Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Good morning.
Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to save your symptoms for the doctor.
Try not to let medical updates dominate your conversations with friends and family.
Yes, we all have aging bodies and health issues.
But fascinating as our issues might be to us, they probably aren't that interesting to anyone else.
So I know of a woman in her 80s who used to say she wasn't interested in an organ recital.
She didn't like to hang around with people who spent most of the conversation updating her on their various health issues.
That is, a recitation of what was wrong with their various organs and such.
I love that phrase.
Now, personally, I love a literal organ recital.
I love listening to a good Bach prelude on a church organ.
But I agree that the medical complaint kind of organ recital isn't as appealing.
Now, of course, if you are dealing with a new diagnosis, that is a big part of your daily life the people who love you are going to want an update.
But I am talking lamenting the usual aches and pains and less serious stuff.
As someone who dealt with approximately six months of rather serious back pain and all the associated attempts at treatments, I know I could have talked about this for hours.
But I also quickly realized no one wanted to hear about it for hours, maybe two to three minutes max.
Then it was time to talk about something else.
So if you likewise are of a certain age where health ailments start to feature prominently in all conversations, maybe you can find ways to move on after a few minutes.
Definitely note if you, yourself, have been talking about something at length.
If you realize you have been talking about your digestive issues for 10 minutes, you can say laughingly that's enough of my organ recital.
I just saw a movie I think you'd love. pivot to a new conversation topic.
Self-awareness is a blessing here.
Now obviously, this is a little more complicated if your friend is the one who has been giving a lengthy account of her ailments.
You could ask whether she has talked with her doctor about them, which is obviously a productive way to get help with symptoms.
If it seems like the list of symptoms is more emotionally laden, you could ask about these emotions.
How are you feeling about all this?
Nudge the conversation into deeper, more relational territory.
If she is just sharing the physical complaints to make conversation, you might be able to shift the conversation in a different direction.
For instance, if she's talking about how time on the bleachers is bad for people with bad backs, you might ask about her kid's soccer season and nudge the discussion that way.
As for the organ recital, let this episode be a nudge to go see if you can do anything about any chronic issues that are affecting you.
Go see your doctor and see if you can come up with a plan.
That's going to be more productive than listing your ailments with anyone else.
In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening.
And here's to making the most of our time.
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at laura at lauravandercam.com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeart Media.
For more podcasts from iHeart Media, please visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Johnny Knoxville here.
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Wait a minute, Sophia.
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Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm Not Afraid of a Scary Story Week on the OK Storytime podcast.
So we'll find out soon.
This person writes my neighbor has been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals and now my ceiling is collapsing.
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I think they might be part of a cult.
Hold up.
A real life cult?
And what is a dirt ritual?
No clue, Dakota.
Find out how it ends.
Listen to the ok story time podcast on the iheart radio app, apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is an iheart podcast.
