Which Will
March 26th, 2008
Honestly, the last two days’ events make me wish that you all were here for MenstruCon ’07, otherwise known as the Era of the Diva Cup. Because man, y’all are funny. I would be particularly interested in Shelly‘s comments during that time, because she’s certainly provided some interesting fodder for us to consider during this laundric era, did she not? From bleached loads to glandular issues, I’d never given my underwear so much thought.
I’m almost hesitant to move on, because I still feel like there are still FEELINGS here, but alas, we cannot talk about poop molecules forever.
I would like to think that naturopathic medicine is a good idea. I would — I really, really would. In theory, I get it. I see how eating certain foods fixes certain things, and God knows I’ve all but shoved slippery elm powder down a certain husband’s throat during tummy upsets. But when I go to an actual doctor, I have to tell you: I’m disappointed when they don’t seem all that into traditional medicine. No, I don’t need to be prescribed buckets of Prozac because I’m having a rough day and I do think there is some truth to the overmedicating of America. I mean, I’m all for psychotropic medicine, but I also think that maybe some people could do for some talk therapy, too, you know? Medications are miraculous and I’ve taken them myself, but augmenting it with therapy is something I feel kind of strongly about, at least at first. In other words, don’t just shove a prescription in someone’s face and say “All better!” as so many do, without also looking at the whole person. (It’s been done to me , “Here, take some Paxil! Would you like some Topamax, too? All better!”)
Anyway, above and beyond Mr. BBT, I had an intro phone conversation with a prospective primary care doc today and she seemed skeptical on the need (the BURNING need, I might add) for synthetic thyroid hormones for my Hashimoto’s disease. Instead, she suggested that perhaps instead of follow up bloodwork after dosage increases, that I might consider avoiding cruciferous vegetables and other thyroid-inhibiting foods?
Yeah, um, no. Not so much. Especially when mistreated thyroid disease can cause infertility and/or early miscarriage and, if the pregnancy makes it to term, it can also cause developmental delays and physical disabilities. Is avoiding broccoli going to keep my kid from having fins and antennae for ears? I think not.
And finally, a note to parking-lot walkers of America, or at least Vermont: Look, I get that it’s a parking lot and not a highway, which is why I’m driving SLOWLY. This is your place to mingle, really it is. Get your shopping cart on — it’s totally okay. I am not out to run you down, but maybe you could not walk in the middle of the aisle like it’s the MALL? Maybe? And perhaps — just a thought — when you see me driving behind you at a virtual crawl, you could PRETEND to hustle to the side. Like mothers of kids on a screaming plane, I feel for you — I really do — but all I need is a fake effort, really. I don’t need you to break into a RUN or anything, but a little look my way that says “Oh! I realize I’m wildly meandering like I’m on Main Street USA in Disney World! LET ME TRY TO MOVE OVER A LITTLE” would really go a long way. Perhaps then I would be a little less inclined to plow you down like an arcade game.
Incidentally, the same rules apply to pedestrians crossing at an inopportune crosswalk. I will stop for you — with pleasure, really — but when you cockily mosey across the street talking on the phone and stopping to tie your shoe in the middle of the street, it only adds to the appeal of mowing you down like a yellowjacket.
We’re having a visitor until Saturday, so I may or may not see you before the weekend rolls around. If I don’t, I hope you have a great weekend. For our part, it’s the Vermont Maple Open House Weekend, and I am totally playing tourist and hitting up some sugar shacks, I don’t care who sees me.
*Nick Drake
Entry Filed under: Nuttin'
25 Comments Add your own
1. Jess | March 26th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
I feel guilty because when you said you were moving I was all like, oh god, but now you have to find a new endocrinologist, and you were all like, damn, I didn’t think of that, and now look. You have a doctor who thinks Synthroid is overrated. Ugh. I feel like I jinxed you. I hope you can find a nearby endocrinologist with a clue.
2. Maggy | March 26th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Who are those people in parking lots? They’re like those people in the hallway in junior high who apparently didn’t need to get to class (or anywhere) on time.
As someone who is a big fan of better living through chemistry (I do take Prozac. Took it while I was pregnant. Took it while I was breastfeeding. The child seems as normal as he is likely to be, given his family.), I am with you on the Synthroid. For heaven’s sake! It’s Synthroid. It’s not like you can sell it on the street, or would want to.
I like Jonniker with mostly balanced hormones. At least until pregnancy. Then all bets are off.
3. vague | March 26th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Oh my god, I feel you on the parking lot moseyers. Since I moved to the slow-walking location where I currently reside, I have been absolutely amazed and appalled at how slowly people are capable of walking. They will look directly at you, see you there waiting, and then go right back to their little family reunion in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Bah!
4. Lara | March 26th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Linking back to the MenstruCon story…A guy at my office and his family were profiled in the paper a few weeks ago as an eco-family. Recycle, ride bikes to work, cloth diapers yada yada, nothing out of the ordinary until the part about his wife’s CLOTH PADS. And I went “ewwwwwwwww” and now I hope I don’t meet her because (ahem) I’ll be wondering if she’s having a visit from her Aunt and I will be looking for lumpy evidence. Seriously, could you even leave the house wearing a cloth pad? It’s just all kinds of wrong and gross. Yes so is global warming but you know what? I’m drawing the line there.
