Blog #14 Strategies for balance

Multi-tasking is not one of my strong suits, so I have to be extremely organized in order to make life work. I know each day that I work from 8a.m. - 5p.m. so that is automatically on my daily schedule. The hours left in the day plus weekends are the only time I have for school, family and relaxation, therefore I have to plan them also. I started with the first day the syllabus showed up for each of my classes. I immediately put on the calendar when each assignment was due in each class so that I could make sure I never got behind. Procrastination is the enemy of a balanced life. I feel this semester was very successful for me because when I did have a little extra time I worked ahead in my classes which gave me time for a few extra things like spending a whole weekend with my sons who visited from Houston and I actually bought a new home and moved during this semester while still working full time. I am very lucky that my children are grown, so that gives me more time to devote to school, but I still have to add time for me. It is most important to eat healthy, exercise and get plenty of rest when juggling so many responsibilities. All of these things had to be scheduled also, like exercise is something that happens during lunch, when I can run to the gym for 45 minutes each day. As much as I live by my calendar though, the only way to keep from being super stressed is to remember that sometimes my life and my schedule don't work the way I planned, so I also plan to be flexible when needed.

Blog #13 Weakness Versus Strength

I think as women we often hide who we really are for who we think others want us to be. To be able to admit that we are flawed takes courage. To be able to admit that you were addicted to drugs or alcohol would take an extra measure of strength, because you are not just admitting to being less than perfect, but you are opening yourself up to people judging you in many areas of your life. The first thing I think of is that people would no longer trust you, because you would no longer be the person they thought you were.

Another reason it would take great strength to admit you were addicted to drugs or alcohol is that in admitting it, you would be watched closely as you try to deal with that addiction. You could no longer tell yourself, I'll do something about it next week, because your friends and family would be ready for you to fix it now.

Finally, I think it takes strength to admit to addiction is that one of the first steps to healing is to figure out why you became addicted. To have to look deep into yourself and find other ways to cope with things in your life is very scary. If you were able to deal with it before you became addicted, you would have. Now to deal with it plus deal with an addiction is unbelievably hard.

To me weakness is hiding the truth and hoping the drugs and / or alcohol will save you.

Blog #12 Impact of Mental Illness

My mother suffered from Depression most of my life. She did admit to it enough to get prescriptions from doctor's for anti-depressants, however that was as far as she was willing to go. She was from a family of 11 children, 5 of whom were mentally retarded. This colored her perception on mental illness. She was afraid that if she admitted to any form of mental illness, everyone would assume she was mentally retarded like her brother and sisters. She also grew up in a time where they locked you up for mental illness, even her mentally retarded brother and sisters were placed in "State Schools".

What my mother really needed was a professional to help her work through her Depression and other coping difficulties. The medications helped off and on, but without knowing exactly what was behind the Depression, it was hard for the doctor's to prescribe the proper drugs in proper amounts. Her Depression led to a prescription drug addiction for the last 50 years of her life, and those drugs often counteracted the anti-depressants.

My mother's drug addiction and Depression effected our entire family. For me, I became the enabler who would do anything in my power to protect my mother from friends and families disapproval. I took on the responsibility for her happiness, and since there is no way to really be successful in making others happy, my self esteem was as low as it could get. I was 45 years old before I finally realized that my mom was sick, but she had chosen to stay that way. She was not my responsibility and she wasn't sick because I failed her in some way. Since coming to this realization, my self esteem has grown exponentially over the past 7 years, but only because I made the conscious decision to have a high self esteem and a high confidence level.

Blog #11 "With Our Future In Mind"

Our culture is geared to instant gratification. If everyone lived "with our future in mind" I think we would actually be happy and healthier. The first thing I can see changing would be our spending versus savings habits. I think more people would have large retirement accounts because if they were thinking about the future they would have started them when they were very young when compound interest would really make a difference.

I also think people would be healthier, because they would consider how their eating and exercise, or lack thereof, would affect their bodies today, tomorrow, next year, 20 years from now.... This would probably lower the rate of all the chronic diseases we have been studying. For example, if we all ate healthy from the time we were young and lived active lives, the obesity rate would be gone and therefore so many would not have ever developed cardiovascular disease or diabetes.

Just changing these two things, our finances and our health, how much happier we would all be. So many people today are worried about whether they have enough money to make it from pay day to pay day and are miserable because they are overweight. Think of all the time and energy we waste, that we could spend on more positive things. We all need to commit to live "with our future in mind".

