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Laurie4b

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Everything posted by Laurie4b

  1. I started and stopped to cover grey relatively early. I found that my hair holds even a temporary rinse. So while I was still mostly dark, I let it grow out. I didn't want to go to the trouble of touching up roots all the time and I personally would be really uncomfortable with "roots" and I didn't want to get to some older age when most of my hair was grey and have to cut it short and grow it out. It was just a practical matter for me.
  2. I start at breakfast. I usually have an egg with veges, usually spinach, onions, garlic, and avocado. I will also have either oatmeal or plain yogurt with frozen blueberries or other berries. Sometimes, I have oatmeal with a scoop of pumpkin puree and cinnamon with a few raisins. I've trained myself off most sugar over the years, so that is sweet enough for me. Others may need to add a bit of real maple syrup or something to sweeten it a bit. So breakfast will have 2-3 servings of F&V. Soups are a good place to pack the veges in during the winter. I keep some low-sodium soups from Trader Joe's in the pantry for something quick. I especially like their tomato. I might or might not toss some other veges in. Then I also have various homemade soups with veges. I like to make a curry using the Harvest- something- or -other pack of veges from Trader Joe's. It's a nice vege mix. Winter fruits. I love Clementines, Cara-cara oranges, and other citrus and they are always in a bowl on our table over the winter and are at their peak then. Bananas are another staple (but they can be kind of a trigger food for me.) It seems to me that kiwis and mangos are plentiful in the winter, too, but my memory may be off. I try to make snacks be about fruits and nuts. I like prunes, so I keep them on hand. I read somewhere that they help prevent osteoporosis and may even reverse it. Squash: Love spaghetti squash and serve it with more veges usually in the form of tomato sauce, but also using a Moosewood cookbook recipe. (You can google it online.) Pumpkin: I make pumpkin custard --essentially pumpkin pie filling but without crust. I reduce the sugar to something like 1/2-2/3 of what the recipe calls for so there is relatively little per serving. I will eat that for breakfast, but a lot of times I serve it as a vege at dinner. Apples: Besides eating them raw, I saute them with a little cinnamon. Yum! It makes a nice addition to a winter dinner. I sometimes grate or chop some and add to my morning oatmeal with or without pumpkin.
  3. What would happen to the expense if a lot of people began using it? Wouldn't it go down as long as manufacturers could keep up with demand? We've got the Baby Boom generation in or approaching prime time dementia years. I've always heard that the more use a new technology gets, the less expensive it becomes. Is that correct?
  4. Any news of progress is welcome. Thanks for sharing!
  5. Wow. I came on here to say how glad I am that it seems he is recovering. I am rather shocked. So, I am glad he's recovering. He's had a lot of tragedy in his life and I feel sad whenever I hear of a young life at risk like that. Hopefully, things will turn around for him.
  6. If your mom is in the elderly category (that may start in the 60s? I don't really know), if you google around, you'll find that papers written to geriatric doctors suggest alternatives for the drugs on the "avoid" list.
  7. I am so sorry that your mother got dementia despite her best efforts. I had a sweet friend who died of lung cancer in her 30s. She was not a smoker. I have still tried over the years to get loved ones to stop smoking because that is a known risk factor. I have a high risk of Alzheimers personally. I am not a pollyanna about it. However, whatever is within my choices that will reduce the risk is something I want to do. Perhaps what I do is all futile, but I believe I have my best chance of at least delaying its onset or maximizing my chances of avoiding it by reducing any risk factors within my control since genetics are not. Depending on the load of anticholinergic drugs, you can increase your risk 2-3 times. If my risk is already 60-80%, I don't need that. Most people, even many primary care doctors (according to NIH), are not aware of the risks of these drugs. Hence the PSA. I wish my loved one would have had the benefit of this knowledge.
