Kendra and Joe Duggar 7: Not Pregnant Yet - Oops They Are Expecting

[louisa05]

My dad took excellent care of himself. Diet, exercise. All of it.

And was diagnosed with cancer a month before his 71st b-day and died from it a month short of three years later.

Take care of yourself. But don’t pretend there are guarantees. There are none. You can do everything right and still get something fatal

. And you can do everything wrong and keep on living like my 82 year old alcoholic uncle who is overweight, lived on fried food, ate raw meat, takes pain killers like Vicodin with vodka and never exercised a minute in his adult life.

[singsingsing]

30 minutes ago, louisa05 said:

My dad took excellent care of himself. Diet, exercise. All of it.

And was diagnosed with cancer a month before his 71st b-day and died from it a month short of three years later.

Take care of yourself. But don’t pretend there are guarantees. There are none. You can do everything right and still get something fatal

. And you can do everything wrong and keep on living like my 82 year old alcoholic uncle who is overweight, lived on fried food, ate raw meat, takes pain killers like Vicodin with vodka and never exercised a minute in his adult life.

All very true, but it's hard to say whether someone who took excellent care of themselves but died at a relatively early age may or may not have died far earlier had they not taken care of themselves. And it's also about quality of life in the mean time. Honestly, that's mostly what it's about for me. Of course I would love to live to be a healthy, happy, and active 90-year-old woman, but I could also be hit by a truck tomorrow. I can't see myself regretting trying to live a healthy lifestyle regardless of the ultimate outcome.

[SapphireSlytherin]

OK - all you Type 1 diabetics:  I just saw a video on Facebook that says eating okra every day will cure diabetes.

 

2 minutes ago, singsingsing said:

I can't see myself regretting trying to live a healthy lifestyle regardless of the ultimate outcome.

True. Life is a crapshoot. I got cancer in my 30s so there's that. Didn't smoke, ate healthy food, worked out. Have a dear vegan friend who is a COMPLETE health nut...also cancer. But she's Stage IV and I'm not.

[justoneoftwo]

1 hour ago, louisa05 said:

My dad took excellent care of himself. Diet, exercise. All of it.

And was diagnosed with cancer a month before his 71st b-day and died from it a month short of three years later.

Take care of yourself. But don’t pretend there are guarantees. There are none. You can do everything right and still get something fatal

. And you can do everything wrong and keep on living like my 82 year old alcoholic uncle who is overweight, lived on fried food, ate raw meat, takes pain killers like Vicodin with vodka and never exercised a minute in his adult life.

So true! My alcoholic chain smoking grandmother lived to her 90s.  Thats not to say don't worry do what you want, just to say there are no promises.  Also, if something makes your life much better, giving it up may not be the be all end all.  I like having a drink once in a while.  Its probably not good for me, but I like it and am going to continue.  

[SapphireSlytherin]

9 minutes ago, justoneoftwo said:

My alcoholic chain smoking grandmother lived to her 90s.

We must be cousins, because this was my grandmother too. Plus she was hateful and mean.

[louisa05]

All very true, but it's hard to say whether someone who took excellent care of themselves but died at a relatively early age may or may not have died far earlier had they not taken care of themselves. And it's also about quality of life in the mean time. Honestly, that's mostly what it's about for me. Of course I would love to live to be a healthy, happy, and active 90-year-old woman, but I could also be hit by a truck tomorrow. I can't see myself regretting trying to live a healthy lifestyle regardless of the ultimate outcome.

If you have had a serious illness or experienced a loved ones terminal illness, you get asked all the time what you or they did wrong to cause it. Many many people have the notion that they can eat and exercise their way to perfect health and possibly immortality if they just do all the right things. When I answered people that no, my dad didn’t smoke, drink, eat a bad diet or overeat and was not obese and did exercise regularly, they would get visibly flustered or upset. They would ask even more specific “lifestyle “ questions in search of that magic thing that they don’t do or do do that must have given him cancer.

People want to believe a certain kind of lifestyle is a magic health talisman. I did not at all advocate not doing your best to live a healthy lifestyle. But don’t immediately assume that anyone with a health problem didn’t do the same.

[cascarones]

I've got chronic migraines, lots of unsolicited advice/cures and plenty of forwarded emails whenever someone reads something about them. Unless it's from my mother, who just prints it out and mails it to me, because links confuse her. Currently it's all about the daith piercing, which may help some people, but in clinical trials shows a mere placebo effect and is generally considered to have more risks than benefits.