Blog #10 Health Risk Preventions

One of the first behaviors that I think we need to change as women is putting everybody else so far above ourselves that we ignore our own needs. For example, we will always find money to make sure our kids and husbands see the doctor when needed, but we always put off our own physicals because we can't afford them. If we are lucky enough to have health insurance, we still have large deductibles, so we put it off so long we never go. Yearly physicals, mammograms, and PAP smears are all important for preventative health. What we don't realize is that this is learned behavior. How many of us that always put off that yearly physical had mothers that always put off their yearly physicals? What are our daughters learning from us?

Next thing women to learn is how to cook and prepare healthy meals for themselves and thier families. I think women have had so many responsibilities on their plate that one thing they have delegated is meal preparations. Unfortunatley we have delegated that to fast food chains that have cost us and our families our health. Instead of continuing to add more to our day, I think we need to start simplifying, slowing down enough to prepare a meal and eat together as a family.

So many of us are so busy running around making sure our kids are involved in every possible activity that all we do is sit in the car, dropping one child at soccer while running the next to dance and by the time we get the third to band we have to go back to the soccer field to pick up child number 1 and on and on we go driving in circles. Again, I think it's time to simplify our lifes. Why can't we go outside with our kids and play soccer with them or have a family dance in the living room after dark? If we want to improve our health we must get moving again.

The biggest benefit that I see in simplifying our lives is that so much of our stress will disappear. Stress is a necessary part of life, but I think we have gotten so out of control that the levels of stress we are under are actually causing our heart problems and even cancer. If we want to be healthier and have healthier families we are going to have to be active in our health and quit being the passive spectators we have been.

Blog #9 Diet and Exercise Challenges

I could be the poster child for diet and exercise. Over the past 30+ years I have tried everything that has come on the market with even an inkling of credibility. The problem was that I never tried to find out why I had gotten so out of control as to gain over 100 lbs of fat. Six months ago I was ready to try one more time to loose the weight. I watched an episode of Oprah when she had guests on that had gone through gastric bypass. Many people believe that gastric bypass is the easy way to loose weight, but Oprah's guests pointed out that it is still a long hard journey. Everyone of them said that when they had to give up their addiction to food, they found they had adopted a new addiction, some to alcohol, some to sex, some to shopping. The new addictions may have varied, but the fact that they all replaced one addiction with another was across the board. This is when I decided that before I started another program I would have to find out why I was addicted to food. For me it was a spiritual journey through Bible study that I learned some deep truths about myself. Once I knew why, I then began to work on healing those issues before I ever started dieting (no I didn't do gastric bypass, it wasn't a healthy choice for me). Six months later and 60 lbs lighter I am over half way through my weight loss journey. I no longer feel like I'm on a diet, because I simply eat to live now. I no longer crave any food of any kind and I can also tell you that I have not become addicted to anything else to replace the food.

I knew from the beginning of this journey that I would have to add exercise into my program, and I will confess I have been avoiding it like the plague! I simply hate exercise! Well, 2 weeks ago things changed. The owner of my company has come up with a program to reward and encourage healthy living. We get points for things like loosing weight, exercising, yearly checkups with our doctors, and participating in events like "Walk for Life". At the end of each year we turn in all our points for either cash or paid time off! I can remember saying years ago, I could exercise if someone would pay me. Well, the time has come to act on those words. Two weeks ago I began my exercise program. I started by briskly walking 30 minutes per day either on my lunch hour or when I first get home in the evenings.

Of course the owner of my company wants to make living a healthy lifestyle as easy for each of us as possible, so yesterday I signed up on the company program for a gym membership. A large group go to the gym together at lunch time, and when I hinted that I needed to add weight training to my week, they all jumped in and asked me to join them. Monday will be my first day, and I'm actually looking forward to it. Of course if my blog is super short next week, it may be because I'm too sore to type!

Let me encourage all of you as you graduate and head into the work force to find companies with great benefits like mine. Benefits like good health insurance, healthy lifestyle encouragement, gym memberships, can be much more beneficial in the long run that just a high salary, because with these benefits, you'll feel like enjoying that high salary!

How to change societies image?

I have seen shows with anorexic women whose body image is totally askew to the fact of what their body actually looks like. They may be so thin that all you can see is the outline of their bones, but they truly believe they are still fat. I think society has the same skewed image of aging and menopausal women. Being 52 myself and having gone through surgically induced menopause 17 years ago, I can tell you that the truth of menopause is much better than societies view.

