Unknown, for better or for worse
Have you seen that movie The House Bunny? Ha! I bet you are wondering how the heck I am going to relate a post to it…
In the movie, a Playboy Bunny, Shelley, leaves the Playboy Mansion and ends up at a college, where she decides to be a “House Mother” to a sorority. Or something. I wasn’t in a sorority so I am sure I am butchering the story by not understanding the lingo.
Anyway, at some point in the movie, Shelley decides she would like to become smarter (sigh, to impress a guy) and goes to the library to study. In the scene, you see her with a zillion books open, cross referencing everything she is reading. She later complains to the other sorority girls about how stupid she feels, looking up words in a regular dictionary, then, in the children’s dictionary to understand the regular dictionary*. She says it takes forever just to read a page.
I think about that scene way more often than I should, studying the ACE Personal Trainer Manual.
I am constantly flipping back and forth to look up words. Geesh. Why didn’t I learn this stuff when I was in school?
Oh yes. I was studying architecture.
Anyway. The latest chapter that has me memorizing definitions is all about cardiovascular disease**. Holy cow… there are a ton of types of disorders. I told Steven I was having a hard time memorizing them all and he suggested associating them with people who have them. Uh… that’s the problem. Wait! That is not a problem! I just don’t have much of a history of cardiovascular disease in my family… so a lot of these words and phrases are foreign to me. Geesh. Maybe I should start watching ER or something! Or talk to some older people.*** They love to talk about people’s health issues. Ha!
Thinking about this has made me wonder if I do have more of a family history of it that I just don’t know. And made me think to ask you:
Do you know your family health history very well? Is your family open in sharing those things?
Also! Do you ever feel like you are constantly looking up definitions as you are reading something?!
*Or something like that. I looked for the quote for 20 minutes and gave up.
**And other diseases/special conditions. That is as far as I got yesterday. I needed a break to let it all sink in.
***Trying to be funny, not disrespectful.
Themocracy
Dad’s side has cardiovascular issues (although they all lived very long despite it!) and Mom’s side had a lot of cancer (no breast cancer though–brain, liver, and ovarian as far as I know). You would think I’d take better care of myself. 😉 Thankfully my bp and cholesterol are always in good order, so I worry more about the cancer stuff…
Also, those aren’t exactly words people use in day to day language so it’s not surprising that you’d need to look them up. I only know adipose from watching Dr. Who! 😀
So I should add Dr. Who to my list of shows to watch to help me study, too?
I was thinking about this last night, and even if a doctor told me I was at high risk, I just can’t see myself changing much about my lifestyle. Even though a non-blood family member passed away from a myocardial infarction (look at me using my fancy words!) a few years back, I still don’t take care of myself like I should.
I know a little bit about my family health history. Probably not as much as I should though. I went in to get a physical when I first got insurance at my current job and the nurse practitioner did ask me a ton of questions about my family health history and I felt stupid for not knowing/remembering a lot of it.
Well, it is a good thing not to have cardiovascular disease in your family even if it would help you study! I do know my family medical history pretty well. I read a lot of fiction and I hate stopping to look up a word so I usually try to get it from context. Probably not a workable plan with medical terminology.
I know some. Colon cancer for my grandfather on my mothers side. Heart disease for my mom, grandma, uncle. Colon cancer for my uncle on fathers side. Ovarian cancer for my aunt on my fathers side. Lot’s of cancer and heart disease in my family. 🙁 It’s hard to keep track of all of this because my father is forgetful now. My family isn’t really hopeful about the heart disease either.
Gosh! Are you able to remember all that or do you have to write it down? 🙁 I suppose it’s easier to remember when you know the people and didn’t just hear about it.
(and this all sounds very uncouth, but I am not trying to be!)
I have been trying to not lose my Italian, so I try to read books in Italian. BUT, I have been really about doing it consistently so I have forgotten so much and have to constantly look things up. Read a couple works, look up a word, read a couple more, look up another word. It is sloooow going.
Good for you for trying to keep it up! I think I forgot most of it when I came back. I still say “Basta! Va via!” a lot though 😉
Well, thanks for saving me the trouble of seeing the House Bunny 🙂
I know a lot of general stuff about my family health history, like enough to know that I needed to get healthy based on some predispositions, but not as much specifics as I could (um, good example here – if anyone asks me which of my vertebrae were fused when I had surgery, I don’t even know that! I don’t know my own health history!). But my family isn’t always forthcoming about things. My brother told me our grandma had Alzheimers years after she passed away. It was really obvious, looking back, but no one ever actually called it that.
It’s actually an amusing movie, if you ever are looking for something to watch!
Did your grandma realize that was what she had? Gosh. Why wouldn’t you share that?
I’m sure there are lots of words in those books that I wouldn’t know even thought I took anatomy & physiology in both high school and college AND studied something some people consider to be a science (psychology). Non-science words are typically easy for me to figure out based on the context but science terms usually require the use of a glossary!
