I'm deeply saddened tonight for several reasons. Just in the last few hours I have learned that a relative's breast cancer has returned. This time she is not expected to make it through. She has maybe a year. She also has a 6 year old son who will be orphaned. As a single woman, she adopted a little boy. Six months later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer! It was hard but she came through it well. But it's back with a vengeance. 💔
Add to this that our dearly loved Dean Campaign person, Dina Wolkoff, has had a family tragedy. Her husband of not yet two years just died (January 10th) of prostate cancer. So hard! Galen was a vibrant and loving man. My heart goes out to her. I lit a candle for Galen tonight. 🕯
But wait. You know how they say things come in threes?
A former coworker just told me that her breast cancer returned recently after 14 years. She is in her 70's, and the protocol is usually for a mastectomy. But her docs said that since the tumor is so small they thought removal would work. Only, due to previous scar tissue, she's been dealing with an infection ever since the surgery in mid-December. But at least it looks like once that clears she'll be okay. (I hope.)
There is absolutely zero incidence of cancer in my family of origin. But that doesn't mean it doesn't affect me.
Good heavens--that IS A LOT ALL AT ONCE. *So far as I know*, I am the first in my family to come down with cancer, but that doesn't mean much--many of them died younger than I, and there may well have been fewer synthetic triggering materials about. My father would likely have come down with lung cancer in time, but he died at 54 from the sequelae of rheumatic fever. Progress with gentler cancer treatments continues, as do screening tests. Being able to test for and cure helicobacter pylori infections has considerably reduced stomach and duodenal cancers (not to mention ulcers).
Two Vermont legislative bills, H.248 and S.53, have the potential to make primary care a public good for every Vermonter. Passage of this legislation would allow all Vermonters access to primary care resources, including outpatient mental health and substance abuse services regardless of age or income.
Please join us tomorrow, Tuesday, January 23 at 5:30 p.m. for the Senate Health and Welfare Committee and House Health Care Committee hearing where you can provide testimony at the Statehouse in Montpelier on access to primary care!
Support Universal Primary Care! Tuesday, January 23 at 5:30 p.m. Vermont State House 115 State St, Montpelier, VT 05633 Providing primary care would be relatively inexpensive and would reduce the need for expensive hospitalizations and emergency room visits by treating conditions earlier and preventing disease.
Please come and show support for the Universal Primary Care bills!
Tomorrow morning (at a civilized hour) I set out by air for The Queen City of The Far West, Eureka (CA)--where I can expect liquid sunshine, returning Friday afternoon. Company job.
"Psychiatrists have called Donald Trump the victim of “narcissistic personality disorder.” But there is reason to believe that his madness goes deeper than that. Perhaps these mental-health practitioners should look at the literature in their field about the sorts of people with a mania for . . . desecrating things. The fact that Donald Trump is so obsessed about physical luxury, physical grandeur, slacks that are steam-pressed every single day, is perhaps a compensation for the drives that are pulling him constantly, relentlessly, toward behavior that goes beyond “trashy.”
There are clinical terms for the sorts of people who suffer from a morbid attraction to filth.
To putrefaction.
People who find themselves aroused by the chance to make the lives of others raunchy and putrid.
Trump is a very sick man, and his pathology is to make us all as sick as he possibly can — sick to our stomachs, sick at the sight of him snorting and cavorting in his sty. He is having the time of his life making everything around him “go bad.”
Be completely empty. Be perfectly serene. The ten thousand things arise together; in their arising is their return. Now they flower, and flowering sink homeward, returning to the root.
The return to the root is peace. Peace: to accept what must be, to know what endures. In that knowledge is wisdom. Without it, ruin, disorder.
To know what endures is to be openhearted, magnanimous, regal, blessed, following the Tao, the way that endures forever. The body comes to its ending, but there is nothing to fear. Tao Te Ching #16 - Ursula K. LeGuin's rendition
I met Wil for lunch to celebrate his 6th Anniversary in his job. Then I zoomed to the shop that fits cancer patients for wigs. I wanted to find a particular jaunty tan newsboy cap with floret, actually, just like the one I got for our niece when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer. She loved that cap so much, and later gave it to another cancer patient. But now her cancer has recurred. Sadly, that very cap is no longer made. I did find three other tan caps, bought them all, and got them mailed before the post office closed.
I was supposed to visit my former coworker today, whose breast cancer also recurred, and who had surgery last month but now is dealing with a post-op infection. She is so extraverted and wasn't slowing down, and the infection wasn't going away, so her docs told her she had to stay at home until the infection clears. But she finally admitted that she had been filling up the days with visitors, and getting wiped out. I was glad when she admitted as much to me [and I asked if her docs are next going to need to sequester her! Ha!]; and we made arrangements for her to rest for a few days and then check in with me about rescheduling.
I'm plotting bringing her a pot of some delicious food, something chocolate, and perhaps a pair of candles, decorated. And I might leave them on her doorstep, then go home and email her to go check for them. Ha!
Phooey!
ReplyDeleteI'm deeply saddened tonight for several reasons. Just in the last few hours I have learned that a relative's breast cancer has returned. This time she is not expected to make it through. She has maybe a year. She also has a 6 year old son who will be orphaned. As a single woman, she adopted a little boy. Six months later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer! It was hard but she came through it well. But it's back with a vengeance. 💔
Add to this that our dearly loved Dean Campaign person, Dina Wolkoff, has had a family tragedy. Her husband of not yet two years just died (January 10th) of prostate cancer. So hard! Galen was a vibrant and loving man. My heart goes out to her. I lit a candle for Galen tonight. 🕯
But wait. You know how they say things come in threes?