Also slow walkers: I love the people who stop right inside the entry way to the grocery store to read the specials notice boards (which should NOT be right there, for pete’s sake). Then they shoot me the stink eye when I ram their ankles with my cart. Accidentally.
5. Swistle | March 27th, 2008 at 4:19 am
OMG THE PARKING LOTS AND CROSSWALKS YES YES YES. I am someone who takes a certain smug pride in the way I stop for pedestrians, but I like them to take a certain smug pride in the way they make sure it’s SAFE FIRST. They don’t even GLANCE UP. What if I HADN’T STOPPED? I don’t get the people who are willing to gamble their kids’ lives on it. I’m sure KNOWING YOU HAD THE RIGHT OF WAY will be a HUGE COMFORT.
6. Shelly | March 27th, 2008 at 4:51 am
Diva Cup? KEEPER? No effing way. I looked at them, and the Keeper especially looks like a PLUNGER…….WHY oh why would I want a PLUNGER in my….well, you know….down there? I realize I live in the midwest, but I think of myself as being REASONABLY intelligent and I’ve NEVER heard of such a thing. Give me absorbency and ‘wicking’ away ANY DAY…….sorry landfills…..you’re stuck with my paper feminine products.
And to the topic of CLOTH pads? Oh no. Not in my world. I’d have to have a washing machine by itself to deal with those. I can’t even imagine the steps it must take to clean them. Think cloth diapers …. rinsing and soaking? Oh my heavens no. Because we have inadequete plumbing, I must gently wrap and dispose of my (oh, I hate to say it) tampons in the trash. Then I have to hide them down deep so my son’s won’t be exposed to the yuk, and to hide them from my……dog…..My personal products are NOT available for his chewing pleasure.
Oh, Jonniker, I agree…it’s time to move on, but this is all so……compelling…and gross and THOUGHT provoking…all at the same time. Poop molecules? DIVA CUPS? My already known aversion to the v-word and things associated? It’s too much to bear at 7:30 this fine Thursday.
7. mdog | March 27th, 2008 at 5:27 am
my personal favorite Type of Pedestrian is the kind that crosses the street DIAGONALLY. what the hell ass balls are you even THINKING? hold on, let me put the car in PARK while you stroll. thanks.
8. Sadie | March 27th, 2008 at 5:27 am
I am getting the distinct feeling that your doctors in Vermont are either A) not used to educated patients or B) not aware of the vast array of medical advances made in the past 20 years THAT THE REST OF US CAN FIND ON THE INTERNET. I am going to give the benefit of the doubt here and choose A, but really – if you next come across a dentist who, when treating your cavity, suggests you should consider using flouride toothpaste, driving to another state for medical care might become an attractive alternative for you.
9. claire | March 27th, 2008 at 5:45 am
Ah… MenstruCon ’07… i remember it fondly… Pictures of spinning menstrual devices, billions of comments, horrified male readers. Good times. In fact i think of it every time i see my abandoned DivaCup in its little cloth bag at the bottom of my drawer in the bathroom. I tried, but the DivaCup just wasn’t working its magic on me.
The worst ‘walking through a parking lot/crosswalk” experience i’ve ever had was when i attended Large State University where all of the students walked across the street without a GODDAMN care in the world that there were cars EVERYWHERE. They NEVER looked before they stepped off the sidewalk and always walked as if they were window shopping. It made me FURIOUS and i would curse at them out the car window. I was maybe a little less laid-back then.
10. jonniker | March 27th, 2008 at 5:52 am
Sadie: I think I’ve figured out my grave error with the doctor thing — I’ve been going superlocal out of a desire for convenience. I’ve secured appointments for Adam and myself in the Big City for a few weeks from now at a nationally networked hospital system. Thank God.
Because wow, this hyper-local stuff: MY BAD.
Also, not that any of you asked, but I still use the Moon Cup.
11. H | March 27th, 2008 at 5:56 am
I do not saunter – ever. I have a hard time sauntering and being around saunterers. In the mall, I’m like — we’ve got places to go and things to do, so let’s get a move on people. I don’t walkt, I weave and dodge like a NASCAR driver. I believe everyone has a right to saunter but I also have a right to get a move on, so all I ask is that the saunterers allow me to do my thing as well.
12. Heather B. | March 27th, 2008 at 8:59 am
I completely forgot about the era of the diva cup. Good times.
13. Emily | March 27th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Hooray for Synthroid! That is all.
14. tanya | March 27th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Okay – so I’m being devil’s advocate here, I know. But anyway. Thyroid disease has been around a lot longer than synthetic thyroid medications and over a long period of time Synthroid can really leach a lot out of your system. I’m very much in favor of a combination of therapies myself, where you work with your nutrition and lifestyle and also have whatever drugs you may need, but hopefully in smaller doses so the “side effects” (Is there really such a thing? It’s just an effect, for heaven’s sake) aren’t as drastic, particularly later in life. Who wants brittle bones? And exhausted adrenal glands? Fiddling with one’s endocrine system is delicate, and even being an expert in such a thing doesn’t mean you’re as much of an expert as the body is after a bajillion years, countless generations of honing the systems. And I know there’s a lot more in our world now that didn’t used to be there: hormones in meat and the water and all that, but the gentler the better with the glandular system. It doesn’t take kindly to drastic measures generally so why not take the best from both worlds? Hope this isn’t too annoying, but I gotta say what I gotta say.