I can honestly say that the year I turned 50 was the best year of my life. The only one better was 51 and I gotta tell you I think 52 is gonna top it! My family is raised, my career is taking off and I can finally focus on me! Going back to school to get my degree is something I have always wanted to do, but family and other commitments always came first. Now for the first time in my adult life, I come first. That doesn't mean I have turned into a selfish person who ignores all my other responsibilities, it just means my responsibilities have changed, so that I am now free to explore new and exciting things.

How do we get this message out to society? We are going to have to have people who stand up and make their voice heard. How did women get the right to use contraceptives? There were a few women who were brave enough to stand up and make their voices heard. Yes, they suffered persecution because of it, but if they had not had the courage to fight, we still wouldn't have contraceptives available to us today. So you may ask what are we going to stand up and say and to whom? My first thought is as wives and mother's our first audience is our husband and children. Notice I didn't just say daughters! Yes, we need to teach our daughters how to respect themselves and have healthy self-images, but we also need to teach our sons how to value women. If we can bring our sons up to have healthy self-images then maybe they won't be as intimidated by the strong independent women we are bringing our daughters up to be. The best way to get this message across to our sons and daughters is by having healthy enough self-images of ourselves that we command respect from our husbands and everyone else in our lives. If we don't love and respect ourselves, how do we expect anyone else to?

I received several cartoons on menopause this week, but if I included those in my blog, then I would just be perpetuating the myth of how bad menopause really is. Don't worry though, I haven't totally lost my sense of humor, I did laugh at the cartoons!

Blog #7 Perception of People with STD's

"Many people equate STD's with immorality, promiscuous behavior and low social status." The two pictures on the right remind me of the ignorance of thinking STD's is a problem for low social status. Do you really think the homeless man is having more sexual opportunities than the man pictured with a higher social status? I think our prejudice against the poor has more to do with our thinking than actual facts on those susceptible to STD's.

What about our prejudice that says STD's are problems of the immoral, promiscuous only? I'm afraid that a lot of those prejudices started back in our childhood when we went to our first sex education class. If you were like me, you were taught that young people were not to have sex until they were married. If they did have sex before marriage it could result in STD's or pregnancy. We were even shown films on STD's and what they could do to your body. Unfortunately this negative programming hasn't seemed to stop teenagers from having sex. Instead it has caused a lot of guilt and risky behavior. The kids coming out of these sex education classes really believe it can never happen to them. I think our society promotes the belief that bad things only happen to bad people. Since society has said that bad people are immoral, promiscuous and low income people, then if you are a good person, you are safe. If you look at the millions of cases of STD's and teen pregnancies in the United States, we are either saying that there are millions of bad people in our country, or maybe we are wrong. Maybe bad things sometimes happen to people, good or bad.

I agree with many of your post that say education is the key, however I think we need a change in the education we are giving, because the increase in STD's and teen pregnancy tells me what we are doing is not working. What if we changed this negative campaign into a positive campaign for abstinence? What if we taught our kids how to protect their bodies, not just from STD's and pregnancy, but all diseases or life style choices that can harm them? Chapter 8 in our book talks about how menopause has had this negative connotation for years, and yet they are learning that those women who take care of their bodies from youth with nutritional eating and exercising don't suffer near as much during menopause as those women who have lived life styles that are unhealthy.

There is a new commercial on TV that I think promotes the positive aspect of healthy eating. It's a commercial for eggs that says "If you want to be incredible, eat incredible". I love that! I think we should be teaching our kids and ourselves how to strive to be incredible.

Blog #6 Prenatal Testing

Having children is a heavy responsibility and I think that responsibility starts when we first decide to conceive. That is why I think routine prenatal testing is important. It is being responsible first for your own health and second the health of your baby. Two different kinds of prenatal testing came to my mind when I read this question, the tests for birth defects and the tests for STDs. I do believe that not every test should be routine, for example an Amniocentesis that puts the baby at risk, needs to be an individual decision. However tests for STDs that do not harm the mother or the baby should be routine because it can effect the outcome of the pregnancy. We know that women don't always have outward signs that tell them they have an STD, so they might not know the danger they are putting their baby in. HIV comes to mind since there is now a treatment that the mother can have to prevent it from passing to her child. Also Syphilis may be prevented from passing to the infant if the mother has a C-Section. If the mother has Hepatitis B the newborn should receive immune globulin. Routine testing will give the doctor and mother time to make informed decisions for a healthy pregnancy and delivery.

