Mammos And Other Things That Are Smashed

I did it! I actually lived long enough to go to my doctor's appointment. I was sure after both my friends Lisa and Susan felt impressed to tell me to see a doctor that I was on the verge of extinction. But no, I am still alive and hopefully well.

I met my doctor--the one that had the least amount of patients and therefore could see me in less than a six month wait. She was nice, soft spoken and appeared to be competent.

She also prescribed a whole slew of tests that she wants me to take for no other reason than that I am old. I left with prescriptions for a mammogram, colonoscopy, lab work, and a bone density test.

Yesterday was my mammogram. I have had an intense fear of them since I had a bad experience many years ago. Since then I have just collected the prescriptions in a drawer--always with the intention of calling to schedule the appointment, but never quite working up the courage to do it.

So after nagging me daily, Susan sent an email saying she felt "imPRESSED" to remind me of the "PRESSING" conversation we had and that if I weren't too "PRESSED" for time, I needed to schedule that. What is more, she offered to go with me to hold my hand--figuratively speaking--and treat me to lunch afterward.

Well, who can pass up having lunch with a friend?:-)

I arrived with Susan by my side giving moral support. (Yes, I know!! I am the world's biggest baby!!:-) Finally I was called back and alone faced the technician.

"Stand here. Lean forward. Drop your elbow. Raise your chin. Hold your other hand out. Relax your arm. Don't move. Hold your breath. Let me know if the pain becomes unbearable."

Six times I went through that routine.

And then I was done.

And Susan took me to lunch where, in honor of the mammogram we ate----Paninis. A wonderful little sandwich that also gets smashed.

Well, no wonder that hurt!!!

My father stepped on a toothpick. No big deal. Many people have stepped on them before and lived to tell the tale, so we didn't think much of it. He complained of the pain in his foot and we giggled at how men don't handle pain very well.

Then his foot began to swell. And swell. Filled with infection and twice its normal size, no one was giggling any longer. There was something definitely wrong. But seriously, all this from a little prick of a toothpick?

A doctor's appointment was made. An MRI was ordered. Antibiotics were administered

Nothing was found and there was no improvement.

And so surgery was scheduled for yesterday morning to go in and see what was causing so much tissue contention.

They found the little offender, only it wasn't all that little. Buried deep in his foot was a shard of wood one and a quarter inches long!! How on earth does a piece of wood that size get that far into your foot?

No wonder he was in pain! The poor man!! Thankfully, today he is doing better.

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Also, thanks so much to all of you who were so encouraging before my talk in church last Sunday. I loved reading your comments and appreciated the things you said. I felt so much love and support. And in case you were wondering . . . :-) both the congregation and I survived. There was one uncomfortable moment for a girl in the audience, though. She is one of my seminary students and I love her dearly, but when I looked out and saw her, she was asleep!! Without thinking--and probably more out of habit--I blurted out, "________ are you really going to sleep through my talk?" Her head quickly popped up. A few minutes later I looked at her again and she and her friend (also one of my beloved seminary students) both had their heads back and their mouths open--totally awake, just trying to tease me.

I love those kids!!

I'm Off To See the Doctor . . .

I was walking with my friend Susan the other day when she asked me if I had been to the doctor recently. I laughed. I just barely went to the dentist after an eight year hiatus, (no cavities, thank you!!) and I was pretty sure it has been about that same amount of time since I have been to the doctor (minus the gynecologist).

Susan told me she had a check up recently and suggested I might consider doing the same. "Okay, I thought. When I get around to it, I will do that."

Then yesterday my friend Lisa called. She said she woke up with me on her mind and was wondering when was the last time I had been to see my doctor.

Now let me tell you something about Lisa. Lisa always gets premonitions about people. She knows who is pregnant before they do. She knows who the new Relief Society president will be before the bishop extends the call. So you don't want to dismiss Lisa when she says she has you on her mind.

"I am going to die!" I thought. My heart started racing, my chest was constricting, my head started pounding. In fact I was pretty sure I was going to have a heart attack or stroke that very minute.

"Calm down" I told myself. "You are going to be fine." But even so, I called the doctor's office. I told them I needed to make an appointment with my doctor. They told me my doctor is not taking new patients and I would need to see someone else.

"But I am not a new patient. I went there once about eight years ago."

"That is too long ago so you are considered a new patient"

"Well, maybe it was seven years ago."

"Still too long. But you can see one of the other doctors."

I didn't know anything about the other doctors so I had no idea how to choose between them. But I did want a female so I asked for that and they gave me a list and then added, "But most of them aren't seeing new patients for three or four months."

Are you kidding me?! Doesn't this lady realize both Lisa and Susan think I need to see a doctor now? What if I die before then?!

"Okay," I said, "Is there one you could recommend to me?"

"Well," she answered, "If you want to get in sooner you will want to see Dr. _______ (I can't remember the name). She doesn't have very many patients so is more available."

Great. I am trusting my life to a doctor no one else wants to see. "Okay. When can I get in?"

"March 2". Apparently even the unpopular doctor has a wait.

So that is how I have come to have a doctor's appointment for the first time in eight years. Now if I can only hold on that long . . . :-)

The Healthy Living Challenge!!

Needing a lot of encouragement, enormous support, and a huge dose of will power, I decided to join In This Small House in her Healthy Living Challenge and overcome those nasty holiday eating habits!!