As for my family health history, we’re a pretty hardy bunch. At least on my mom’s immediate family side as far as I know. My grandmother got Type II diabetes that she didn’t really treat so that was her downfall. But neither of my grandparents had cancer or heart disease. My dad has high blood pressure but other than that we don’t know his biological family health history since he’s adopted. And my mom always says the doc is impressed with her blood work so I don’t think I have much to worry about there!
We have a little bit of everything in our family. heart disease, diabetes, alzheimers, cancer. Not good. But don’t feel so bad about looking up lots of stuff. I have the cardiovascular stuff pretty much down but i am still looking up stuff all the time even with 4 years of health science based schooling.:)
I know my family health history very well. It’s kinda my thing. I like to know who had what, at what age, and if they died, why and what age. Yeah, I’m a junkie, but then again, I’m a complete nerdy nurse…
When I was in nursing school, a bazillion years ago, I had to look everything up. The upside to that is by the time I was finished, I knew a lot. Then I started practicing in the “real world” and learned so much more!
I will give a little bit of advice…be aware when looking things up. Obviously you are using your books, which is always a good idea. “Googling” something is not always wise, so be mindful of your websites.
And with my experience with old people is this…they like to talk about they bowel movements…not so much anything else…lol
Ha! Are you saying I shouldn’t look that stuff up on google because it is graphic… or wrong?
HA!! Graphic never even crossed my mind! (I’m a sick, sick person…)
Usually it’s wrong, like seriously most of the time. I rely heavily on my textbooks, especially for studying.
I hate it when people call and the first words out of their mouth is, “I googled my symptoms and blah blah blah”, and then I tell them, “don’t believe everything you read on the internet…because half the time it isn’t true.”
sigh.
So when I have questions I should consult my book… or you? 😉
Oh gosh. Dr Google… always a bad idea!
I know some of those cardiovascular diseases from college classes but I’ve forgotten so many of them. Whenever I get a new project at work I usually have to do some background research on the disease anyway. I was talking to a friend who is currently in PA school and she was telling me about what someone had in abbreviations/acronyms and I was all, “I don’t do abbreviations, I need full words.”
My family is fairly healthy. And I usually know what is going on in terms of people’s health. My mother’s side does have a history of brain aneurysms and high blood pressure. My dad’s mom is dealing with a lot of eye problems – cataracts, glaucoma. But thankfully everyone is pretty healthy. 🙂
I am all about abbreviations at work, but having abbreviations for new stuff is totally throwing me off!
When Matt started working at his job, after a meeting, one of his coworkers said, “Pioneer sure uses a lot of TLA’s–three letter acronyms.” It’s bad when you need an acronym for the acronyms.
Ha! We have an online dictionary for our acronyms!
TLAs? No.
That’s definitely a very memorable way to recall those terms as you study!! Yeah I know diabetes runs on both sides of my family. And there is cancer from my maternal grandmother and Alzheimer’s from my paternal grandmother and also from my great grandpa…it’s such a horrible horrible illness. Booo!
Do you read Rachel’s blog, Running in Real Life? Her and another blogger are running for Alzheimer’s as part of their “Longest Day” campaign! 🙂
I’m… pretty bad at my family medical history. Basically the answer is “it’s terrible” and both sides have a history of, like, EVERTHING, so it’s hard to keep straight. i think my maternal grandfather alone had like three UNRELATED types of cancer! I’m toast, in other words 😉
AHH! You’re screwed!!! (lol)
I still dont understand accounting. I always have to google stuff. sheesh. In my past life as a professional musician, I always had my music dictionary with me to translate the Italian, Russian, French whatever was in our music.
Im pretty sure my mom wouldnt tell me if she had a health problem- but my daad is very open and just tells me everything. “I was displaying some symptoms of prostate cancer so I got checked out.” WTG Daad! Heart disease might run in my family- my grandmother (moms mom) had it, but im not sure if it is 100% genetic or the result of a sedentary, smoking, non healthy lifestyle. I’d like to think its because of unhealthy choices…
I look up words ALL THE TIME. Want to know why?? Because my son’s vocabulary for school is RIDICULOUS! Haha, when he asks me to check his homework I have to get out my phone! Lolol.
Ha! That is funny. At least you are learning, too? 🙂
Oddly I haven’t seen House Bunny. LOL I look up words a lot, too, and I’m an English teacher! 🙂
It’s cute! And fun! If you’re in the mood for a silly movie.
Phew. That makes me feel better.
I love the internet because I can highlight a word I don’t know, right click it, and search Google for a definition. So I do that all the time. Also, Robert knows a lot more about politics and international relations than I do (since that’s what he studies … I can school him on PR and marketing, but we don’t have as many fancy words), so sometimes when he’s nerding-out to me on that topic, I always stop him when I don’t know a word he said (or a country, LOL). I’m just glad he’s willing to help me learn instead of teasing me for not knowing every word out there.
Also I loved House Bunny, but I love Anna Faris.
First of all, I love the House Bunny. Not mentally stimulating, but it’s cute.
Onto the rest…it’s usually when I start talking to someone about work and I use some word/abbreviation that is familiar to me, but not to people outside the medical world. Even saying, “He was on a vent” sometimes draws funny looks. Vent = ventilator, which I then start referring to as “the breathing machine.” haha.