15. Leah | March 27th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Here’s my bad-crosswalkers story: High schools in Utah allow for students to take one class per day off campus for “religious studies,” but because of the whole separation of church/state thing, the building that holds the classes has to be off campus. This usually means on the other side of the school parking lot, which means there are always people wandering around amongst the cars. I don’t know if it was just the high school age or if it really was the fact that they were going to their church class, but the kids walking across the parking lot NEVER looked both ways, barely looked where they were going, and always walked as slowly as possible. My theory was that they thought they were protected from harm because they were on their way to church. This made me want to run them over.
16. jonniker | March 27th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Tanya, I think if it were anything else, I’d be right there with you. But knowing after years of living with this that my thyroid doesn’t do anything on its own at all, and seeing the effects of the disease on my body and mind, I won’t do anything but synthetic thyroxine.
It should not, if prescribed right, take anything out of your system — rather, it should bring us to a state of euthyroid, like normal people, but again, that’s my Western medicine sensibility. Rather, it is meant to replace what your body isn’t making. I don’t know anyone who is severely hypothyroid who can/should survive without a hormone replacement. The consequences are far too dire (and include death, heart attacks, high cholesterol, infertility, etc.)
My sense is that before medications were readily available, more people died from hypothyroidism or its side effects (depression) than found natural remedies.
17. Katie | March 27th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Parking lot walkers?
Oh
Mah
Gawd!
18. Maggy | March 27th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
I use cloth pads and a DivaCup. And I leave the house. Nobody knows. I throw everything into the wash on hot and don’t presoak. I’m not worried about germs. The germiest things that go into the washer are the kitchen linens and my scrubs, not underwear or cloth pads.
19. Trina | March 27th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
I think I need to read back through the MenstruCon posts because I’m having an issue – my Diva cup seems to have a maximum capacity (NOT that of the cup itself – eww!) after which the damn thing starts causing me all kinds of pain and discomfort. And always in freaking public!
And personally, I think all doctors should go to Western medicine (pills, baby!) first, and alternative options when requested. We call them “alternative” for a reason, dammit! Give me evidence-based medicine any day! I hope you find a doctor (or several) to fit your needs.
I see your “parking lot walkers” and raise you one “a-hole kids who think sidewalks are for pussies”.
20. Shana | March 27th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
“My sense is that before medications were readily available, more people died from hypothyroidism or its side effects (depression) than found natural remedies.”
Well, crap. You got there first! Yeah, in times past people died from the most mundane (to us) things, and today’s treatments are really just sort of sidestepping what would have been early fatalities back in the day.
Now, as a bit of a hippie, Moon Cup-loving, cloth-TP-using, far-leftist feminist sort (though I do insist upon hair removal), I dig the alternative therapies, and use them for lots of things (allergies are the biggest), but my Lexapro does more for my depression than St. John’s Wort ever did, and you will have to pry it from my cold, dead paws. I’m not really on the better-living-through-chemistry bandwagon, in the traditional sense, but there are some conditions that are pretty far-reaching, and affect so many different body systems, that chemicals can be very much the lesser of the evils.
But still. Tanya, you sound like one of my peeps. Ha.
I miss New England, man. My aunt moved from VT (Brattleboro) to Coral Gables, FL, and I can’t help but think that she’s just nuts. You need to post some pictures once stuff starts blooming! Nothing like spring there, after months of giant, filthy snowbanks.
21. jonniker | March 28th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Shana – I can’t use cloth pads, because, well, I’ve never been able to use ANY pad, but honestly? My Moon Cup rocks the house. I never thought I’d be such an advocate, but I love that thing.
22. Jen | March 28th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I just had to thank you for posting the link to MenstruCon ’07, because I have been able to spend the last hour of my work day snarfing and giggling like a little goofus. I am DYING over the names, the sounds, all of it. HILARIOUS. I was definitely a lurker here in the days of the MoonCup discovery, but for some reason I must have skipped reading the comments that day. WHAT WAS I THINKING???
23. Shana | March 28th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Yeah, I used cloth pads before the Moon Cup, never having gotten comfortable with tampons (yet comfortable with the cup — issues with the moisture-sucking cotton, I think), and they are so, so much better than plastic pads. It’s unreal. No chafing, no feeling icky, all nice and breathable and comfortable. Cloth pads are an entirely different animal from plastic pads.
But I still like the cup (a particularly salty acquaintance of mine insists, to tweak me, upon calling it “the snatchcup”) better than cloth pads. Best thing to happen to women since…chocolate? Birth control? I dunno.
24. maple weekend&hellip | March 31st, 2008 at 4:19 am
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