Rock N Girls! What a Treat!

My wonderful husband, David, loves to cruise You Tube and I am betting there are many of you who love it as well. He finds all sort of “wild and crazy” things (see Saturday Night Live and Steve Martin in your mind’s eye?)

However, the best thing he has found this month is a selection of several videos of an all female string quartet. The name of their group is “Rock N Girls” and they are phenomenal! So far, our favorite that we have watched is their rendition of “Eleanor Rigby” by the Beatles however, anything they perform is exciting, stimulating and beautiful. My old laptop will not allow me to watch You Tube; apparently, my Adobe is outdated! Nevertheless, here is the http address for your pleasure!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpjogL_NFF8&feature=related

The easiest way to watch this group however is just to put Rock N Girls into your web browser and sit back and enjoy the music!

Apparently Hubby and I are way behind the times as Rock N Babes started over two years ago and their style and even players have changed as you can see when you watch their videos.  Unfortunately, the only site I wanted to find was their official website. I did find it! It is in French. Now if it were in Spanish I may be able to stumble through a few but French?

I can give you their names and that s a plus. Karen Khochafian is First Violin, Élodie Michalakakos plays second violin, Lise Orivel plays alto violin and Clara Khochafian plays the Cello. Their website address is

http://rockngirls.com/biographies_m.html#anchor-top

for all of you lucky people who speak French!
barbara bethard

Tylenol Is Safe Right?

Tylenol or acetaminophen has been used for years without any problems has it not? No, actually it has not. Tylenol or acetaminophen has been used as a way to attempt suicide and unknowingly given in too large of doses to children. Even some adults have no idea what the safe amount in milligrams is considered the maximum safe amount over the course of a twenty-four hour period.

Acetaminophen is in pain medications such as percocet, darvocet, vicodin, lortab. Actually all of these pain medications are hydrocodone and they all contain acetaminophen as the second ingredient. If you take these medications for chronic pain you may notice the pharmacy label has hydrocodone/APAP and then it will have two sets f milligram amounts. For example, lortab is 7.5/500mg.  This means there is 7.5 milligrams of hydrocodone as well as 500 milligrams of Tylenol in every tablet!

Depending on the way your physician has prescribed it, you could end up taking close to 2800 to 3000 milligrams of acetaminophen every day for your chronic pain! It is extremely important that you do not take more than what your physician has prescribed as far as Tylenol is concerned because that 3000 milligrams of acetaminophen is the maximum safe dosage in every twenty-four hour period!

What are the complications of taking too much acetaminophen? Liver damage, chronic liver disease and death. The Food and Drug Administration along with The Center for Drug Administration and Research (CDER) are working with the Obama administration to get all acetaminophen products off the market that are over 225 milligrams in the hope that this will decrease the amount of accidental overdose with this medication. However, it is imperative that everyone be aware of the maximum safe dosage to use when dealing with this over the counter, everyday, considered harmless pain medication.

What are the signs of liver damage or over dosage related to Tylenol? Signs may seem like the flu in the beginning because you will have no appetite, gastric distress (nausea and vomiting and cramping) then the whites of your eyes will get yellow and your skin will get a yellowish cast to it. If you are living alone, this is the most dangerous time, as by the time you are jaundiced (yellow skin) you are already in great need of immediate emergency medical attention.

Therefor, whatever the FDA the CDER and the Obama administration decide to make everyone safer, please remember to read the label of not just this over the counter medication but everyone you purchase and never take more than the maximum safe amount in a twenty-four hour period.
barbara bethard