleaser.
She knew she suffered from depression, a condition diagnosed when she was 35 years old, but she also believed in the power of prayer. So when well-meaning Christian friends urged her to abandon her medication, she did. The spiraling began.
By 2004, her body had begun to show signs of physically breaking down because of her frenetic manic episodes, forcing her to bring her activities to a halt. That led to more depression, more self-doubt, more low self-esteem.
So when her friend, who had watched her become more and more reclusive, nagged her to attend the showing of the documentary during Mental Health Awareness Week four years ago, Clay went just to please a friend.
She saw herself, as well as members of her family, on the screen.
“I joined NAMI that day,” Clay recalled. “I got their mailings, but I still was not emotionally able to go to the meetings.”
Each month, those newsletters planted seeds of curiosity that sprouted in January 2006, when Clay attended her first meeting of a Family-to-Family Education Program class.
After the meeting, one of the volunteers asked Clay to review Shadow Voices: Finding Hope in Mental Illness, a Mennonite Ministries documentary challenging all of us to rethink the stigma of mental illness.
“I watched the video, and that turned my life completely around,” Clay said.
Phill Gunning and his wife, Kelly, taught the Family-to-Family class that Clay attended. He said he watched as Clay seemed to awaken each week. After a month of crying and breaking down during discussions, Gunning said they knew, if Clay stayed to complete the 12-week class, she would be not only an asset to her family, but also to this community.
“She stuck with it,” said Gunning, acting executive director of NAMI Lexington, “and after that, as I remember it, she just got more enthused as we went along, and we realized Yondi was going to be a part of the team.”
And she did. Clay has been instrumental in NAMI Lexington’s outreach to the African American, Hispanic and faith communities through the Multicultural Action Committee she coordinates and a faith-based initiative.
The frustrated teacher re-emerged, and Clay became certified in several leadership and training courses through the Kentucky Department of Mental Health. She is a trainer for suicide prevention counselors in this community and is involved with Signs of Suicide (SOS), which is a two-day intervention and screening program for secondary schools.
“I considered suicide after my grandmother died when I was 15,” Clay said. She believes that was the beginning of her depression, and she wants to make sure young people know help is available.
And she wants the rest of us to know that, as well.
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week, the fourth anniversary of when Clay’s healing began. It could be your beginning as well.
This year’s events include a candlelight vigil, free screenings for depression, a 5K fund-raiser walk and, once again, a free movie at the Kentucky Theatre.
This year’s feature is The Soloist, the story of a musically talented homeless man with schizophrenia and his relationship with a reporter. It stars Jamie Foxx.
Consider this a nudge from Clay to you to start your road to recovery.

Mental Health Awareness Week activities
Monday: Candlelight Vigil, Phoenix Park, downtown Lexington. 6 p.m.
Tuesday: Free screenings for depression, W.T. Young Library, University of Kentucky Campus. 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Thursday: The Soloist and Consumer Art Show, Kentucky Theatre, 214 East Main Street. Free. 6 p.m.
Saturday: 5K NAMI Walks for the Mind, Kentucky Horse Park. Registration at noon. (859) 272-7891. 1 p.m.
Visit: www.namilex.org.

