My Novels

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

After numerous medical tests, serious consideration...and other related research, it has come to my attention that: I AM AGING!

If it weren't so serious, I would have to laugh. I mean, think about it: Did people 75 years ago need a lot of "medical tests" to tell them they were getting OLDER? Why no...no they didn't.

Today I had a bone density test; and surprise,suprise, sure enough it showed that I had "significant bone loss." When I asked if this was related to my back pain, the tech said, "No, although you might be have arthritis." Yes, my paternal grandmother had terrible arthritis, but she also lived to be 92! I wonder if she'd had a bone density test in her 50s if it would have shown she had "significant bone loss?"

Today the tech gave me some calcium supliment (though I'd been taking similar ones for a couple years) and also a booklet about Fosamax. Yeah, the annoying and constant commercials for Fosamax -- one and the same. I have a sneaking suspicion that ALL women over 50 get this same advice when they have a bone density test: take supliments and also Fosamax.

Color me paranoid, but could it be , perchance, that the drug industry has come up with a way to get money out of all of us baby-boomers...drugs designed to stop the aging process? When in fact there is NO certainty to that and never has been.

I had been following ALL the advice for menopausal women: eating right, exercising (biking) daily, not overweight. In the booklet it has a list of "risk factors" for bone loss:

1. Personal history of fracture as an adult.

2. History of frgility fracture in a first-degree relative

3. Low body weight (less than 127 lbs) {So this means, I guess, we should be fat?}

4. Current smoking

5. Use of corticosteriod therapy for more than 3 months

6. Imparied vision

7. Estrogen deficiency at an early age (younger than 45 years)

8. Dementia

9. Poor health or fraility

10. Recent falls

11.Low calcium intake (lifelong)

12 Low physical activity

Now, I ask you (observant reader) doesn't this list pretty much encompass ALL women who are aging? Could it be that the pharmaceutical companies have hit on the way to make big bucks?

It's somewhat depressing to get older; I should know, because IT IS HAPPENING TO ME. But I have to wonder if "drugs" are the answer to stopping and/or reversing aging? I mean, hasn't mankind been searching for that proverbial "fountain of youth" from time immemorial?

What I am beginning to realize and accept is that WE ALL AGE. Nothing, absolutely NOTHING has thus far been found to STOP the physical/biological effects of aging. Hence, if you try to cheat death by drugs, plastic surgery or whatever means, you are a fool. Humans die, it happens every single day. There is NO magical pill, no magical cure for basically what we all Know (even if subconsciously): we are going to die, it is all a matter of time. No doubt there ARE a few drugs that genuinely help people live longer -- but the jury is still out on that, because there's not been that many studies done on the end-result of many newer drugs. We all realize that side effects can be devastating too.

So this rant is simply the result of what I have accepted: No drug, no medical test is going to dodge the bullet of death. Each person must decide whether the benefit of a drug is worth the side effect.

I still haven't had a call from my doctor to discuss the results of my MRI either.

Looks like I'm in for a lot of suffering before my physical decay provides death. Unless, of course, I decide to evade it by self-anniliation.

Friday, March 25, 2005

I'm feeling somewhat better today, though my back pain keeps moving around. Yesterday it was located in my lower left back, today it is in the center -- but not unbearable. The MRI was simple, and completed quickly, though the tech wouldn't even give me a clue as to what he saw on it. It'll probably be Monday before my doctor gets the results, and lets me know what they discovered. In the meantime, I'm taking it easy and NOT overdoing, hoping the back pain will get less and less.

I found a new FREE online place to store my work! Any time I find such a place, I upload my work for readers. Etext is great, but one can never have enough distribution.

Here's the newest URL to my work:

Our Media, My Page


I will also put a permanent link in the sidebar to the right.

I have more to write about, but will do that tonight on the QuickPad and post it tomorrow. Till then...over and out!
I'm feeling somewhat better today, though my back pain keeps moving around. Yesterday it was located in my lower left back, today it is in the center -- but not unbearable. The MRI was simple, and completed quickly, though the tech wouldn't even give me a clue as to what he saw on it. It'll probably be Monday before my doctor gets the results, and lets me know what they discovered. In the meantime, I'm taking it easy and NOT overdoing, hoping the back pain will get less and less.

I found a new FREE online place to store my work! Any time I find such a place, I upload my work for readers. Etext is great, but one can never have enough distribution.

