Happy Birthday America!

Lets all take a minute to appreciate what we have and not what we want. To enjoy our freedom and thank the ones who helped us gain it and continue to help us.

Here is one of my favorite American heroes:

But there are many more near and far.

I am not usually all that patriotic but I did purchase a flag to hang on the front of our house recently (made in the USA and about $10 with a coupon). I also need a break from my health issues and the rest of life.

In the know

If you are perpetually sick/ill, you are in the know on how we feel. Someone came up with a list of 20 items but a few stuck out for me.

• You aren't quite sure what it means to feel "100%" because you're usually hovering at a solid 80% on a good day.
• Sometimes doing even the simplest of tasks feels like a five hour workout. Can I nap yet?
• By some miracle if you are actually not sick, you usually overexert yourself so much that you'll be sick again in a matter of days.
• Your immune system feels like its one weekend away from collapsing completely.
• Naps become more important part of your day.
• "You don't look sick to me". No, but my kidneys feel like they're failing so there's that.
• When you finally feel healthy again, it's an emotional experience for you. 

I'm not sure I'll ever hit that last one again but occasionally I can sit still and feel no aches, pains, or anything else for about 30 seconds.... Until I move and then it all starts up again.

And no, if you  haven't walked the walk, you can't tell me how I feel.

I'm making a list

I have to make a list because I have no brains. My husband swears that my life is wallpapered with lists.

In early May, I saw my rheumatologist with the goal of doing something about methotrexate. While it has been good at controlling my rheumatoid, it has suppressed my immune system so that I would get a cold that would last 1-2 weeks every two months. I can't be out of commission that often from a stupid cold.

We made a deal where I would wean down my methotrexate for two months and increase my sulfasalazine and wait and see how I do. Well its two months and I go back to see her to talk options. I am not sure this combination has been that good. I have been having a lot of problems with my RA. Damn.

But I am making a list of issues and what to ask about options. Its a long list of issues and I am not sure how many options there are. Double damn.

We aren't just our ailments

So I have a breast cancer blog because I have had breast cancer. I blog daily but not necessarily about breast cancer. Even when I first started blogging, it wasn't all about breast cancer. Sometimes it was about stupid doctors, or people lost in the parking garage, or other things.

Now its probably less about breast cancer and more about other things. Why? Because I am not just about breast cancer. I am about a bunch of other ailments and a lot of other things. I am a college graduate who works in both marketing and IT. I design and manage websites. I do catalog layout and design.I am happily married and we have two new cats who drive us crazy. And I go to the damn doctor too much.

I think all of us unhealthy people have a tendency to be defined by their ailments. I mean we might blog about them, or go to the doctor for them, or take a day (or ten) off work for them. But we are more than them.

We are men and women, tall and short, many different sizes and colors and religions and believes. We live in all parts of the world. The only thing we do have in common is we have an ailment.

We also do not want to answer questions about our health daily. I have a friend who asks me, every time I talk to her, how I am feeling. This is new since my second cancer but don't ask me in that tone, please. (You know what I mean.)

We are so much more than our ailments. Please let us be all of ourselves, not just our ailments.

Dr Google, Dr Oz, and other bad resources

I often tell people to step away from Dr Google. But sometimes he sucks you in and you can't help it. Then there is Dr Oz who will be happy to get you to buy green coffee beans or something that someone supposedly believes will cure cancer. Well maybe Dr Oz isn't that bad but I think he's smarmy (definition: excessively or unctuously flattering, ingratiating, servile, etc.)

Finally we have those online symptom checkers to help us figure out what's wrong with us instead of going to the doctor. But they are usually wrong as well.  I admit to using online symptom checkers to see if I can figure out what is wrong with me. But since I have so many other things wrong with me, I usually ignore them too.

Now new research shows how bad the symptom checkers can be. There are many good health websites, such as WebMD, maybe even your hospital. But the symptom checkers where they try to diagnose what you have when you select your symptoms, they are not so good. They aren't so great at figuring out what is wrong with you. And they don't always send you to the doctor when you should go and sometimes send you to the doctor unnecessarily. Use your common sense instead. Or if you aren't sure on your common sense, phone a friend.