Tag Archives: health & medicine

Tired

Tired isn’t a word I use lightly.

For years I worked a full time job while getting a few degrees, then teaching as an adjunct professor, sometimes supervising student clubs, and also, you know, having a life. I’d race around the office all day long, then grade papers, then lecture for two and a half hours, maybe do some research, eat dinner at midnight and get up at 7 a.m. the next day and mainline coffee while complaining I was tired.

I did not know what tired was.

I thought tired meant only reading the first and last chapter of a book in order to be able to follow the class discussion but still make time for an extra 2 hours of sleep before the history seminar I needed to graduate on time.

I thought tired meant asking the department to hire a graduate assistant to teach the lab so I could grade papers and still be able to drive myself home without falling asleep behind the wheel.

I thought tired meant needing to throw an extra shot in my latte before lecturing non-physics majors about calculating reverberation time.

I did not know jack about tired.

I was an amateur in the world of tired.

In 2004 I turned Pro.

In 2004 a couple of hereditary inflammatory autoimmune disease came out of hiding and kicked my ass. Eventually, I had to stop working, quit teaching, quit planning on well, being able to make plans. It’s a situation that requires a lot of adjustments.

You know what goes great with tired? Searing joint pain. Together they’re like milk and cereal. Leather and lace. Peanut butter and chocolate. Crocket and Tubbs.

Actually, they’re like none of those things. The new migraine medicine my doctor prescribed has a lot of codeine in it and I strongly suspect it just kicked in.

So what was I saying?

I have no idea.

I just got an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland that stars Gary Cooper, Cary Grant and W.C. Fields and it’s hard to pay attention to this post.

It’s also a situation that comes with a lot of interpersonal frustration. People – no matter how well-meaning, don’t understand how exhausting pain and fatigue are. They say less than helpful things like, “I wouldn’t ever tell anyone I was sick, I can’t afford the damage to my career.” Or, “I get tired too, but I just suck it up.” Or, “If you’d stop eating tomatoes, you wouldn’t be sick.” Or, my personal favorite, “My (mother/sister/imaginary friend/neighbor) had cancer and she had a really good attitude never missed a day of work,” followed by a long pause during which I can only surmise I’m supposed to cheerfully reply, “Well slap my ass and call me Susan! What was I thinking? Thank you so much for helping me see the light!”

Sarcasm, by the way, is not an accepted trait if you’re to accept the role of Saintly Sick Person.

So here’s the deal, being extremely sick gives one lots of blogging material – the ridiculous medical adventures, the various physical therapy modalities, the challenges of keeping your friends and your sanity when life becomes super-unpredictable, and the sometimes bizarre alternative therapy suggestions that well-meaning relatives offer up when you least expect them. (Not that Western medicine can’t be pretty bizarre).

I’m going to withhold any personal details or specific diagnostic information I see fit to withhold but hopefully I can still be useful, engaging, and realistic without waving my underwear in the wind.

I’ve slogged through a lot of the prospects both Western and Eastern medicine have to offer and the results haven’t always been pretty, though some of them have been rather hilarious. Hot yoga? Hot yoga is hot. Very very hot. And it’s not something you should try while wearing hand lotion.

I (sort of, somewhat, maybe, a little bit) stand corrected

As it turns out, the dubious claims about the effects of eliminating stone fruits from your child’s diet (or maybe adding more of them to their diet. whatever) seem to have their roots in a respectable – or at least, not totally insane – diet known as the Feingold Program.*

I haven’t done a lot of research into the claims of the Feingold Program and I have no opinion on it, although many of it’s suppositions seem completely reasonable, at least in theory. I tried to speak to a yoga instructor I know who has extensive experience with the program, but she immediately went off on a tangent about how autoimmune diseases such as MS, lupus, and osteoarthritis can be cured by eliminating nightshades – potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants – from one’s diet. Osteoarthritis is not an autoimmune disease, by the by. I no longer bother to discuss this nightshade thing with people, it’s simply not worth it. I just smile politely and make secret plans to harvest their organs.

I’m tired, I need to consider getting ready to head over to a fundraiser for fotoweekdc at Local 16, and instead I’ve gotten sucked into reading about Static Guard in the toxnet database maintained by the National Library of Medicine. You want something that’ll keep you up at night? Spend some time at toxnet.

*Updated after being inundated with stories from trusted friends who have tried Feingold and were shamed for “causing” their child’s autism by vaccinating them or feeding them the wrong foods. Maybe it’s insane, but I don’t know for sure.

I'm going to hell, I hope they serve tater tots

You know who annoys me more than newly converted Jesus freaks? Newly converted dieters. Today I was just trying to go to CVS to get some Tylenol when I was pounced on by “nutritional consultants” handing out samples of some new pom-soy-who knows what “nutrition” bar.

I declined and said, “I’d rather just eat the actual unprocessed fruit.”

I know this usually provokes a fracas, and I must admit I was a little feverish and I was looking to rumble.

Much to my contrarian chagrin, the perkier of the two woman didn’t take the bait! She actually agreed with me. I wondered if her corporate overlords know she’s saying such things?

At first.

Then she started yakking about the importance of eating a fruit or vegetable from as many colors of the rainbow as possible every day and how hard that can be and how her product can help fill those gaps when you just can’t find so much variety.

I’m not one to lose so easily, so I tried derailing her by asking whether bananas counted as white or yellow. I actually wonder about this, so it wasn’t completely combative of me. Then I brought up peaches. Pink? Yellow? What about the one I had with breakfast? It was pretty whitish inside, more of a cream than a true canary.

I started to feel guilty for being obnoxious and sounding self-righteous so I told them I’d spent the weekend subsisting on Guinness, tater tots, and chocolate. They giggled at my joke; they thought I was kidding. I wasn’t.

