Health Rant

How do you stay healthy?

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Welcome back to another edition of the Creation Fans podcast. And today it is Sunday rant. Don't really know if I can call these Sunday rants anymore because I don't necessarily post them on Sundays, but it's Sunday when I'm doing the ranting, so I guess I'll keep the name because I kind of like it anyway. But welcome back, everybody. It's the new year. This is my first Sunday rant of the new year. And it's usually just me ranting about different things. I'm going to start it off by ranting on health. So probably about a week or two ago, I had a dream. And in my dream, I recall doing something with my foot. And it was painful in the dream. And so when I woke up from the dream, my foot was hurt. And it was like right under, right at the base of the big toe, the little ball area. Like but a little bit off to the side and hurt. Even when I put pressure on it, tried to rub it or whatever. And it started out that that day. So I I guess it may have been a little more than a week or two ago. So it's I think it was like the 31st. It was the day before the new year. And I helped I helped move some furniture from my mom's old apartment. She was moving back home. Because if you listen to the Mother's Day podcast, as you know, my mom has dementia, and we were moving her back home from a facility that she was in. And I probably have a rant about that because the place was horrible and it needs to something needs to be done, but that's a whole nother rant. I'll finish this health one first, but they kind of tie together. But anyway, so my foot was hurting. I helped my mom move, helped move her move her furniture. And some of it. I didn't. We had a we had movers for the heavy lifting, but I was on my feet bagging a lot of stuff in her in the place she was staying to take back home. Didn't think anything of it. I guess that New Year, I was pretty much New Year's Day, I was pretty much off my feet, just lounging around the house. But by the second day of January, I want to say uh was uh Thursday, maybe. Anyway, I couldn't put any pressure on that foot. I mean, it hurt it. It was like ouch. And so, you know, tried some icing it and all that stuff, you know, just staying off of it, massage it a little bit here and there, but nothing seemed to work. So I went to Dr. Google and got to be very careful with Google because started bringing up all kinds of things like gal, what is it, that the turf toe that athletes get, because I'm a runner, so I started looking up, you know, things along that line and turtle and all these different things came up. So, you know, I think I stayed off of it that Thursday, Iceland there trying to do things here, took uh some over, you know, over-the-counter pain stuff, or leave or whatever it is, and stayed off the foot that Friday as well, just, you know, because I was off work anyway. So I just kind of, but still, I mean, it was hurting like crazy. So, you know, I am a praying man. I prayed a little uh that Friday and I was able, so I woke up that Saturday morning and I was able to put pressure on it again. And I was like, you know what, I better get this looked at. So I went to urgent care, right? So I was like, okay, maybe Dr. Google is off a little bit. Went to urgent care, and you know, I was thinking to myself that am I getting to the age where I can't even sleep safely anymore because, you know, this all happened to me in a dream, right? So I uh had them look at it, they x-rayed me in urgent care, found nothing, nothing was broken. The lady gave me a encryption for two pills, three pills, something to stop the inflammation or whatever, I guess. She called it. And she gave me a little pamphlet on how to prevent gout. And she told me that if I really wanted to find out if it was gout, because right at that moment they couldn't tell me anything was wrong. They was like, you know, it's just kind of like, okay, something irritated, but if you really want to know if it's gal, you gotta go to a podiatrist or whatever, and they have to stick a needle in the food or whatever, or something, blah, blah, blah. So I was like, okay. Uh not to do that today. And it's feeling better. By the time I got home, she gave me a boot, and I walked in on the boot, and my wife called me boot man. Like, that was my superpower. Now I'm in a boot. I'm like, thanks. Blah blah blah, there. But it was it was actually hilarious. So I took the medicines or whatever, and it just stopped, you know. Stopped hurting, but anyway, it kind of set in my head, kind of freaked me out because of course, before I went to, and I'm thinking maybe I did just pull something. I'm still gonna ask my doctor about it when I go to my yearly checkup, you know, just to be on the safe side to see, you know, and I've been really watching it, because I did, Dr. Google had me, you know, I did all this research and her pamphlet that she gave me about gout, and I was like, okay, because you know I always thought Gal was people who were like alcoholics. That's what I associated to. But when I started really looking at it, I'm like, well, anybody can have gout. You know, it's just you're have a reaction to