I am having a hard time getting started today. I didn’t even get out of bed till almost seven, and I am still sitting here at the computer in my nightie. I have music to learn properly before singing it this morning. I need to put gas in my car. I left the book I bought at the store and intended to pick it up first thing today. And… oh, never mind. I guess as long as I put some clothes on before church, it doesn’t matter what else I do.
I blame it on the bikers. The rumble of motorcycles all night, plus my husband having gone downtown for BBQ and waking me up when he got home in the wee hours of the morning — is that a good excuse?
The Empress showed me an article about Type D behavior. You may remember Type A and Type B. It was suggested that Type A people — controlling, hard-driven, competitive folks — were more susceptible to heart attacks than the more laidback Type B folks. This was then expanded to include Type C, people who deny their emotions but feel aggrieved and put-upon, who were thought to be more susceptible to cancer.
It turned out that this division could not be supported by actual data, but it was sort of fun, at least for Type B people like me. After all, there are two kinds of people in the world: those who believe that there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don’t.
Well, researchers are now proposing a Type D: the distressed patient. These are people who worry a lot, who fret over things, are often irritable and upset, and also tend to have limited social lives. These folks, according to the article, are less likely to comply with treatment, and less likely to survive if they should have heart attacks.
I am skeptical of this, because I can imagine a happy-go-lucky noncompliant patient as well as a cross and irritable one. I also know a few Type D people, and they do not seem less healthy or closer to death, unless it is at the hands of the people around them. My husband (who does not follow any medical advice or do anything he is supposed to do for his health, and yet has the lipid numbers, according to the nurse, “of a sixteen-year-old”) is one of those people. The doctors don’t even check his cholesterol any more, and he lives primarily on saturated fat and hot peppers. Occasionally, when he sighs heavily and tells me he is going to die soon, I snap at him.
Sometimes it puts me in mind of a TV show I saw many years ago, in which the ghost of a cheerleader haunts a girl filled with teen angst. “Perk up!” says the ghost at one point. “I’m dead and I’m not depressed!”
The Empress’s article did not have any suggestions for such people. Oh, it said everyone should eat right and exercise, but it didn’t suggest ways to perk up. Or ways to sidestep the Type D health issues. It seems a little unfair to me that people who are already not happy should also have to worry about their health. Because you know they will.
This will totally cheer you up: a site with many free lace edging and insertion patterns. I haven’t looked at all of them, but just the names are poetry: Kilgorie Edge, Geneva Lace, Smyrna Insertion (actually, that could sound medical or martial, too; it depends on your attitude), Mikado Lace. And if those names do not intrigue you, there is also “skull cap for an elderly lady.”
I was all excited about that skull cap for an elderly lady pattern, and it isn’t available yet. But the rest looks good.
I am of the opinion there are almost as many types as there are people, and we are constantly changing, so why bother categorizing? I know it helps us feel in control, to make sense of our world and try to find order in the chaos — especially for those Type A people.
I agree that there are different types of people too. But I think people do change as well and should not decide that they are one way and have to be that way forever! I never fit into either Type-A or Type-B completely…I guess I’m both! LOL
I’ve never been totally convinced about Type A and Type B. Both heart disease and cancer run in both sides of my family but it seems to be due more to genetic factors than anything else – proportion of low density to high density lipids, susceptability to sunburning, congenital heart conditions…etc. I think Type A and Type B would be useful only for describing the behaviour of those heart attack patients who actually survived a first attack. I suspect that Type A would be more likely to have a second attack then Type B. It’s a bit like astrology, fun, but not terribly useful.
Well the story is not interesting so much as awkwardly funny.
We were getting food and we were talking about sports. He, of course, has a lot to say about the inner workings of an athlete. I was explaining why I do not relate to this and, to illustrate my point, mentioned my volleyball playing tactic which amounts to simply figuring out the fastest way to get rid of the incoming ball and avoiding impending doom. This was accompanied by a quick thrusting out of my balled fists in a mock “get that ball away from me” motion I am so used to making.
He, while holding both his wallet and bank card, mimicked this gesture in an effort to make fun of me and ended up throwing both into his windshield. The card slid down and almost fell into the defrost vent.
Awkwardly funny. At his expense. Serves him right for making fun of me.
I think staying away from the medical profession is the right way to stay well! My parents were fit and healthy well into their 70s and looked about 10 yrs younger than their age. It wasn’t until they started going to doctors that things started going awry. I’ve managed to keep medical visits down to a minimum. There’s not much they can do for you really – viral and bacterial infections clear up by themselves given appropriate time and rest and fluid intake, heart conditions can be improved with sensible, regular exercise, colesterol levels with sensible eating. A moderate physical and psychological lifestyle also helps prevents cancer triggering (it is often triggered by viral infections in susceptible people so I’ve read) All of these can be done without recourse to medical practictioners.