Today's gem: some BS natural news article on how all left handed people have migraines and it can be cured by willfully changing your handedness. Mike Adams is such a cracked pot, spewing pseudoscience left and right.

I'm finally getting to see a neurologist (after monnnnths of waiting) out here, which is nice, because all I really need to do is hand over my treatment plan and get it going so I can get my Botox shots.  

[singsingsing]

10 minutes ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

We must be cousins, because this was my grandmother too. Plus she was hateful and mean.

Lol, we all seem to have the same grandmother. Mine (not the one who takes antibiotics every time she has a cough) is 80, has been a chain smoker all her life, overweight, extremely high strung, and generally miserable. She had a hip replacement a few years ago, and... that's it. So far.

I also love those articles you see about women who are in their 100s celebrating a birthday, and when asked what they eat or whatever they say something like, 'I eat a piece of cake every day'/'I love whiskey'/'French fries and pizza'. I think my favourite was, 'I stayed away from men.'

1 minute ago, louisa05 said:

If you have had a serious illness or experienced a loved ones terminal illness, you get asked all the time what you or they did wrong to cause it. Many many people have the notion that they can eat and exercise their way to perfect health and possibly immortality if they just do all the right things. When I answered people that no, my dad didn’t smoke, drink, eat a bad diet or overeat and was not obese and did exercise regularly, they would get visibly flustered or upset. They would ask even more specific “lifestyle “ questions in search of that magic thing that they don’t do or do do that must have given him cancer.

People want to believe a certain kind of lifestyle is a magic health talisman. I did not at all advocate not doing your best to live a healthy lifestyle. But don’t immediately assume that anyone with a health problem didn’t do the same.

 

Trust me, I know. It sucks.

[justoneoftwo]

18 minutes ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

We must be cousins, because this was my grandmother too. Plus she was hateful and mean.

Mine was okay (to me, my sister and parents didn't think so but I was really little) until she got dementia.  Others thought she was pretty bad,  sometimes be a little kid and not knowing the subtext of statements can help!

[Alisamer]

35 minutes ago, justoneoftwo said:

...  Also, if something makes your life much better, giving it up may not be the be all end all.  I like having a drink once in a while.  Its probably not good for me, but I like it and am going to continue.  

My doctor is on me to drink a glass of red wine every night, to increase my good cholesterol. I like it fine (well, the sweet muscadine wines, at least), but just keep forgetting! 

Also I really want a Daith piercing. Just because they are pretty. I know a couple people who claim they help their headaches, but the aesthetic is the main reason they got them I think.

[KelseyAnn]

4 hours ago, BabyFactoryClosing said:

Yeeeup. My fundie lite church was this way. No yoga because its pagan and will let Satan in, DEFINITELY no meditating because an empty mind lets Satan in. Actually just don't do anything other than read the bible and go to church or you'll let Satan in. It's an exhausting way to live.

Ugh, this is like that fundie at my local coffee shop that once told me therapy was Satanic and would lead me away from God. 

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

4 hours ago, Lurker said:

 My parents were born in 1916 and 1919 and firmly beleived in the magic of medicine, and were the youngest of their large families.  My mother made sure we had antibotics for everything.  She had a box of samples given to her by her MD brother and we swallowed pills for earaches,  colds, stomach viruses, etc.

But, thinking about it, in their lifetime pills were  the new fangled lifesavers.  My father had a sibling that died from tuberculosis, and another from complications after a burst appendix.   My dad was very scarred from acne. Two of my mother’s siblings had mastoid  infections with the resultant loss of hearing. 

I just looked it up and in the US antibiotics came in use in the late 1930’s,  if you were luckly to have access to them.

I give a pass to their generation and the next one for their unwavering belief in living life better with medicine because they were around when friends and family died from things we don’t even think about.

This is another reason people today complain about vaccinating their kids. They don't remember what it was like before vaccines. My parents are 71 and they remember polio, they were young children when the vaccine was found. My mother remember a city wide quarantine in her town when she was about 6, they weren't allowed to leave their yard, she was the 4th of 5 (6 but 6 had not been born yet) and they would play games with neighbor kids but by shouting across the yards. She remembers several classmate getting sick from polio, and 1 dying.  She lost a sister to the measles before she was born, her mother had was 1 of 14 siblings (17 initially but 3 died in childhood) until 1918 and then she was 1 of 7,  died in the WWI & of the Spanish flu. Can you imagine losing 10 siblings? Her parents survived, can you imagine having 10 children die? We can't fathom this because we have vaccines and car seats, and bike helmets and food safety things that people today piss and moan about and call government intrusion. Our parents and grand parents didn't' complain about these things because they survived the alternatives.  

