I had quite a stressy morning today, some of which we'll go into very shortly, but all's well that ends well, and even in the midst of my stressy morning, I wouldn't say I was thrown into a bad mood or anything. So please do not consider any of the following as bitching, moaning, ranting, or complaining. I'm just, y'know, perplexed by a couple of things.
So, I had to go have my repeat mammogram and an ultrasound today before work. While I was in the waiting area, I was idly perusing a More magazine. More is a publication which "celebrates women over 40." It's actually less idiotic than most women's magazines and is totally worth your time if you're sitting in an overly-cool room in half a johnny, waiting for a radiologist. It has features like real women over 40 modeling bathing suits which, while unlikely to serve as wank material for anyone (unless one of the real women happens to be Phoebe Cates, but we covered that yesterday), is a helpful reminder that most women look more like that than like 103 lb, 6 ft tall, 19 year old Brazilian Sports Illustrated models. Stuff like that.
Anyway, since this is for women over 40, there's a lot of content about the menopause and the perimenopause. So, in today's reading selection, there was an article about not gaining weight in the perimenopause. (It's not a women's magazine without at least one article about weight loss and at least one with really stoopid sex/relationship advice. It's a rule.) The article claimed that in the perimenopause, we all are probably not sleeping as well as we might usually do, so we may well be more fatigued. And our bodies might confuse tiredness with hunger and make us eat more. So, before you eat anything, *make sure* you're actually hungry. Huh? Even if that's true, if you're tired because you aren't sleeping well at night, and you can't do anything much about that because it's hormonal, and taking a two hour nap every day isn't in the ol' sched, and eating makes you feel better and more energetic and able to cope with what you've gotta do, shouldn't you just friggin' EAT already? And if that makes you gain five or ten pounds, then so effin what? Isn't that preferable to being tired and miserable? Not in the world of women's magazines!
Okay, point #2. After rolling my eyes at this article, I went into my ultrasound. Cluster of cysts, blah blah blah, nothing to worry about, blah blah blah, lots of women have this, blah blah blah, don't need a biopsy, blah blah blah, may come and go, blah blah blah, but totally not a concern. So! We'll see you in 6 months for another mammogram! Make the appointment on your way out! Excuse me? If this is absolutely a benign condition, and you say it is, why the fuck exactly are we Xraying my left tit again in six months for shits n' giggles?
Did I make the appointment on my way out? Why, yes, yes I did.
xoxo
3 comments:
I make it a policy never to take my medical advice from anyone who has a financial interest in the diagnostic equipment they're telling me I need to have used on me. To every doctor connected to a lab with a mammography setup, every little bump is yet another reason (kaching) to fire up the photons (kaching).
Well, the equipment is in the hospital I work in, and the radiologists work for the hospital, I'm pretty sure, so they don't *directly* have a financial stake, though I am very sure it's in their financial best interests to keep the stats up. And to not have anyone sue their asses, of course. Sigh.
I think defensive medicine has ceased to be anything but a nervous tic, which accounts for a great deal of this BS Accounting does the rest. (I should tell the tale of the $30 bedside urinal here, but I'll hang on to that one.)
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