HARLINGEN — Women in the Rio Grande Valley can take many steps to prevent miscarriages, including starting prenatal vitamins and a folic acid supplement, and improving their health and nutrition — even before they become pregnant.

That will be the message of Dr. Susan Redmond, Obstetrician / Gynecologist and Partner-In-Care to Harlingen Medical Center, who will speak on the topic of “Repeat Miscarriages: What You Need to Know”, tomorrow morning (Friday, May 13) at 10:30 a.m. at Harlingen Medical Center, 5501 S. Expressway (in the HMC Administration Classroom on the first floor of the hospital).

Dr. Redmond’s talk, which will include the opportunity to ask questions to the doctor, is being held as part of the free “Harlingen Medical Center Annual Ladies Day Out Health Fair.” The Health Fair will include free medical screenings from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. tomorrow morning in the main lobby of the hospital, as well as tours of the hospital’s Women’s Center, health and wellness information for women, refreshments and door prizes.

Dr. Redmond recommends that women start taking prenatal vitamins with extra folic acid three months before they become pregnant. Dr. Redmond said this is especially essential in the Valley, to help prevent early miscarriages and other serious problems, such as anencephaly (a birth defect in which part of the baby’s brain is not formed).

“A lot of these babies are lost to miscarriage very early in pregnancy, before major problems are diagnosed,” Dr. Redmond added. “The most important point to remember is that prenatal care needs to start before a woman is even pregnant.”

Dr. Redmond said it’s important for women to also get other health problems under control before they become pregnant, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and hormonal problems. Eating healthy, with a good, balanced nutritional diet, and beginning an exercise routine can help women manage many of these conditions and improve their health before the pregnancy, she added.

Another very important step is for women to meet with their doctor before they are pregnant and let the physician know about other health problems they may have noticed — as well as follow-up with the doctor about their prior medical history. For example, if a woman had a previous miscarriage, physicians may want to make sure there is no type of tumor present — or a chronic infection which could be easily cleared up with antibiotics, Dr. Redmond said.

Another example might be a woman who has an abnormal cervix, which could be corrected by surgery, to increase her chance of carrying a baby throughout pregnancy, she added.

Dr. Redmond – who has delivered thousands of babies since coming to Harlingen 29 years ago – said that unfortunately she has seen many patients who have had multiple miscarriages – including one patient who had seven pregnancy losses. It turns out that the patient tested positive for lupus, and after treatment with medications, she was finally able to carry a baby to term.

Another of Dr. Redmond’s patients had suffered two stillbirths because she had rheumatoid arthritis, which causes the body’s immune system to “attack itself”. This resulted in small clots being formed in the placenta, a crucial organ which provides oxygen and nutrients to the baby growing in the uterus.

Once this disease was detected by a blood test in Dr. Redmond’s office and treated with medication, the woman was able to have a healthy, full-term baby.

“By doing blood tests, we can detect and treat many of these conditions before symptoms appear and before the woman becomes pregnant – and greatly increase the patient’s odds of successfully carrying a pregnancy,” Dr. Redmond added.

She added that most health insurance policies will cover blood tests and other “workup” tests for women who have had multiple miscarriages.

Dr. Redmond said genetic background can also contribute to miscarriages in the Rio Grande Valley. Studies have shown that many women of Mexican background, as well as those from families that originated in Ireland and Scotland, don’t metabolize folic acid as well, she said.

“If you have a woman who doesn’t metabolize folic acid, and a father who does not metabolize folic acid, most of those babies are going to miscarry — unless a woman takes a lot of folic acid,” she added.

Since miscarriages and stillbirths often run in families, Dr. Redmond says women who are thinking about becoming pregnant may want to see if they can find out anything about their family history, as far as any problems with prior pregnancies. This may require approaching other female family members, such as their sisters, in a very discreet and confidential way.

“Most women don’t like to talk about miscarriages that they’ve had; it’s a very personal thing,” she noted.

Dr. Redmond, who is originally from Monmouth, Illinois, completed three years of residency training at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine in East Lansing, Michigan. She also did a one-year residency at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut, after graduating from medical school at Southern Illinois University.

For more information on Dr. Susan Redmond’s “Doc Talk Lecture” or the “Annual Ladies Day Out Health Fair” at Harlingen Medical Center, please call the Business Development and Marketing Department at (956) 365-1848.

HARLINGEN — Cris and Jacob Valdez are trucking cool tropical-tasting gourmet treats into the area.

