Update on Book - some international success

I am hoping to send out an email to all 300 members of the empty nose syndrome website soon, as well as the many members who have signed up for my newsletter. The focus of the email will highlight developments in empty nose syndrome, as well as treatment therapies I have found beneficial in recent months.

Until then, I thought I'd share an observation that I noticed this evening. Every so often, in addition to amazon.com, I like to see how my book is selling on amazon.uk (United Kingdom), amazon.de (Germany), amazon.fr (France), and amazon.ca (Canada).

The great news is as I write this post, Having Nasal Surgery? Don't You Become An Empty Nose Victim! is among the top 100 Otolaryngology books in various countries, including the United States, as it is right now #51 & #69 in Otolaryngology, and it has been among the top 100 Otolaryngology books in the United States for the most part since it was released. However, now it has become an international success as well, and is right now among the top 100 otolaryngology books in the following countries (Amazon sales rank changes on an hourly basis, please note, so it might not be on the top 100 otolaryngology books at a different time; I must savor the moment!):

United Kingdom

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 226,771 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#77 in
Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Medical & Healthcare Practitioners > Internal Medicine > Otorhinolaryngology

Canada

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #50,103 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories:
#13 in
Books > Professional & Technical > Medical > Medicine > Surgery > Otolaryngology
#18 in
Books > Science > Medicine > Specialties > Otolaryngology
#18 in
Books > Medicine > Specialties > Otolaryngology

Germany

Durchschnittliche Kundenbewertung: Noch keine Kundenrezensionen vorhanden: Schreiben Sie die erste!
Amazon.de Verkaufsrang: #130.245 in English Books (Die Bestseller English Books)
Beliebt in diesen Kategorien:
#18 in
English Books > Professional & Technical > Medical > Medicine > Surgery > Otolaryngology
#23 in
English Books > Medicine > Specialties > Otolaryngology

A heartfelt thank you goes out to all blog readers, doctors, friends, family, stores, and ENS sufferers who have bought, recommended, or helped me in promoting Having Nasal Surgery? Don't You Become An Empty Nose Victim! I think that is tremendous that the book is selling well on an international level. I even heard about an Australian buying the book. Today, I sold 5 copies of Having Nasal Surgery? to my local health food store, Peter's Cornucopia. I have sold 14 books (and counting) through the local bookstore, Park Row Books, in Clinton, New York as well, where I've enjoyed successful book signings. It also has a sales rank of 250, 588 at barnesandnoble.com, so it is selling there as well.

The primary country where it has not yet sold is France. We need some French to buy the book, as I know many French suffer from empty nose syndorme. There is a complete french forum at the emptynosesyndrome.org website, for that matter. If you are reading this blog and from France, I hope you will consider buying this book. Many thanks.

Until next time, I hope your sinus health is under control! (PS- promise will focus on tips once again in future blog posts)....

A day in my life, racism, and good news....

I have not written on this blog in over 2 weeks, and perhaps that is because life has been rather hectic lately - between taking care of three little ones, possibly taking over as webmaster of the emptynosesyndrome.org website, and my job - and I have been battling a persistent cold on top of all that. This past week was my week off from school and I found myself writing 10 psychological reports as well as a myriad of paperwork details for my job. Thankfully, it will be a good feeling to hit the ground running when I go back to school tomorrow because I completed so much, but it was time-consuming. I'm happy to report that finally my cold is starting to get better (without antibiotics) and so are my spirits. I am going to refrain from discussing treatment techniques in this post, but I have tried a number of different, new techniques of late, if you just hang on and keep reading this blog, I will discuss them; and they might be helpful for your situation.



