Can allergies develop later in life? My daughter was born at 26 weeks (2 pounds). She catches colds constantly (presently taking a lung steroid for it), has nearly been killed by RSV fucking TWICE and to top it off also got the pleasure of suffering through H1N1 all before she was even two years her corrective age. However, no allergies have taken head. She LOVES peanut butter and peanuts (do NOT give a kid peanuts if you still change diapers. My only warning) and has been stung by a bee, so it's all good in the 'Hood so far. Maybe it's because her mother and I have no known allergies, who knows.
Things I have or have had: Rockin' pneumonia Boogie-Woogie flu High fever only cured by more cowbell Things I don't want: ADHDEAD Eye Curdling Eyearrhea Fallopian Tapeworm Involuntary Narnia Adventures Teriyaki Lung Jimmy Crack Corns Monkeylung Rectal Dyslexia Eyesplosions Subcutaneous Funyuns Source: Stolen from the health segment on Colbert, I think On a more serious tip, you can develop allergies later in life. Sometimes it's because of overexposure. It's not uncommon for medical personnel to develop latex allergies after years of exposure.
In the vein of "I know some people actually have it, but stop kidding yourself" diseases, the abundunce of supposed lactose intolerant people drive me crazy. Your tummy doesn't hurt because you're lactose intolerant. Your tummy hurts because I just watched you eat a pint of ice cream in one sitting washed down with some chocolate milk after eating a full dinner.
The lungs are the last thing to develop during pregnancy, hence her respiratory woes. I'd be more worried about her developing asthma. Airborne irritants such as smoke, pollen, dust etc can wreak havoc on an immature respiratory system and prolonged use of a corticosteroid brings a whole other set of issues, chiefly a disruption to the endocrine system.
PMS Do some women get cramps, headaches, and other minor physical maladies around their menstrual cycle? Don't doubt it. Do lots of women consciously use the excuse of "PMS" to act like raging assholes because they think/know no one is going to call them out on their behavior? Don't doubt it. On the other hand, apparently Feminism is a real illness, based on the number of Feminists I've interacted with who had a vertible encyclopedia of health problems.
On the peanut allergies issue, I heard from a good authority* that it is thought that the sudden prevalence of this phenomenon wasn't due to a change in people but rather a change in the way peanuts were processed. Apparently, the theory is that the old way took longer and removed most of the allergen from the peanuts. The new way, while a lot quicker and therefore more cost effective, did not. Therefore, the increased incidence of the allergen corresponded to an increased incidence of allergic reactions. *Dr Karl Kruszelnicki. If you don't know who that is.... poor you.
Salmonella and e-coli: Have you ever heard of a person you know actually getting this? I can't tell you how many times I've had raw/undercooked meat and eggs with zero consequence. Eat your steak rare and stop being a pussy. Dog allergies: I'm not saying that being around dogs doesn't make some people sick, I'm saying the underlying reason is that you don't have a soul, not an 'allergy.' To be fair, I'm a dickhead when I just have a headache. I think bleeding out the vagina, having cramps and headaches is a pretty good excuse to be a little bitchy. I'm not saying it should excuse the irrational emotional outbursts like you're probably referring to, but I think it's a little unfair to expect that a woman's mood should not be compromised by it.
My wife and I are polar opposites when it comes to disease. She gets sick every couple of weeks, mostly getting head colds, and she is allergic to virtually every plant out there, along with most animals. She is even going in for surgery to correct her deviated septum and to clean out her sinuses in the hopes of fixing her frequent head colds. I get sick once every five years or so, and even then I rarely need antibiotics, just some down time and a lot of water. I chalk this up to her mom being overprotective and taking her to the doctor for antibiotics every time she so much as coughed, while my parents wouldn't take me to the doctor with a 104 fever and puking every five minutes as a kid. My dad would just tell me to wrap an ice pack around my head and "walk it off." He did the same for broken bones and internal injuries, like when my brother was coughing up blood. If it weren't for my mom frantically driving him to the doctor, he'd have lost his spleen, which was ruptured. My dad still takes credit for "saving his spleen" because he insists the doctors would have cut it out if he'd have gone to the hospital earlier. Fevers, the flu, broken bones, and any injury that isn't immediately visible were (and still are) somewhat imaginary to my dad. Still, my immune system grew pretty damn strong. Focus: My favorite fictional disease (besides bone-itis) is whatever variant of Rabies ends up causing the zombie apocalypse. It won't be traditional "undead" zombies, but living people who get a crazy advanced form of Rabies and get a high fever and the insatiable urge to bite the uninfected to spread the disease. I think this is what happened in Omega Man and I Am Legend (and what they feared would happen in the book "Rant" by Chuck Palahniuk, for anyone who has or hasn't read it). Bring on the Zombies!
