2023 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

Quick update on me.  Mr Competent Gastroenterology Consultant phoned me this evening, while I was coming home from a friend's (DH was driving).  The cause of the lump is something blood related, so surgery is off the cards.  I should be getting a call from the Haematology either tomorrow or Tuesday.  I'm still seeing him on 12th January though.

When I got home, I had another look at the published results for the bloods taken earlier this month.  The only things that stand out are my platelets - way too high - and my HB which is 9.2 instead of 12-14 (normal range).  I can't remember any disease that involves too many platelets, but it's 30 years since I last worked a shift in any hospital.  All the white-blood-cells are within normal range.

Now a serious question for you:  am I weird?  We spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and part of Boxing Day at my SIL's, collecting/dropping off my MIL before and after.  My MIL has definite alcoholic tendencies.  At one point on on Christmas Eve, she said that she was desperate for a drink and, being given a large glass of wine, drank it gratefully.  This lead me to ask (innocently), "But surely you drink wine for the taste and not for the buzz", only to be informed by both MIL and SIL that they drank for the buzz.  Having grown up in a culture where wine is drunk with a blessing (Judaism) and, like the French, it is introduced early on, when you are given a very small glass, I just don't get it.  I drink wine / beer / cider / whisky / brandy / gin because I like the taste.  Not because I want to get drunk.  I've been like that since childhood and never understood why the other children at school would come in on a Monday and boast "I was so drunk on Saturday...."

FWIW, to my knowledge my dad only ever got drunk once, on his retirement day, when his Italian, Greek and Eastern European colleagues took him out for lunch.  I was 34 before I had my first hangover.

- Pip

Cherryfudge

I'm not medical, so I can't guess about the platelet count, but it's good they are investigating and hopefully will be able to help you soon.

I've never been drunk - I don't like not being in control! Besides, I don't like most of the wines I've tried, though I do add it to cooking. I'm capable of daft enough behaviours without outside help, and I can take in too many calories without drinking them...

Gem-gem

Pip, I think that many people drink for many different reasons. Personally, I have a drink every now and then to be sociable, help relax me and only from alcohol that I like the taste of. I can take it or leave it. In 2022, I only had five drinks all year. This year, I had a few more but not on a regular bases. Wine hurts my stomach, cider, sherry and port are my go to drinks. (I did discover Pina Colada's one holiday in Cuba which I found rather tasty - I would have the alcohol free ones during the day and one alcoholic one at night).

Some people drink to help with pain or to help them to sleep / block out sadness. Having previously lived with an alcoholic, I know the impact alcohol can have on the whole family, 
My nephew who is 20 isn't interested in alcohol. Like you, I know people who would boast about getting drunk at the weekend. Have attitudes changed towards alcohol? Are the youngsters so interested in it? 

basketcase

Hi Pip
Sorry, I can't help you with the blood thing.

As for weird...  Well, if you are I'm weird right along with you!  I've been mildly tipsy but never outright drunk.  I don't want to be.  Like Cherryfudge I don't like being out of control.  I'd also agree that drinking should be for the taste, not to get drunk.  In fact, when alcopops first appeared I said I wouldn't buy something that tasted like Irn Bru but made you legless.  Although I'd pay good money for a non-alcoholic wine that taste like a good claret.

thriftwizard

Absolutely not weird! I think I probably drink more than many; I do like a refreshing glass of cider in the early evening after a hard day's allotmenteering, or hauling my market stall around, or driving cross-country, or - well, anything really! I certainly don't drink every day; maybe three times a week, and generally not more than one. It's a very long time since I drank enough to feel woozy, or had a hangover, and that's the way I prefer it now. Interestingly two of my boys don't drink alocohol at all - one's a gym bunny, the other religious - and the third follows me by drinking an occasional craft beer of an evening. However both non-drinkers seem to me to be addicted to c0ca-c0la instead... Both girls & one DiL are partial to the odd G&T or glass of prosecco with a meal, but it's an occasional treat. The other DiL and DD1's BF are both non-drinkers; the younger generation round here seem to be very moderate!

flamingo747

I'm not much of a drinker, maybe 5 units max across the year. I don't like the taste of alcohol much, so it's always alcohols, baileys, or archers and lemonade. If I drink it's generally for a little relaxation. I have drunk more in the past, in my mid twenties on nights out, but that's it really

Baileys_Babe

You're not weird Pip. This is how we have brought up our children. I also drink a variety of drinks because I like the taste not because of the buzz.

My OH only drinks no and low (less than 0.05% ABV) for medical reasons. Which I also drink occasionally.

Some friends of my 18yo drink and others are nondrinkers, but not for religious reasons. 

PollyWollyDoodle

Good to hear that they seem to be getting some answers to your medical problem.

