Priceless Part 2

Yet another hiliarious SNL skit.

Priceless!!

Ok, for some reason I can't get this to embed here, but PLEASE check it out. It is something Ron Howard put together.

"Ron Howard's Call To Action"

Too Funny...

My Mom sent me this (thanks Mom!) it is hilarious!!

Wanda Sykes Campaigns For Cabinet Position On Last Night's Leno

I also added a new link on the right. This is a presentation that my friend Jen put together. She works at a college, and was asked to do a breast cancer presentation. She was to do this in person Monday and Tuesday next week, however, she recently found out that her cancer is back and has spread to her bones. Monday she will be having her ooph (ovaries removed), so will be unable to give the talk in person. That is a shame as she has done such a nice job. The presentation is about 40 minutes long, but if you have the time PLEASE watch it. As of this post, it is split into three sections, so you will have to click on each part individually. At some point it may become all one session.

You Have GOT To Be Kidding Me!

This women is SICK, SICK, SICK. I do not feel the sympathy for her that the author does at the end of this article. This women FAKED having cancer 3 times!! We just had someone on the YSC boards that was faking it. Mental Illness or not, this pisses me off! I was going to copy and paste the article here, but it is too long, so click the link below to read.

She Said She Had Breast Cancer--But She Lied

Oldest Voter

This lady is 106 years old. Yes, you read that right. She hasn't voted since 1952! She feels this is an important election though. I will copy the article below. If you would like to go to the site click HERE (I know with this new background, the links don't show up the greatest, but if you mouse over them, you can tell they are links).



106-year-old voter chooses Obama
By David Willey BBC News, Rome

Sister Cecilia has lived in the convent in Rome for 50 years
A 106-year-old American nun living in a convent in Rome could well be one of the oldest voters to cast a ballot in the 2008 US Presidential election.
Sister Cecilia Gaudette, who last voted for President Eisenhower in 1952, has registered to vote and says she will vote for Democrat Barack Obama.
Although hard of hearing, she keeps herself informed by reading newspapers and watching TV at the convent.
"I'm encouraged by Senator Obama," she says.
"I've never met him, but he seems to be a good man with a good private life. That's the first thing. Then he must be able to govern," she adds.
Sitting in her modest office in the convent where she has lived for the past 50 years, the diminutive nun appears uninterested in the row inside the American Catholic church over Senator Obama's support for pro-choice policies on abortion.
Asked about her hopes for the US under an Obama presidency, she says: "Peace abroad. I don't worry about the Iraq war because I can't do anything about it. Lord knows how it will end."
"It is very complicated," she said. "Those Eastern people are not like we are."
But despite taking part in the 4 November election, Sister Cecilia does not intend to return to the US.
"I have no plans for the future. I am too old to go back to the US. Life has changed too much."
But she still watches "very important events" on TV. The election comes under this category.
*********************************************************************************

I received an email from Pam Monson (she wrote the article about me for the Free Press papers last year). She was writing to tell me that that article won the Illinois Press Association's editorial contest. Awesome!

Robin Roberts

Here is the link to the Robin Roberts piece on Nightline.

"Cancer Isn't One Size Fits All"

Hodge Podge..

...Of emotions. That is where I am right this minute.

I am going for my ooph tomorrow (ovaries out-bye,bye!). This should be a relatively easy procedure. Hopefully they get the anesthesia right at Riverside too. But as I sit here, I am wondering if I wasn't a little crazy to do these so close together. I am not recovered from the last procedure yet. I have probably been doing more than I should, but I am so damn tired of doing nothing. My left side still bothers me, and sleeping on my sides is not as comfortable yet. But, on the other hand, I will be done. And I won't have to recover from one procedure to turn around and have another recovery, just one huge recovery, then DONE.

I am also upset. My friend Jen (one of the IL YSC gals) has just found out that her cancer is back. I mean, does it ever stop? She is 31, with a young son. This is just over a year after the original diagnosis. She had a lumpectomy, chemo, and radiation. She was recently told that the cancer is back in the same breast. I at first thought that maybe this was a case similar to mine--with having the two primaries- and that the drs missed it on her. Although with it being in the same breast, that is a more unlikely that they would have missed it. She had a PET scan this morning and was told this afternoon that it is in her bones also. Needless to say she is freaked. Of course her drs added to this by telling her that they have never seen it come back so fast. WTF! They should have never told her that.