  8. Ok, I have some time to weigh back in. (haha) I think something that needs to be stated up front is that all people are different and what works for one person doesn't work for everyone else. Additionally, once someone is very heavy, their whole body chemistry is set up against weight loss. So this is what has worked for me. YMMV. I had a reason that was compelling. I could not mess around with my health. My mindset shifted. I now look at food as not so much "I want that taste" as "What will this do for or to my body? What am I getting from this food?" Food is now my employee. With the exception of a rare treat, it has to work for me; it has to contribute to my health or it's unemployed. My mindset also shifted with regard to exercise. Prior to the cancer, I did exercise really well for about 6 months, then something would come up to throw me off schedule, and inertia would result in 3-6 months of not exercising. It just cycled. I do not believe that I have the luxury of that any more. Sometimes life happens and I don't exercise to schedule for 2-3 weeks, but there is still some exercise and I am always aware of when I can get back on schedule. This paragraph is to say that you have to have a really good reason in your head because this is a lifelong commitment to healthy choices. So if someone wants to lose weight past 50, I'd first encourage them to focus on the why. Write it down. Read it to yourself every day. Whatever works to keep the why in your head. Within that framework of mental commitment, here are some things that have helped me. Healthy eating: As I said above, I don't consider myself to be "on a diet." I just eat differently. My first focus was on shooting for 9 servings of fruit and veges per day. That is the target on the DASH diet (diet to lower blood pressure). I found that once I started getting loads of nutrients via fruits and veges (not to mention being full) that my cravings decreased for non-nutritious foods. For a while I kept a food journal, but don't anymore. A food journal is helpful at first. As I said above though, mostly what I tally is a count of fruits and veges. I am just not cut out to count points, grams, calories, etc. I eat a good amount of protein everyday from fish, fowl, plant sources, and dairy. I limit red meat to once a week or less. I eat avocado, olive oil, and nuts for their fats. I eat yogurt and kefir for probiotics. I do not count carbs, but I have found that it is best for me to keep grain at a minimum, and it's best for me to ingest them earlier in the day. If I start on grain at night, I can eat too much. . I can say no at the grocery store to "trigger foods" but not to them in person looking up at me in my kitchen! I pay attention to where what foods are stored so the first thing I see is not bread, for instance, but fruits and veges. I also ask the kids to put the cereal right back in the pantry. If it's left on the table, I am likely to grab mindless handfuls. Though we only have healthy low sugar cereals, mindless eating adds up. Desserts are for special occasions. They are not in the house otherwise. The one exception is dark chocolate. I keep a supply of Trader Joe's organic dark chocolate bars around. I consider it healthy and a few squares will do when I want something sweet. Because it's not as rich and creamy as some other bars, I don't keep it eating it for the melt-in-your mouth sensation. Exercise: For me, exercise is key. It changes the way I feel and I am less likely to overeat after exercising. (For some people the reverse is true, so I am lucky in that regard.) I could not permanently lose weight without it. I think that exercise must adjust internal body chemistry for me. If I don't exercise, I won't eat as well. I am fortunate to have been an athlete in high school and college, so I have that foundation. I let things go quite a bit over the years though with my on-off exercise. Researching how to get rid of the most harmful fat around the belly, I found that studies show that high intensity interval training (HIIT) is the best way to zap that, but you can maintain the loss through simply brisk walking. You regain it fast (even if not regaining weight) if you are sedentary---like even for a few weeks. Google visceral fat if you want scientific studies. I sometimes do HIIT on the treadmill, but my HIIT of choice is Zumba. I will go to Zumba when I "don't feel like" exercising because I enjoy it so much. I also love to hike outside. I do not love to do strength training, but it is important to build muscle mass after 50. When you diet about half of what you lose is muscle mass. Add that to age-related muscle loss and that's not looking good for your health. Muscle mass is what is going to keep you out of the nursing home. (For example, if your legs and butt muscles can no longer do squats, you can't use the toilet on your own. ) So I weight train. Though I don't find it particularly fun, I do focus on what I do like: I like challenging myself and beating what I did previously. I like the endorphin rush a whole lot! And I like how strong I feel just when I move around in everyday life. I think the "find something you like" principle is really important with exercise and focusing on what feels good is also. I do strength training 2-3 times/week, try to get in at least 10,000 steps per day (I use a fitbit) and do Zumba 3 times per week. I also keep an eye on how long I am sitting at any given time and try to get up at least once an hour and move around for a few minutes. I keep an exercise log because it motivates me. Sleep: you will not lose weight if you don't sleep well. It screws around with the hormones that regulate eating. So I focus on getting 8 hours. Sleep hygiene, etc. Other stuff: I weigh myself daily. This works for me. It bothers other people, discourages them and is better for them to weigh less often. I know my weight will fluctuate some, but I want to see the trend. When I gain, I gain fast and it doesn't seem to correlate exactly with food, etc. I also measure around my belly every 5 pounds or so, because my real target is belly fat loss. not weight loss. I also do a lot of reading of health & exercise websites It keeps me motivated and my mind in the game. So yes, it's possible. It's not a short-term project, however, but a change of lifestyle. It requires a fair amount of time and focus.