When I was younger, I used to drink for the ‘buzz’ - It made me feel relaxed and sociable, and it was whatever everybody else was doing. (I’m talking student years, particularly).  I drank quite a lot, and yet I don’t think I had a hangover till I was about 30.  Once I started to get them, however, I cut back - can’t stand feeling so ill. Now I’m post-menopausal, I find I just can’t tolerate much alcohol, the bit that used to feel exciting now makes me feel anxious and hot and generally uncomfortable. I go for taste now, I do love a proper Martini or a G&T and my special Christmas vice is ginger wine 😋 but it’s only two or three times a week if that. 

mumtoomany

Hello all, not been on most of the year as i don't buy clothes. The total of new clothes for this year is one pair of crocs, and for pairs of socks. Two pairs of jeans and an oodie bought seconds hand. That's more than i normally buy. 

Another here who doesn't drink much. I've had, maybe, a l bottle of wine this year, not all in one go. Again now than normal.

@PipneyJane, have you ever had your platelets counted before? DD2 had a higher than normal number. She found out when she went to give blood. They now bleed her to use the platelets, she was told that some people naturally produce more.

I'll be back to join in again next year, but probably not spending. Having said that my wellies need replacing, they've been patched twice, and the box of spare wellies, left by the previous owners here is almost empty. 

Happy New year to you all, hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

Laura_Elsewhere

PipneyJane said:

Quick update on me.  Mr Competent Gastroenterology Consultant phoned me this evening, while I was coming home from a friend's (DH was driving).  The cause of the lump is something blood related, so surgery is off the cards.  I should be getting a call from the Haematology either tomorrow or Tuesday.  I'm still seeing him on 12th January though.

When I got home, I had another look at the published results for the bloods taken earlier this month.  The only things that stand out are my platelets - way too high - and my HB which is 9.2 instead of 12-14 (normal range).  I can't remember any disease that involves too many platelets, but it's 30 years since I last worked a shift in any hospital.  All the white-blood-cells are within normal range.

Now a serious question for you:  am I weird?  We spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and part of Boxing Day at my SIL's, collecting/dropping off my MIL before and after.  My MIL has definite alcoholic tendencies.  At one point on on Christmas Eve, she said that she was desperate for a drink and, being given a large glass of wine, drank it gratefully.  This lead me to ask (innocently), "But surely you drink wine for the taste and not for the buzz", only to be informed by both MIL and SIL that they drank for the buzz.  Having grown up in a culture where wine is drunk with a blessing (Judaism) and, like the French, it is introduced early on, when you are given a very small glass, I just don't get it.  I drink wine / beer / cider / whisky / brandy / gin because I like the taste.  Not because I want to get drunk.  I've been like that since childhood and never understood why the other children at school would come in on a Monday and boast "I was so drunk on Saturday...."

FWIW, to my knowledge my dad only ever got drunk once, on his retirement day, when his Italian, Greek and Eastern European colleagues took him out for lunch.  I was 34 before I had my first hangover.

- Pip

Firstly, I'm jolly glad they are sorting through the options for you, healthwise, and narrowing the field- fingers crossed the vampires get useful results   

The drinking... afaik, neither parent has ever been drunk; they have a glass ro two of very good wine with a meal, all very Mediterranean... as for their offspring...! well, my sister drank herself to death, literally, the day after her 48th birthday, having drunk at damaging levels since she was 14; I started drinking vodka at 15 and had drunk myself to a stomach haemorrhage by 26...  there's a definite tendency down one side of the family and none at all on the other, but I think 'dysfunctional family' is a larger factor. I was lucky with the stomach bleed as, over the rest of my 20s and into my 30s, it forced me to learn other, healthier coping mechanisms.
These days I probably drink 3 or 4 units a year, perhaps a very nice cider at a country pub having lunch with an old friend, perhaps a nip of blackberry vodka on a wild stormy night, but quite often I intend to have a drink and entirely forget  

I never drank for any buzz; I drank very efficiently and deliberately to knock myself out. The fastest possible way to unconsciousness, because my nightmares were so terrifying that I couldn't sleep. It was a difficult few decades. I topped-up the vodka levels during daytime, because if you're drinking that much at night you have to, and that was useful as it blunted the fear and panic during daytime. Effectively, I was on self-prescription tranquilisers and sleeping-tablets for the best part of twenty years. I got it properly under control by my late 30s, I would say, as my sister's drinking spiralled and dominated all our lives, disrupting everything as we frantically tried to keep everything going as she deteriorated more and more. 

Our generation is heavier-drinking than younger - that's in the stats, I can dig them out if anyone's that interested. It's people over 40, mostly, nowadays, who have the really bad attitudes- I have heard many people say, or post online, that they "have to" have a drink to enjoy themselves, which makes me wonder how bad their friends are- if you have to be slightly drunk to enjoy your friends' company then surely...??? 
Another is when someone has been the designated driver and gets home and immediately has a large drink because they 'deserve' it. Very odd, again... 

My sister had many problems as well as her drinking but those "hilarious" internet accounts with names like "Why Mummy Drinks" make my blood run cold because that IS how she talked- that her children 'made' her drink, that her family 'made' her drink and so on... a decade on, they still, I think, feel the guilt of causing her death because they 'made' her drink...