I also wasn’t kidding about eating actual fruit instead of pre-packaged snacks and this was making the Nutrition Specialists pouty and combative because I still wouldn’t try the snack sample.

The more she tried to make me eat the Soylent Pom, the more resistant I got.

Then the whole thing got derailed because someone else pointed out that you should never let your kids eat peaches because they’re a stone fruit and everyone knows that stone fruits cause ADHD. Or maybe Autism. Or maybe they just make them worse. Or maybe eating them makes the symptoms better.

Best not to take the chance. Make sure your children are terrified of peaches and apricots and cherries. One bite and their brains will implode. Or maybe explode. Just don’t take the chance.

Everyone seems to know this, with great certainty, even if they aren’t certain what they know. Everyone agreed it was something that started with “a” and that it was very, very bad. Apparently, giving little Jayden or Avery or Eithne stone fruits is now more dangerous than feeding them sugary breakfast cereals or letting them take a bath without water wings before they’re 18.

It always disturbs me when people are so adamant about eliminating a specific food or consuming a food based on vague health claims, even more so when they aren’t even sure why they’re doing it in the first place. Perhaps there’s a connection, I’m not an expert.

I wanted to shout a few disease names that started with “a” but I saw an opening and I took it, so I sprinted to my car and went home. They aren’t my kids and it isn’t my business, but the medical anthropologist in me still likes to stay aware of these wacky trends and the social and cultural implications of them.

Once I got home, I sat down with my macbook and tried to suss out the genesis of the stone fruit/ADHD or autism connection but quickly got distracted by Monsters Cereal, an entire blog devoted to Count Chocula, Franken Berry and Boo-Berry. Then I got sucked into the YouTube.

Then I got distracted by Breakfast of the Gods.

God bless the Internet. I feel better already.

President Obama will be going door-to-door harvesting your organs to give poor people who're just too lazy to work

I’ve been trapped in a RightWing news bubble all week hearing hysterical shrieking about the evils of healthcare reform.

Thank the gods for Lewis Black.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Back in Black – Health Care Reform
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes		 Political Humor Joke of the Day

the last thing I have to say about the flu (for now)

So I tweeted about the number of people I’ve encountered recently who either have no understanding of basic science or are just plain stupid about some of the ways humans (and other animals) can get sick. What set me off most recently was a so-called health care professional who was holding forth about how influenza is not contagious and the only way to spread it is via vaccine. (There were other pseudo-scientific gems, but I’m trying not to digress for a change).

I got lots of hilarious commiseration from friends and twitter followers – I’m pretty sure everyone in the world has that co-worker or friend who claims to never be sick, even though they’re constantly complaining about being sick. Sadly, the fact that these people don’t like to admit that they’re wrong to the point of making others around them sick isn’t so funny.

The vaccines aren’t perfect and they can’t cover every viral mutation. You can still get sick – but why take the chance you’ll get a flu you can prevent, which weakens your immune system and leaves you more vulnerable to a host of other infections you might otherwise shake off?

The CDC has a rather thorough website on the matter of the flue, as does the World Health Organization.

Since most people get an average of 4-6 colds or other viruses-y things a year, statistically speaking many of them are either sick and asymptomatic or get sick soon after they get a flu shot and mistakenly believe the shot gave them the flu. Or they’re very prone to the power of suggestion and are so sure the dead vaccine will give them the flu they develop symptoms. Or, they’re just stupid. We can’t rule out stupidity.

I’m going to avoid a digression into how sad it is that many healthcare workers – doctors, nurses, EMTs, lab techs – need to be threatened with sanctions before they’ll be vigilant about washing their hands, getting vaccinations, or following other basic protocols. It hurts my brain. It hurts my brain that people who claim to care about the public good are reckless and it hurts my brain to rein in so many digressions. But I’m digressing about digressions…

Yes, there are people who are allergic to eggs or have illnesses that preclude vaccination, my issue isn’t that people who don’t get a flu shot are automatically the devil. I’m just annoyed with the arrogant idiots who think they have superior genes and, when they do get sick, refuse to admit it or keep their germs at home.

I don’t even think flu shots should necessarily be mandatory for the general public, but I think that people need to take the time to be better informed about the flu and I think they need to show better common sense when they are sick. Sadly, common sense seems to be in short supply.

It’s not worth arguing, or at least not worth my energy to argue anymore – I just do my best to avoid them. Colds, flu or mucous-spraying viral infections of any kind are no laughing matter to those of us on immunosupressing drugs. I had several people who “never get sick” persist in coming to events last year even though they were clearly sick. One of them coughed up the mucous equivalent of Lake Michigan at a small gathering, all the while insisting it was just a sinus infection and couldn’t possibly be contagious. Four days later, everyone else who was there got sick with the same symptoms. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. After that I spent almost 2 months with pneumonia and almost drowned in my own lungs, so as you may imagine I’m a little bit prickly about the whole thing. I say that not to be selfish, it’s your decision how to manage your health and personally I have no problem being aggressive about making sure that I do all that I can to avoid people who’re sick even if it hurts their feelings. I think people want to play games with their own health, that’s fine, but I think it’s selfish not to think about their families and the people who rely on them, to not take simple precautions not to spread more germs around than them than have to because they’re afraid of shots or arrogant or whatever. Really folks, this is not brain surgery.

Incidentally, when I say I heard hilarious stories – I don’t mean that sarcastically in reference to the ones about the deaths of children or loved ones, I mean the ones like the manager who announced she “doesn’t get sick” minutes before she threw up all over the clients conference table while her minions (my friends) tried to look appropriately concerned but really wanted to fall down laughing.