LoveItaly

Well my DH had an annual medical exam and the results were that his blood pressure, cholestral etc. were more than perfect..he was told he was healthwise in perfect condition.

And than he died three months later from a sudden heart attack.

I, from that experience and many others; including my grandson's girlfriends father who went to the doctors about every 3 months for 3 years because "something was not right" and was ignored and died last month of cancer at age 44 have a very negative feeling about our medical profession.

Also, I had a serious medical problem for four years and no one including specialist could diagnose my problem. This was precomputer era. I spent two days at a library and diagnosed myself. Oh yes, my diagnosies was correct. Took the handwritten notes I had made to the specialist, they pulled out their medical books, oh "duh" I was right, operation the next week.

Good doctors abound, good health care people abound; but I do not 100% trust any of them..all from personal experiences.

bonniebroad

STW, I have to ask ... (sorry) ... how do you KNOW, for sure, that your good numbers are not genetic? I have two brothers,one who is 68, has walked or run several miles every day for the last 43 years and cut his fat level (and it's the *good* fats) to 20 percent of his diet. Is wonderfully lean and muscular and healthy BUT his cholesterol levels are sky-high, even with Lipitor ... it won't come down lower than 240 or so! The other brother is 65, NEVER exercises except for lifting a beer to his mouth a few times a day, FRIES every meal and includes enough butter, lard and cream to shock even Paula Dean, is a good 75 lbs. overweight, and his numbers are BEAUTIFUL!

And there are many other such examples in a family as large as ours ... sometimes it's not Mom or Dad that we take after, but Great-Uncle John or Grandma Mary .... I'm going to continue to read ...

seetheworld

Bonnie, I must be adopted then. There is no great-uncle John or grandma Mary in my family. Well, I had a grandma Mary, but she died of a stroke.

My family history tells me that I need to make a concerted effort to monitor my heart health. I believe diet plays a major role in my good numbers. If I had more family members with good numbers, maybe I would feel differently.

Even my 29 year old sister who died from a cardiac arrhythmia, had signs of coronary artery disease.

Sensitive issue. That's it for me.

jorr

PM, Some of the traits of your BIL and how you deal with him are exactly how I and others deal with my brother. Like you, we also have decided to tell him very little if anything about our personal lives because he tears it down and harps on it. I used to tell him about important things in my life until my girlfriend died last winter and he didn't say a word to me about it. Maybe he was too hung over to give a damn. To this day he still has said nothing.

Phone calls with him are endless because he repeats his paranoid ideas over and over. When you can't take it anymore he claims that you haven't been listening to him and he hangs up.

That thing involving info requested from your BIL's aunt is also typical of how my brother reacts. I gave my brother's email address to a cousin for a family reunion and he chewed me out.

He jumps all over anyone who says anything about him. I avoid his friends because I don't want to say anything about him that will come back to haunt me and I have never said anything negative about him to his friends. One day I was hiding between isles in a grocery store to avoid one of his friends. He goes ballistic if he finds out that I have talked to one of his friends.

I would like to talk to you more. Please post again. I need to communicate with someone in a similar position as mine.

Jorr

P_M

Jorr, if you would like to speak to me off the board, email me anytime at thegreatpumpkin24 at yahoo.com. Of course there are no spaces in my email address and "at" replaces @. I'm disguising it so it won't pop up in a google search. I'll help you in any way I can.

P_M

BTW, jorr, if talking ON the board is easier, that's OK too. I leave it up to you.

JJ5

Mikemo, it's not that the doctor didn't know- it's that he didn't think the pain was "what it was" or from that RX
statin use. Ostheo-arthritis and other problems with osteopenia all going on at the same time- and most of it was felt in combination with much increased joint pain.

LoveItaly, this was very similar in some ways to your past situation. Do you know that woman of a certain age- are not believed or taken as seriously as a man in the same medical situation- especially if it has to do with pain levels?

I have had to doctor shop too- after that and I hate it. And otherwise for many other things I really liked the doctor. I have had good specialits, but have never found a good generalist or family doctor that begins to understand that I have non-average metabolic functions, nor takes some of the consequences of that in perspective properly, IMHO.

bonniebroad, I happen to agree with you 100% on all you said. One male friend of 59 has altered liver function now and it is not correcting completely on stopping Zocor. He has been doing some networking and says that these drugs have caused far worse and will have class action suits etc. before long now.

Although heart trouble is still a big threat to women and men alike- the connection is NOT as direct with these numbers as some of the literature and studies would have you believe.

What bothers me more than my own experience is the extent that these are being perscribed. I literally don't know more than 3 adults my age that AREN'T taking some kind of statin or related product.

jorr, your brother sounds like he has a classifiable personality disorder. Think of the bright side, at least he didn't marry or involve others into a family situation living within his own household in his lifetime. These are extremely hard on the persons that live with them.

You can not expect that a personality disorder will ever "change" to a different perception on his part. But it wouldn't hurt if he could be convinced somehow through circumstances to have regular help in a outside group or singular counseling. Alcohol is not the only problem by any means.

jorr

PM, I am open to your offer of further help and advice. I will get back to you soon. hopefully this week.

JJ5, you may very well be correct in your observation. But counseling is something my brother would never accept or participate in.