Day 168 - What does Your Family Tell You About Your Health?

This was a very nice day. It was good. Fun. Restful. Relaxing. Low key and no pressure. I spent it hanging out with my sister and that was fun. There is something cathartic about hanging out with the person who has lived through the same crap you did as a kid and is still your friends as an adult. We made stupid jokes about it and let ourselves off the hook about some of the bad choices we've made during our recovery from a wacky family. We hung out and took advantage of our time together. Other than having some fun and doing a lot of nothing together, one of the things that is really important about being with family is to talk about real stuff. Whether it's about family or relationship challenges, plans for the future, or medical stuff, talking things through is important.

 

In addition to all of the silliness, fun and relaxation, my sister and I did spend some time talking about our common medical stuff. We look to our parents and our siblings for clues about the health issues we may face as we age. My sister and I are both taking some similar meds and we had a good chat about how our bodies react to those meds. We started doing some internet searches and learned some important information about the timing of how we take those meds. We talked about family medical problems and the life choices we are making to stay as healthy as we can. Both of us came away feeling like we had made some progress in our strategies to get healthy

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I know that since my family history includes heart disease, stroke, aneurysm,  high blood pressure, and diabetes. I would be negligent if I didn't take a look at my lifestyle and make sure I am living in a way that does not give those conditions an opportunity to get a foothold in my body. I have never smoked, I rarely drink, and I have worked to reduce the stress in my life (although stress continues to be an issue). I have watched what I eat for decades and I have worn sunscreen since I was in my mid-thirties. I feel really good that my medical tests for those family issues always came up clean. I don't have those family conditions, but I do have a few of my own. Who knows where the fibro came from - an aunt or a cousin on my Dad's side? I just, don't know. What I do know for sure is that I would rather talk about other things than fibro when I'm hanging with my sister.