Health and dis-ease

Before there were antioxidants, there were berries.  And, in my taste buds, they were (and are) a delight to the palate.  Yes, there is a quote from some olde English dude about strawberries doubtless being the zenith of God’s berry creations, but I will vote for all the berries.  I recently stumbled upon a recipe for a fruit tart using blueberries, raspberries (red), and blackberries.  The magazine in which this gem rested touted all the antioxidant properties of the three featured fruits.  But you and I know what is really important:  they taste fantastic!  Add a little lemon zest and you have a killer dessert which makes you supremely glad to be alive!

The adventure of the mammogram

For those of you who have never had the pleasure (excuse my projectile expulsion of a hairball!), here is how it goes:

You are given an appointment and told to refrain from wearing deodorant.  There is a valid reason – some of the chemicals in deodorant would show up as suspicious spots.  If you forgot or if you needed to wear deodorant before going for the “mamm,”  a technician gives you a washcloth and soap to wash it off. 

You strip from the waist up and put on the traditional hospital gown.  Then you go into the room with the squashing machine.  The machine is like a small table top with three layers.  The bottom one holds an X-ray plate.  The remaining two are the horizontal vise.  Sounds like fun already, huh?  The technician can make the table tops lower and lift, just like a barber chair.

Next, the technician has you remove one of your arms from your gown while she visually judges the height of your boobs and tries to get the table top positioned perfectly.  You rest the exposed ta-ta on the bottom bit of the vise.  This is no easy trick for small-chested babes.   But, the well-endowed also complain that it is neither easy nor comfortable.  Somehow, the technician always wants you to be in a position where the vise plate is poking you in the armpit and your shoulder has to get moved away and you need to lean in some unnatural direction.

However, the fun is yet to come.  Now the technician electronically starts lowering the top of the vise.  Remember those movies where the hero is trapped in a room where the walls are closing in or where water is filling up to the ceiling?  This is how the ta-ta is being treated: it is getting squished to near-death.   Why?  “They” say this is what most effectively presents a clear and inclusive picture.  I believe them, but…..   I really want a testicular cancer screen to become popular and I want it to be a nut-cracker version of the mammogram.

So, the breast is hideously squashed and then you are told to hold your breath as you stand not moving in a backward bend away from the bear trap which is biting your boob.   Repeat on the other side and you are all done.

For this, and many other reasons, in the next lifetime – you can be the woman.

I am on the sidelines watching 2 divorces play out.  One is the neighbors across the street; the other is a child of a dear friend.  I feel bad for the friend – her immediate nuclear family had been untouched by this challenge and it goes hard for her.  The neighbor’s case, I’m sorry, annoys me. 

I have endured a divorce which was nasty for much of the time.  I do not relish re-experiencing divorce vicariously.  Regardless of the wrongs which ultimately may be righted by the re-arrangement of the parties, the experience of the divorce process can be detrimental to one’s health.

Of the many bits of advice in the plethora of self-help-during-divorce books I read, one bit of information that stuck with me was the difference in “timelines” that the parties have.  The “dumper” is about 18 months ahead of the “dumpee,” according to the experts.   They say that the dumper has struggled with the issues and come to the conclusion that there is NO hope to resolve major problems. On the other hand, the dumpee is aware of problems but feels that this is just a rough patch and has every expectation that they will get through it. Therefore, when one person declares it is all over, the other is blindsided.

Summer seems to bring out the band concerts – at public museums, community celebrations, and holidays.  Often, the offerings are outside and free.  (I must explain that I am speaking as someone who lives in a 4-season locale, so outside winter music is pretty much limited to Christmas caroling.)  In 1697, William Congreve wrote: “Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast” which I will translate to 2009-speak as “Music is a stress-buster.”  Therefore, music performers are healers.  So, scour your local area for freebie concerts.  Check your Art on the Avenue nights, First Sundays for Families, 4^th of July, even the local high school’s marching band camp.  I am sure you will score something good!

Extreme Anger with Sovereign Bank and Banco Santander, S.A.

Perhaps ranting will get some of the angst and bad energy out of my system.  (I certainly hope so.)   A bonus would be that persons considering using either of these banks are fore-warned.

I have chosen to use a hyphenated last name.  This has been in effect for close to twenty years.  My last name is BOTH names.   My “last name initial” is the first letter of the first of those names.  On the whole, credit card companies and employers, actually the whole world, deal with it rather competently.

Last week my partner and I went to a Sovereign Bank branch to execute financial papers.  My name was incorrect.  Unbelievable.  The papers had the first of my last names as a middle initial.  The *&^s (choose an expletive noun you like for these symbols;  as for me, I am going with a group of people who commit atrocious acts against parents of the female persuasion) re-created me as someone with only one last name.  And it was not my birth last name.

