It's been a relaxing weekend so far

Yesterday YKWIA and I did our own things, for the most part. He watched 'The Flash' and 'Arrow' on Netflix, and then listened to BBC radio plays with Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. He also took care of the empty boxed we'd saved from the move he needed for something and did some other things about the house. I got some medicine at the pharmacy, did a grocery run, did most of the laundry and some dishes, re-potted two African violets, gardened some outside, and then relaxed, listened to music, and did some reading. I am re-reading Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson on the Kindle. I haven't read the third (and last) trilogy, so I thought I'd re-read the first two trilogies and then go forward with those. I'd already finished the game notes Friday night, so I had plenty of time on Saturday to do whatever I liked.

Today I got up early, took a shower (something I never got around to yesterday, which is rare), washed my bedding and then made the bed. I also took my medicine, ate, etc. I was cleaning the cat box when YKWIA got up (he'd gone to bed later than I did). He fed the animals and let the dogs out (we agreed that if I do it in the morning, it'll set a precedent where they'll bark, etc., and since I get up around 5:30 or 6 am on weekdays, that's too early for that. So far it's worked well. I find they'll come out, hopeful, but if I just ignore or maybe just pet them, they'll go back to bed. Well, the cat will stay and get loved on and follow me about, but he's mostly quieter and doesn't keep begging for food much.

We did get some very bad news last night. An acquaintance I hadn't seen in about 20 years tracked me down via Messenger and let me know that a mutual friend (the owner of the comic shop I'd worked for) now has stage IV colon and liver cancer. We'd fallen out of touch over the years. I told YKWIA (he'd known him better and for far longer) and got the address of someone who can let me know if we can help him in any way or see him, as this person is not on Facebook.

Brenda called today to cancel the game due to either a stomach bug or bad barbeque from yesterday. So we're not playing, and I have pretty much the rest of my day to do anything I want. She knows the person with cancer as well, so YKWIA told her what was going on and she was going to tell her husband, who also knows him. A little later, YKWIA called me into the other room. His Internet and phone were both out. I put the modem through a cycle, and it worked for a moment, then lost the connexion again. I called Spectrum and apparently, there is an outage in our area. Fortunately I can get on through the hotspot on my phone, but it's not good for videos, etc., due to a monthly cap of 5 GB.

There are only a couple of things I have to do today. One is to go get pen needles from the Kroger pharmacy, as I forgot to ask at mine yesterday, where I have the prescription. I also told YKWIA I would wash his popcorn bowl (and by that, I mean the top of a plastic cake safe, so it's pretty big). I'll do the few dishes that are left after I put away the ones I did yesterday.

I have to admit, I feel more relaxed here. I always used to feel rushed on the weekends, and when I was home, with all the stuff I hoarded, my apartment seemed oppressive. My room is cosy. My friend and I are getting along well, giving each other space, and have had no major problems as of yet. It's actually been pretty companionable. I really do feel like I'm home now.

Okay, I should go and do something. I think I'll do a little reading. I'm going to go to Kroger after the church rush. Hope you are having a pleasant weekend.

Must check this out

When Breath Becomes Air: A Young Neurosurgeon Examines the Meaning of Life as He Faces His Death

It's been a pretty full day

We're taking a break from the game, but I went over and did the normal cleaning and more,  and spent some time with YKWIA. He was giving me pointers on responding to people on OKCupid who message me.  I went home a little before 9 pm,  and I've spent a lot of time since answering questions on that site to help with matching. I'm up to 850 questions answered so far.

I also spoke with my mom,  wished her a happy mother's day,  and got some good news about her health - her cancer is gone.  Yay!

What else?  Oh,  I finally graduated from taking two children's vitamins a day to one Centrum Silver (although the new ones are also chewable). Technically,  I'm not 50 yet,  but I figure I'm a year away,  so if I'm going to take an adult vitamin,  I might as well take those.

Okay,  it's 11:30 pm,  and I'm going to try to get up at 6 am tomorrow and actually exercise before work. I'm getting sleepy,  so I'll sign off here.  Good night.

On a similar note...

Viral Video Shows Horse Saying Goodbye to His Owner

One video of a horse owner saying goodbye to her pet has gone viral and is melting hearts.