Many of the readers of this blog probably don't know what a typical day in my life is like. So I want to share with you this past Thursday, a day I had off because of our school vacation, so you can know me better. After going to sleep around 10:30 or 11:00 on Wednesday evening, I woke up around 6:30 to write some psychological reports for my job. As mentioned, this past week was my week off from work. I worked on 2 psychological reports from 6:30 to 8:30. I drank a number of cups of water during this time to help thin the mucus in the back of my throat. The mucus has been feeling rather thick and irritating back there, particularly after a full night of sleep. I have been finding that I can cough up some of this phlegm after I wake up and become more active. Around 8:30, I knew I had to start getting ready because my wife was bringing my 2-month old son to the doctor's appointment at 9:15 while I was at home watching our two girls - ages 3 and 1. So I took a shower, shaved, put on some fresh clothes, did a nasal irrigation (both nose and throat), and then ate a quick muffin and then retrieved the vitamins I am taking. I am taking a number of vitamins including but not limited to Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Host Defense, Bee Propolis, Pantothenic Acid, Zinc, Echnicacea/Goldenseal, acidopholus (a probiotic), my allergy pill, and so forth. My girls were busy watching the Donut Man and Hide 'em in your heart by Steven Green, while also doing puzzles. We began to read a couple stories, just as long as I could keep my oldest daughter's interest. Yet I knew our house was a total disaster and made it my mission to clean it up before my wife returned. I told my little kiddos that mommy will be so proud if we help clean it up. And boy did we clean. We picked up all the toys, cards (go fish), animals, chalk, crayons, etc. that had been laying on the ground. Then I filled and took out the garbage that was overflowing. Then we cleaned the dirty dishes and cleaned and sorted in our front room as well. (I live in a small ranch home, about 1400 square feet, in a semi-rural area with half an acre.) After cleaning up all these areas, we vacuumed in the living room - where it needed it. Then we sorted all the DVD's and VHS tapes that were lying everywhere around the television - above, below it in the cabinet, and on the ground. Then I changed my littlest one's diaper and put on her clothes for the day. (Do keep in mind not all days I am this ambitious at cleaning, believe me). Then we sat and began to read again as my wife pulled the car into the garage. As my wife came home with our little one, she was so happy to see the house clean. It just made her day. She told me that my son's lungs were clear, although he still is coughing and uncomfortable at times, but he has been battling this cold and was put on a nebulizer by 4 weeks of age! It was heartbreaking, but I know he will get over it in time as he is being nursed, and we are health-conscious parents who will choose good foods for him as he gets older. By this time it was around noon and we had lunch - turkey sandwiches, yogurt, veggies, and water - and then soon after left for grocery shopping at the local Hannaford. This grocery shopping took about an hour, ran into some different people I knew at Hannaford's, and my little girl, Abigail, fell asleep while riding in the little yellow and red kiddie cart. We were not sure what to do after that, but we ultimately decided to go to the mall as my wife wanted to shop for clothes. We hit a number of stores at the mall, including the Disney store, Auntie Anne's, Mr. Smoothie, (sorry, I hope I'm not making you think less of our eating habits), as well as Sears and Northern Reflections. My children are often quite the busy bees in these stores, finding the endless array of clothes almost to be like a hide-and-seek maze, but they were quite well-behaved and we were proud of them for that. Our littlest one seemed a bit tired on the way out the mall, but generally they were very well-behaved. Upon returning home, we had leftover spaghetti and meatballs, as well as salad and water. The girls don't go for the salad, but I do! Our girls were in need of a bath, as well as our little boy who has been spitting up much after this cold, so they all got baths this evening. Of course, our 2-month old son gets a smaller bath for his little body than the girls who use the bathtub in the bathroom. After that, my family has devotion time where we read Christian stories together, sing, and pray, which is what we did this evening. Then we brush their teeth. After they were all asleep, I decided to complete another psychological report. I told myself I would only do 1 so I would not be too tired the next day and since I had to complete 2 more on the following morning. Before going to sleep, I do nasal irrigation, acupressure (time-permitting) and then pray. That is one day in my life. I hope I didn't bore you with all the details, but that is what a typical day (when not in school at my job) in my life is like. Here's a photo of acupressure taken from http://www.csc.gov/


