My body, my identity

About 130 pounds ago, I used to joke that the only things about me that were thin were my hair and my singing voice. Now, I need to modify that list. My hair is still thin, although I think my glucosamine chondroitin regimen is improving the strength and durability of both my hair and nails; whether it's actually helping my joints, I'm not sure yet. My singing voice is still thin. And while I'm quite a few sizes larger than the "0" ideal for supermodels, I'm thin enough to sit in a "coach" airplane seat without asking for a seat belt extender. But now, I need to add my blood to the list of things about me that can be described as "thin." Let me say, right off the bat, that Xarelto beats Warfarin by a country mile. Unlike with Warfarin, I'm not required to get my blood drawn twice a week, and have my dosage changed almost that often -- nor am I required to limit my intake of foods rich in Vitamin K, such as salad greens and broccol...

Let's talk about rape culture. The nation is talking, God knows, and the Senate Judiciary Committee should be. What does rape culture have to do with my body, my identity, or the bodies and identities of females of all ages? Everything. Rape culture is THE glass ceiling that prevents women from being all they can be and doing all they might want to do. It's not just about women -- including two in Iowa, recently -- being murdered while trying to enjoy an activity without a male bodyguard to ward off predators. Not only can't we go for a run or play a round of golf by ourselves without putting ourselves in danger -- we can't go to a bar some lonely night when we want some company, we can't go for a walk after dark, we can't even live alone unless we disguise our femaleness by putting just our surname, and maybe an initial for our first name, on our doorbells and mailboxes. Why can't we have the freedom to do what we want, when we want, or even to decla...

Keith Tomlinson is a wise guy. Wait, let me rephrase that... Keith Tomlinson was my pastor when I lived and worked in Clear Lake, Iowa. Yes, my first newspaper job was in the town famous for being where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper gave their last performances before dying in a plane crash just outside of town. Now Keith and I are both duly Badgerized citizens of Wisconsin. He's retired from the Lutheran ministry, and living in the Fox River Valley. This weekend, Keith, at 74, plans to run his ninth marathon. A reporter for the Appleton Post-Crescent talked to Keith -- and a photographer followed him, in a car, on one of his runs -- for a story that I'm guessing wasn't entirely what the journalists expected. Right off the bat, Keith disputed the notion that running "keeps you young." "My running isn't to fool myself or other people into thinking I'm young, but to challenge people's perception of what it is to be old,"...

There's an outstanding, in-depth article on the Huffington Post website titled "Everything You Know About Obesity is Wrong." Here's the link.  Open it and read it before you read my response below. Really, it's worth the time and effort. https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/everything-you-know-about-obesity-is-wrong/ I call my blog "My Body, My Identity," partly because the blog is one tool in my long-term exploration of just how relevant my shape, size and condition are -- or aren't -- in answering the question, "Who am I?" As I pored over the article, and looked at the photos of fat people (taken in the clothing and settings of their choosing), I asked myself, "Do I still count myself as part of the group/demographic referred to in the article as 'fat' or 'obese?'" Speaking strictly by the numbers, the answers are "yes" and "no." By widely accepted standards of body mass index,...

Look what I found in a box of not-disturbed-in-years jewelry! This fashionable accessory used to be something I wore everywhere, every day. You can't really see the inscription, but it says, "I take blood thinner." I ordered this bracelet online in 2000 (yes, they had Interwebs way back then), after my doctors put me on the blood thinner/rat poison Warfarin,  to lessen the likelihood of another blood clot zooming through a congenital hole in my heart directly to my brain -- a scary thing that happened to me on June 27, 2000. I picked this bracelet because it comes with a tiny compartment where I can store a piece of paper with my name, date of birth, primary doctor's name, medical history, medications taken and emergency contact. It's hard to get all that on a piece of paper that will fit into that little compartment, but I did, with 9 point Arial type. Eighteen years later, I need a way to alert EMTs and ER docs about what's going on with my body, in t...

A few things I've learned in the last couple days: 1. It is great to have a brother who's a doctor, and who can offer some perspective on test results, even though the test in question is not from his specialty. Thanks, Matt Hanson ! Matt is a head and neck surgeon, and a diagnostician with an unparalleled trained intuition. He knows how to read medical information about a test in which I got a result that was, on its face, alarming. But he told me that, while this test is usually reliable in ruling out conditions, an abnormal result doesn't necessarily mean the condition exists. A lot of medical tests are non-specific in that way. 2. There may be a fairly simple solution to what's going on with my heart. Or maybe not. I don't know yet. I've got some tests scheduled for early October, but I'm on a waiting list to see a cardiologist -- who would want results from those tests, anyway, before I see him or her. 3. AFib is a fairly complicated dia...