something that the body, I don't know, I guess it's too much of it or whatever. And so I started looking at all the things that I do. Like I don't eat a whole lot of red meat. I may get red meat maybe two or three times a year. So it's mostly chicken and fish for me and vegetables throughout the year. But I do get red meat there and there, every now and then. But so I'm like, okay, that's probably not it. And then it says something about eating the major organs of the animal, like the liver, the you know, the large organs. And I'm like, I don't eat that, so I haven't eaten liver since I was like a kid. So could be that, and then it said uh alcohol. Like, well, I don't really drink a whole lot other than when I podcast with the fellas. We get a little toasty, and you know, we probably get together less than once a month. But we're trying to make it at least once a month, but I don't know if my alcohol intake can take that. But, you know, so we do get a little drunk there. And every blue moon I have a uh cocktail at home or when I do a Sunday rant. Maybe make me want a drink, but it's very minimal. So I started looking at that like, okay, am I drinking too much? But then I saw one of the other causes, and it was sugar. And I immediately thought to myself, okay, if it ain't the alcohol, I'm pretty sure the alcohol that I do drink has sugar in it. It's definitely probably for me, if it's gout, it would be the sugar. Because I love me some honey buns, chocolate bars, Twinkies, cake. I can eat a whole cake myself. Or I don't know if you guys got a Sam's Club or your Costco, whatever, they have these apple pies around the holidays, and I can eat one by myself. Give me some whipped cream and put it on that bad boy. I am I'll eat a piece for breakfast there until that thing's gone. And I'll do the same with a cake. If I make my own homemade cakes, I like lemon cakes, I like the yellow cake with the chocolate icing, I like the white cake with the cream cheese ice or whatever the case may be. I can eat the whole thing by myself. And I'm like, hmm, that might be where the problem lies. So I have been watching to see if this foot starts back hurting. So I've cut out artificial sugars as much as I can. So no more Twinkies, no more uh cupcakes. Well, while I just want to see what happens, you know. And I'm not giving them up for good. I may treat them like I do red meat. I may have a Twinkie or a cupcake or something uh twice a year. And like usually I'll make I already cut down making cakes. I used to make all the cakes for my family on the holidays on Thanksgiving to Christmas. My family was pretty upset because I didn't make any cakes for Christmas, and they were like, What? But I did for Thanksgiving. I was like, oh, yeah, because I've got to tell them that that's what I was doing. But I did this way before my foot started hurting. I was like, eh, we all get up there and age. And last time I saw my doctor, he was talking about diabetes, and I'm like, I don't want any parts of that because that tied into the doubt topic as well. So I'm on this no artificial sugar thing right now, so I got a lot of fruits, and I remember I did it a while back with my old church. Pastor had us do a fast, a three-month fast, and I gave up uh processed sugar for those three months. Only natural sugars. I had uh grape, fruits, apples, all that. It really changed how I feel, how I felt, my energy level. I started seeing my six-pack in my abs again, and it was really nice. So I'm looking forward to that. Moving forward here, I am gonna stick to it. I just started about a week ago. So, you know, nothing major, but my foot hasn't been hurting since it stopped that Saturday after the new year. I guess that would have been the third, January 3rd. So, and I haven't ran or anything. I've I went, I just started back working out this Monday. So, you know, I was like, okay, don't put too much pressure on it. Don't do, you know, let's just give it time and see. So I worked out Monday and Wednesday of this week. I haven't ran. So this week coming up, I plan on going back to my full routine, working out Monday, Wednesday, Friday, running Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. So we'll see what happens. But I'm monitoring it and I'm ranting about this to say, be careful with Dr. Google. Always go see your doctor and you know, check out even if it's urgent care, because the urgent care people, they really helped ease my attention after all that I read. You know, I was like, oh, okay, it's not it's not death sentence, uh, or it's not to amputate my foot if I don't, you know, if I don't, if I don't pay attention, well, I'm gonna have to pay attention and, you know, see what's going on with it and make sure I follow up with my doctor, but I'm like, okay, this is something that I can probably fix and not have to deal with in the future. So was a little happy there. But yeah, see your doctors, don't just rush things off and think, oh, okay, I'll be all right. So that's my first rant. My second rant is the playoffs, football, NFL. Man, you guys, you know, I just I don't know. I'm just not pleased with the teams that are left because I'm a free agent fan. And if you go out to the site, thefreeagent