Lisa Beech has been battling a form of cancer for most of her life, she has been an amazing fighter but Wednesday she was admitted into the hospital and may not make it out.

Her daughter Amanda and her friend helped Lisa's 22-year-old horse, Jake, get from Nicholasville to St. Joseph to see his friend.

Sad

Someone in my life and I aren't really close anymore. Once we were enmeshed, and it wasn't healthy. Now we see each other on some holidays and when either of us is having health issues. We talk occasionally on the phone. There are good reasons for the distance. But tonight, I received a phone call from her that really brought up a lot of emotions, mainly sadness and concern. They're pretty sure she has cancer, and she will be having a tumour removed next month from her liver; at that point, they'll know more about course of treatment. She already has several health issues, and this must be a blow to her emotionally as well. So tonight I'm feeling sad, concerned, and regretful that our relationship is such as it is, even though I know it's unrealistic to expect better. I love her, though. I don't want to lose her. I'm sad she's going to go through this.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes. The evening took strange turns tonight. I was reminded that I was supposed to dose the dogs for fleas, so I after 'Big Bang Theory', which was great, especially one of Sheldon's mom's lines--'When your idiot brother redeems others, he can marry whomever he wants', I went over there and dosed the dogs, gave one her pill with peanut butter and bread and the rest peanut butter on bread without the pill, cleaned her up a bit, and we were watching the premiere of 'Minority Report' when my mom called. It looks to be a good show, we liked it, so it probably will be cancelled. YKWIA is a bit like Sheldon, not particularly comforting, so afterwards he got A up out of bed (he works very early in the morning) and had him hug me. That was sweet, on both parts. But now I'm home, and away from the distractions of TV, and it's starting to hit me, not just the sadness but the fear of losing her. She's really the only family I have left in Kentucky, and we've shared a lot of life together. But, it must be much worse for her right now. Anyway, I'm going to go on to bed. Tomorrow is an early day, and I'll be in registration part of the morning. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers, if you don't mind, and thanks for doing so. Good night.

Home (and slightly damp)

It's raining, and I took my umbrella out of the office yesterday because it was raining then, and forgot to bring one back with me this morning. I had two gigantic (okay, really big) flower arrangements to get home that were donated and with most people gone from the hospital, they would have just died without any real enjoyment, so they gave them to me to brighten up things here, which is great, because, being single, I pretty much only get flowers when I buy them, and these are much bigger than I could afford. [They're usually donated funeral flowers.] Anyway, they smell wonderful and are a combination of roses, lilies, snapdragons, Canterbury bells, and lots of greenery, and they make me happy. So thank you to whomever. They were a challenge to get home intact, but I did manage, even with the rain. I think there is a high percentage chance that the Fourth of July celebrations will fizzle rather than sizzle due to the weather. I have tonight and all of tomorrow (it is our holiday at work, since July 4th is on a Saturday) as a time to spend some quality time alone, and that makes me uneasy. It's not that I'm afraid to be alone; it's more that I'm uncomfortable by myself. When I was younger, I was so introverted and pretty much alone most of the time, and it didn't bother me at all. Now, I have to really work at doing anything other than just going to sleep when I'm by myself.

Speaking of funeral flowers, I did get some sad news, although I'm waiting to see it in the paper because I don't necessarily trust social media for death information, but it seems that one of my co-workers at the gas station, a lovely woman who was very caring and worked very hard, whom I've mentioned here after her diagnosis when they were trying to fund the chemo for her cancer treatment, has died. A couple of weeks ago the doctors told her she had maybe six months to live and put her in hospice. She was just two weeks younger than I, a mother, grandmother--and just a great person. If this is true, I am so sorry to hear it; I know she struggled through two cancers in her life, and that's a shame. I enjoyed working with her and keeping up with her on Facebook, but I hadn't talked to her for awhile, although I did message her. But I'm glad she is at peace now, and no longer in pain. Rest in peace, Teressa. If I can find funeral information, I will try to go to it.

I know something will get me in the end

but I'm glad I have never smoked, and I wish someone in my family would quit. She already has COPD, and I worry about her, as I watched her father go through the same thing.