Here's the newest URL to my work:

Our Media, My Page


I will also put a permanent link in the sidebar to the right.

I have more to write about, but will do that tonight on the QuickPad and post it tomorrow. Till then...over and out!

Thursday, March 24, 2005

I have felt so badly that I haven't written an entry for a long time.

My back is still causing me a lot of pain, and I'm scheduled to have an MRI tomorrow afternoon. Maybe something will show up, so the doctor can make a diagnosis. It feels as if the pain is radiating from the center of my spine, down the left hip, leg and sometimes even my left foot is numb. I know this is "classic sciatic nerve" problems, or disc trouble but no one is SURE that's what it is. A diagnosis should help me get relief/treatment...either with an orthopedic doctor or a chiropractor. Either way, I DO need some pain relief, and at times not even the pain killers work.

For several nights I've tossed and turned, not slept well. This morning I woke at 3:00 hurting terribly, so I got up and walked around. Sometimes that helps alleviate the pain, but not this morning. Eventually I surrendered to a pain pill, though it didn't work for an hour or more, and by then I was ready to get OUT of that torturous bed.

Movement seems to help somewhat, but I haven't been able to use the airbike for about a week now. So far, I've not gained any weight -- but I DO miss having regular aerobic workouts.

Our weather in Dixie has been glorious, springlike. We did have storms yesterday but the worst of it passed us by. All the rain sure helped the grass turn brilliant green, buds start sprouting, and even our Bradford Pear tree is about to bloom. Ah, if only my aching back would stop, I could enjoy it more.

That's it for now. I'm using the QuickPad, and will post this tomorrow morning.

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Again, I'm wondering if this place where we live is cursed! It seems there's been nothing but bad luck for us since we moved in last year this time. I made a list of all the ill omens that have happened since we've been here, which would make anyone wonder.

1. The fiasco with DH that happened three months before we even moved in.

2. Igor, the minature donkey that was in the pasture before we moved in, died. The owner said he died from a rare genetic problem. One of the most eerie things regarding Igor was the digital picture I took of him in the pasture -- above his head there was a weird looking reddish spot which seemed to be in the shape of a human face.

3. All of the stray female cat's newborn kittens, except one, died mysteriously.

4. One night lying in bed, I heard the glass vases on the fireplace mantle start rattling for no reason.

5. We've had trouble with our lights flickering, and even though we had an electrician here to check it out, he could find no cause for lights flickering.

6. Once I was on my bike ride in the nearby cemetery, and storm clouds had just passed over when they suddenly started back toward the cemetery. A strong wind swept over me, and I distinctly felt I was being told to GET OUT!

7. DH had a heart attack, which came out of the blue, no warning, nothing. There is no genetic family history, he's not oveweight, and he's very active. He did eat lots of fast food, but that was the only thing we could imagine caused it. Or maybe it was something...else? The curse of this place?

8. Now I am having serious back trouble. I started hurting last Friday afternoon, had to go to Urgent Care on Saturday. I think I have either a pinched nerve or ruptured disc in my lower spine. I certainly hope it's NOT a kidney stone! Have a doctor's appointment for tomorrow, and may need to get an MRI. All I know for sure is that I'm having terrible pain in my low back, down into my hip, and all the way to my knee. I have been miserable this whole last week.

Perhaps this is my over-active imagination...but it does seem these bad omens keep happening. Where will it end?

Our renter is away on vacation, but when she sent the last check, she asked if we'd allow her to have a room-mate. Apparently her husband has been stationed at a military base in New York, and she isn't going to join him. We probably won't allow her to have a room-mate, because that was not in the contract. And besides, who knows what kind of person she might let move in. Perhaps she'll move, when we tell her she can't have a room-mate. If so...well, I'm sure I'm going to be tempted to move back there. I still MISS living in town, and just can't seem to feel like this place is "home."

This afternoon we went to pick up a horse trailer DH bought, and an old guy came out to meet us. He was rather thin, used a walking stick, but otherwise very spry. When DH got back in the truck, he said, "How old do you think that man is?"

I said, "Oh, in his 70s."

"Wrong," DH corrected, "he just had his 92nd birthday."

Goodness, he sure was in great shape for his age. He told DH that he and his wife had lived there since 1962, and have 114 acres of pasture land, which they rent out for others to put cattle on. I dare say neither I nor DH will be around when we're his age!