fans.com, you'll see why. Because the Rams left here. I talked about it on the podcast before, ever since the Rams left, after that was the greatest show on turf years, they went back to Los Angeles. And I haven't been a football fan ever since. If Cronkey leaves the Rams, I'll go back to the Rams. But the past couple of years I've been following the Jacksonville Jag Wars because their owner, if I'm saying his name right, Shot Khan, has ties to the St. Louis area. He lives somewhere around in Missouri, around here, something like that. And so I'm like, okay, cool. I can rock with that. And I I like Jacksonville, pretty cool. And I just watched them lose to Denver last week. I mean, not Denver, I'm sorry. I just watched them lose to uh Buffalo last week and then watched Buffalo lose yesterday to Denver. And Jacksonville had beaten Denver already once this season. And I know if they would have beaten Buffalo, I would still have a horse in this race because they would have beat Denver, and Jacksonville would be waiting on the winner of this Texans New England game, which I'm not watching, but I have it on the TV right now as I rent. And I think Jacksonville went, because I think New England's going to beat the Texans, which I'm rooting for the Texans because they're in the same division as Jacksonville. So I'm rooting for them, but and I hate the Patriots because uh they cheated the Rams out of a uh Super Bowl back in the day, filming their practices. So, and nobody did anything about it. And my Mizzou women's team just lost to the Florida Gators, 89 to 71. So, uh way not to go, Mazoo. But anyway, I'm just not really excited about football. I'm glad the Chiefs are out, and I'm glad Dallas isn't in it. So, you know, that's a plus, so that makes me happy. But let's circle back. You know, I won't rent on that too much in case you guys aren't football fans. Like I am low-key still. My first sport is basketball, but I'm still a football fan. I just don't really appreciate them because they my city has gotten a uh team taken away twice. And I don't know about the 80s Cardinals because I was too young to go to the games like I would have been with the Rams, which I did. And I know we showed up and showed out for that Rams team, even when they was losing. They lost for like 15 straight years after that greatest show on turf ever, and we still showed up and showed out. So Crockett can but kick rocks. Anyway, circling back on the health issue, so long story short, my mom, you know, dealing with dementia. We put her in a place here in St. Louis that was horrible. I'm not gonna say any names because but put her in a place on the south side. And it was horrible. Missing medication and all that, you know, not coming in and changing her because my mom, she's at a point where she doesn't change her, I mean she doesn't go to the bathroom on her own, which her situation kind of baffles me a bit because she at times, so this Christmas, what well, here's the I'll I'll build you guys up to it real quick. So we were planning on taking my mom home at some point anyway. And before we could do that, this place that she was at, she fell. Broke her hip. And if you know anything about that, you know, Dr. Google again once told me life expectancy has about a year and a half after a hip break for dementia patients. And they are less than healthy to begin with. Now, good news for us is that my mom, she is very healthy physically. Her body is just her mind. So my mom, when she goes to her doctor, you know, she was having, yeah, she battled diabetes, but she took the Ozipic or whatever, lost a lot of weight. But I don't even think she has diabetes anymore. But she was very healthy physically. Just dealing with the dementia. So she went to a uh, she was in the hospital for a while, and that's the reason I was moving her. We were moving her out of that place. So it was like, she's not coming back here, you know, she'll end up dead. And you know, that's usually the sentence in it. And it's really horrible because, you know, this wasn't the place on the south side. We had moved her out of there a year ago, and we moved her to this new place. And they were terrible. We constantly had to come up there and tell them how to do their job. We were constantly having to change my mom, take out the trash, clean her room. So we fought a battle. Some people got let go, administration changes, all sorts of things. And they had a guy in there, and I thought it was getting better with him. Then all of a sudden, it's out of the blue, he was gone. He was fired, and they brought in the people that are there now who were absolute snakes. And they weren't forthcoming with the information. They didn't relay much to us that was pertinent to my mom when things happened or whatever. So always saying the video wasn't working and all this kind of nonsense. So we would only have access to the video in my mom's room because that's what we set up. But anytime she was out in the community, they couldn't tell anything. My mom was slapped by another resident there once, and they had some stories for that. She fell one other time and hurt her hand, and it was all swollen. She healed from that, and then now the