  9. I'm sorry. Sounds like what I wrote was triggering. I was not intending to judge people taking meds they need and making hard choices between now and then. I have my own hard choices in other areas. However, my loved one was taking 3 of these drugs for minor issues. Not sure any issues actually required meds, but alternatives were available if so. I wish that the members of my family had known so that the tragedy we are facing could have been avoided.
  10. Well, I had cancer but that didn't cause weight loss. It motivated it. I have lost over 50 lbs. 25 of that has been off for 3 years. The other is within the past year. Healthy eating. I don't count calories, fat grams, etc. However, I do keep a mental tab of how many fruits and veges I have eaten. I am not on a diet. I have simply continued to refine my food to more and more healthy choices. Right now, desserts are for special occasions only. Exercise has been key for me. I don't think it's burning calories so much as altering hormone levels. I don't have time to type more right now, but will when I get back. I have found what works for me and am glad to share. YMMV.
  11. Many common drugs such as those used for colds, allergies, and stomach upset, are counter-indicated if you are at risk for dementia, either because of age (elderly shouldn't take them) or because of family history. They can cause it directly or can accelerate the symptoms of underlying Alzheimer's, etc. There is conflicting data on whether discontinuing them reverses the damage or not. Many primary care physicians who do not specialize in geriatrics do not know this. Categories of drugs that need to be checked out: drugs for allergies, insomnia, indigestion, depression/anxiety, and others. This Huffington Post article is accurate in every area I've checked it and accessible to the general reader. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-galland-md/memory-loss-drugs-_b_822245.html The Beers List is put out by the American Geriatric Association. It is less easy to read, but if you have a specific interest, you can ascertain the info. http://www.americangeriatrics.org/files/documents/beers/2012AGSBeersCriteriaCitations.pdf It's a good one if you need to convince a primary care physician to pay attention to you. Scroll down to Table 3 and look for Dementia and Cognitive impairment. The H2 receptor antagonists include many OTC and prescription stomach meds The anticholinergic drugs are listed in a separate table. (Table 9) They include drugs such as Bendryl, Claritin, etc. http://www.agingbraincare.org/uploads/products/ACB_scale_-_legal_size.pdf This is a scale ranking the burden of anticholingeric drugs. I am in great heartache because of lack of this knowledge with regards to a loved one. I hope that this will prevent the same for someone else.
  12. The term "trophy wife" to me connotes an empty-headed but beautiful woman. It means a man has married her just for her looks. So while it is complimentary of looks, it is a term that is insulting in all other ways. However, that may not be the way the person meant it.
  13. I think in most churches, it would most likely be up to the individual making the prayer request to filter what is and is not okay to say. It's pretty similar to whether or not someone could say the same thing in a gathering of people. I do think you're going to have to address it directly if you don't want it to happen again. I like to be in control of my medical information as well. I would consider it an issue with the person who posted the request, not with the church, though. I have had relatives share information that I didn't want shared, too---not with churches but with other relatives. To me, it's the same thing. They should have asked me first.
  14. I don't think it's debatable that it is not considered as reliable as mammograms by mainstream medicine.That's what I was referring to by saying it is considered alternative medicine. I also said that it may be in the future. For now: http://www.cancer.org/treatment/understandingyourdiagnosis/examsandtestdescriptions/mammogramsandotherbreastimagingprocedures/mammograms-and-other-breast-imaging-procedures-newer-br-imaging-tests This is June 2015 http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Safety/AlertsandNotices/ucm257259.htm From the FDA This is why insurance companies don't cover it, which was one of the questions asked that I responded to. Here's one example. http://www.aetna.com/cpb/medical/data/1_99/0029.html March 2015
  15. No, thermography is not considered as reliable as mammography. Maybe one day it will be but for now, it's more in the "alternative" category of medicine. An MRI is an alternative, but much more expensive.