Education helps with prevention when it comes to our health, but we need to rememeber that in todays economy there are many expectant mothers with no health care. They don't always have the luxury of informed decision because they can't always afford all the test that need to be done. As our country goes forward looking for better health care policies we need to realize that the cost of preventative test is much less expensive than a life time of consequences that can occur if testing is not done.

Blog #5 Miscarriage

I am one of the 15% women who were mentioned in Mrs. Kampshroeders power point on miscarriage. My first miscarriage was when I was 21 years old. I had been married for a year and my husband and I decided we were ready for children. I can remember it was such an exciting time preparing for our first child. At 16 weeks, I started spotting. My doctor ordered me to bed. Two weeks later I was still spotting so I went in to see the doctor, hoping he could do something to insure me a healthy baby. My doctor did a urnine test and then called me into his office to tell me the bad news. I started crying, and he got frustrated with me. I will never forget when he said "why are you crying, it's not like you lost a baby, you just aren't pregnant anymore". He went on to tell me that I was still carrying the fetus, but that it was dead. He said to go home and when I started really bleeding and cramping to come back and he would do a D&C. 4 weeks later I returned, bleeding profusely. He put me in the hospital and sent my husband home. I went through labor that night, all alone in that hospital room and finally miscarried the next day. My friends and family were kind, but what they didn't understand was that I needed to mourn my baby. If I had carried that fetus for a couple more months we would have buried that baby. I think that would have almost been easier, because then people would have understood what I was going through.

I am also one of the 60 - 70% of women who go on to have healthy pregnancies after miscarriage. I had two very healthy boys, the first 3 years after my first miscarriage and the second two years later. Three years after my second son, I went through a second miscarriage. It was just as devestating and my arms felt just as empty, but my doctor, my friends and my family were alot more sympathetic, giving me time to grieve.

Little Loss, Big Hurt: Miscarriage.ppt by Michelle Kampschroeder (Spring 2007)

Blog #4 First Menstrual Cycle

Growing up in Washington state I lived close to my father's family. My mother's family all lived in Texas. Every other year my mom would load me and my brother up and bring us to Texas to visit the relatives. My mother was one of 11 children, 5 of which were mentally retarded. When I was 5, one of these aunts was having her period and ended up changing her pad in front of me. Being 5, I just thought it had something to do with her being mentally retarded. My mother found out about it and threw a fit. I didn't understand what it was about, but I knew it was bad. Fast forward 4 years. In the third grade we were shown the becoming a woman film. I remember the film saying that most girls started their periods around 12-13 years old (this was back in the 1960's). I remember being horrified that this was going to be part of my future! I had never heard anything so terrifying before, so I put it out of my mind since 12 - 13 was a lifetime away!

Nothing about cycles, bleeding or cramping was mentioned again. Then when I was 11, I went to summer camp for a week. I must of started my period the first night there. I had no idea what it was. I thought it was a stomach ache and I was too embarrassed to tell my friends or counselors because I thought it was because I was fat and so it was the way I was eating that caused this. I remember going for a whole week in dirty undies and shorts. No matter what I did I couldn't keep clean or stop this "diarrhea". I was never so glad to get home! But then it happened, my mom was doing laundry and found my soiled garments. She said I had started my period and then fussed at me for not having told the camp nurse or one of my counselors. Everything that I had learned to that point and was continuing to learn was that periods were bad, embarrassing and that I needed to hide the fact from everyone or they would think I was a bad person.

In high school was our next sex ed class. My teacher asked us about our first periods and if any of our parents celebrated it. The most popular girl in school responded that her mother made a day of it. She kept her daughter home from school that day and they spent the day together shopping and doing lunch and other girly things. She said it was great because her mother made her feel that becoming a woman was special. That was the first time I thought it might be alright to have a period and that it really was just a normal part of life.

My mom wasn't a bad person. She taught me the way she had been taught. That's why I believe that our churches and schools should be involved in sex education. It's great when you have parents that are comfortable talking to you, but for those kids whose parents have no clue how to talk to their kids about sex, we need to make sure those kids get just as much education. When my oldest son was 12, our church sent home permission slips for them to be taught a Biblical sex ed class. For any parents that wanted to teach their own children, there was a separate class for those kids that day. That way parents still had a choice, but kids were given the chance to learn.