The last thing that got me going was the Robin Roberts piece on Nightline tonight. She was talking about her breast cancer "journey". I have always liked her, and like her even more after this interview. Boy did it bring back memories though! Wow, wasn't really expecting that. It reminded me of things I had forgotten, or hadn't thought about for awhile. I hope that either ABC news, or youtube will have the video posted tomorrow. If that happens, I will post a link here, as she makes some very good points. Like "we are all just a little stronger than we think". This is so true. People told me that I was strong. Honestly, strong has nothing to do with it. I simply did what I had to do to stay alive, to be here for my family. She talks about getting back to "normal" after chemo and how people just don't understand. And also about the fact that alot of cancer patients go through a depression AFTER treatment is done. This is when you have time to think about it, and deal with all those emotions you have put off, or hidden. You have also, at that point, done everything you can to combat the disease and are left feeling a little helpless, or lost. She also says that she is "healthier". She will not use the words remission or cured. She knows that it can come back. She isn't dwelling on it, but she knows it. This is important for people to know. There is no cure. There is no way to predict in who it will come back. It is a complete crap shoot. It is a fact that the cancer is more aggressive in younger women than our older counterparts. It stands to reason then (in my mind at least) that the younger you are at original diagnosis, the more likely you are to recur. I could be completely off about that. Jen had no node involvement, clear margins, and was a stage2a. Now she is fighting again. There are others that have positive nodes, and/or higher grade, and don't recur--crap shoot.

Well, now that I have had my midnight snack to help with the anesthesia effects tomorrow, I am off to bed.

Goodnight....

Scary...

Please, Please read this if you are even ENTERTAINING the idea of voting for McCain. I have read about his health care plan several times, and to be honest, it scares the crap out of me!! Basically, you will be taxed for your employer based health care. This is an attempt to get you to get your own insurance in the "free market". The idea being that the competition among companies would keep prices down. But NOT for those of us with a previous condition, i.e. cancer. This would make it harder, if not next to impossible to get insurance on our own, and if we did, it would be expensive. The plan also includes cutting medicare and medicaid. Thanks alot Mr. McCain. Hit average America where it counts-the wallet-again!
Here is the link, read for yourselves;
McCain Health Plan Has Underlying Illness

I also have to seriously question the man's judgement and decision making. He chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. I'm sorry but there are times that woman makes George Bush look like a Mensa scholar! She might be ok to be a state governor, but what does she know about Washington politics? And let's face it, McCain is no spring chicken, so you really do need to think about how well his running mate would do if (and more likely when) she had to step into his place. I can only imagine what kind of fiasco that would be! I believe his choice in her has actually hurt his campaign. So if he messes up these kind of decisions, what in the hell will he mess up in office? I for one don't want to find out. I also don't understand his "giving up on Michigan". He's done, he isn't going to campaign there anymore, tv ads are done there too. WTF??? What candidate does that?? He is not so for ahead in the polls (in fact he is behind, and getting further behind every day)that he can even afford to let go of a state! I need to do some more reading on that one. Oh, and he was one of the Keating Five in the Savings and Loan debacle. I will stop there for now. I hope America is smarter this time around. Of course, I thought that we had learned our lesson four years ago and would never put W back in there....apparently we are hard heads. Or gluttons for punishment or something!

And Another One...

Here is an article on the Pink October subject. Again, very good points. Please read! This is From a paper in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/30002944.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DUHPYDiaK7DUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU

Another Post about Pinktober..

This is a post from a fellow YSCer, Lorri. She has worded this whole "Pink October" thing so much better than I ever could. Please take the time to click the link and read her take on things.

http://lorriscancerupdates.blogspot.com/

And So It Begins....

Breast Cancer Awareness Month. YUK!!! We do need awareness. However, I believe most people are aware. What we need more is a CURE. If it wasn't for the fact that my anniversary and Halloween are in October, I would hate this month. This month is a constant reminder of the crap I have been through. Everywhere I turn is pink. Everywhere. Pink soup cans. Pink vacuums. Pink kitchen utensils. I mean, seriously, who has a pink kitchen? And I like pink, but I get so sick of seeing it. Everywhere I look is a reminder of something I am trying to forget, if only for a little while. It doesn't help that I was diagnosed in October, so when this was the most raw for me, I had it shoved in my face constantly.

As I stated above, there are a lot of products in October that are pink. Alot of products claiming to help in the fight against breast cancer. Before you buy that pink vacuum, or candy, or dish towels, or whatever please find out how much is being donated and where the money is going. Also find out if that company has a cap on the amount donated. It may be better to just make a direct donation to one of the wonderful organizations that are out there. A great site to help with these questions is http://www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org/ The following is just a bit from their website...