Smoking Blamed for Half of Deaths From Major Cancers in People Over 35

About half of U.S. deaths caused by certain cancers -- including lung, colon and pancreatic tumors -- can be attributed to smoking, a new American Cancer Society study estimates.

In 2011, nearly half of the almost 346,000 deaths from 12 cancers in people 35 and older were linked to smoking, the study found.

"Despite large declines in smoking in the United States over the last 50 years, smoking still accounts for the majority of lung cancer deaths," said study co-author Rebecca Siegel, the American Cancer Society's director of surveillance information.

The researchers looked at 12 cancers known to be caused by smoking. In 2011, they found that 346,000 people died from these types of cancer. The researchers also had data on current and former smoking, and found that almost 168,000 of these deaths were due to tobacco.

Smoking is preventable. These deaths are preventable. It's no guarantee--people get cancer who have never smoked, even lung cancer, but it would decrease the deaths substantially. Isn't that worth putting down the cancer stick?

Postscript

I hope that last post didn't sound too whiny. I'm not asking for money or lamenting on my lack of it, just stating my situation and the feelings I have about it. I know things will eventually get better, if I just wait it out. Life has taught me that. And I could be in a lot dire straits. I have a former co-worker who is two weeks younger than me who just found out the other day that she has stage 4 cancer and it is in her colon, lymph nodes, liver, and neck, if I remember the details right. She's devastated. She hasn't worked for a month and a half and has a $900 copay for chemotherapy she's trying to raise through GoFundMe. That was before this latest news, so I don't know if they're still doing the chemo, but really, if you have some extra cash, if anyone needs help, this wonderful lady does. She's the hardest worker I've ever met, and I'm so sorry she's having to go through this. She had cervical cancer years ago, and now she has a very uphill battle to face. Things like this really put things into perspective. So no, my problems will eventually sort out. I wish I could help her, in fact. I'm tempted to call up the former friend and ask him to contribute in my name. :) He worked with her, too, after all.

Inspirational

Cancer Survivor Runs From Florida to Maine in 68 Days

Neville, who has been a nurse for 29 years, said she began running marathons after she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the 1990s. During that time, she said she underwent three brain surgeries to treat abscesses.

“When they said I wasn’t going to get better, my immune system was shot, I went home and signed up for the Chicago Marathon,” she said.

Though her family was on hand with an ambulance, she finished the 26.2-mile race in about four hours and 20 minutes.

She began realizing her goal to run the perimeter of the United States in 2010, with a 93-day jog from California to Florida.

But in 2012, she was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma, so she didn’t start the second leg of the voyage – from Canada to Mexico -- until 2013, she said.

Now in remission, Neville just has one leg to go, which she plans to complete in 2015.

Wow. I wish her well...I can't imagine running a marathon, let alone around the perimeter of the lower 48 states.

This week

I found out that cancer has touched the lives of two people I know--one newly diagnosed with breast cancer, and the other losing her battle with leukaemia. The former was very good to me while I was out with my broken ankle, and always went to bat for me when I needed it. The latter had a very lively spirit, was so very alive, and it's hard to think of that now gone. I am saddened by the news, and plan on praying for both of them tomorrow when I do my monthly libation. Be sure to show your love for those close to you while you can; you never know when a small thing such as a doctor's visit could change your life forever.

While I was dressing this morning

I was trying to decide on my outfit for the day (quickly, as I'd overslept). I was down to two, either purple or black. Suddenly I had a very strong feeling that one of the people I knew at my workplace who has been very ill had died over the weekend, and just in case I put on the black, but added a butterfly necklace that is very colourful because I thought she would have liked that. I didn't know her well, but she was very easy to talk to, a nurse and educator who had a very positive outlook on life. When I went in to work this morning, I found that she had, indeed, died Sunday morning. I'm glad that her pain is over, and I will say she did things very well--after she was given a grim prognosis she went to the beach and had one last trip with the family, and she managed to make people who were special in her life at ease with her passing. They're not so much having a funeral, but rather a celebration of her life. I was as impressed with her approach to death as I was with her personality, and I can only hope to face it as well. So even though I didn't know her well, she touched my life, and I am glad to have known her a little, and wish that I had gotten to know her better.

