We're having a heat wave, and there is lots of grumbling going around. I tolerate heat better than cold, so I'm a happy camper. But it reminds me that every single person has a different experience, and nobody is right or wrong in their perceptions. What they speak is true for them. Now there is the necessity to touch base with reality enough that you understand your dogs need to walked early in the morning not to become overheated, and it is not the best night for baking something in the oven. But people's bodies are different and react differently. It took the medical establishment a century or two to realize women's heart attacks often had radically different symptoms and that the guidelines for rushing to the hospital for men left many women untreated or dead. Hello? Women's bodies react differently. Nowadays breast cancer is treated differently for each woman, depending on type, stage, DNA, response to chemo in sample cells, etc. We know to be specific and look at the individual patient.
I mention those two examples because my son's partner's mother just had two heart attacks and my older daughter and many of my friends have been treated for breast cancer. It's personal for me. My mother's first heart attack was her last breath, because she only felt nauseated and my dad didn't call 911 until she had keeled over dead. She didn't get a chance to be treated. She was supposed to have massive chest pain, and she didn't, because she was a 120 pound female.
So let's hear it for the spectrum of experiences and differences in our human bodies. I'm just glad right now heat is bearable for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment