Puteri’s Musings 2

I have a friend who used to have this strange habit of blinking her eyes and scrounging her face. It was distracting to say the least! I thought she had picked up the bad habit from her mother, as suggested by her aunt. This friend seemed to have outgrown the blinking and the face scrounging after she left home and lived away from her mother.

I also know a pastor who frequently clears his throat as he delivers his sermon. I attribute that frequent throat-clearing to nervousness because it does not appear that he has phlegm in his throat that needed clearing!

And then there was this English pastor’s teenaged son that I met many years ago. He had this strange neck movements. I had to try very hard not to stare because I had never met anyone with such strange neck movements! I do not know if he has outgrown these strange neck movements or had these twitches treated as it has been years since I last met him.

I did not realize, back then, that the blinking, the throat clearing and the strange neck movements were facial tics! I had thought that facial tics were limited to uncontrollable facial twitches!

The medical term for facial tics is Tourette Syndrome which is a neurological disorder and the symptoms include, and not limited to, eye blinking, mouth twitches, eye squinting, throat clearing, facial contortion, nose wrinkling and compulsive grunting.

These facial tics can be treated with medication but like most medication there are some side effects that could even be dangerous. There are some parents, however, who claim that the facial tics that their children were suffering from were treated successfully without medication.

I guess the only way to find out is to give the alternative treatment a try. We can’t know unless we are willing to give it a try, now can we?

This morning I went for my bi-annual mammogram. Even though this was the second time I’d gone for a mammogram, the feelings that I experienced this morning were very much like those I felt at that first mammogram. I think I made more groans of agony than I did that first time!

This time the radiologic technologist was all business. She kept telling me I had to get it right the first time so I wouldn’t have to experience more than unnecessary pain. Well! She was the one who was supposed to tell me how to position myself, tell me how I should have held my shoulders .. bla bla bla. She could have explained herself more clearly!

Anyway, I had to wait for a while after the mammography was done. I think a doctor had to look at the initial results. I think if something had looked abnormal, I would probably have to take another round of x-ray. Fortunately, nothing looked abnormal and so I could leave.

Despite the unpleasant feeling of being squashed and pressed, it is important to go for a mammography. Early detection of breast cancer raises the survival rate. If you have never gone for a mammogram, and especially if there is a history of breast cancer in your family, do not put off breast cancer screening!

Stifling words during fight deadly for women
Study: Those who stayed silent 4 times more likely to die of health probs.
Reuters Aug 20, 2007

NEW YORK - Women who force themselves to stay quiet during marital arguments appear to have a higher risk of death, a new study shows. Depression and irritable bowel syndrome are also more common in these women.

Such “self-silencing” during conflict may have provided an evolutionary survival advantage long ago, and unfortunately may be a necessity for women in abusive relationships, Dr. Elaine D. Eaker of Eaker Epidemiology Enterprises in Gaithersburg, Maryland, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health.

Eaker and her colleagues found that, over a 10-year period, the most striking finding was that women who self-silenced were four times more likely to die than women who expressed themselves freely during marital arguments.

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There’s no danger of that happening to me! Well, I used to have problems expressing myself, but not anymore. Actually I don’t like the sounds I make when I am arguing.