A former coworker just told me that her breast cancer returned recently after 14 years. She is in her 70's, and the protocol is usually for a mastectomy. But her docs said that since the tumor is so small they thought removal would work. Only, due to previous scar tissue, she's been dealing with an infection ever since the surgery in mid-December. But at least it looks like once that clears she'll be okay. (I hope.)
There is absolutely zero incidence of cancer in my family of origin. But that doesn't mean it doesn't affect me.
We need a cure.
Oh, listener, that is a *whole* lot!! HugZ!!
ReplyDelete❤️💛❤️💛❤️
DeleteGood heavens--that IS A LOT ALL AT ONCE. *So far as I know*, I am the first in my family to come down with cancer, but that doesn't mean much--many of them died younger than I, and there may well have been fewer synthetic triggering materials about. My father would likely have come down with lung cancer in time, but he died at 54 from the sequelae of rheumatic fever. Progress with gentler cancer treatments continues, as do screening tests. Being able to test for and cure helicobacter pylori infections has considerably reduced stomach and duodenal cancers (not to mention ulcers).
ReplyDeleteAlan
A blessing on every good soul who has thought of something that might expose the mysteries of cancer.
Delete💚 Go Vermont!! 💚
ReplyDeletevia Our Revolution:
Two Vermont legislative bills, H.248 and S.53, have the potential to make primary care a public good for every Vermonter. Passage of this legislation would allow all Vermonters access to primary care resources, including outpatient mental health and substance abuse services regardless of age or income.
Please join us tomorrow, Tuesday, January 23 at 5:30 p.m. for the Senate Health and Welfare Committee and House Health Care Committee hearing where you can provide testimony at the Statehouse in Montpelier on access to primary care!
Support Universal Primary Care!
Tuesday, January 23 at 5:30 p.m.
Vermont State House
115 State St, Montpelier, VT 05633
Providing primary care would be relatively inexpensive and would reduce the need for expensive hospitalizations and emergency room visits by treating conditions earlier and preventing disease.
Please come and show support for the Universal Primary Care bills!
We hope to see you there!
In solidarity,
The Team at Our Revolution
‘Never get high on your own supply’ – why social media bosses don’t use social media[Click] “Developers of platforms such as Facebook have admitted that they were designed to be addictive. Should we be following the executives’ example and going cold turkey?”
ReplyDelete--Alan
Well, Blogger sure makes it easy to not get addicted to its platform, eh? Ha!
ReplyDeleteTomorrow morning (at a civilized hour) I set out by air for The Queen City of The Far West, Eureka (CA)--where I can expect liquid sunshine, returning Friday afternoon. Company job.
ReplyDeleteAlan
Traveling Mercies!
DeleteYou and your esteemed posts will be missed.
Republicans Are Headed for the Hills[Click] Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin? It will be most interesting to see how this tabulation evolves…
ReplyDelete—Alan
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/trumps-illness-involves-deep-seated-need-desecration/
ReplyDeleteFrom the article:
"Psychiatrists have called Donald Trump the victim of “narcissistic personality disorder.” But there is reason to believe that his madness goes deeper than that. Perhaps these mental-health practitioners should look at the literature in their field about the sorts of people with a mania for . . . desecrating things. The fact that Donald Trump is so obsessed about physical luxury, physical grandeur, slacks that are steam-pressed every single day, is perhaps a compensation for the drives that are pulling him constantly, relentlessly, toward behavior that goes beyond “trashy.”
There are clinical terms for the sorts of people who suffer from a morbid attraction to filth.
To putrefaction.
People who find themselves aroused by the chance to make the lives of others raunchy and putrid.
Trump is a very sick man, and his pathology is to make us all as sick as he possibly can — sick to our stomachs, sick at the sight of him snorting and cavorting in his sty. He is having the time of his life making everything around him “go bad.”
It is time for a cure."
RETURNING TO THE ROOT
ReplyDeleteBe completely empty.
Be perfectly serene.
The ten thousand things arise together;
in their arising is their return.
Now they flower,
and flowering
sink homeward,
returning to the root.
The return to the root is peace.
Peace: to accept what must be,
to know what endures.
In that knowledge is wisdom.
Without it, ruin, disorder.
To know what endures
is to be openhearted,
magnanimous,
regal,
blessed,
following the Tao,
the way that endures forever.
The body comes to its ending,
but there is nothing to fear.
Tao Te Ching #16 -
Ursula K. LeGuin's rendition
Very appropriate.
DeleteAlan
Today was an interesting day.
ReplyDeleteI met Wil for lunch to celebrate his 6th Anniversary in his job. Then I zoomed to the shop that fits cancer patients for wigs. I wanted to find a particular jaunty tan newsboy cap with floret, actually, just like the one I got for our niece when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer. She loved that cap so much, and later gave it to another cancer patient. But now her cancer has recurred. Sadly, that very cap is no longer made. I did find three other tan caps, bought them all, and got them mailed before the post office closed.
I was supposed to visit my former coworker today, whose breast cancer also recurred, and who had surgery last month but now is dealing with a post-op infection. She is so extraverted and wasn't slowing down, and the infection wasn't going away, so her docs told her she had to stay at home until the infection clears. But she finally admitted that she had been filling up the days with visitors, and getting wiped out. I was glad when she admitted as much to me [and I asked if her docs are next going to need to sequester her! Ha!]; and we made arrangements for her to rest for a few days and then check in with me about rescheduling.
I'm plotting bringing her a pot of some delicious food, something chocolate, and perhaps a pair of candles, decorated. And I might leave them on her doorstep, then go home and email her to go check for them. Ha!
Dress completely in black and leave them on her stoop in the dark of the moon......
DeleteAlan (who jokes about doing that with friends we can hardly get away from without some return gift.