PMS is PRE menstrual syndrome. It has nothing to do with bleeding out of the vagina, and actually has a fairly rigid medical definition.That being said, only a small percentage of women actually have real diagnosed PMS. Sort of like insomnia, I guess.
Fibromyalgia. Look, I'm sure this may be a real disease. There are probably a whole lot of people out there who really have this. But, I'm thinking it's a catch-all for a whole lot of symptoms that don't match up with any other known syndromes or diseases. Every person I've known with fibromyalgia has turned out to be co-dependent, needy, emotionally unstable, and high maintenance. They seem to be the same type: dumpy, middle-aged housewives that are unfulfilled by their marriages and families. They don't want to get better. They thrive on the drama and attention of being "sick" and needing a housekeeper, etc, etc so that they never have to lift a finger. I think a diagnosis of fibro should be given with a referral to marriage/individual counseling.
All this, and everyone left out the Primeval? Hypochondria: The All-In-Your-Head Cold. I don't know what first starts this irritating and unecessary shit, but I know the cure is to slap the person in the face as hard as you can over and over until they stop acting like an asshole all the time. There's nothing like watching some moron blowing their money on "specialists" because they are adamantly convinced that the criss-cross pattern formed by the webbing of their lawn chair against the back of their legs is Ebola or something.
I generally agree with you on this. However my six year old cousin complained about pains and his legs for a long time, everyone (including his doctor) chalked it up to growing pains. Finally his mom said fuck it and took him to get x-rayed at the hospital. Turned out to be bone cancer that had been manifesting for a year. Sleep tight everyone.
I think most hypochondria is caused by visiting WebMD. You can diagnose yourself with AIDS, throat cancer, Hep B, and malaria (all at the same time) if you list real/imaginary symptoms.
Tell me about, I definitely caught a case of the Coot this night, sneaky bitches. Still haven't been able to get rid of it, that shit is like taxes.
Fuck you from the bottom of my bowels. Have you ever travelled through Egypt, where in many places you can't flush toilet paper, with salmonella? Can you imagine the joy you will experience when you can't leave the bathroom for 2 minutes at a time, and a rapidly filling ordinary wastepaper basket assaults your senses? Allow me to pose a most urgent dilemma: when you have filled your wastepaper basket with used toilet paper, and you still can't leave your toilet, what do you do? Here's how I know Salmonella exists: the hallmark of Salmonella is the production of sulfurous gases in your gut. Hydrogen sulfide is known in high school chemistry classes across the land as 'rotten egg gas'. It's a very... distinctive... symptom. Never before, and I pray to the intestinal gods never again, have I been responsible for producing the sort of vile odour that should by rights begin corroding the surrounding environment. If I'd had a canary, the last breath it took would have melted it from the inside while it dreamed of returning to the purity of its ancestral coal mine. Of course, if you stay out of filthy 3rd world countries where dinner for 2 will run you about $1, you should be fine. But where's the fun in that?
You could not have described my father's wife (technically my step-mom, but I was 29 when they got married so I was a little past calling her "Mommy") any better. We've often debated privately amongst ourselves whether her Fybromyalgia is real, or just her playing mind games. She's got a diagnosis (for what its worth), but what makes it difficult to believe is the timing of her little "episodes". Its always at a time where attention is being focused elsewhere in the family and suddenly, big attack and everyone's refocused on her. Likewise, her having to spend a couple days in bed always seems to coincide with her having a fight with her kids.
I agree with this 100%, and I just looooooove how they also like to bitch and guilt-trip their own families about how becoming a mom/wife never let them "fufill their potential in life". You know, they would have been millionaire beauty queens walking red carpets if only they didn't choose to be responsibly regular. Fuck off and drown in an ice-covered lake. It kind of has a crossover with Munchausen: pussies who like being treated like life took a huge shit on their face and therefore command repect and undying flattery. It's as bad as a chemical drug addiciton, only there's no drugs to blame.