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The following story is off-topic from ENS but it is troubling to me. I encourage you to watch the video and reflect on how you can make a difference on behalf of people of a different race. A friend of mine, Mark Montgomery, is an African-American who I know well and have great respect for. He is a strong person who is well-respected and seems to know everyone. When I was applying for my first job as a school psychologist, he called up the director of special education at one school district and next thing you know I was being offered a job. He literally got one for me. I ultimately declined that job offer, but it just goes to show how great of a guy he is. While in college, he and I were tennis doubles' partners on the college tennis team and have enjoyed many tennis outings and very deep discussions on our jobs and the importance of education. In fact, I conducted a "meaning of difference" interview during which I probed into how being African American affects his life. It was an englightening conversation and I learned much including that Mark is part Irish and that he has incurred racism against him in his own life. I was surprised, thinking, how could anyone yell racial epithets against someone of such high standing. Mark was a counselor at Hamilton College (where B.F. Skinner trained, you psychologists out there) and he is currently a professor at Morrisville College where he has invited me to talk with his class about school psychology - that was a good experience, too...Anyway, to make a long story short, Mark sent me an email on the Monday of a couple weeks ago telling me to "check this out." It was a news clip from news channel 10 that discussed how a noose had been found outside of his door at the school where he works. Can you believe that?? This school is only a few schools away from where I work. I hope to get together with Mark soon and I was truly appaled that anyone would think of this as a prank; it may have been thought of as a prank, but truly it's a hate crime. I sent an email to all the staff at where I work encouraging them to watch the video and think about what it is they can do to make a difference on behalf of people of color. I encourage you to do the same. Here's the link: http://www.wktv.com/news/local/15675197.html


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Finally, I had the privilege of receiving an email from a reader of my book who remarked they were so happy that their doctor recommended my book, Having Nasal Surgery? to them. Dr. Ken Fletcher of Georgia recommended my book to this patient. I have never met Dr. Fletcher or am aware of how he knew about my book, but knowing that he recommended my book to this patient is terrific. I owe him one. A big thank you goes out to Dr. Fletcher!!


Until next time, I hope your sinus problems are under control....

This post is just a test....

This post is just a test to see if the 'post a comment' is now enabled....

Acupuncture for ENS....

First, I apologize it has been a number of days since my last blog post. My family and I have been under the weather with colds during the past week. Thankfully I am finding that my health - and the health of my children- is on the rebound. Since I have better understood my condition of ENS in recent years, I have been able to better treat it and consequently incur fewer colds/infections. My wife is very blessed as she rarely gets sick and so was able to fight off this one.

OK, here's a treatment idea that has been beneficial for my sleep: Acupuncture. I cite this treatment in Having Nasal Surgery?, while acknowledging I had not done it by the time of my writing. Now I have. Acupuncture originated from the Chinese and it consists of inserting thin needles that almost feel like mosquito pricks in strategic places of the body. They can be placed along 14 meridians - or energy pathways in the body and are considered effective for treating various conditions. A condition ENS sufferers often suffer from is sinus headaches, and thus acupuncture is beneficial for alleviating a headache - or even promoting better sleep. The following describes acupuncture from wikipedia:

Acupuncture treatment regulates the flow of Qi and Blood, tonifying where there is deficiency, draining where there is excess, and promoting free flow where there is stagnation. An axiom of the medical literature of acupuncture is "no pain, no blockage; no blockage, no pain."

Now, here's my experience: I have undergone two acupuncture treatments thus far. During these treatments, the doctor (a great, ENS sympathetic, holistic-minded doctor) inserted the needles along my right ear, beneath my nose, in my forehead, between my toes, and between my thumb and pointer finger. During these treatments, I noticed a significant warming around my right ear region due to the increased blood flow. I also noticed mucus draining down my throat. After the treatments I felt more relaxed but not necessarily lightheaded. I slept much better those nights after the acupuncture. The effect I found that it had on my body was similar to how I feel after I exercise, but I find the longevity of the effect is greater - up to a few days. Similar to the aftereffects of exercise, there is a release of endorphins and an increased blood flow. (Please note: I believe exercise and subsequent increased blood flow is critical for treating ENS.) I am looking forward to continued acupuncture and will report back here after I undergo more treatments. It has helped alleviate sinus headaches to some extent and has helped me sleep better overall as well.