hip thing, right before we were going to take her home anyway. So my mom's in rehab now, learned to walk again, and she's doing good. She's doing really good. So we are very hopeful that she'll be able to come home and be able to walk again. But these places, they really need to be held accountable for the lack of compassion and care for the people. I mean, these are not throwaway people just because they have this issue. And for me, a lot of the problem is, you know, because I met some very nice young ladies that worked for this facility, and they're just not getting paid enough. And it's very sad because the administration's getting paid six figures to sit on their ass and pretty much do nothing to not care. And the first thing out of their mouths is, oh, I had a parent who was this and who was that, and yeah, well, you should have more compassion and you should understand that these people need care and they need help. And if people are shelling out four or five, six thousand, whatever it is, a month for you to do that, there should be a certain level of care that can be expected. They never met that for me and my mom, other than when the gentleman was running the place. It started, like I said, it started to get better, but you know, it would always get better when we would complain and then it would dip off. But I would have preferred to see if he could have finished what he started and making it better. But he was let go, and I heard through the grave line that he probably he possibly has a lawsuit against his place because of how they let him go. And the person that they have in there now is just garbage. So we'll see what happens with that. But I hope that something, you know, something needs to change. And I would I would start with administration in a lot of these places because they just don't care. And I don't know how you do that. I don't know how you get somebody that cares. And it's gonna have to take a little bit of compassion on the part of the owners, too, because I know you got bills to pay and you want to make a profit. But at the end of the day, if you're making, I don't know, let's say you're making a million dollars a year in profit, can you justify only taking home $800,000 in profit and put that other $200,000 into the salaries of your workers? So now maybe instead of $17 an hour a mile, maybe you can pay $20,000 an hour. And it may make a difference as far as the level of care that, you know, and I know it's all about compassion of the people, you know, but for $17 an hour, I mean, come on, man, you're talking about you're wiping people's bottoms, cleaning up after them, you know, putting up with them, cursing you out, and wanting to hit you because that's sometimes that's what some dementia patients do. You're asking a lot for $17 an hour. When you could maybe take home a little less yourself and pay them more and have a facility that people will want to send their loved ones to. I just wish that, you know, and it's a lot of guilt on my part, and I'm pretty sure my sisters feel the same way, if we would have been in a better place with our jobs, with our lives, to never have put our mother in a care place to begin with. That's my first recommendation because right now the system is so shitty that nobody cares, and you're looking pretty much signed over for a death sentence. But we were all unable to do that at the time. Now, things changed. She had to be there for a year, and things changed, and my eldest sister is now in a place where she could do it, and that's what we're doing. So, but you know, I just think it just really sucks that you can't get that with the number of places that are here. And I started Googling, like when you start Googling these places, Googling these places, they're reviews, they're all the same. Like 90% of them are just, you know, a person failed, they did this, they died, they this, they that, it was horrible. They weren't getting fed. I'm like, you have got to be kidding me. Now, there are a few that are good, but you got to be rich to afford them. Like in an area where I live in West County, Missouri, it wanted like $10,000 a month. And, you know, they had some very good reviews. And I'm like, ah, if I could afford $10,000 a month, even with my mom's uh pension, her annuity and all that, me and my sisters couldn't come up with the rest of the rest of that money because we each probably would have had to come up with over $2,000 a month each. And just don't have that right now. And it hurts, it sucks because, you know, even if I had my two, you know, what's the thing that my sisters would have? So we carrying a lot of guilt with that. And I have a friend whose mom is going through the same thing, and she told me, don't ever put your mother in a Place like that, and I did. We because we didn't have a choice at that time. So I'm not beating myself up too bad. But you know, that's my mom. And you know, I'm gonna take some hits for that because I feel like if we had never done that, she would have never broken her hip, she'd still be walking like normal. And I can see it in my mom. Sometimes she gets a little discouraged, a little depressed, and then other days she has her good days and her bad