“#4 is OK, as are #2 and #5. … “Vinyl is out, and that includes #3 PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastics. Completely. Totally. And I do have a little rhyme for this one: “No vinyl. That’s final.” (Or, if you prefer, ‘No PVC for me’.)”
Read more on vinyl / PVCs at Grist.org. And read up on GARDEN HOSES at Grist, where they frown on the prevalent vinyl hoses and recommend only rubber hoses, which are much sturdier and which you can buy through Sears, Gilmour, or your favorite Internet sex toy dealer. (Me bad.)
OPEN THREAD. … Your turn to be bad.
Just got back from my stress test… can’t do the treadmill so did the drug. That drug makes you feel so weird! The head tingles all over and when the drug was at its strongest I could feel every beat of my heart, and I was shaking uncontrollably. But the cardiologist — a savoir faire kinda guy in very nice shape for a man his age — said my heart looks very good.
The coolest part was seeing my own heart on a big computer screen. I saw all the chambers and the valves opening and closing. It was strange and quite wonderful . then I felt badly for my heart having to work like that all the time with no rest ever….
Good news Susan, glad to hear it.
I remember when Oprah saw her heart in tests like that and she said she ‘just loved her heart’ after that.
Yes when you think about all the neverending work a heart does, we should be nicer to it.
That’s so neat that Oprah had that experience too. All of us living creatures are marvels of nature. So complex that sometimes I have to admit that Darwin just doesn’t seem to provide a complete answer to how we all came about. (Not that I’d subscribe to ID, but I can see why some people might be drawn to it just because….)
I tend to see it the other way around… the world is so amazing because so many forces of nature combined in such intricate, incalculable ways to create such amazing things as avocados and mangoes – and us (and our hearts)! To me that’s even more amazing then some supposed invisible architect, that all the infinite variables randomly brought us to this exact moment. That blows me away.
Was the image from an ultrasound? Did they say what your ejection fraction was? –M
Yes, it was an ultrasound machine. I don’t know what an ejection fraction is … is that how fast your heart pumps blodo through the valves?
Those poor litttle valves … chugging back and forth like that. They looked like elderly seagulls haphazardly, strenuously flapping.
Yes. I have blodo, not blood. The # of typos … must be an after-effect. Must use Spellcheck; everyone else says it’s such a good friend.
Yeah. It’s a measure of the output efficiency of each heart pump cycle. See here for a short explanation. You might want to ask your cardiologist for the number as it’s a pretty important indicator (speaking not as a doctor but an interested layperson). Anyway, hope all is well and stay healthy! –M
Some years ago I had a spell of skipped heartbeats. While driving through a neighboring town it started skipping every 2nd beat. We phoned the paramedics, they took one listen and rolled out the red carpet express to a small suburban hospital. A variety of drugs they tried didn’t settle it down.
I spent the night in the cardiac intensive care unit underneath the Death Clock, awakened by my heart monitor alarm going off all the time.
In the end, during the stress test it went fully normal, which helped confirm it as a mitral valve prolapse problem. I keep the caffeine in moderation and haven’t had any trouble since. I just need antibiotics before any dentist or doctor cuts me for any reason.
Don’t feel bad for your heart. It’s been under development for just this mission for a billion years.
Bummer about the vinyl and pvc. Some of the equipment I make uses it. With demand increasing I guess I’d better look around for safer choices.
For your vinyl equipment, you can write to the writers at Grist. THEY’d probably LOVE to hear about your issues. The garden hose info came from a Q&A column. A reader in New Zealand asked what he/she could use instead of vinyl hoses.
I’m so glad your heart got better after you slowed down on the caffeine. But, my god, you must have been very, very worried throughout that ordeal. I have a heart murmur and have to take antibiotics too when i go to the dentist.
susan, have any of the doctors considered any kind of neurological problems? They can mimic stroke, heart attack symptoms, etc. and most doctors just automatically assume when you have chest pains or you go numb in face that these are the problems.
My neuro-muscular problem causes almost all of the above mentioned symptoms at various times. My sister was rushed to hospital in ambulance for supposed stroke-her face and one side were numb and it is this neuro-muscular problem.(it’s hereditary although we were not diagnosed/misdiagnosed for over 30 years)Many doctors continue to refuse to believe this also. As in my sisters case where all the tests for stroke etc showed absolutely nothing relating to stroke but they continued to tell that is what is ‘had’ to be and refused to believe it could be the neuro-muscular medical problem.
I’m so glad that your ok, Susan. phew
On the lighter side.. you know, if you get very good at meditation you could slow that heart rate down substantially. That’s restful!
(PS. .. don’t suppose you could linksome of those internet “rubber” links.. 😉 KIDDING)
Susan, U R BAD to the Bones………..:o)
I know the feeling of that drug induce stress test. I had mine about 5 weeks ago. I, frankly, do not ever want to have another one of them. I do not know how I pssed it with the feeling I ascertained! I will now forever have lots of sympothy for those going thru this proceedure.
Otherwise, how are you feeling?
Am doing pretty good…. getting reacclimated to home again.
Did you like looking at your heart? It is strange.
As I registered this morning, I saw the signs that say that it’s a county hospital and they take anyone regardless of ability to pay. I wonder how they manage to do that.
One smal example: The ultrasound machine, the nurse told me, cost $1 million. And I had two nurses with me for two hours + a cardiologist. Wow.
Oh with the cardiac ultrasound I saw the heart, but with the stress test, I did not. I was tooooooooo busy to try to breathe to watch anything but the clock! I wanted it over and done with ASAP!!!! like when we began!!!!kind of time!!!!! I did look at the ekg prints out…I did not look bad at all from who I was feeling during the test…
I love Grist; environmental journalism with a sense of humor. If you didn’t follow any of susanhu’s links, do so. Or go directly to the Grist front page. I signed up for email delivery and their stuff is great.