DH is still having some kind of trouble with his leg -- the calf is swollen, tender. He's talked to the cardiologist about possible side effects, but was assured it is not any of his medication. I have my doubts, but DH will have to make his own decisions on that issue.

I haven't felt much like sitting at a desk or doing any writing for that matter, while my back/leg is hurting. If I can get some relief -- or find out exactly what is wrong -- tomorrow at the doctor's appointment I'll try to write a longer entry soon.

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Time for another entry...at last! The roofers finally, finally finished the roof. I hope to get a good picture later this afternoon to post along with this entry.

I'm writing this while sitting in our truck, waiting for DH. He's out looking at a cattle trailer he might buy.

It is a beautiful Saturday here -- somewhat windy, brilliant sunshine, in the high 60s. We had some cooler temperatures a few nights, down to 25, but otherwise I think March should be the beginning of Spring. And I'm certainly ready for it.

We're at a farm, and there's a bunch of goats in their pasture, just regular goats. Our neighbors where we live raise lop-eared goats, and they are so adorable. When the babies are born, they sound almost like a human baby crying. My cats will sit in the open window, listening as if they can't figure out what that strange sound is!

Looks like time to go, guess DH didn't think it was a good deal. He never buys something he can't make at least a $100.00 on!

******

It's now around 6:30 at night, and we had a very busy day. We looked at one other trailer, but DH didn't buy it either. Then we went to look at a couple horses, and he DID buy those. A mare and her colt, both palomino and very pretty. We took the mare to a friend's where one of our other mares is now, and brought the nearly two-old colt back home. She is still squealing, missing her mama...but she looks almost identical to the other palomino colt we have here, although it is male and only a year old. After DH fed the new colt, he put her in the barn for tonight.

The guy who sold them said he was about to move, and didn't have a place to keep them, so we got a bargain. Plus, they needed at least a temporary home, which we can provide.

DH is doing fairly well. He went to the cardiologist's office last Wednesday, had blood drawn to be tested. The nurse never did say exactly what they learned, but finally on Friday she said for him to quit taking Lipitor until next Thursday. In the meantime without Lipitor, his sore, stiff leg muscle has completely recovered. That tells me the Lipitor was causing it, and if he takes it again, he'll have the same (or worse) reaction.

He is watching his diet, and we're both following a low-fat, low-salt regiment. Not easy. Last night I actually got him on the exercise bike for ten minutes, which was a slow beginning. I had used it for 45 minutes, and insisted he try it. I don't want him to overdo, but if he can start using the bike three or more times a week, it will greatly help his heart problem. Some studies say that aerobic exercise actually helps reverse damage, and burn cholesterol/fat. We'll see, I suppose.

Have you ever noticed how many prescription drugs are shown on TV commercials? If the drug companies would stop paying for such expensive ads, I dare say they could reduce the cost of a drug by a great deal.

For example, tonight I saw an ad for Plavix (a blood thinner which DH takes). Now what on earth do they need to advertise that for? The cardiologist is the one who will decide which drug to give, and I cannot imagine someone ASKING or DEMANDING a prescription for a specific drug -- or a doctor actually agreeing to try something on the basis of a patient having seen a commercial. Those ads are a total waste of money -- except for the ad agencies that make cash from dreaming them up. I just might write a letter to the drug companies of all the drugs DH takes, and tell them my displeasure at seeing these shown on TV. Not that my opinion will make much difference, but it's worth a shot anyway.

Tomorrow we're planning on a long relaxing drive, and not looking for trailers or horses. I also want to put up the flowerboxes beneath the picture window, so I can get pictures of the front of the house/roof. I am SO glad this is done, just in case we should want to sell it -- or simply have a good "roof" overhead.

Here's something I came across in my web research about heart trouble: If there's a crease in the earlobe, it means you potentially have building heart blockage. If you have a plump, uncreased earlobe, you have no problem with heart/artery blockage. Yes, yes...I know it sounds silly. But several men we know have creased earlobes, even though some are younger than DH. Some do not. A couple have undergone tests, and the earlobe thing held true. Of course, I doubt it has anything to do with it, but it's sort of an interesting conversational piece! :-)

With that, I'm outta here for tonight. I'll post this, along with pictures of the house tomorrow morning.

Front of house with new roof Posted by Hello

Front entryway on west side Posted by Hello

Front looking west Posted by Hello

From rear, the kitchen windows/fence Posted by Hello

East side of house and chimney/carport Posted by Hello