days, and she's walking all over the place. You know, like the other day, Saturday, my sisters went up and saw her, and she walked the whole, and Friday, she walked the whole therapy room, she walked the whole floor back and forth, and then back to her room. So she's getting there, but I just hate that she has to go through this. So a lot of prayers. And I did a lot of doctor googling for causes of dementia, and I heard on the radio or something that even picking your nose, or maybe it was a talk show, picking their nose, people would pick their nose too much, it could lead to dementia. And the comedian was like, How far are you people digging? I mean, my gosh. But you know, I thought it was funny. I don't know if that's it was true or if he was using that as a joke, but just take care of your health, man. Just look at those things. And if you Google something, as your doctor and make sure you're doing the right thing for your health, because now I'm a little bit freaked out, like, okay, am I gonna get dementia? You know, because see my mom, and I'm like, I don't want this to happen to me. I don't want to, you know, go through this. And so she, we could see her struggling. She was sitting off and say, I don't know why I'm going through this, guys, and I can't figure out how to beat this, and why is it such a struggle every day? And it's like, oh my God, my mom's in there fighting, and she can't do anything. She's not winning the fight. It's really hard to watch. So just take care of your health and you know, pay attention to things uh about your body and notice what you're going through because as you age, there's going to be some memory loss, but just do what you can. I'm considering uh finding one of these good brain pills that people take to uh help with their brain function because they're coming out with a lot of stuff for that, and one of them is specifically for dementia, it'll slow or stop the process, but they haven't found a cure yet, which I really wish they could, but my mom's only 77 guys, and she still has a physically healthy body, even with the hip replacement. And I would love for my mom to be herself again and just, you know, just be the tootlin' little old granny that she was before all this happened. But anyway, uh, we'll we'll move on. I got like five minutes left. I'll rant about something positive that kind of cheers up. I don't want to start the New Year's rant off and just depress the crap out of everybody. So I guess my final rant will be let's see. I don't really have anything off the top of my head, but I can't rant on this droid Apple discussion that everybody always has. So I have had an Apple before in my life, and I have had a and I am a droid. I'm a droid person, first and foremost, but I have had an Apple before, and now I currently have an Apple again as my work phone, and I have a droid as my personal phone. And I still prefer droid. You can prefer what you want to prefer, but I don't like all the lockdown and Apple forcing you to only use their stuff. You know, droid, all you gotta do is have good uh antivirus or whatever. If you got that, you can you can download things, you can, you know, do what you want with your phone. But with Apple, certain things you gotta, uh, this one only works with Apple, or that one or this and that, eh, miss me with all that. It's not that. And then they used to have those screens that just crack whenever you look at it. Like my wife, she's Apple, and she used to spend her whole Saturdays. We never really could date on Saturdays because she would spend her whole Saturday in the Apple store getting her screen fixed. Like, uh, it's sad. And I dropped my joy like a hundred million times. Like, I currently have I still have the S22 Ultra. And I flip it over on the back and it's all beat up. It's got cracks all on the back from all the drops, and one of the camera lenses is cracked. And but I didn't care. I don't take pictures anyway, but the front, the front lens is not cracked at all. And corners are chipped and all that, and I'm still, you know, and I like the S22 because it's got the stylus. So I don't know. Do what you want with your money, but I think that's a lot of money to pay for something where you're constantly having problems, like I used to see with my wife and her Apple, the battery subs. It was always dying. It's just sad, you know, because I I look at the people who like Apple, it's like y'all brainwashed. You know, it's like y'all Scientologists or something. No offense to Scientology, but definitely offense to Scientology. Y'all weird. But I still like Tom Cruise in his movies. So anyway, I'm gonna wrap it for the day. Go droid. It's like the Texans are losing, so I won't say go Texans. We'll see you next year. I'm a free agent fan, so I don't know who I'm gonna follow. Maybe Jacksonville again next year. I don't know. We'll we'll decide. But if the Texans lose today, I really won't have anybody that I really want to root for left playing football, but we'll figure it out. You guys have a blessed day. Take care of your health and just try to stay warm wherever you're at. If you're in a place that's cold, stay warm. If you're in a place that's hot, try to stay cool. Peace.