Much to my surprise, I found three very interesting articles on one page of my daily newspaper last Thursday, 11/19/09. The first one surprised and angered me. It states new restrictions on treatment for the detection of breast cancer in women. These were set up by a federally appointed task force. Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services, stated after the outcry from women across the country, that the task force has nothing to do with setting policy as that is up to the federal government. The task force “suggested” no mammograms for women under age 50 and then only every other year. They believe the benefits are small for starting before 50. What about all the women who have had cancer in their 30s and 40s. I wonder what they have to say about that. I think what pissed me off the most was that it discouraged doctors from teaching breast self-examination. What is that about? Do they think it would create many women, diligently checking their breasts every month and possibly finding a lump? Wouldn’t that be a good thing? That is how I found my cancer. I know there are many, many women across the country that are outraged by all this, and I’m thinking maybe it’s a way to trim dollars from the proposed new health care bill we are struggling to pass. If so, I say screw the new health bill and all the stodgy men who are making up these nasty ideas. And then the next day, another group decided that Pap tests were unnecessary until the age of 21 and then not done as frequently – not once a year as usually done. Their reasoning doesn’t make sense to me, but then I’m not trying to trim the health care bill as some people seem to be doing. Who the hell are these people anyway?

The second article was about Governor Sanford of South Carolina who may be impeached sometime in the near future. He was the one who was supposedly going for a hike on the Appalachian Trail when he was actually in Argentina with his mistress, or “soul mate,” as he put it. I have been interested in the Appalachian Trail ever since the news came out, and the other night I watched a documentary on National Geographic channel about it. That trail is 2,175 miles long! Hard to believe he would attempt it. It goes through many states, starting in Maine and goes through his state where he could probably pick it up. What I saw was interesting, but it sure wasn’t a day in the park. It looked all dry and nothing pretty to look at. So I think he picked the proper vacation spot – who wouldn’t pick Argentina over the Appalachian Trail? He was really stupid in attempting to pull it off though. But those republican governors don’t seem to be the brightest and the best our country has.

The third article was concerning Sarah Palin’s bus tour on her campaign for 2012. She’s hitting different cities – the ones that like her - and appearing on talk shows and all the media interviews. These are all carefully orchestrated so as not to let in the opposition – riff raff. She is supposedly touting her book which was written by someone else, but we all know that’s not what she’s doing. She has a big following among the radical right . . . or really crazy people as I like to call them. She spoke in Michigan, and at one point said something we’ve heard many times: “Alaska and Michigan have so much in common, with the huntin’ and the fishin’ and the hockey moms.” I was hoping I didn’t have to hear that anymore, but I guess for the next couple of years, at least, she’ll be in our faces again with all of her down-home homilies. Will it make me want to vomit? You betcha!

Happy Birthday, Harry!

Today is Harry’s birthday which I find hard to believe. I don’t see him very often as he lives in New York, but when I do, he’s always bigger and smarter than he was the time before. I miss the times when he was little and I held him and rocked him and sang all the songs I’d sung when Teri and Cindy were little. Now I can’t hold him as he’s much taller than I and wouldn’t fit on my lap. The last time I saw him, he ran over to give me a big hug and almost knocked me over!


Today Harry is fourteen years old. I’m not up on what goes on with teen-age boys, and I probably don’t want to know. It’s been a while since Cindy’s boys were in their teens so I’m sort of out of it. I remember once when I was babysitting Pat and Nick, Cindy’s boys, and one of them sneaked in a window late at night. Harry can’t do that as he lives in a high-rise. I trust he’s behaving himself.

The picture is of Harry when Teri, Mark and Harry took me to Montego Bay in Jamaica. He was about a year old and learning to walk. I love this picture as it shows what he did all the time there – he practiced walking! He always had one arm way up in the air as he stumbled along. I could have watched him forever, but he eventually learned the right way to walk and doesn’t stick an arm up in the air anymore . . . although I haven’t seen him in a while so I can’t say for sure. I miss the times when he was little and I held him and rocked him. Time goes so fast . . . too fast.

Harry, I hope you have a very fun birthday today and many more to come. Don’t ever forget that Grandma loves you very much.