I received an e-mail message Monday that was filled with fear and warnings about the seasonal and H1N1 vaccines. The sender, and all those before him on the forwarding list, admonished me not to take the flu shot.
It was wasted on me.
I’ve been taking a seasonal flu vaccine since 2005, after my first bout with lung cancer. Other than a sore arm at the spot of the injection, I’ve not noticed any other side effects.
And I’ve not had the flu.
There is no way to change the minds of those who fear a government conspiracy to kill us all with the H1N1 vaccine, although I don’t know why the government would want to get rid of taxpayers in these economic times. But the rest of us should make educated decisions about the issue and not fall for some of the myths and inaccuracies that are racing through our communities and the Internet.
I called Dr. Melinda Rowe, Fayette County’s commissioner of health, to ask about the misconceptions and the truth.
Myth: The most common myth the health department has dealt with, Rowe said, is that swine flu, or H1N1, comes from pigs.
Fact: There are a few illnesses that one can get from under-cooked pork, but the flu is not one of them, she said. “People stopped eating pork” when the swine flu was first reported earlier this year, she said, but that wasn’t necessary.
Myth: There is an effort afoot to get rid of old people. ­Besides, people older than 65 are not eligible to get the H1N1 vaccine.
Fact: That misinformation might stem from a nationwide push to get children, young people, pregnant women and people of all ages who have other health problems immunized first, Rowe said. That is the demographic that seems to experience the worst effects and complications from this strain of flu.
According to recent studies, it seems that the elderly have come across a similar strain of H1N1 bug sometime in their past, giving them partial immunity.
Numbers in the United States from April indicate that 9,000 people were hospitalized with H1N1. There were 600 deaths. Of those hospitalizations and deaths, 75 percent of the people were younger than 49. Plus, Rowe said, 70 percent of those hospitalized and 80 percent of those who died were people who had underlying health conditions.
“I want those people to be first in line for those vaccines,” Rowe said. “I want those 65 and older to get immunized, but let their children and grandchildren get it (the immunization) first and then come get it.”
Myth: When I get the flu shot, I always get the flu. Getting H1N1 is inevitable.
Fact: “You don’t get the flu from a flu shot,” Rowe said. The vaccine contains a killed virus. The problem might be that people get inoculated when the virus is already in circulation in a community. People are infectious 24 hours before signs of the flu appear, so they might already have the flu before getting the shot. Still, with the shot, their symptoms might be less severe.
Myth: The H1N1 vaccine is mandatory.
Fact: No, Rowe said. Health care workers are strongly urged to get the vaccine, but nowhere in Kentucky is it mandatory. “We like to nudge people instead of hitting them over the head with a hammer,” Rowe said.
Rowe also recommended that patients receiving dialysis and folks like me with a history of lung problems also get a pneumonia shot every few years.
Since April, not many people who have had flu symptoms have been tested for H1N1, Rowe said, so it might be good for them to get the vaccine as well. “It won’t hurt you to get the shot,” she said. “It’s extra protection.”
She also said that people of color, who are more often saddled with diabetes, hyper­tension and other chronic medical conditions, don’t tend to get immunized.
She said there will be free flu-shot clinics set up when the virus arrives, eliminating access and cost excuses.
“We want to increase immunization rates for people of color,” Rowe said.
She has gotten the seasonal vaccine and will get the H1N1 when it gets here.
I plan to do the same.

A friend and former neighbor of mine, Marjory Woolery, 88, always says she must have her cup of coffee and her newspaper to get her day started right.
Because I earn a living in the newspaper business, I love hearing that.
But what about those people who, like Woolery, love in-depth looks into the news, but who, unlike Woolery, aren’t able to read them? How do they fill that void?
In Kentucky, anyone who is visually impaired or has other disabilities that block access to newspapers and magazines, can call Newsline, a service of the National Federation of the Blind that offers free access to newspapers and periodicals 24 hours a day.
Since 2004, the service has been available throughout Kentucky with no long distance charges. It’s also available in 45 other states.
Pamela Roark-Glisson and her husband John Glisson, who are both visually impaired, heard about Newsline in 1994 and began working to bring it to Kentucky. They were so dedicated to the mission, they became the volunteer state staff for Newsline.
(Roark-Glisson is the executive director of Lexington’s non-profit Independence Place, which offers resources for independent living to the disabled. Her husband is a counselor there.)
There are about 280 newspapers and magazines accessible, including 10 Kentucky newspapers as well as TV listings.
John Glisson said once enrolled in the service, the user calls a toll-free number, enters an identification number and security code, and then selects a newspaper, magazine or topic. A ‘favorites’ option can be set up, making selections faster.
Callers can get access to breaking news nearly as quickly as their sighted friends searching online. Rather than a human voice, Newsline uses synthetic speech.
While Newsline is free to the consumer, it’s not free. The Kentucky Office for the Blind pays $40,000 annually for the statewide subscription, and the Glissons raise about $12,000 to pay the phone bill.
Glisson said the service is of particular value to impaired students who need access to current events for classes.

