Apology

I apologize:  Full credit for the four main headline questions on  this morning's post goes to Breast Cancer Action, who originally created and posted the Four Questions.

BEFORE YOU WALK FOR CANCER, Demand full disclosure!! 4 Questions to Ask... A RANT

1. How much money raised from the walk will go to breast cancer programs?

 Get it in writing!  

 You should receive something (you know, written) that says how many DOLLARS.  Or an exact percentage of ALL proceeds.

 
this goes for events and prize meetings, too

2. What breast cancer programs will the walk fund?

Will it all go for more talk events and ads, or will real live women be helped?

Even hospital programs get sidetracked into publicity sometimes

3. Do the walk’s sponsors increase women’s risk of breast cancer?

 There are websites including one for safe makeup and personal products.  Now I believe one even exposes household products.

I once bought (and returned) an exercise mat that California had judged full of cancer-causing chemicals and ingredients.  Now I "beware" before I buy.

4. Does the walk present a one-sided picture of breast cancer that leaves some women out?

 Every time I go on twitter, I remember my sisters with metastises, and I remember the new research that suggests I may not be safe from it, even after the surgery and radiation and good old Tamoxifen. 

Am I next?  Will the organization I walked for help me?

I wish you health.

COFFEE BREAK Does Dr talk really affect us?

My new doctor seemed surprised to see me the other day; he thought we were going to do labs, and told me which ones he likes to do every three months or so.

I told him I had made an appointment with my eye surgeon (instead of his referral)  for my suspected eye problem.  He urged me to go ahead with that.

I spoke to him about some of my stresses.  He asked me why I don't look at the bright side. I told him that a turning point was the day I first saw him, when he asked:  What else is going on?  Showed me another MD in my new state values the patient viewpoint.

He looked again at my file update he was holding - (he likes patients to fill out their main ills and hurts at each appointment.)   Then he said some new magic words: 

You're good.

And I said "For my age..." 

And he said: "Not for your age.  You're good."

And I thought--Wow he thinks I'm healthy, at least sorta healthy.  Off to the lab where the lab tech and I laughed a lot.

The next morning the nurse called to say:

You are no longer in danger of diabetes!  

No diet? Just keep doing what  you've been doing.  (Wow, I do know how to take care of myself!)


Went to the eye doctor, got a list of to-do at home.  Also an Rx that made me call the pharmacist twice in a mild panic.  Pharmacist said cut open the capsule and stir the medicine into a mashed banana.  Panic stopped.

Today, thinking of that week of modern medicine, I thought: Yes, I am pretty healthy.  And all those people helped me move to more health.

The punch line:  For some contrary reason, the idea that I'm pretty healthy makes me determined to take even better care of myself.

I wish you health.

HOW DOES YOUR DOCTOR TALK TO YOU? What your doctor should ask... What to say to your doctor.

On April 5, in their e-mail MedicineMatters, Mt Sinai mentioned that medical students toured the hospital "Learning to Give Compassionate Care."

The key word in the mention was ' "tell me more"  messages." '

By a happy coincidence, I had just had a first visit with my new doctor.  I said I wondered if it was time for my blood sugar test...(I was really there to see if I would like him at all).  He said it wasn't quite time for the test.  Then he won my heart!

He asked:  What else is going on?

The perfect words.  In all the current patter about patient engagement, there is no better key a doctor can use than those.  I unloaded my current tormenting problem that I think is the eyelid disease (horrid Demodex mites.)

He asked me to describe the symptoms - I was so amazed that I had trouble putting the just plain icky symptoms into words.

Then he said he would refer me to an ophthalmologist in their group.

He asked some other questions, like why does my oncologist monitor some meds and tests, and I gave him a bit of info on that.

No judging, no contradicting what's been done so far.  Just kind questions.

Does your doctor do that?  If not, what to do?  Long ago my California doctor told me firmly:

 "It is important to be heard."

And I had gotten up the nerve to tell a certain surgeon in mid-rambling: 

"I need to speak."  

 Those four words spoken without anger did wonders. 

You can practice them in front of the mirror if you like.  If they don't work, you can do what we sometimes have to do.  Say goodbye.

I wish you health.

