Pierced Ears

Way back "in the 1900s" as MrZ once put it, the desire for pierced ears was what every teen girl wanted.  You had to be 16 to get pierced ears without a parent signature. And they didn't do it in any old store. You had to visit the jewelry store!

I saved up my babysitting money and waited (and waited and waited) until my 16th birthday. I rode my bike about a mile to the strip mall with a jewelry store and counted out my money.  

Back then, there wasn't a variety of choices, you just got standard gold studs (I still have mine!)  It stung, but I was determined! Followed the routine of cleaning them, turning the earrings. If you've pierced your ears, you know the routine!  

I don't remember getting the second set of holes. But the third hole in my left ear was a match to the hole in the left ear of my boyfriend. We bought hoops and wore matching earrings.  lol.  As I got older, I added a third hole on my right. 

Since Covid, I haven't worn earrings, not sure why. So the holes aren't easy to slip earrings in, but I decided to work on it.  Got studs in the second and third holes, but one wasn't happy, had to remove the earring for a week.  

Mom noticed, and asked if I wanted her to help get an earring in.  Mom has trouble with her hands and jerkiness.  The thought of her holding a sharp pointy earring and trying to stab it into my ear made me cringe!  No thanks, I said, I'm going to let it be for now!  

Life was different 50 years ago.  There were rites of passage, like waiting for pierced ears, that don't seem to happen any more. But truth be told, maybe the age changed to waiting until you're 10, and I haven't noticed.

But I can still remember the anticipation that went with waiting, then the joy of finally reaching that age where I felt I crossed into a more grown up age!! One with pierced ears! 

Doctor Advice

We all see doctors, and we all get advice from them.  But sometimes the advice isn't correct for us, for our bodies.

Mom is a weird exception to this. For whatever reasons, she has always taken doctor advice as "gospel". Even to the point of whether or not to take an aspirin,  because she needs to hear the doctor say it's all right. And not because I said so.

She's been having an issue feeling nauseous in late afternoon and not wanting dinner. She saw a doctor two weeks ago who told her she needed more protein, so has been drinking a protein drink every day.  

It caused such a reaction that she had her RN order Zofran to help with the nausea. She's had this Rx before, and because it takes a while to get meds ordered and delivered, I brought over 2 doses to get her by.  But she wouldn't take them. She suffered through two days of feeling bad ... why? To make a point?  I'm not sure.

Today, I mentioned that maybe she shouldn't drink the protein today and see if that helped her. Her immediate reaction was "that's not it". (Because a doctor told me to drink this) Surprise, she didn't drink one today, and felt better! 

Doctor advice can be good, but we also need to follow our own logic and gut feeling.  Telling a doctor what we're feeling isn't an exact science.  With mom, it's usually very vague -- feeling lousy doesn't describe much!

It isn't going to change with her. And she rarely takes my advice. I recognize it as something I just have to deal with, fun or not. Mostly not.