Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Little Old Lady Smackdown



My kids are taking swimming lessons at the YMCA this week, so I was sitting in the outside room watching them participate in their lessons. 


Behind me was a nurse who was giving free health screenings. From what I could tell, she was checking blood pressure, sugar levels, and a couple other things. I didn't pay much attention to her and went on to watch Veronica try and dive (which was quite comical--she would get into a beautiful diving pose, and then.. just plop into the water). 


About ten minutes later I hear an older lady, who had to be in her 60s, begin to scold the nurse (in her 40's) about mocking people who question doctors and live a more health-conscious lifestyle. I couldn't pick up the beginning of the conversation, but I knew the older lady was really upset. 


What I could pick up was something like "I am highly offended you would just brush off thoughts of alternative cures to ailments. You think we should just blindly lead the doctors and do everything they tell us to do. If you want to spew that stuff to people, fine, but don't say it around me! I have known people who have died from following doctors' orders, and that really upsets me!"  

The nurse kinda mumbles something a bit hostile, so the old lady is trying not to cry, and says: "You know, that's just wrong. Shelia is not crazy because she doesn't want chemo. Chemo kills people! If she wants to look into other treatment options, that's he right! She's not crazy at all. You would have all people believe that it's crazy to do anything other than blindly follow doctors and just swallow up any pill [the doctors] hand out. If you ask me, *that's* crazy!"



The nurse obviously had no idea what to say to this. Then she said "well, at the very least, Sheila could be considered eccentric." The old lady says "yes, perhaps, she is, but that's her right! I am just so angry you would tell people not to get themselves better, but to just go do what his doctor says to do. Where's the sense in that?  People can eat better. People can walk. People can do a lot of things that are not crazy and still do better than pills!"


The nurse mumbled something of a half-hearted apology.  And with that, the old woman left. 


It seems to me that more and more of society is waking up to the fact that pushing pills and just hunkering down on the couch is really not the way to go. And they are also taking a more serious interest in their food and their way of life. I really was happy to hear the exchange. 


A few minutes later the kids had finished up, so we were headed out of the door... I looked over to the nurse, and there she sat happily munching on vending machine "food" and a Diet Pepsi. But don't worry, she works for a doctor... there's a pill for that.

5 comments:

  1. I LOVE this story! I could be that older woman arguing with the nurse, as I too have been enlightened in recent years with nutritional information that makes perfect sense to me! I've never taken my doctor's word for anything until I've investigated other options. I began doing that years ago when my BIL and SIL were BOTH put on statin drugs because their doctor told them "it's time to start taking them at your ages." Their cholesterol total number was 120! Oof!

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  2. LOVE it. Especially the know-it-all nurse eating her chips and diet soda.

    It is also so painful to see loved ones blindly following doctor's advice, as if giving up gluten for a month to see if it helps your neuropathy is more inconvenient than a host of MRIs, invasive tests, and meeting with a surgeon, and possibly surgery! The examples are endless.

    My husband suffered from nerve pain in his arm for months, undergoing hosts of tests, before bringing the issue to our chiropractor who helped us after a car accident years before. Two treatments, and the nerve pain was gone FOREVER. And now, since taking wheat out of our diet, we've even stopped needing the chiropractor! No inflammation!

    Did you see the survey done showing that the majority of medical doctors would actually refuse chemo!! Even cancer doctors who prescribe it to others! Thank God our family has not had to make that choice, but I'm not sure I would even concede eccentricity on Sheila's part.

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  3. Honey,

    As a 95% Paleo 64 year old woman--who has much under her belt in life experience but not much belly fat now--"old woman" many of us are not, thank you very much. I did 1/2 hour of interval training and RAN up and down the steps probably 100 times this morning. Didn't you know? 60 is the new 45. This "old woman" here got a lot of livin' to do. Normally, 60 plus women disappear--admit it, Heather--you don't see us. Except you saw one stick up for health. We are legion.

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  4. Also, that picture doesn't look like any 60 year old women I know--even the ones not as healthy as I am. Agism is rampant. Try and get a job as an even healthy 60 year old woman. I have too many friends trying to do that. I tell them to get healthy because that may be all they have soon. Ron Paul won't help em much. Or any of the other herd of bozos he belongs to.

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  5. The vending machines at my work (a hospital) have little green tags on the stuff that's supposed to be healthy. Apparently, rice crispy treats are healthy because they're low in sodium. O_o

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