Osteoporosis: FUNCTIONAL FITNESS - Did this training need to be invented?

Today on the Mayo Clinic newsletter for osteoporosis, I discovered a new word:  Functional Fitness.

As far as I can see, it's a new category that helps us get throught the day - the lifting, juggling, reaching, stepping off curbs with a bag of groceries.  The stuff I wasn't afraid to do before my spine got hurt. Some sort of functional fitness was taughtt by Occupational Therapists after my spine problem hospitalized me, and after the spine fusion.  These were "simple" things like getting out of the tub safely, giving myself a sponge bath, and (before release from acute rehab) an attempt to get me to go down a few stairs using only the cane.  (I still don't do that now, four years later.)  No handrail, no go.

Under examples of the training exercises, the article mentioned some things like simple lunges and reaching that I already proved in Physical that I can do. There are examples including that the lunges will prepare you for yard work and sports with your kids. 

This is where I admit that I confessed on my PT "graduation" inventory that I do not feel safe gardening and will certainly not return to tennis, with its opportunities to do the twisting I don't dare do. 

You might want to read at least the opening of the article:  Functional Fitness training:  Is it right for you?  In fact, read the whole article.

My hesitation is that the functional fitness training description sounds as if it would duplicate a great deal of what I learned in the recent, great physical therapy.  Did this exercise need to be invented??  Oh... I have another hesitation:  since this discipline is apparently new, are there enough coaches well-trained enough to put us safely through our paces?

And here comes the commercial:  See your doctor first!  Does your doctor know a coach who can explain the needs and dangers?  And tell your doctor (and the Functional Fitness coach if there is one in your town) about anything like my spine fusion that might limit what you can do during the training, and limit what we could do after being trained.

I can almost, almost, almost picture myself doing more than I currently dare to do.  But like what?  Cleaning the gutters?  Definitely no skating.  I've been mostly motivated by not wanting to walk old, look old, and with osteoporosis, definitely not wanting to fall down.  Isn't that all dependent on simple BALANCE?

Do we need this something new?  Or is it just something extra to make me feel guilty when I don't keep up with it?

I wish you health. 


mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/fitness/in-depth/functional-fitness/art-20047680/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=osteoporosis-insight&pg=2

Physical Therapy - Graduation Day Self-congratulations

Yes, I did get a certificate of completion, some congrats and a hug.

What really counted was seeing my scores for this spring.  On the first day, as I've mentioned, my score was so low (compared to 50 points) that the notation said I should use a walker!

Then a few weeks ago, my count had improved to about 40 of 50 possible points

And on graduation day, after another complete re-eval, my score stood at 49 of  50, and my therapist said I can do everything they would expect of someone 16 years younger than I am.  I enjoyed telling my daughters about that.

 I did leave knowing they would prefer I climbed the  odd stairs to my apartment with my trusty cane still in hand.  (I did start this whole course of PT with the aim to go DOWN stairs without panic.  Or go down certain stairs at all.)


But when I got back to the apartment, the support and the practice made me grab the cane and do the funny, lumpy backless stairs without worry.

That's the result of PT that helps on every level.  Demand it for you.

I wish you health.

BC AND: STUDIES SHOW? Prove it! (A rant)

This can be the afternoon coffee break (and I'll need a coffee break after I rant  again about this pet peeve.)

Since I moved, the periodicals deluge is temporarily smaller.  This gave me time to pay attention, again, to the possibly "helpful info" in a mag I've been ranting on for years.

This month, again, Health was featured.  One sentence mentioned that its topic  has been published in a major medical-focus journal. The rest of the advice falls into the "studies show because we say so" pile. 

I admit being interested in one medicine they mentioned that I rarely take any more.  But my job is to look it up on line or ask a doctor if the threatened dangers have been proved.

This is our bodies, our brains we're talking about here.  Are the writers talking about lousy, careless, demonstrably faulty studies?  How did they even find the studies?  Or was there no specific study?

If I took medical advice from strangers on a bus, this wouldn't bother me.  But:

If the study is wrong, advising us to believe it is wrong.

If the study is great, its scientists deserve credit, complete with their credentials.

Round files and delete keys are safe places (yes I repeat) for uncredited "studies."