Aren’t they cute?! Usually I kind of dread opening my mail from environmental groups because it’s always so dire and depressing. But Grist is a kick in the shorts. And they’re very good writers.
I agree, I’ve been getting their newsletters for a long time also.
So glad you are mending Susan!!!!!
I saw rubber hoses and for a split second thought this was another electronic bullets/Utah Rave story. Yikes!
While watering the flowers this summer… make sure those garden grills have mequite and not charcoal. Charcoal is bad bad bad bad. Read that in the sierra club mag.
Did someone say sex toys?? 🙂
Heh, first time I went looking up laws on the net. Was speical ed stuff and I tried whitehouse dot come… I was stunned that it was a sex sit LOL.
Ha! You’re so funny. What will we do when you go back to work …
Didn’t know about mesquite v. charcoal. What about lighter fluid? (Just kidding.)
Oh no … it looks like Whitehouse.com, as you knew it, doesn’t exist anymore.
I THINK that that domain name is for sale. Hmmmmm.
… it looks like Whitehouse, as you knew it, doesn’t exist anymore.
I THINK that that domain is for sale.
And with a straight face, no less. Well Done.
ACK… the first months of school are my busiest as a mom due to special ed keerap. It’s like the school is testing the parents resolve or something. “Are theparents going to cave in this year??? Let’s see if we can totally piss em off” blah blah.
Plus bush with the house (covered in exterior paint as I type) AND AND AND… working on some kiddy stories. I’m no author…but I am a great storyteller. Want to get these out of my head and onto paper.
What NO LIGHTER FLUID??? Shhhhh that’s how I get my rocks off 🙂 Weber grill olympian that I am. Drizzle, ignite and run your ass off!!!! Somtimes when there’s toys on the deck my sprint to safety ends up being a track and field hurdles 🙂
MMwwwaaahhhh (big wet kiss) so glad you’re feeling better!
Susan, it’s so good to have you back!
Speaking of poison, I feel compelled to mention phthalates – a chemical added to plastic to make it more flexible. I’ve read that it promotes the growth of cancer cells and since have refused to drink anything from soft bottles.
Of course, everyone thinks I’m crazy.
I thought this was going to be an anti-record screed. It made me wonder what the big deal is, since most people use CDs these days — or iPods, mp3, AAC, or other digital players.
But some people really like the sound of old records, scratchiness and all.
Yes, we should make an exception for old records!
when I was in the hospital. It also got my friend into reading numbers on the bottom of containers. We decided to just stop using them. I bought the pyrex dishes with the blue covers for food storage in the fridge. Ikea has some too but they are not oven proof. Now I don’t have to think about the numbers, no plastic in the fridge,period. Use my old plastic containers for art supplies. Glass bottles for dry storage too.
Reminder: all things made from petroleum are going to go up in price, already starting to.
Now, just what am I going to do with all of my albums? And I’ve got a really nice turntable, too!
year old artist who was found wheeling his suitcase down a street in N.O. after trying to hitch a ride from evacuees at a busy crossroads out of town. He said he wanted to test peoples’ generosity but didn’t get the chance because all the cars were full.
I got to wondering if I had one hour to evacuate what would I take with me. I’m thinking of inanimate objects. I have an earthquake kit in my front closet but it’s mostly first aid etc. (They advise taking good boots and gloves because there will be broken glass everywhere.)
So what treasures would you take with you if you had to leave town?
My cats + my photos + any spare money + enouigh food/water for me and my cats, and a litter box in the back seat of the car…. Red Cross and other shelters will NOT allow people to bring animals in with them, so I’d have to sleep in my car.
Computer … just in case there’s electricity somewhere.
Bedding.
Tool box.
A few things to read.
As many of my photo albums and books as I could.
I would take photos too. In an ideal world I would have all my photos on “gold” discs that last 300 years. (That’s what the label sez). All photos would be categorized and labelled, snug in a disc case. A few treasured art supplies, no art work because I would have all their photos on discs. A couple of cuttings of favourite plants. It should take me all winter to get the photos in order so I hope we don’t get ‘the big one’ on the west coast just yet. 🙂
This reminds me of a saying that you only own what you can carry while running.
we’re in trouble. Aren’t all plumbing pipes, including the ones bringing water into the house, made of PVC?
Mine are so old, they’re probably solid lead!
Will you write that to Grist’s Q&A section?
From Jan at ProgressiveTalk mailing list:
Okay, I can’t believe I’m the only one who saw the words “rubber hose” and thought “up your nose”. Then SusanHu mentioned sex toy dealers, and I had to sit down for a minute, because the visual went horribly awry…
Oh dear. Where to start. First, glad Susan is doing better but as for the PVC remark (and yes, I get Grist as well), I’m afraid you’ve wandered into one of my areas of knowledge. I’m an environmental consultant and work on this stuff so I’ll try to keep it short.
The reputable US Green Building Council which launched the LEED system of rating buildings so they can be built or re-habbed with a focus on the environment has a committee that has spent over two years lookngi at PVC. Mostly, green architect, designers, builders, industry, etc. People came ot the subject with some distint POV but after looking and Science and real tests, they have not criminalized PVC. I know, Greenpeace and others hate it and have made it a poster boy but the reailty is, it is far from that. As a matter of fact, that treadmill you were on, that’s likely a vinyl belt. http://www.usgbc.org
Sometimes things are not as bad as they sound. On the other hand, environmentally caused illnesses can be very real but the likely culprits are air pollution, second hand smoke, crappy food, bad habits, far more than PVC pipes or a vinyl hose. You’d have to stick the hose up your nose for a 1,000 years to even get a slightly elevated cancer risk.