Disheartening

Drug Shortage Linked To Cancer Relapse

A drug shortage appears to have caused a higher rate of relapse among children, teens and young adults with Hodgkin lymphoma, researchers form St. Jude Children's Research Hospital reported this week. The scientists say this is the first example of the tragic consequences of the current drug shortage. They emphasized that protecting patient access to lifesaving treatment must always be the number one priority in any health care system.

People's lives shouldn't be on the line because of drug shortages or for that matter the lack of orphan drugs, which are not considered as profitable as others.

As an aside, while in the seemingly interminable line today, the ladies before me were asked if they would give to St Jude Children's Research Hospital and declined somewhat rudely. When I got to the counter, the young lady, who was obviously stressed from the lack of cashiers and annoyed customers, did not ask me. I smiled and asked her about it, and she said it was $1. I told her to go ahead and put it on my order, and she smiled and thanked me. I tried very hard to not blame the three ladies trying to get the customers out, and was very courteous. Then I went and sat down in a wheelchair (we didn't see it or the electric carts until the end of our shopping) until Brenda got through her line.

When I was 9, I had a classmate with leukaemia who had been treated at St Jude's. Sadly, she died, the first time it really hit me that kids did that, and I've never forgotten her, even though I met her at church literally three days before she passed away. I remember her last name was Probst. Her first name may have been Linda; she had a sister I got to know a little later, and I may be getting the first names mixed up. That would have been about 1976-1977. But since that time, there have been amazing strides in childhood cancer, especially leukaemia, in no small part to the work at St Jude's. They're a very worthy cause, and certainly worth $1 tacked onto your total. If you're in K-Mart in the near future, check and see if they're still doing it.

It's all about touching lives

Dying teacher's quest: Did I make difference?

As careers go, it's been a short one, only 15 years. But David Menasche has spent every minute of it teaching English at Coral Reef Senior High School in Miami, where his former students number nearly 3,000.

Now 40, he's battling stage-four brain cancer. After three surgeries, 21/2 years of chemotherapy and 30 rounds of radiation, he is losing his battle against cancer. So in his final months, Menasche is doing what most teachers only dream of: He's traveling the country, visiting his former students and asking: Did I make a difference?

"I am at the end of my life," he said recently. "I don't know how much longer I have left, and I just wanted that sense of satisfaction that the time I did have I used well."

When I was a kid

There was a young girl I met at church one Sunday. She was a classmate of mine, but she'd been absent a lot and I'd never really gotten to know her. By that Wednesday she was dead, bleeding as a consequence of the leukaemia she'd been fighting with the help of St Jude's Hospital in Memphis. She was my about my age--9 years old.

It was the first time I'd heard of leukaemia, and the very first time it really hit me that little kids get sick and die. It was a profound kind of thing, the sort of thing that hits you in the gut and changes your outlook bit by bit.

These days, thanks to researchers and clinicians at places like St Jude's and others, childhood leukaemia is much more survivable than it was then. But it--or for that matter, any form of cancer--can still be a devastating disease for anyone, child or adult.

So I found this story of interest:

In Treatment for Leukemia, Glimpses of the Future

What is important, medical researchers say, is the genes that drive a cancer, not the tissue or organ — liver or brain, bone marrow, blood or colon — where the cancer originates.

One woman’s breast cancer may have different genetic drivers from another woman’s and, in fact, may have more in common with prostate cancer in a man or another patient’s lung cancer.

Under this new approach, researchers expect that treatment will be tailored to an individual tumor’s mutations, with drugs, eventually, that hit several key aberrant genes at once. The cocktails of medicines would be analogous to H.I.V. treatment, which uses several different drugs at once to strike the virus in a number of critical areas.

In 1976 this would sound like science fiction, up there with the flying cars. Tailoring medicine to your genes? And now it's achieving reality. It amazes me what scientific breakthroughs have come about in my lifetime. It really is exciting to watch. This is a good time to live in, I believe. I don't have utter faith in science, by any means. It's a double-edged sword. But with every discovery we get closer to understanding how things work, and that's great, but also we can apply it to real-life situations make a difference on a smaller, yet equally important scale, or could save greater numbers or whole species.