There is no dieting involved, no starvation, or deprivation of all things tasty, it is simply a plan to encourage a healthier lifestyle. The challenge started yesterday and runs through February 8th. And there are even prizes involved!! So if you want to join, hurry and start today!

This is how it works. For four weeks you keep track of points you earn for different healthy choices. (Listed below) If you want a chart to help you, email Small House at smallhouse19@yahoo.com and she can send you the chart.

Point System

Drinking Water: 1 point per cup

Exercise: 1 point per 10 minutes

Veggies and Fruits: 1 point per 1/2 cup

Smile: 5 pts. for smiling throughout the day. (the power of positive thinking....VERY HEALTHY!)
Water= Fresh water. Reusable container is recommended, not required. Sorry, but juice, milk, coffee, soda, tea, lemonade etc. do not count. (It's a CHALLENGE)

Veggies and Fruit= Fresh, frozen, canned all qualify. Please do not count juice (high in calories and no fiber). What qualifies as a 1/2 cup serving? Any of the following....1/2 cup celery, 1/2 medium tomato, 1 small apple, 1/2 large banana, 6 baby carrots (you get the point). We'll just have to measure a bit. Add veggies and fruit to each meal and for snacks!!

Personally I will be walking for 40 minutes a day (five days a week) and using the food pyramid to determine how much of each serving I should have. I don't plan on eating 12 cups of vegies in one day, or exercising for two hours just to have more points.

So . . . Keep track of your points....and on February 8th, email your points to In This Small House. She will total the points and announce the winner. But seriously, if we do this for four weeks aren't we all winners anyway?!! :-)

Best of luck ladies!! And if you don't want to participate--then please feel free to send me some encouragement!!

Thank you, Thank you!!

Want to Live Longer? Try This.

I love the people who make me laugh and always take note of who provides me with my first good laugh of the day. And with the stress of the past few weeks, the occasional humorous moment has come as a great stress relief, and been even more appreciated.

In Elder Wirthlin’s most recent conference talk he suggests, “The next time you’re tempted to groan, you might try to laugh instead. It will extend your life. . ..” My friend Jenny thought it was interesting he would suggest that laughter could make us live longer, and so she decided to do some research and see what other benefits there could be to laughing. Here is what she found:

1. It Helps Manage Your hormones.

So laughter might not be the cure all for monthly mood swings, but it can help manage other hormones. Laughter reduces the level of stress hormones and increases the level of health-enhancing hormones.

2. It provides a nice internal workout.

Forget about all those ads for ab diets and workouts; just learn to laugh. A good belly laugh exercises the diaphragm, contracts the abs and even works out the shoulders, leaving muscles more relaxed afterward. It even provides a good workout for the heart. Laughing 100 times is the equivalent of 10 minutes on the rowing machine or 15 minutes on an exercise bike!

3. Physical release.

This one won’t come to a surprise to any female . . . Laughter provides a physical and emotional release. Crying does as well, but as Sister Hinckley said, “I prefer to laugh, crying gives me a headache.” I found this to be very true in the past couple weeks when I was spending my days at the hospital. In all the stress of watching monitors, waiting for lab reports and holding our breath for the next doctor visit, I appreciated the male patient who went running down the hall, in an effort to catch his wife because he remembered something he needed to tell her. Unfortunately he was too late, but the expression on his face when he noticed several people staring at him and then watching him sheepishly back down the hall to his room, clutching his gown closed behind him, was priceless and kept me giggling for a long time afterwards.

4. Changes your perspective.

Humor can give us a more light-hearted perspective on events we might otherwise view as a threat. Oh, how true is this! I found the greatest tool in averting discord in my marriage was to have a good sense of humor. It is also a great tool to help smooth over otherwise difficult situations.

For example . . . when my son was a teenager, I encouraged him to attend the youth dances and ask to dance girls who might not otherwise be asked. He reluctantly agreed to do so. One night he noticed such a young woman, and asked her to dance the next dance with him. Immediately the girls standing by her began to giggle, and the girl he asked hesitated, looked over at a man standing by a group of boys and smiled at him and then accepted my son’s offer. My son quickly realized he had just asked a married chaperone to dance. (She assured him her husband was not the jealous type:-) Ryan came home mortified and determined to never follow my advice again. But our fits of laughter eventually won him over, and he began to see the humor in what happened.

5. Has social benefits.

Laughter is contagious, so if you bring more laughter into your life, you can most likely help others around you laugh more. What’s even better is that the more you smile, the more others will too.

I saw an example of this one day while in Sicily with my friend Lisa. She was walking just ahead of me and smiled at an older , grumpy looking Italian man who was walking towards her. His face immediately went from grumpy to happy and for several yards he still had that smile on his face.

6. Fights illness better.

People who are optimistic (who are out there laughing) have stronger immune systems and are actually able to fight off illness better than pessimists.

7. Helps you live longer.

According to some recent research published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, elderly optimistic people, those who expected good things to happen, were less likely to die than pessimists. (That is a direct quote. It really did say they were “less likely to die,” so I guess if we can always be really happy, we may live forever!:-)

8. It feels like eating 2000 chocolate bars.

That’s right — according to The British Dental Health Foundation, a smile gives the same level of stimulation as eating 2000 chocolate bars. And oh, so many less calories!

9. It costs absolutely nothing.

And in today’s economy, that is a very good thing!

So there you have it. You can manage your hormones, make friends, improve your figure, be happy and live longer—all by having a good laugh! And that will, of course, bring great. . . . joy to your journey!