  16. I think making people uncomfortable in pursuit of your own pleasure is rude. Most people are uncomfortable when there is conflict so to impose that on a social gathering is rude. I think it is okay to discuss with people who are equally comfortable and where there is a potential referee. For instance, I have sons who are close to opposite ends of the political spectrum and they will definitely argue at the dinner table. However, they are fairly respectful to one another and when it gets old for the rest of us, I can tell them to cut it out. Here the way most people feel about it. It's two pundit brothers one who is a Democrat and one who is a Republican on TV when their mother calls in .
  17. I am not uber fashionable, but want to buy a new pair of boots and want to see what is in style and how the various styles look with pants and skirts that hit just above the knee. I want fashion for normal women, not the kind of thing you often see on runways or in fashion magazines. Any recommendations?
  18. Cannot imagine anyone at our house getting tired of pot roast! I use leftovers in chili, vegetable soup, for barbeque, served over pasta with gravy-based sauce and veges, etc. You can use it in any recipe that calls for ground beef, only it's better!
  19. I would not suggest utilizing the time in any way that is not designed to get you back to sleep. You don't want to train your body to the new wake up time. If you were to treat it as "found time" you may be creating a major sleep issue. Google around for sleep deprivation and driving. Though you may "feel fine," that is not a good measure of your driving competence; you want to make sure that you have enough sleep not to be dangerous on the road. Sleep deprivation actually slows reflexes, etc just as severely as alcohol use. Things you can try: Make sure that your room is dark. Cool is good, too. Rhythmic breathing: count in, hold, slowly blow out If you are awake in your bed longer than 15-20 min, get up and go sleep in a spare bed, on the couch, etc. You don't want your body to associate your bed with wakefulness. You can first stop off in the kitchen and eat some carbs. That often helps me go to sleep. It can also help if I read until I get really sleepy again. Avoid screens as they will further throw off your sleep/wake cycle. When you get up in the morning, go outside and get some morning sun. That helps set your clock.
  20. Laurie4b, on 13 Oct 2015 - 04:09 AM, said: Federal law mandates that every.single. child. in the US is provided a free and appropriate public education. Federal law mandates that the school systems pay for this, even if the school must pay for the megabucks boarding school. (They can almost always get out of this step, though, through providing alternatives. Parents don't get to choose.) When a school is not following the IEP, they are breaking the law, pure and simple. Not sure of what point you are making. I happen to agree with you that other children shouldn't live in fear, either. I'm not sure whether you intended what you said in quoting me to be an argument or not. All children are entitled to a free and appropriate public education. What was at question and what was addressed by the federal law (and most state laws which followed suit) was whether or not children with disabilities were entitled to a free and appropriate education. Our country decided that they were. The school is currently providing a free but not an appropriate education for the child in question in the OP. According to the father, for instance, the child has an IEP that is not being implemented. An appropriate education for a child who has tendencies to be violent would provide for strategies to prevent that violence in the first place, strategies to de-escalate, and strategies to protect that child and others on rare occasions when the plan failed. If those occasions are more than rare, then the mainstream classroom is not the "appropriate" (there is that word again) setting and the child is moved to a self-contained classroom or in some cases, to an alternate school.