Five years ago this month(October), I was diagnosed with breast cancer. But after radiation I was cancer free. So this month I felt like celebrating until I went for my yearly mammogram. The news wasn’t good. Something showed up and I needed to have a biopsy. When the radiologist and nurse gave me the news, I, of course, said “Oh, shit!” There was nothing else to say. So two days later I was in Providence Hospital for a needle biopsy. I didn’t know about those, but my hospital has wonderful equipment and facilities which are relatively new for that procedure. The only other alternative was a surgical biopsy in the hospital, and I had done that before and didn’t want to do it again. So what I had to do was lie on my stomach on a hospital bed with a big hole in it for my breasts to hang down through the hole! I had to lie still for about an hour and not move anything, especially not my head. When I first saw that bed, I felt like I was in some sort medieval torture chamber! The technician then did more mammograms while I was dangling my breasts through the hole to find just where the spot was. I was hoping I wouldn’t sneeze or cough, but I managed not to. I asked the tech,” What if my nose runs?” and she said, “Let it run.” So when she found the right spot which was not easy, the radiologist came in and ran a needle into my breast, reaching the spot and retrieving what he needed to send to pathology so they could make a decision on whether or not it was malignant or benign.

When all this was done, I had a hard time getting off the bed as I had been lying on it for an hour. The tech was helping me down and I reached for her and grabbed her breast! She laughed and seemed to think it was ok since she had been feeling mine for an hour. I think she’s my new BFF! All the people there were so good to me and I appreciate it more than they’ll ever know. I had never thought I would be in that position with my boobs hanging through a hole, waiting for someone to poke a needle in. But I’m so thankful I had that opportunity. In a couple of days, the doctor called me with very good news, so I was ready to live again. I was ecstatic! I had to celebrate but there was no one here with whom to celebrate. So I poured myself a glass of wine and sat down in my home clothes and celebrated by myself. I had been in my home clothes ever since the biopsy . . . just waiting for news.

There is one thing I don’t like about waiting in oncology offices . . . actually, there are many things. The main one being that I have to be there at all. I don’t read all the information about breast cancer as I already had it. I want to read something about gossip like “People” and “Esquire.” But I did pick up a card that really impressed me. It lists five things to tell your friends about breast cancer. No. 2 was the best and most hard hitting. It read, “The two most important risk factors for breast cancer are being a woman and growing older.” They sure got that right.

My Volvo has a sun roof??

When Teri gave me her Volvo, I found it much more confusing than my other cars had been. It had so many buttons to press for so many things. I was used to just starting a car and driving – that’s it. But this had buttons for opening windows, heat, AC, adjusting the antenna (it took me quite a while to find the button for that, and I couldn’t go through a car wash until I could learn how to lower it. They kicked me out when I couldn’t lower it.) There were buttons for everything imaginable. I studied my owner’s manual, but immediately forgot where everything was. So when I’d drive, I’d keep the owner’s manual handy in case of emergency.

I have never liked going through the car wash as I sometimes have trouble getting on the tracks. I always breathe a sigh of relief when they say I’ve made it. So today I decided to do it as my car was covered in pine needles since I park outside, and I’m going to my mechanic for the winter check-up, and I don’t want him to think I never wash it which I actually don’t. I got on the tracks just fine and I breathed a sigh of relief. I paid the money by opening my door as I didn’t want to use the button to lower the window as sometimes I open and shut all the car windows before I find the right one. So I paid, shut the door and the car started moving. But the attendant started waving his arms around and jumping up and down. He seemed to be shouting something about a window! I looked at the windows and they all looked shut, and I didn’t want to press any buttons as it was too late by then. So we started through. I began to feel a little rain coming in and I tried to see where it was coming from, but then it got so noisy I had to plug my ears. I hate car washes! I finally made it through and went to the grocery store where I examined the inside of the car. The back seat area had gotten most of the water, but it was actually all over. I looked up at the ceiling and there was the sun roof which I never notice. It was open a little bit! I don’t know how that happened as I don’t even know how to open it. So I got out my trusty owner’s manual and finally found where it showed which button to push to open and shut. I’ve never even seen that button – maybe I touched it by mistake sometime. I tried to wipe up the car and hope it doesn’t mildew or rust or whatever they do. I shut the window!

I took this picture of the sun roof from inside the car. The blue part is looking through the sun roof at the blue sky. You can see a tree hanging over the car and the condo across the parking area. I think the picture is spectacular!