Posts by paganmist

I'm bipolar.  In early January of this year, I went to my doctor and informed her that my mood stabilizer had slowly stopped working and now wasn't working at all.  She decided to switch me to a new mood stabilizer.  We discussed side effects, and all she warned me about was a rash that was potentially fatal.  I said I'd keep an eye out for it.

Three weeks later, I went online to check out whether or not the new mood stabilizer would interact negatively with one of my other meds.  That's when I discovered that it interacted with my birth control.  Not only did my birth control make the mood stabilizer less effective, but the mood stabilizer made my birth control less effective.

I took a pregnancy test.  It was positive.

February 3rd, I meet the doctor again for our monthly appointment.  I tell her the new mood stabilizer is really helping my moods, but that I'd read something about how my birth control interferes with it.

Doctor looks through her Book O' Drugs and says, "Well, I don't want to increase the dosage on your mood stabilizer just yet, so let's see how it goes."

Doctor then pauses and frowns at book.

Doctor slowly glances up at me over her glasses.  "...You do know that this drug lowers the threshold of your birth control, right?"  (Note: Doctor did not mention this when she gave me the prescription.)

I say, "Yes, I know.  I'm pregnant."

Doctor: "When was your last period?"

Me: "January 2nd." (Note: Just before she gave me the new prescription.)

Doctor: "Were you taking the birth control regularly?"

Me: "Every day, like clockwork."

Doctor pauses for a moment, then says:

"Well, you know... these things happen."

I was aware of sex when I was 6.  I saw glimpses of my first dirty movie when I was 7.  I got ahold of my first pornography novel ("borrowed" from a neighbor) when I was 8.

It was during that time that I realized that I liked thinking about the girls as much as the guys.  I didn't know what bisexual meant, but I knew that women could like women, and I knew that I liked women.

That's just me, though.  I think it's safe to say that a kid who is old enough to be aware of themselves as sexual beings is a kid who's old enough to know whether or not they're bi-- even if they don't know the word to describe it.

With that said, whenever I refer to my daughter's future, I tell her, "When you have a boyfriend or girlfriend..."  I'm letting her know early that it's okay, whatever she decides.

Thanks for the input.  I bought both Bean-o and Gas-X, and so far, Gas-X seems to be working with no adverse side effects.  I guess I will give bean-o a try next time I make one of those smoothies.  They're so delicious!  I wish they didn't turn me into Stinky McStinkerson.

Thanks again for the input!

balldez - I think I understand what you are trying to say.

I recently saw a very interesting lecture about prolonging life by Aubrey de Grey (founder of the Methuselah Foundation, a sometimes controversial geneticist and gerontologist), and he describes in a very accessible way his base theory on how to prolong life.

I mention him because he points out that metabolism is the cause of aging, which is - barring disease or unfortunate accident - the reason why we die. The Methuselah Foundation is devoted to finding a method of reversing the damage that metabolism does to the body.

According to de Grey (and a variety of others), aging is the result of the accumulation of by-products of metabolism (see: Seven causes of aging). In that way, speeding up metabolism = causing death faster, which seems to be what balldez is trying to say.

What balldez doesn't seem to take into account is the body's natural ability to correct the damage that metabolism causes. Obviously, the body can't correct it all - if it did, we'd never age, and never die. But a healthy body can stave off those damages for anywhere from 60 to 80 years, on average.

Taking into account the body's ability to correct metabolic damage (or what de Grey calls pathology), I'd like to point out that the various benefits of boosting metabolism - healthy weight, development of lean muscle, improved cardio health, etcetera - all lead to the body's increased ability to correct metabolic damage. Simply put - the methods that we use to increase metabolism, like eating the right foods and exercising - will make us healthier, and better able to "fight" aging.

Or to refer to the car analogy: if metabolism represents the usual wear and tear on a vehicle, working to boost your metabolism is a lot like taking your car in for regular tune-ups. Even though one day your car WILL become unsalvagable (because hey, nothing lasts forever!), taking good care of it guarantees that you will dramatically extend its life.

That's my take on it, anyhow. With that said, if you've never read up on Aubrey de Grey's work, or seen him speak, you should.