[KelseyAnn]

21 minutes ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

This is another reason people today complain about vaccinating their kids. They don't remember what it was like before vaccines. 

 

This! My mother was the most neglectful, abusive woman I ever knew but even SHE got us vaccinated. Granted off schedule and very late, but still, she knew enough to get us vaccinated. 

[karen77]

39 minutes ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

This is another reason people today complain about vaccinating their kids. They don't remember what it was like before vaccines. My parents are 71 and they remember polio, they were young children when the vaccine was found. My mother remember a city wide quarantine in her town when she was about 6, they weren't allowed to leave their yard, she was the 4th of 5 (6 but 6 had not been born yet) and they would play games with neighbor kids but by shouting across the yards. She remembers several classmate getting sick from polio, and 1 dying.  She lost a sister to the measles before she was born, her mother had was 1 of 14 siblings (17 initially but 3 died in childhood) until 1918 and then she was 1 of 7,  died in the WWI & of the Spanish flu. Can you imagine losing 10 siblings? Her parents survived, can you imagine having 10 children die? We can't fathom this because we have vaccines and car seats, and bike helmets and food safety things that people today piss and moan about and call government intrusion. Our parents and grand parents didn't' complain about these things because they survived the alternatives.  

Exactly!!!

I had an uncle die from polio at 6, which is  really the reason my mom is here (replacement child).

[Bad Wolf]

Two children in my small village school got polio. When the vaccine came out, we lined right up.

[SapphireSlytherin]

2 hours ago, Alisamer said:

Also I really want a Daith piercing. Just because they are pretty. I know a couple people who claim they help their headaches, but the aesthetic is the main reason they got them I think.

My daughter has the Daith piercing -- and she swears it has basically cured her migraines.  

[SassyPants]

On 11/27/2017 at 6:10 PM, Fun Undies said:

Hey, who wouldn't love to cure their disease(s) with some quick changes to their diet, a walk through the woods, and getting enough sleep - all these things have definitely helped me have more energy on some days.  On other days, I need an inhaler to breathe.  Would I love not to need it?  Of course!   Am I happy for those who can get off a med, if they no longer need it?  Definitely.  

I just hope we don't derail the thread with a debate on "lifestyle changes will change EVERYTHING!!".
(Not trying to suggest that's what's being discussed atm, but I'm a little worried it's heading in that direction )

You know when the commercial says, "when diet and exercise are not enough"? Yep, that's me. I lose weight via more exercise and a more restrictive diet, and my BP goes up. I have had every outpatient cardiac assessment available- aside from a rapid heart rate, I do not have heart disease. So, I take a beta blocker.

People also need to know that in the last 5 years the AMA has tightened the parameters on acceptable limits for many blood and chemistry values. 

Remember when the upper limits for blood glucose was 130? Then 100, now it's under 100, and I have heard that 80 is going to be the next recommended level.

Pretty soon everyone over 35 will be on meds for something.

21 hours ago, Rachel333 said:

I've seen a lot of doctors say that they try to push diet and exercise as a first resort but they get resistance from patients and administrators who stress patient satisfaction rates above everything (which is a terrible way to judge doctors). Doctors who prescribe a lot of medication get better satisfaction scores so it's a lot easier to just prescribe the pills people want. An example I've seen a lot is patients coming in with something like a cold wanting to be prescribed antibiotics even though they don't need them, and unfortunately it's easier for a doctor to comply and make the patient feel like the doctor is doing something than to tell the patient that there's no medication that can help, which can be unsatisfying for the patient and risk the patient giving the doctor poor satisfaction scores and/or bad online reviews that jeopardize the doctor's career. 

Lifestyle change is also a lot harder than taking a pill and, especially when weight is involved, it can be a sensitive subject. I also know that for me sometimes when someone says that I need to change my diet and exercise habits to fix my health problems it can feel like they're saying that it's my fault that I have those issues, while I don't typically get that impression from someone suggesting that I try a particular medication or treatment.

Years ago, I got the diet and exercise talk from my doctor who was younger and far more in need of a diet and exercise talk than I was-

#fail

[EmmieJ]

On 11/28/2017 at 3:05 PM, MakeItSo said:

If I could get a dollar for every time someone asks if I've tried cinnamon to cure my type 1 diabetes, I'd already be making a nice dent into my student loan repayments... somehow, when people find out you have an autoimmune disease/chronic illness, everyone turns into a Licensed Medical Professional.

 

Edited because I can't grammar today...