"Breast Cancer Action urges you to
“think before you pink.” Will your
purchase make a difference?
Or is the company exploiting breast
cancer to boost profits?"

That is something that irks a lot of us (survivors), understandably. The following is a list of questions you should get answers to before you buy just because it is pink....


The list of pink ribbon products grows every year. From candy to clothing to automobiles, thousands of companies are pinning pink ribbons on their products in an attempt to boost their image and their profits by connecting themselves to a good cause.

Before you impulsively buy one of these products in the belief that your money is going to do good, Breast Cancer Action urges you to “think before you pink”—and ask these critical questions:

How much money from your purchase actually goes toward breast cancer? Is the amount clearly stated on the package?
Some companies, like Tribeca, offer a pink version of their product but don’t specify how much of your purchase will be donated. Tribeca is selling a pink USB flash drive and the package says that a donation from the sale of the drive will be made to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. What you can’t tell just by looking at the package is how much “part of the proceeds” is.
When the package does state the amount of the donation, is that amount enough? Fox Home Entertainment, for example, is selling "DVDs for the Cure" for $14.95 and donating 50 cents to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Is this a significant contribution, or a piddly amount? You decide.
If you can't tell how much money is being donated, or if you don't think it's enough, give directly to the organization instead.

What is the maximum amount that will be donated?
Many companies place a cap on the amount of money that will be donated. For example, Give Hope Jeans, sold by White House Black Market for $88, will donate “net proceeds” from the sale to the organization Living Beyond Breast Cancer. But they’ve capped their contributions at $200,000. This means that once they’ve reached the $200,000 limit they will stop contributing, no matter how many pairs of jeans are bought.
In some cases, that cap is a generous amount. In some cases it’s not. But you should know that, whenever there is a cap, your individual purchase may not contribute anything to the cause, depending on when you shop and whether the cap has already been met.

How are the funds being raised?
Does making the purchase ensure a contribution to the cause? Or do you, the shopper, have to jump through hoops to make sure the money gets where it’s supposed to go? Lean Cuisine, for example, has a pink ribbon on its boxes of frozen meals, but if you read closely, you'll find out that the purchase of the meal does not result in any donation to a breast cancer organization. Instead, consumers must visit the Lean Cuisine web site and buy a pink Lean Cuisine lunch tote. Then, $5 of that purchase will be donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

To what breast cancer organization does the money go, and what types of programs does it support?
Does the product’s package tell you where the money goes and what will be done with it? For example, Penn is selling pink tennis balls and the package says that 15 cents of your purchase will go to “a Breast Cancer Research Organization.” It doesn’t tell you which organization or what kind of research will be done. Will the money go to fund the same studies that have been ongoing for decades (which already get enormous financial support)? Or will it go to underfunded, innovative research into the causes of breast cancer?

If the donation is going to breast cancer services, is it reaching the people most in need, in the most effective way? The Breast Cancer Site store, for example, donates money to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, which helps pay for mammograms for women who cannot afford them. But mammograms are already covered for low-income women through the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Program. Although this screening program does have limitations, what is most needed is the funding to get low-income women treatment if breast cancer is found. Learn more about this issue.

What is the company doing to assure that its products are not actually contributing to the breast cancer epidemic?
Many companies that raise funds for breast cancer also make products that are linked to the disease. BCA calls these companies "pinkwashers." BMW, for example, gives $1 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure each time you test-drive one of their cars, even though pollutants found in car exhaust are linked to breast cancer. Many cosmetics companies whose products contain chemicals linked to breast cancer also sell their items for the cause. Pinkwashers would make a much more valuable contribution to women’s lives if they made safer products, instead of wrapping themselves in the pink ribbon.

Contribute to a Cause, Not Cause-Marketers
Some of these answers will be easy to find, some won't be. But you're entitled to know, and the companies marketing these products should provide this information.
You might not always be able to make an informed decision while you’re standing in the store. Make the best choice you can with the information you have. If you have trouble getting answers or if you feel that a promotion is questionable, write to the company responsible, consider buying a different product, and tell your friends about Think Before You Pink.

If you are looking for that particular product anyway, and like it in the pink color, then by all means, buy it. But if you are thinking about getting it just because they claim to help with breast cancer organizations, then do some research first.

And, if you see me in a store, and I am looking crabby, please understand what seeing that pink everywhere does to me. It makes me think about something I don't want to think about 24/7. So maybe a distraction would be good.

**Thanks Mom for the graphic at the top of the post**