I was just scrolling through Janice’s blog and saw that there was another post on this thread. I’m glad you saw my last post and I’m glad I found yours! Thank you for sharing your story with me. I have two friends who’ve had double mastectomies in the past couple years and I know what they are going through. It’s not pretty. One of them is still undergoing treatments. She had a battle with MRSA after her surgery but I think she’s recovered from that. I need to call her up because it’s been about a month since I talked to her. I’ve heard of that book you mentioned. I just went to Amazon.com and found an inexpensive copy of it and I ordered it. After I read it I’ll add it to my consumer health collection. It got very good reviews.

Cancer is a beast, that’s for sure. I pray that you will stay cancer free. I’m sure it’s something that’s always on your mind. I will do my best to provide women with information that will help them in their battle. Thank you for telling me about the book and thanks again for sharing your story.

Take care,
Margie

My favorite personal book is Why I Wore Lipstick To My Mastectomy by Gerilyn Lucas. She is an amazing author, she has babies now. Her book spoke to me in a very personal way!

It would take days for me to post my history, but you can look at my blog and see some. I call cancer The Beast.

What women miss knowing is the reality of breast cancer. It is brutal, and only a survivor will be truly honest with a patient! Anything you can do to help them understand the reality of the Beast will help. So many patients are sick and tired of feeling like lab rats.

Wow that was quite the oration. I couldn’t have said it better myself. I would, though, like to add a few things:

I will also be voting for John McCain, but holding my nose as I do. Mr. McCain is sorely lacking in two major areas:

1. He will I believe do absolutely NOTHING about ILLEGAL immigration and sanctuary cities. He has and always will sell us regular citizens out on that issue, as all politicians from both sides of the aisle have done for the last 25 years.

2. He has sold out to the “Church of Global Warming.” Nice man, but he knows less than my two cats about the issue and is prepared to add taxes and caps on carbon dioxide not knowing a thing about this. I am a trained Meteorologist and tell you this is all nonsense.

That said, I will vote for him for the following reason:

Ever heard the saying that the worst day fishing is still better than the best day at work. Well, the worst Republican in this race is still better than the best the Democrats have given us. Neither Obama or Hillary have any clue about the real danger we are in with the nutbags in the Middle East and they will get us all killed. I like your idea about Lieberman. He would kick some Ass
out there. If anyone thinks that sitting down with a madman, or madmen, is a good idea, how about learn what happened to the world back in the 1930s when everyone thought it would be a good idea to appease and sit down with Hitler. It cost the world about 75 million people. Just think what one well placed bomb or assasin squad could have saved the world. This time around it won’t be just 75 million, how about 100 or 200 hundred million. Dead from radiation poisoning. How about a few well placed cruise missiles or a few assasination squads to save us from all that. Oh, but we are supposed to be the NICE guys. Well, let’s see, they already hate us, so why don’t we just go send them to their 72 virgins earlier than they thought. Might save us all alot of hassle and aggravation.

I’d be curious as to everyone else’s thoughts about the election this year.

Sunny

P.S. JD, you are exempt from this line of thinking as you are on vacation and shouldn’t be thinking about politics or ticks. (Same thing)

Somehow I missed your post earlier this afternoon. Thanks for your suggestions. I’ll have to check out those sites. October, as you probably know, is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and last year I did a big promotion for that. My local librarians group published a newsletter and we had special displays in the hospital libraries. I lost a dear colleague a few years ago to metastatic breast cancer and I have another friend who had a double mastectomy a couple years ago and one who had a double mastectomy last year. (I think all my friends are falling apart!) If the health system will allow me to post my health topics on the Internet, I will do the breast cancer topic for October. If I’m not getting too personal, how long have you been a survivor? I hope you are doing well. I will look up some of the different things you mentioned and provide that information for people. Thanks for your suggestions!

Take care,
Margie

I have always voted for the person and have not voted for anyone because some political party was telling me who I should vote for.We all know the choices by now and, that said, I do believe that the process of selecting a chief executive is deeply flawed. The words “money” and”special interests” come to mind, among many others.

Here’s the way I see it:

Barack Obama, you are a fine public speaker. You are also an extremely liberal Senator from the State of Illinois, which has a long and rich history of political corruption of the first magnitude. You are indeed a child of that system.You have finally insulted my intelligence far beyond my capacity to tolerate your insults. It has nothing at all to do with your skin color. As a matter of fact, it would be so COOL to finally have an African-American forPresident. What a great statement that would be to the entire world that weare indeed the greatest country on earth!

