If you remember, the breast doctor had me spit in a tube for a gene test. The piece of paper I signed had several things to test for listed. I noticed the BRCA1 and BRCA2 tests were listed. These are for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. Any medical types can correct me.
BRCA1 is pronounced: "brackuh one" like "cracker" but with "uh" on the end--BRACK uh.
Someone from my doctor's office called and said the test results were back and I did not test positive for either the BRCA1 or BRCA2 which cause ovarian or breast cancers. She said I was absolutely safe from those two cancers! Now, I won't feel compelled to have someone whack off both my breasts.
Someone from the orthopedist office contacted the MRI place and someone from there called me to make an appointment. Obviously, no one in the ortho office got the message about my preference for the open MRI.
Sunday, a week ago, I accidentally discovered how to stop the atrial fibrillation very abruptly. Monday, I made an appointment with the cardiologist to confirm what I think. Why didn't he tell me to try this? Thursday, he listened to my story. Now, I have to wear the harness again.
Maybe this is not considered to be frugal by some. The gene test was paid for by a grant that I suppose anyone can apply to get. Not dying from anything is frugal to me. However, living in a state where a person is "less than" and needing care is certainly not frugal by anyone's estimation. Taking care of a problem instead of letting it become worse is certainly financially sound.
Do you take care of health problems before they cause you to be less healthy? Or, as someone said, "We all die from something." She meant she was not going to address her health problem. Insurance is not a problem. Do you make appointments for problems or hope for the best?
some things i ignore and some i get onto straight away. i have been lax about getting regular blood tests and that's how my iron levels dropped very low. On the other hand, if i think i have a foot ulcer coming or a dental problem I am straight there.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your BRCA genes are good!
kylie,
DeleteI suppose I am the same way about which problems I take care of right away. I need a blood test that I have put off for a year!
three guesses to my responses:
ReplyDeleteI always make appointments as prevention is better.
Ur-spo,
DeleteThis has been going on for ten years or more. I did not realize it was a problem.
How did you stop the atrial fib? I have SVT (SupreVentricular Tachycardia), and I found that sometimes a deep sudden cough helps. And sometimes it doesn't.
ReplyDeleteCatrina,
DeleteAfter six hours of afib, and unexpected, long, slow belch stopped it completely. Now, when it starts, I just belch. I looked this up. It is a thing. Now, the doctor thinks it could be a spasm in esophagus. So, more wearing of the harness. Email me pparsimony@yahoo.com ,please.
I had SVT for years and always the vegal maneuver to stop it before they did a heart ablation to fix the short circuit in the heart. Now, sometimes it comes back for a short time and I just press on the carotid artery in the neck and that makes it stop. Belching helps, too,
DeleteTewshooz,
DeleteThanks. I will try pressing on the carotid artery instead of belching in public.
The last time I had to wear the harness monitor, the one I received stunk to high heaven of cigarette smoke. I tried wiping it clean, but the odor was just saturated into the strap or the wires, I don't know which. I could not stand to have it on the strap on my neck because of the odor and because the weight of it, even though it isn't that heavy, bothered my neck. I rigged up a way to put it around my waist on a belt to which I attached one of those little fine tulle net Christmas gift bags and put the battery/other tech stuff pack in the little sparkly gift bag attached to the belt. It got it off my neck and the cigarette smoke odor away from my face. It worked great until it was time to return the monitor. When I took it out of the little sparkly gift bag, there was red glitter all over the battery/gizmo pack. I thought the glittery stuff was actually imbedded in the fabric of the little gift bag. I was wrong. It took me quite a while to get the glitter off, and even when I thought the glitter was finally off, I kept finding more.
ReplyDeleteEven though I think I got about 99 percent of that glitter off of it, I wonder what the people who read the results of the tests and the cleaner of the monitor imagined the person wearing that monitor must have been doing while wearing the monitor. It looked and smelled like (with the cigarette odor) someone may have been at a strip club where the lap dancers use red glitter.
Susie,
DeleteThat is tragic about getting a smoky smelling harness. I could not wear that either! But, the red glitter and smoke is hilarious. I didn't know strippers wore glitter. How did you know??? Just kidding.
Now, I am anxious I will get a smoky harness.
This is going to sound silly, but since that smokey harness, I will actually sniff the the monitor and wires before they attach them to me. I will explain to them why I am doing that. I do know I won't use a little bag with glitter on it again. I have one put aside that doesn't have glitter for the next time I ever have to do the monitor thing. It works so much better for me attached from my waist than hanging from my neck, pulling down on my neck, dipping around in everything I'm doing, or inside my blouse irritating me. Sooner or later, I will probably have to use it again, as I have atrial fibrillation. To me it is a miracle that we don't have to stay in a hospital being monitored, and can just hook up to that little portable pack and go about our business.
DeleteI have a chronic digestive condition, mild, and I just moved to a different state and decided to wean myself off the medicine. It didnt make me feel better and came with serious risks, skin cancer, liver issues and lymphoma risks. My new specialist is on board with me trying to treat with supplements and diet for the time being. I am grateful for that.
ReplyDeleteNawm.
DeleteIf the medicine has those risks and does not help, I don't blame you for stopping the med.
P.S. so glad your testing came back negative.
ReplyDeleteNawm,
DeleteThanks. Me too.
Hola! I’ve been reading your website for a while now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Humble Tx! Just wanted to say keep up the excellent job!
ReplyDelete