When they wanted to start a small business in March, they drove their Kona Ice truck into town.

“My goal was always to be a small business owner,” said Cris Valdez, who used to work in a nonprofit organization’s human resources department. “We wanted a business that could give back to our community.”

For the couple, Harlingen looked like the perfect place for their new business.

“It’s a good area because if it’s not hot, it’s humid,” Cris Valdez said.

Now, they’re busy giving area residents a taste of the tropics.

“A lot of people see the truck but don’t know what Kona Ice is,” Cris Valdez said. “You have to try it. It’s delicious — it’s good for you and it really does refresh.”

The couple’s escape from the ordinary begins as their Kona truck fills the air with the sounds of tropical calypso music.

But the real fun starts when patrons get their overflowing cups of freshly shaved ice and then help themselves to any of the 10 flavors on the truck’s Flavorwave, an interactive dispensing system from which they pick from one or more of the flavors to pour over their fluffy snow.

More than 20 flavors and 500 combinations mean lots of choices.

“It’s an opportunity to enjoy a unique, tropical treat,” Cris Valdez said. “For a couple dollars, you can experience the excitement of the truck, flavor your own Kona Ice, donate to an organization you care about and kick back for a few minutes enjoying the sounds of the tropics. It’s an escape that everyone can enjoy.”

Kona Ice’s philanthropic commitment makes the treats even sweeter.

As part of their new business, she and her husband donate 20 to 25 percent of their proceeds to the community, Cris Valdez said.

So, she said, they want to donate to local schools’ team sports.

Nationwide, Kona Ice has donated more than $35 million dollars to community-based organizations since June 2007.

“The communities’ first taste of our cool treats and colorful truck will keep them coming back for more,” said Jacob Valdez, who still works his government job. “It will only be a matter of time before our Kona truck captures the hearts, minds and taste buds of the neighborhoods we serve.”

MERCEDES — The American Red Cross has the green light to man the safe room dome shelter in the event of a severe emergency.

“Anytime an emergency plan is activated, the city will coordinate with the American Red Cross to man the facility,” said Richard Garcia, Mercedes city manager. “Staff will also be trained as a backup.”

The city council voted unanimously recently to enter an agreement with the American Red Cross during the last city meeting.

MERCEDES — The city will grant the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show $300,000 to improve the venue and make it an even better destination.

Mercedes Development Corporation Executive Director Hernan Gonzalez said the funds are a community investment grant to help the event center grow.

“At the end of the day what your going to have is a parking lot for 3,800 cars with proper drainage, lighting and asphalt,”

Gonzalez said, “it makes it a better destination for more events.”

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The grant is based upon the parking lot improvements being done by the livestock show, estimated at $2.5 million.

SAN BENITO – San Benito police have arrested a woman they say fell asleep and left her two-year-old son unattended in the backyard.

On Monday 3:17 p.m. officers were dispatched to the 300 block of Purvis in reference to an unsupervised child.

Police said a man who resides in the area found the toddler in his backyard wearing only a diaper.

Officers say they went door to door trying to locate the parents of the child but were unsuccessful until a car pulled into a driveway at a home on the 100 block of Purvis.

The driver told police her daughter-in-law lived at the house with her small child. Contact was made with Maribel Candelaria Ybarra, 25, who was asleep in her bedroom.

Ybarra was unaware her child was found two blocks from her residence.

She was arrested charged with abandoning and or endangering a child, with bond set at $30,000. Child Protective Services was contacted and the child was released to his grandmother.

It is essential for the operation of a healthy government to utilize the best from the moderate left and the best from the moderate right. There must be a delicate balance. Not too left, not too right, but stay within the moderate center, or the “golden mean.”

So then, why, when the more conservative Republicans control both the House and the Senate, does the government continue its love affair with the far leftist socialism? Why does the leftist socialist minority continue to dominate the government?

Why isn’t the conservative majority standing firm on conservative principles and leading us away from the national socialist suicide?

The answer is simple.

We don’t have a government driven by principle. Principle doesn’t matter anymore.

Our government is driven by money and power, two sides of the same coin. So, you ask, who has the money and power. Again, the answer is simple – the international bankers, the international industrialists, the international media, whose agenda is, again, simple.

It is One World order.

Once source of the One World agenda is the Bilderberg Group, which envisions a single global marketplace, policed by one world army, financially regulated by one World Bank, using one world currency.