I have NEVER used that name in my life.  It is not an alias.  It is not even a remote possibility.  It is a *&^-ing travesty.  Therefore, we asked the kindly clerk who works at the branch and had no complicity in the error if the documents could be corrected.  She said yes and put the work order in place.

Today, my partner and I went to that same branch to execute the papers. Sadly, due to time pressures and deadlines,  today had to be a “go.”  I could see by reading upside-down,  that the wrong name remained on the bank documents.  I uttered, “They still have my name WRONG!”   The clerk tried to mollify me and showed us that some of the forms had a new twist.   Within the heap of papers to be signed, a few (only a few) had my real name BUT…….  It was listed as a *&^-ing ALIAS!   I had to sign twice – the *&^-ing fake name and my real name.

 I am calming down enough to gain some perspective.  No – I have not been disabled.  No – I am not a concentration camp survivor.  No – the people I love have not been hurt.  But, I know who I am and what I am called.  And Sovereign Bank (owned by Banco Santandor, S.A.) has really *&^-ed up.

This may be a pillar in my Rx for a very healthy life.  At the very least, I think a good “lying in,” as my British friends would say, once a week can do a great deal of good.  Most Americans who work full-time [this includes full-time stay-at-home parents] do not get enough sleep.  A once a week catch-up could be a necessity, rather than an indulgence.  Of course, when the work week resumes one then has the challenge of returning to the before-dawn wake up time after luxuriating in dreamland for a few extra hours.  However, I feel that the benefits gained to one’s health and well-being far outweigh the readjustment “shock.”

CLL is one type of leukemia.  It is the bad overgrowth of white blood cells.  My partner is receiving chemotherapy for this cancer and is now receiving the drug Neulasta (pegfilgastrim) after each cycle of chemo.  This is the supreme irony.  Why?  Because Neulasta encourages the growth of neutrophils, one of the types of white blood cells.

The treatment is not as insane as it first sounds.  CLL is chronic lymphocytic leukemia.  There are about seven main types of white blood cells.  In CLL, the particular sort of white blood cells going out of control is the lymphocytes.  On the other hand, the neutrophils are well-behaved and doing what they should be doing: fighting bacteria.  Therefore, if a patient is receiving chemo to knock out the lymphocytes and this medication concurrently wipes out the neutrophils, there is a problem.  A big problem.  Now, the normal bacteria living on and in people can become a threat.  Thus, the introduction of Neulasta is appropriate.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming, extremely simply put, asserts that what you say is what you create for yourself.  The cognitive therapy branch of psychology similarly works on the premise that thoughts precede (and create) feelings.   People who recite affirmations are also in sync with these theories.

Therefore in accordance with these concepts, positive, happy thoughts should promote health and mental predictions of doom and gloom will create misery and dis-ease.

While I believed these to be true, I mostly believed them with my head only.  Amazingly I recently had the theory brought home to me somatically.

My partner is a curmudgeon.  There is no other way to describe him.  So, in the past, when people would ask me how he is doing, my reply was “He’s a pain in the Butt.”  I said this to indicate that he was a constant annoyance, but not causing a heartbreak.  Well, happily I did not talk myself into any cardiac problems.  On the contrary I talked myself into a very bizarre rash.  I’ll give you ONE guess where.

Needless to say, this lesson was well-learned.  While dealing with the symptoms, I ceased all attribution to anyone of any pains anywhere in my body.  Now I do not hand over to anyone, including myself, the power to cause problems.  Those sorts of utterances are no longer in my life.  Hopefully, you can learn from my experiences instead of going through it yourself.

It worked for me.  I took it and aspirin when I was feeling scratchy, drippy, and achy.  Instead of blossoming into a full-force cold, my symptoms abated.  I have taken zinc in the past for cold prevention and had the common side effect of upset mild nausea.  The creator of Airborne wisely added ginger, a homoepathic remedy, to counteract that effect. Additionally, the bonus of this treatment is that I really like the choice of flavors and the fizzy drink. 

The site www.chemotherapy.com is owned by Amgen. 

Amgen is a biotechnology, genetic engineering firm (http://www.amgen.com/about/amgen.html)  which markets medications used in the treatment of cancer.  Therefore,  I will  assume that any of its products or general treatment modes in which its medications fall will be favorably reviewed on this site.  Accordingly, one cannot expect totally impartial, unbiased information here.

The page has very attractive, up-to-date graphics and includes these links:  Understanding Cancer,  About Chemotherapy,  Treating Cancer with Chemo,  Chemo Side Effects,  Other Treatments, Tracking Test Results, Insurance Tips,   and more.  These are very useful.  Additionally, there is an option for a  complimentary subscription to the print journal Women and Cancer.  However, it seems that some mail list inclusion may be a condition for receiving this.

I find much of the information to be on the basic side.  However, it is worth a look to see how it may meet your needs.