This bring up a whole slew of issues

regarding religious, reproductive, and health care rights.

Judge Forces Hysterectomy on God-Loving Woman

A cancer patient in Montana -- identified only as L.K. -- refused to undergo a hysterectomy as treatment for her cancer on the grounds that she is deeply religious and wants to have children. That's sad enough in it's own right. But no one could have foreseen what happened next: A judge found her "mentally incompetent" based on her "delusional religious beliefs" and ruled she was to have the procedure.

State Supreme Court halts surgery to allow appeal in hysterectomy ruling

“Normally, we don’t force treatment on adults. Competent adults can refuse even lifesaving treatments on religious terms,” he said. “The challenge is to establish that they truly are incompetent and that they really do comprehend the risk posed to their life.”

Then there are degrees, so to speak, of religion, said John Stone of Creighton University’s Center for Health Policy and Ethics. People with well-established religious objections to medical treatments — say Jehovah’s Witnesses who refuse blood transfusions, even lifesaving ones – generally see those requests honored, he said.

I realise that in making this ruling, the judge is presumably trying to save this woman's life. The woman has stated that she believes God has cured her, but that she understands that doctors say she will die within three years without a hysterectomy (although she did reserve the right to change her mind later, it may be too late for her.)

But...

In this country, competent adults are afforded the right to refuse such treatment, including based on religious grounds. The courts usually get involved with cases like this when a child is involved.

So, does a belief that God can cure her make her delusional, and incompetent to make such a life-threatening decision for herself? Tell me, is it delusional to believe that bread and wine become flesh and blood? Is it delusional to believe a man spoke to God through a burning bush? Or that Mohammad ascended to heaven? My point is, religion often involves things that don't logically make sense. If all of those are delusional, then does that mean that many Christians, Jews, and Muslims have no right to determine their own health care?

On another front...we get to reproductive rights and mental competence.

Thing is, we used to sterilise the mentally incompetent and developmentally disabled in this country, and that practice is now condemned as unethical. While this woman's sterilisation would be a by-product of a life-saving procedure, it's still sterilisation, and it's the main reason she's balking. She wants children badly enough to risk her life. Is that delusional? Maybe, but I've known at least one woman that desperate who has, indeed, risked her life to have a baby. Most people consider her sane. In the end, shouldn't it be the woman's right to be sterile and alive, or fecund and in peril?

Infinitesimal odds, but deadly just the same

Man dies of uterine cancer linked to transplant: Doctors doubted disease could spread to him through donated kidney

Vincent Liew waited five years for the kidney that was supposed to change his life. Instead, the organ ended it.

The kidney came from a woman who had uterine cancer, but she and doctors didn't know it. Once her disease was discovered after the transplant, Liew's doctors highly doubted it could spread to him.

But in seven months, Liew was killed by cancer that his autopsy linked to the transplant. His death, the subject of a medical malpractice trial in which closing arguments were scheduled for Thursday, is believed to be the only reported instance of uterine cancer apparently being transmitted by transplant, medical experts say.

Men can and do get breast cancer, of course, but this is so very unusual it's one for the books. It's important to realise that there's a very low chance of getting a disease from a transplant--in 2007 just 23 out of 28,000 recipients contracted anything, just over half of them dying. But according to the article more than 107,000 people are currently awaiting an organ, lives that could be saved with a transplant. Although screening is done, the detailed results of an autopsy are rarely available in the short window of time between removal of the organ and transplantation. Mr Liew was informed of a chance of the cancer being transmitted, but it was such a small risk he chose to keep the organ. Within a few months, he was dead. The only room for malpractice I can see is that for some reason it took two months for the surgeon to be notified of the cancer found in the donor. Otherwise, it sounds like something no one could have actually predicted as probable. Still, it's sad that he died when the organ was to give him a new lease on life.

My grandmother has renal cancer

My mother just called me to let me know. She's had a cyst on her kidney causing bleeding for awhile now, and they just about had to beg the doctor to send her for testing. She has more tests at the end of the month to determine if it is in the muscle. They'll no doubt take her kidney later on and treat her from there.