All nation-states would no longer exist. No national sovereignty, no national boundaries, no national cultures, and, of course, no freedom, no middle class, no democracy. There would be only the world masters, and the world slaves.

David Rockefeller, a charter member said this about the Bilderberg Group, “Today, some even believe we (the Bilderbergers) are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political structure – one world – if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty and proud of it.”

Have you heard of the council on Foreign Relations? It sounds like a government agency, but it is no.

It is privately funded by the Bilderberg group and private foundations such as the Ford Foundation and Disney.

It is, in effect, the Bilderberg’s eyes and ears in Washington. It serves as a virtual employment agency for the federal government.

So then, when you consider what’s going on around us, ie., open borders, floods of undocumented people, NAFTA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (NAFTA on steroids), the horrible deal with Iran, the common European currency, United Nations, NATO, etc. you see a gradual move to internationalism and away from nationalism. It is no accident, it is very deliberate.

So, who are these rich and powerful who would establish such a One World order?

The Bilderberg Group first met in 1954 in Europe. It has met once a year thereafter and attendees have included Americans, including Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, George H.W. Bush, among others have attended the meetings. Leading Senators and Congressmen, top officials and FBI, CIA, NSA and others also have attended.

Along comes Donald Trump, talking about making America great again, making America strong, independent and powerful, restoring our national sovereignty, creating American jobs.

But what really makes Trump dangerous to the One World Order group is that he, Trump, doesn’t need their money.

I rather doubt the danger Trump presents to them is one that will be willing to tolerate. Donald Trump should be careful, for the common sense he represents is anathema to the very rich and powerful.

It is indeed a rigged game, folks.

Erol A. Stone Harlingen

HARLINGEN — What’s the greatest thing about nursing?

Everything. Betsy Martinez and her fellow nurse Mirta Servin stopped to reflect on their service to the community as the country celebrates National Nurses Week 2016.

“I feel it’s a great honor,” said Martinez, 45, a nurse at Harlingen Medical Center.

National Nurses Week is held by the American Nursing Association each year to highlight the important role nurses play in society.

Martinez and Servin both work on the surgical medical floor of HMC where patients who have had surgery recuperate. Those recovering from serious illness also stay there until they are well enough to go home. The two nurses appreciate the opportunity to contribute to society.

“It’s very important to the community to keep people healthy,” said Servin.

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HARLINGEN — It had been years since the Harlingen school board seated a new board member.

Eladio Jaimez, 39, and Rosalinda Mercado-Garza, 43, were running for Place 7 vacated by long-time board member Verna Young.

Jaimez defeated Mercado-Garza by one vote, 1,422 to 1,421, according to the unofficial tabulation.

Superintendent Art Cavazos and School Board President Nolan Perez were at Harlingen City Hall watching the monitor as election results rolled in.

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“This was an important contested election,” Perez said. “This was the future of the school district.”

Some board members were out of town and he was texting them the re-sults as they came in. He and Cavazos had expected a victory on either side of 200 or 300 votes, but not 1,422 to 1,421.

“We were just in shock,” Perez said. “You don’t think it’s going to be by one vote.”

At this point, the results are unofficial. Some over-seas ballots may be re-ceived by Thursday and, if so, that could change the count.

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HARLINGEN — A Harlingen woman faces a felony charge after her 1-year-old daughter fell out of a second-story window Sunday.

The baby survived the fall and is now in stable condition at a local hospital.

Brooke Ashley Wise, 25, was charged with second-degree felony injury to a child. Her bond is set at $35,000.

At approximately 12:48 p.m. Sunday, police and emergency medical service responders were dispatched to the 500 block of East Davis Street in reference to small child who had fallen from a second-story window.

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LA FERIA — The boys can’t have all the fun at this weekend’s UIL state track and field meet, and La Feria Lionettes’ distance runner Tina Sierra doesn’t intend to be left out.

Sierra is the only La Feria girls athlete heading to this weekend’s meet after winning the 3200-meter run with a time of 11:42.25.

“The season felt great and I feel like I tried a lot harder this year,” Sierra said. “Everyone else was focusing and it made me want to focus even more.”

This year, Sierra has been one of the top distance runners the Valley has to offer and is ranked No. 3 in the Valley’s Best mythical standings with a time of 11:07.10. Sierra set that time at the Meet of Champions in Weslaco.

Since then, Sierra hasn’t been able to match it, but is confident getting near that time will propel her to a good day at the state meet.

Full story at RGVSports.com