  21. Tap, thank you for sharing. I hope that you are surrounded by people who support you as you support your dd. Federal (and most state) law requires a free and appropriate education be given to every child in the US. This includes children whose issues manifest in violence. I used to work with the most violent kids in our state in a residential educational setting and we had a foster child for two years with attachment disorder, so I've lived both sides of the system. Later, I worked with some less violent kids who had been sent to a residential setting for 6 months, then we worked with individual school systems to accommodate the students back in their home districts. Back then, there was a continuum of services from mainstream classroom in a public school to going to a resource classroom, to a self-contained special needs classroom. An individual aide was a possibility at any of these levels. If a local school couldn't accommodate a particular child's needs, then there was often an alternate school in the district, or at least the region where a child could be sent and still live at home. Our state also had several residential settings where children could attend, where they got very intensive intervention and where plans that worked were developed and given to the schools. The one missing piece was long term residential care, which some children need. They had to be sent out of state for that. Additionally, there was free or sliding scale mental health services available for children and their families. However, in the past 25-30 years, I have watched our state budget change until this system has been almost entirely dismantled. We need some sense of collective responsibility for caring for the children with the highest needs, and violent children are certainly one group with those needs. The collective responsibility needs to include a willingness at the level of the pocketbook. There are some children beyond the ability of 2 parents to care for. We recognize this with physical illness. We have a safety net if a family has a child with cancer, for instance. There is Medicaid for those without private insurance and hospitals themselves make up some of the difference. We would never (I hope) say, "The parents are the ones ultimately responsible for paying and if they can't... <shrug> not my problem. We recognize that sometimes need is greater than any family without the last name of Gates or Koch or Winfrey can pay for privately. The same is true for children with mental health issues that result in violent behavior. It's just more difficult to recognize the disability because it's invisible and a child with obvious signs of chemo (eg baldness) tugs on our collective heartstrings and a child who manifests violence just doesn't. In fact, that child arouses the opposite in some. If the child in question in the article has an IEP that the school district is not implementing, the parents have to go through a series of administrative hearings to get them to implement it. They can also sue the school district.
  22. You sound like you are blaming the parents for adopting him and/or for not homeschooling him. Is that true? How do you even know what the parents knew about his future potential when adopting him? How do you know that the family doesn't need two parents' income in order to pay for his therapies, etc.? Sometimes a child is beyond parents' ability to care for or homeschool. Did you read what Tap wrote? Federal law mandates that every.single. child. in the US is provided a free and appropriate public education. Federal law mandates that the school systems pay for this, even if the school must pay for the megabucks boarding school. (They can almost always get out of this step, though, through providing alternatives. Parents don't get to choose.) When a school is not following the IEP, they are breaking the law, pure and simple.
  23. I am guessing that they may vary, but if you have a po box, could you share the fee per month? Just trying to get ballpark idea. I am not sure how to interpret what I see on the USPS site. This would be for a box big enough to hold letters only.
  24. I'm so sorry that you had that experience. I have intense anxiety in medical situations because of a history of sexual assault by a physician (and several friends who had similar experiences--some not as bad, some worse.) Most medical providers are very sympathetic and work with me so that I can get the care I need without triggering trauma. So if you trust your gyn, I would talk with him/her about your experience. If you don't feel like you'll get understanding, fire that one and find a new one you can trust. I can imagine a few different scenarios that would get you what you need, so I am optimistic there is a solution out there for you.
  25. Was it pain that caused you to faint or anxiety? My mammograms have never been painful but I have read that other women do experience pain. As I posted upthread, BRAC is the only gene they have identified, so not having BRAC doesn't mean that there is not a genetic component. I thought because the breast cancer in our family was on my father's side and fairly removed from me (grandmother, aunt) that it was not genetic. I was told by the genetic counselor that the probability is that it was genetic; they know that there are other genes involved, but they haven't specifically identified those yet. BRAC is the only one they can test for IOW. You probably cannot get coverage for thermography because there is not medical data supporting its effectiveness in screening. However, a medical alternative to a mammogram is an MRI. It's more expensive, so it's generally used to check subsequently to a mammogram, but depending on where you get it done, you may be able to afford it out of pocket. (Generally, smaller private providers are less expensive than large hospitals.) I would strongly encourage you to talk to your gyn about helping you solve the problem rather than trying to solve the problem and then talking with your gyn about scheduling a mammo or telling him/her that you refuse one. Depending on what your specific issue is, yes, Valium and a friend could be helpful and a physician would probably very willingly prescribe an antianxiety med. If you go the mammo route, given your anxiety, I would go to a large hospital or other facility where a radiologist reads the images while the patient is still there so that you don't have to face the possibility of a "call back." It can all get done in one day. Or an MRI might be appropriate and the gyn might advocate for it with the insurance company. (There is no pain with an MRI, but I don't know if pain was the issue.) The fact that you have a first degree relative with the disease and that you actually fainted during your first mammo is evidence that you need screening, but perhaps the insurance company would agree to the more expensive test given your history. You could also work with a cognitive behavioral therapist to help address your anxiety around the whole issue. Maybe it would be helpful to address any anxiety about talking with your gyn about the issue.
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