Day: November 18, 2017

Army of Authors Blog Tour: Peter Mulraney

~ Felicia Denise ~ Leave a comment

SBI banner

Peter MulraneyI’m pleased to welcome Peter Mulraney, author of the Stella Bruno Investigates crime series, to the blog today!

Stella Bruno Investigates is a series of quick reads – books designed to be read in one sitting. Each book in the series only takes around an hour and a half to two hours to read. So, there’s no waiting for days to find out who did it.

The series is set in and around Adelaide, South Australia, and centres on criminal investigations led by Detective Sergeant Stella Bruno. I have the inside information on Adelaide – it’s my home town.

Stella is assisted by Detective Constable Brian Rhodes, who’s approaching retirement, harassed by Detective Inspector Frank Williams, and distracted by Shaun Porter from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

In addition to all the crime, the stories also follow Stella’s developing relationship with Shaun and provide insights into her life as a single mother with a fourteen-year old son. You’ll also discover some of the benefits she enjoys by being part of an extended Italian family.

If you’ve never been to Australia, these stories will give you a little taste of life ‘down under’ where you can experience the North Wind as hot and blustery and winters without snow and ice.

A Deadly Game of Hangman, Book 4 in the series, tells the story of Stella’s investigation into the murder of a young man whose body is found hanging from a tree in Adelaide’s famous Park Lands, which ring the city centre. The killer tried to disguise the murder as a suicide but there are some things about a hanging that you just can’t hide from a forensic pathologist, like Dr Steve Wright.

The case gets a little more interesting when the body of a friend of the first victim is found hanging from a tree in Morialta Park, in the foothills on the eastern edge of the Adelaide metropolitan area, and the similarities strongly suggest to Stella that she is dealing with a serial killer.

And, just to keep you up until you’ve finished, I’ve built in a little bit of suspense towards the end.

The other titles in the series published to date are:

  • The Identity Thief
  • A Gun of Many Parts
  • Bones in the Forest

A Deadly Game of Hangman cover

A Deadly Game of Hangman is available from Amazon. 

Peter Mulraney

Universal link to book on Amazon

 

 

 

Many thanks to Peter for guest blogging.  Head over to Amazon and check out the Stella Bruno Investigates series!

Army of Authors Blog Tour: Ann Richardson

~ Felicia Denise ~ Leave a comment

Wise Before their Years cover

“As Powerful As Any Great Classic Of Fiction”

So said Sir Ian McKellen in his Foreword to my book. And it is.Ann Richardson

Do you remember the terrible times of AIDS and HIV in the 1980s and 1990s? If not, are you curious to learn what it was like for those diagnosed?

Wise Before their Time, first published in 1992, shows in moving detail what it was like to live with HIV/AIDS when there was no real treatment for this life-threatening illness. It tells the true stories of over forty young men and women from all over the world, attending an international conference of people with HIV and AIDS in London in 1991.

I have added a new cover and a short introduction to the new version, but the book remains essentially the same.

These were very young people (most were in their twenties and thirties) having to cope with an unexpectedly shortened lifespan.

They describe the difficulties of telling their parents, friends, and partners of their diagnosis, while trying to cope with the day-to-day problems of staying healthy, keeping in work and supporting their friends.

They all experienced enormous stigma, blame, and guilt because of the disease. This can be seen in all kinds of ways ­– from small things, like an Irishman being disappointed that friends did not want him to play with their child, to larger ones, such as a man being placed alone in an isolation hospital in Goa for some months with no help.

They all knew others who had died. And one mother tells the story of the death of her toddler.

Yet this is in no way a struggle to read. It is touching, it is enlightening, and it is sometimes funny.  But most of all, there is virtually no self-pity. On the contrary, the participants were committed to celebrating the joys of life to the full. Which is why I chose the title – they were, genuinely, wise before their time.

For more information or to buy: https://myBook.to/Wise

 

Managing the Pain of Fibromyalgia

~ Felicia Denise ~ Leave a comment

Fibro Cloud

When it comes to pain management, fibromyalgia is a tough nut to crack. Part of that is the fact that it causes such widespread pain that seems to affect the entire body (though it’s actually located in 18 specific points). And part of it is the fact that not only do we not know what causes fibromyalgia, we don’t even know for sure why fibromyalgia causes pain.

So if you’re trying to manage the pain of fibromyalgia, often the basic things that people use to treat chronic pain diseases aren’t enough, which is where advanced pain management comes in. But what exactly is advanced pain management? And what are some advanced pain management techniques that might work for fibromyalgia?

What is Advanced Pain Management

On a basic level, advanced pain management is just what it sounds like it would be based on the name. It’s an effort to treat chronic pain that doesn’t respond to the traditional techniques doctors use to treat pain. Usually, pain management takes a pretty predictable path. First, your doctor will make a judgment of what is causing your pain by attempting to diagnose your condition.

Next, they will try to treat the underlying condition which causes the pain. That seems obvious, right? If you have a broken arm, the doctor will try to set the bone back and give you a cast, hoping that once your bone heals it will stop hurting.

But in the meantime, your pain isn’t going anywhere so the doctor will prescribe a series of medications to help dull the pain. Usually, this will involve an opioid-based painkiller at some point, because these are generally the most effective drugs for relieving pain.

Most of the time, this works. But when it comes to fibromyalgia, that all goes out the window. We don’t know how to cure the underlying condition in someone with fibromyalgia. So, we can’t aim to eliminate their pain the way we would with people with most other diseases. Instead, pain management for fibromyalgia takes the form of long-term alleviation of pain. We can’t cure the pain, so we just try to find a way to make the suffering as bearable as possible in the long term. That’s where advanced pain management comes in.

Advanced Pain Management Techniques for Fibromyalgia

In most cases, when you’ve exhausted the normal ways of treating pain because you have a chronic pain condition like fibromyalgia, you’ll find yourself being referred to a pain specialist at some point. These are doctors who focus on the treatment and management of long-term pain. Usually, they work out of dedicated clinics with a team of other specialists.

Unlike general practitioners, pain management specialists try to create a plan tailored specifically for their patient. They can take into consideration numerous factors like the patient’s age, medical history, and what treatments their condition has been resistant to so far to develop a pain management plan that works for them using their expertise and the help of their team.

And many pain specialists employ a number of different techniques to help with the pain of fibromyalgia. Rather than simply using the types of drugs normally prescribed for fibromyalgia (Lyrica, Cymbalta, Savella), a pain specialist might employ techniques like mindfulness meditation, acupuncture, behavioral therapy, or myofascial massage.

That’s not to say that those traditional pain medications shouldn’t play a role in an advanced pain management plan. Any effective pain management plan should be based on the latest research and the expertise of your doctor. The point is to achieve results. You want to experience as little fibromyalgia pain as possible. So any method that your doctor feels might be effective is probably worth a try. And because pain specialists have seen so many patients dealing with chronic pain, they often have a better idea than most doctors about which therapies might be effective.

So when you consider that fibromyalgia is a serious condition that will probably require a specialized form of pain management, it may be worth seeing a pain management specialist. Always consult with your doctor before making any major medical decisions, but ultimately what you decide to do is up to you. You have to pursue the treatments that are best for you.

You can find a number of resources here that will help you find a pain specialist near you if you’re interested in pursuing your own advanced pain management plan.

The preceding article is from FibromyalgiaTreating.com and posted here for sharing purposes only. For additional information, please visit their website or consult your doctor.