But, unfortunately, General Colin Powell is not running, and YOU are NOT the man for this job!Barack baby, you want me to believe that you have never heard the sermons ofyour own pastor, the Right Reverend “God Damn America” Jeremiah Wright. Itis a matter of record that this has been your church for over 20 years. It is a matter of record that you were married there by this very pastor, and that your children were baptized there.The good Reverend saw fit to visit Khadafy in Libya and to give a lifetime achievement award to Louis Farrakhan, of all people.

We have all now seen excerpts of his sermons all over the airwaves by now. And you have publicly stated that this man IS your “spiritual mentor”. BUT, your pastor is NOT the reason I am NOT voting for you. His words were disturbing enough, but it is your own HUGE church congregation, seen jumping, hooting and howling to his words in the background that disturb me the most. And please don’t tell me you attended church there and never once heard a “discouraging word” in the 20 years you attended there.

Don’t tell me, that in addition to the good reverend, that you are now not having anything to do with all those other people seen hooting and howling out in the audience in the background of his fiery tirades. Even Oprah Winfrey got disgusted and walked out. I am no Oprah fan, but still she did the right thing. Now YOU look me in the eye and ask me to believe that you never heard such language in all the years you attended there!

This is like me telling you that I attended dozens of Klan rallies and never once heard the “N” word. Yep. And Bill Clinton “did not inhale”. Yes, Mr. Obama, we all have friends who have said stupid things that embarrassed us, but NOW you have asked me to believe something that is so incredibly stupid that you are telling me that I am just stupid enough to believe you.

THAT is the main reason that I will never vote for you. I am deeply sorry, that in a country teeming with enormously talented African Americans who would make a good President, that the political system has chosen YOU. You are a pathetic and plastic excuse for an American, who will not even salute the Flag during the Pledge of Allegiance. God forbid you ever get near the Oval Office.

Now, did I mention Bill Clinton? AH YES! This brings us to MRS. WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, who this candidate really is, in spite of all the other names she may care to call herself. This “feminist” piece of work of course would like to be referred to as MS.and we all know who wears the pant suit in that family.MS. Clinton, (sugar), it is just as depressing to realize that there are dozens of women who would also make great Presidents.

But, fortunately, the horrible state of the selection process has selected YOU. Ms. Clinton, I’m sorry, but you could not tell the truth if we waterboarded your worthless ass! Still you play the role of the “embarrassed but dignified noble wife”. What utter malarky! I am not voting for you for a world of reasons, but the main one is the same as my not voting for Senator Obama.

You persistently insult my intelligence. It COULD be conceivably possible that you did not know about Monica Lewinsky, extremely remote, but possible if we stretch our imaginations a bit. But you turn around and then ask me to believe that you also did not know about Paula Jones and the legion of other women who were chewed up and spit out by your lecherous excuse for a husband.

Puleese turnoff this broken record !!!But let’s set aside your hubby’s flagrant pecadillos. The REAL issue is that he committed perjury under oath when he lied about it and the pathetically-attempted coverup that followed. Like you, he is totally incapable of telling the truth. He could not do it if you tortured him, and in voting for you, we would get the BOTH of you, all over again.

The same folks who could have taken out Osama Bin Laden over 3,000 dead Americans ago! The reason I will never vote for you is that I don’t think the country can survive EIGHT MORE YEARS of Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate, Sandy Berger stuffing his socks with classified intelligence, Janet Reno’s goon squad, and the myriad other corruptions that seem to stick to you like your ugly face. And please stop telling me that you have “8 years of experience” to lead us. You were the freakin’ first lady already, not the Commander in Chief.

Jeez !The sum of your “experience” is that of the most worrisome and incompetent meddling in the history of the White House. You even cursed your pitiful staff and the Secret Service agents who were and still are unfortunately charged with risking their lives to protect your worthless, thieving hide, and all at the expense of other people who have to work for a living.Your single pathetic platform is to finance the illegal drugs, alcoholism and bad habits of the very lowest and most irresponsible freeloaders in America and to then “garnish the wages” (your own words) of every law-abiding and hard-working American to pay for it.

This disaster you refer to as “Universal Health Care”. Where have you been the last 30 years? Did you not see that socialism is a failure wherever it has been tried? Did you not notice that the Soviet Union has collapsed since it gave no reward tothose who worked the hardest for the fruits of their own labors to pay for those who will not?? It is interesting to see all the dead bodies that you and your hubby have left in your wake.

Suicides, mysterious deaths, cover-ups that make Richard Nixon look like a rank amateur. The utter contempt and unbelievable arrogance of some of your strongest supporters, most notably the recently resigned and disgraced Governor Eliot Spitzer, the epitome of hypocritical and malevolent arrogance gone wild, one of your most ardent, wealthy and powerful political supporters. A man the news media refuses to admit IS a”super delegate” in your own political machine, a fine example of your own”adopted” state of New York. No wonder you moved there to run for Senator !The environment there is perfect for the likes of you !Yes, I would vote for a woman, but I will NOT vote for YOU !