Blog #3 Self Assessment

When I think of preventative practices in healthcare I thought the only thing I did in my personal life was my recent change in eating to a healthy diet. I was surprised to discover by the way the question was phrased that I do not eat what most would consider a healthy diet, because I do not include any fruits or grains. I have been eating high protein / low carbohydrate diet for the past 6 months and have lost a great amount of weight (although I'm only 1/2 way to my goal). At this point I do not plan to change my eating habits as I have more energy than I have had in years and am loosing weight at a slow but steady pace. Once I get to my goal weight I will be adding fruits and grains in moderation to the diet I am now eating.

The next area I am lacking in prevention is physical activity. When I took an office job just over a year ago, I went from a very active lifestyle to a very sedetary lifestyle. I am going to plan to add walking 30 minutes a day at least 3 days a week to my schedule. I think this will help my weight loss as well as giving me more physical strength. Hopefully I will be able to add to this program over time to maintain my health.

While adding changes to promote a healthier body, I will be going to the doctor, dentist and optometrist this year for a check-up. I have not had a yearly check-up in any of these areas in about 10 years. This is the year to start putting myself first.

When rating my responses, I was not satisfied with 70%. I liked knowing that there are several things I am doing right, but I can still see room for improvement.

Blog #2 Healthcare - Right or Privilege?

I believe healthcare is the right of all humans. We know there is a higher mortality rate for women in countries that enjoy healthcare such as the United States. We also know that there is a higher mortality rate among those women in the Untied States who have the advantage of healthcare services. It seems to me like the actual question we are asking is whether or not all people have a right to live, or is that just a privilege?

Once we establish that all humans have a right to live, we need to determine the way they can live the best life possible for them. The United States has doctors with so much knowledge and the best equipment and medications of any nation in the world, yet we are not allowed to take advantage of those resources to keep our citizens healthy.

I watched Michael Moore's movie "SIKO" the other day. Although I don't believe everything I saw, I do think he may have been right when he said one of the things that keeps Americans from wanting a Healthcare system like Canada, England or France is the media and politicians telling us that socialist medicine is bad. They've picked out all the worst things about healthcare in these countries and kept us afraid of change and grateful that they are protecting us from such horrors. I think we need to stop being afraid and start exploring other options, because our system is not working. This doesn't necessarily mean socialist medicine is the best thing for the United States. Why do we have to have it the broken system it is in other countries or the broken system it is here? What ever happened to America as a world leader?

Women's Health Concerns

I interviewed women in their 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's. I found their answers quite interesting.

First my 23 year old said she was most concerned about where health care is going to be in the future. She works in the health industry herself and her husband is in med school. Once he becomes a doctor, what kind of health care is he really going to be able to give?

Second was my 37 year old who was most concerned about Heart Disease. She is out of shape and Heart Disease runs in her family.

Third was my 48 year old that was concerned about our Medicare System. She is hoping Congress will make benefits more fair and that it is still around for her when she retires. She is also wondering where small facilities will be getting the funds from for E-Records as she works in the health care world in a small company.

Fourth is me, I'm 52. My greatest health concern is learning the proper diet and exercise program for a woman in her 50's. I have recently lost 52 lbs but have 48 lbs to go, and I am wanting to make sure that I am not just loosing weight but improving my health. I am also concerned about Hormone Replacement Therapy. I am not taking any now, but that is because of all the doctors I went to after my hysterectomy, everyone changed my HRT without ever testing my hormone levels. (I went to at least 10 different doctors as we moved so many times.)

Last was my 60 year old. She is most concerned about cost of Health Care. Her husband is retired and has Medicare, but even so his medicines cost $2000 a month and his retirement checks are only $1500 per month. She works just to have insurance to cover his medications. With the economy the way it is, she never knows when she will loose her job and there just aren't alot of people hiring with benefits a 60 year olds with only a high school diploma.

As you can see, over half the women interviewed were concerned about the finances of health care and what kind of health care will be available in their futures. I find it very disturbing that in this day and age in the United States of America we women are insecure about being able to pay for doctors, hospitals and medicines. I think that's why so many women wait until something is very wrong before going to the doctor. They will take their kids and spouses, but will not go themselves.

Pure Commotion

You are probably wondering why I would name my blog "Pure Commotion". I was raised to believe "good girls" never questioned authority. Because of this I have spent years allowing doctors to do with my body whatever they thought was right. I have come to believe that although these doctors know alot, they don't know as much about my body as I do. It's time for me to create a little "clear noisy activity" when dealing with my own health. I need to get involved and work with the doctors, because the decisions about my health are ultimately mine.