When I was diagnosed Type II, I searched for answers/cures.  Cinnamon, apple cider vinegar, and various exotic fruits and vegetables were all highly recommended.  I'm embarrassed to admit, I tried apple cider vinegar.  It had zero effect.  

[JillyO]

Ugh. Whenever I see a new doctor and tell them I have high blood pressure, they MUST find out what I do to cause it. I'm young, female, and have a very healthy weight. This much they can see. All of these make it rather unlikely that I would have high blood pressure. So then they want to know if I exercize regularly (yes, five times a week) and if I smoke (no, I do not). At that point, they stop believing me. I get asked at least three more times "are you sure you don't smoke?" Yes, I'm sure. We just have unexplained hypertension in my paternal family. I was diagnosed at 22. My brother was diagnosed at 34, but he never goes to the doctor, so he's probably had it way longer. My dad was diagnosed at 19. My aunt was also in her 20s. My grandparents both had hypertension, and my grandpa dropped dead from a heart attack when my dad was 14. I did not do anything to cause my high blood pressure. I even went off the pill when I was diagnosed, even though my doctor said I could keep taking it as long as my BP was under control via beta blockers. I wish people would just mind their own damn business. End of rant.

[MakeItSo]

1 hour ago, EmmieJ said:

When I was diagnosed Type II, I searched for answers/cures.  Cinnamon, apple cider vinegar, and various exotic fruits and vegetables were all highly recommended.  I'm embarrassed to admit, I tried apple cider vinegar.  It had zero effect.  

don't be embarrassed! It's natural to want to figure out ways to get better when one gets a diagnosis, especially something like diabetes that is by association so directly tied to food. I personally don't like all the shaming society likes to dish out for type 2's (you guys have a genetic component, too. I have met a skinny, young type 2). Type 1 comes with some prejudices, as well, for example, "only kids can get it". Plenty of adults who first get misdiagnosed as T2 because they are not 8 years old and maybe didn't happen to lose tons of weight prior to dx. T1 is also considered the "bad type" by some older folks, though I cannot imagine any type being particularly "good" or "fun". I've done a lot of research on all different kinds of diabetes and I've talked to some of my T2 friends, as well and I've noticed that a good portion of the challenges we face seem to be more social than medical. (didn't mean for this to turn into rant, I apologize  ) Take care and if anyone has any questions about T1 or carb counts, meters, pumps, etc, let me know I know sometimes it can be hard to find resources.

[SamiKatz]

14 hours ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

My daughter has the Daith piercing -- and she swears it has basically cured her migraines.  

Very interested, I hadn't heard about this connection before.  Definitely looking into this, might be a NY present for myself.

[bashfulpixie]

11 hours ago, SassyPants said:

People also need to know that in the last 5 years the AMA has tightened the parameters on acceptable limits for many blood and chemistry values. 

Remember when the upper limits for blood glucose was 130? Then 100, now it's under 100, and I have heard that 80 is going to be the next recommended level.

Pretty soon everyone over 35 will be on meds for something.

Am I the only one who has issues with this?  I feel like they're actively pushing people to be on pills. 

I'm so distrusting of our healthcare industry.  Between Big Pharma and the insurance industry, I don't know whether to believe these recommendations are for our health, or to put more money in their pockets.  Not enough people on HBP meds?  Lower the limits, more money rolls in. (And yes, I realize this probably qualifies me for a tin foil hat)

[NotQuiteMotY]

18 hours ago, cascarones said:

Today's gem: some BS natural news article on how all left handed people have migraines and it can be cured by willfully changing your handedness. Mike Adams is such a cracked pot, spewing pseudoscience left and right.

I'm finally getting to see a neurologist (after monnnnths of waiting) out here, which is nice, because all I really need to do is hand over my treatment plan and get it going so I can get my Botox shots.  

Gee, if it's left-handed-Ness that does it, I guess I'm actually left-handed, even though I've spent my whole life with a dominant right hand!

Weird. Very weird.

Glad you're getting somewhere with treatment!

[SapphireSlytherin]

48 minutes ago, bashfulpixie said:

I feel like they're actively pushing people to be on pills. 

They are. MONEY MONEY MONEY in their pockets while our bodies are needlessly poisoned.

I'm 51 and take exactly ZERO meds every day. Try checking into the hospital for a wonky gall bladder and telling them you take no meds. They don't believe you. And then they bring you an Ambien at night. Seriously. I asked why I was getting an Ambien when I don't ever take it - never have. They said they gave them to EVERYBODY. I refused it.

 

[Bad Wolf]

Try being almost 70 and no meds. Except for supplements like calcium.