Which leaves us with Senator John McCain.

John, you are a flawed man. You are a bit old, a bit looney, and you have a notoriously bad temper. This perfectly qualifies you, in my humble opinion,to lead us for the next eight years. I WANT your trembling hand on the nuclear button.Think about it.We have Kim Jong IL, Chavez and Ahmadenijad all running around like lunatics, threatening America and threatening to plunge the world into nuclear Armageddon. We have Putin and the Chinese blustering and rattling their sabres at us. I want John McCain in the Oval Office and I want him tobe really pissed off at all these other nut jobs around the planet. John, once you are elected, I want you to go into the Oval Office and throw one of your perfect FITS. Jump up and down and throw something through a plate glass window. Rip the drapes down and foam at the mouth a bit. And I want the whole thing on camera so that Ahmadinejad can see it.

I want ALL of these “world leaders” to lay awake at night and to break out in a cold sweat every time they think of messing with the United States of America.I want the nuclear button sitting right next to the alarm clock on your night stand. I want pictures of this to be sent to Iran, Russia, China,Venezuela, Cuba, Libya, Syria,Pakistan, and the Saudis.On the domestic front, poor John did try and reach across the aisle to the opposition in a desperate effort to compromise and to get the Congress to do something.

You may not agree with his efforts, but at least he TRIED. Forall his efforts, all he got handed to him was his head in a basket. The liberals are pissed at him and the conservatives are pissed at him. Just my kinda guy.I predict that John will select Senator Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Good choice. I want a JEW whose memory of the Holocaust is still fresh in his mind and who is royally pissed off at all of these morons in the Middle East to be the next in line if something should happen to John.

Shalom, Vice President Joe. One heartbeat from the Oval Office. Finally. John McCain knows on a most personal level what it is to suffer horrible torture for years and to see others die, right in front of you, for their love of America. When you ask him about it, he will tell you that what he did was “nothing special”. Even more incredibly, he states that ANY American who truly loves his country would do exactly the same as he did in that situation. You and I will have a hard time believing that, but the realpoint is that John McCain believes that about the “average American”, and that, dear friends and neighbors, is why I will cast my one poor ballot foron election day for John McCain — warts and all.

Sorry, lost it there for a sec. It is hot down here in the Lone Star State.

Hurry Back Goddess!!

1 Many women want alternative healing options, or ways for chemo and radiation to be better tolerated. Many books about that would be a patient’s dream.

2. Lots more about the Gamma Knife, it has done wonders at Baylor.

3. Genetic testing and counseling, many are confused, because frankly it is hard to get good information about it.

I have two sites that are fabulous for support.

http://www.facingourrisk.org/

http://nosurrenderbreastcancerhelp.com/

They both have suggestions for help.

I’m glad you’re able to get some exercise. Your story about Harmony gave me a big smile! That’s just too cute! I know what you mean about well-meaning people saying some crazy things. They just don’t understand. It’s important that you keep your upper body in shape. I’ve seen on TV those people in wheelchairs who race in marathons and other things like that and they are so strongly built in their upper bodies, it’s amazing. It’s important for your heart’s sake that you get some sort of exercise and a motorized scooter definitely wouldn’t do that! They are great for people who have trouble with their arms, but would not be good for someone like you. All I can say is–you go girl!

Have a great day!

Margie

I know medicine is designed to help people but sometimes when they treat one thing, they cause countless other problems. I’m sorry about all the complications you have. That does stink. Back in December, 1986 my brother Mike went to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD for a bone marrow transplant for Hodgkin’s disease. He died 5 months later from complications from that transplant. He had something wrong with every organ in his body and to this day, I can still see him lying in that bed with all kinds of tubes sticking out of him looking pathetic. The autopsy report showed no signs of the Hodgkin’s disease, however. They killed off all the Hodgkin’s disease, but unfortunately, they also killed my brother. Thankfully, not all cases turn out that way and medicine does great things. I think of Lance Armstrong and how close to death he was, and now look at him. So there are success stories, but that doesn’t ease the pain of those unsuccessful stories.

I’ve found that since I went through that ordeal with my brother, I’m more sensitive to people’s needs if they come into the library looking for information. I helped a mother find pictures of blood cells so she could explain to her young daughter what was wrong with her. That was many years ago and I still remember them coming into the library.

I’m sorry for all you’ve been through and I hope you can get accustomed to life with an insulin pump. As horrible as your experience was, at least the insulin pump will help you avoid all those injections. There is a mixed blessing there, although it may not seem that way right now.

Take care,
Margie