So that's another reason to get home for Christmas and see everyone. I just got home from shopping and I've got a little something for everyone but A, but I can get his on Monday. I also found a belt (it was $30!) that reverses between black and brown, but no luck on the work pants. I think I'll have to shop online. I found a pair of dress shoes with a heel to keep my podiatrist happy but I can still walk on them; that way I have something to wear to job interviews other than my boy's boots. :)

I saw someone I used to be friends with at the library, and another friend and his wife out at Lane Bryant. He had that 'trapped male' look you find with guys in a women's clothing shop. :)

I really haven't eaten much all day (I had a peanut butter sandwich this morning and a couple of pretzels for lunch). So I'm waiting for dinner to be delivered and get something more filling inside me.

I also got some fish food and a couple of aquarium plants that were in this gel and so they didn't need to be actually immersed in water. You just wash off the gel if it's going in an aquarium or keep the gel on if it's in a terrarium. Nifty!

In all, I went to Meijer's, Target, Barnes & Noble, PetSmart, Marshall's, Gordman's, Best Buy, and Half-Price Books. Mind you, these are not next together like in a mall. I had to traverse crowded parking lots full of people definitely not in the holiday spirit as a pedestrian over probably a square mile. Whew! Billy and Julia would have probably taken me home, but I was still on the hunt for those work pants. I halfway wish I'd had, but I did get two presents after that, so I guess it wasn't too bad going back to get the bus, etc., and I didn't have to wait for a half-hour or anything to catch the Richmond Road bus out like I thought I would, so it all worked out.

I came home to find a couple of friends had sent me an Amazon gift card, yay! I called them to thank them and acted surprised (one of them told me to; I'd helped him navigate Amazon's site to order them). :) It was actually a surprise in that they came very speedily.

Okay, there's stuff to do, and those plants should go on into the aquarium. Have a good night.

A sad tale but a heartwarming one as well, of what big business can do with a heart

Pixar fulfills dying girl’s wish to see ‘Up’: 10-year-old with cancer couldn’t go to theater, studio brought DVD to house

By the time 'Up' hit the theatres, Colby Curtin was rapidly losing her battle with cancer and was too sick to go to the cinema. So the studio came to her, sending an employee with a DVD, stuffed characters, and memorabilia, for a private screening at home. She died later that night.

Her mother said one of the memorabilia left by the Pixar employee was an 'adventure book' based on a scrapbook that, in the movie, is kept by the [late] wife of the main character [who floats his house away with balloons to take the trip he never managed to make when she was alive].

'I’ll have to fill those adventures in for her,' Lisa Curtin said of her daughter.

At least it gave them some comfort, and a little girl precious moments of happiness. The best thing of all is that the news didn't come from Pixar; they haven't even commented. It wasn't some self-promoting gimmick, it was a real gesture towards a family stricken by the impending death of a young girl.

That's class.

Awww

Dying bulldog saves owner from fire: Fire comes two weeks after vet discovers dog’s cancerous tumors

PS 05.27.09

Bulldog who saved owner is put to sleep

Brittney stopped eating on Monday and her cancer caused increased bloating in her stomach. Her owner felt the best way to repay her for saving his life and the kindest thing to do for her was to euthanise her today.

At least she did not suffer long and was able to be a genuine heroine before her death. My thoughts are with Scott Seymore, the nine-year-old bulldog's human companion. I know what a great loss it is, and all I can say is, take care, and know the pain does ease after awhile, but the memories stay, and they are comforting.

I knew his health was failing

but it's hard to believe that Paul Newman is dead at age 83 of cancer. When people think of Hollywood actors, they tend to think of tabloid scandals and bad behaviour by the self-absorbed. But Paul Newman was married to his widow for 50 years, lived away from the glitter of Hollywood in Connecticut, and was a wonderful philanthropist whose line of salad dressings and other food products generated millions for charity. Oh, and he was a great actor, too. :)

He was very vibrant and had a zest for life (he raced cars into his seventies) and I suspect had a lot of charisma and definitely had a lot of class. Most people would be lucky to be remembered so fondly.