John Glisson - photo by Charles Bertram

In 2003, he said, there were an estimated 20,000 students with disabilities in Kentucky schools. With Newsline, students can download news articles to their computers. “I’m not suggesting they plagiarize by any means,” Glisson said, laughing.
The visually impaired can also download newspapers onto their Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) players and listen to the newspaper wherever they go.
Margaret Chase, executive director of Central Kentucky Radio Eye, doesn’t think Newsline is competition for that 24-hour reading service even though both serve the same audience.
CKRE, which does not get state funding, operates through a special closed circuit, pre-tuned radio that is loaned to the listener and features local volunteers reading the Herald-Leader live from 8 to 10 a.m. daily with repeats at 5 to 7 p.m. weekdays. At other times, regional newspapers are read followed by health news and other features. “Their delivery method is quite different from what we do,” Chase said. “It’s all about choices.”
Newsline, she said, is all about getting the news on the fly. “If you are on your way to work on a bus and have a cell phone, what a great way to travel on the bus,” she said.
“If I want to sit down and have my breakfast, turn on the radio and listen, then that is fine, too,” Chase said. “One shoe doesn’t fit everybody.”
Glisson estimates about 300,000 people in Kentucky are eligible for Newsline, but only 1,500 are using the service. Chase said CKRE serves about 3,000 consumers in Central Kentucky.
That means there are a lot more people who need to sign up for one of the two or for both.

For more information
To apply for access to Newsline in Kentucky, call Independence Place (859) 266-2807 or 1-877- 266-2807. To sign up for CKRE, call (859) 422-6390. You will be asked to document your disability.

We’ve had a spat of adults acting badly lately and it is time it stopped.
The most recent incident involved high school teachers in the Bluegrass whose disagreement landed one of them in jail and both of them out of the classroom.
We’ve had a rapper yanking glory from a true winner, a U.S. Congressman yelling out during a presidential speech, angry attendees at health care meetings shouting down everyone else and fans being tossed out of games because of their lack of decorum.
What is going on here? How did we allow our behavior to get this ugly?
In my church, there are several mature members who try to keep the rest of us in line and on point when it comes to expectations and doing what is right.
One of them is Stella A. Marshall who, at 83, dispenses wisdom as easily as some people spread germs. She doesn’t have a degree in psychology, just in life.
I asked her why we adults behave so badly.
“I think we have just lost respect for each other. We are a selfish generation,” she said.
Marshall said she was raised in a single parent household in Maysville, Ky. Her mother died in her 40’s after giving birth to 13 children, of which she was No. 11. Her father, Eli Lewis, raised six children alone.
“He always instilled in us that a good name is all you have,” Marshall said. “He always said let your name be that which people judge you by.”
But the unseemly behavior that concerns me is occurring in adults, not children. We expect children to need correction. We assume adults, the ones in charge of teaching young impressionable children, have learned their lessons. We should be the ones setting better examples.
“It is just that we are going to have to learn how to respect each other’s thoughts,” Marshall said. “I may not agree with you, but we can disagree in a more civil manner.”
There was a time when honesty and integrity were highly valued. People knew that shouts and upstaging and confrontations reflected badly on your upbringing. You were not only embarrassing yourself, but also your parents and other family members.
There was a sense of connectivity and accountability that doesn’t hold much sway any more. Do we think of how our children view us when they see us behaving worse than they do?
“People have got to realize we are not living in this world on our own,” Marshall said. “There is a higher entity than we want to admit to.”
For Marshall, that higher entity is Jesus Christ. When we believe we are only a small part of something bigger, we will behave better. Maybe it is the family name. Maybe it is a community.
“People need to think before they speak,”she said.
Marshall said among other jobs she has held through the years, she was an inspector at Parker Seals O-Ring division, a subsidiary of Parker Hannifin Corp., and a union steward there.
What she learned in that capacity, she said, is that you don’t have to “fly off the handle” to make a point. “Some things are better left unsaid,” she said. “That takes a lot of willpower.”
Well, we aren’t very good at that in this country. Just look at our ever increasing girth. Telling ourselves “no” doesn’t come as easily as telling someone else “no.”
But, she said, it is never too late to change. We just have to set our minds to doing better.
“Until we learn how to respect each other or love each other, we are a lost generation of people,” Marshall said.
If we can’t find the wherewithal to control ourselves, I suggest we seek the council of folk like Marshall who are willing to remind us that young eyes are watching.
With our current behavior, we shouldn’t be O.K. with what they are seeing.