ICE

Have you seen those “Deer Crossing” signs? Some are accompanied by “next 1.5 miles” or “2 miles” or some other number. I’ve always wondered how they determined those numbers. I mean, did they discuss it with the deer? Do they know they can’t go 1.7 miles—that they have to stay within 1.5 miles? What happens when they do go outside the boundary? And you know they’re going to do it, they’re going to push those limits and see how far they can go.

Or how about those automated phone systems? They want you to enter your account number, date of birth, phone number, age of your firstborn, number of pets, etc. Then when you finally get a real person on the phone, you have to repeat all that information.

Can anyone tell me why it is that your car, which has been making funny noises for days, purrs like a kitten when you take it to a mechanic?

This one has always boggled my mind: Why is it that every time you BEG the receptionist to squeeze your ill child into the overfull schedule during flu season, your child no longer has a fever when you get to see the doctor?

But, that’s not why I wrote. If any of you are still paying attention out there, check out the March 17^th edition of First magazine. You’ll see a great pic of someone we all know and love. Then you’ll also understand the title of today’s blog—and be sure to spread the word.

Flo

Their Version vs. My Version

I have some news you might find helpful, but first, a little swipe at housecleaning.

I hope all your holidays were joyful and I wish you a new year full of blessings. KSA and I had the pleasure of ringing in 2008 with Holly and Johnny—great to see them again, as always—and the phabulous Phlegm. She is a delight, has the most beautiful eyes, and I am looking forward to spending more time with her in the future. If you all could be so lucky!

Georgia’s service was very nice, complete with military honors. She was a special lady, and I thank you for your comments.

Now then. I received this email a while back:

Housework

Household chores can be a pain in the sacroiliac. Unless you’re careful, routine activities around the home – washing dishes, vacuuming, even talking on the phone – can strain your back, including the sacroiliac area near the tailbone, and result in debilitating discomfort.

But you can protect your back by knowing the right way to go about such activities, according to the American Chiropractic Association (ACA).

Consider lifting. It doesn’t matter whether you’re picking up your child or a heavy bucket of water; you need to do it the proper way to avoid injury.

How? Bend from the knees, not the waist. As you lift, hold the item as close to your body as possible. If you have to turn to place it, step in the direction of the turn. That way, you’re not twisting your body and straining your spine.

Back-Saving Tips

The ACA suggests the following do’s and don’ts for chores and relaxation:

- When you wash dishes, open the cabinet beneath the sink, bend one knee and put your foot on the shelf under the sink. Lean against the counter so some of your weight is supported in front.

- When ironing, raise one foot a bit. Place it on a small stool or a book to take some strain off your back.

- To vacuum, use a “fencer’s stance.” Put all your weight on one foot, then step forward and back with the other foot as you push the vacuum forward and back. Use the back foot as a pivot when you turn.

- While talking on the phone, don’t cradle the phone between your ear and shoulder. That can lock up the spinal joints in the neck and upper back, and cause pain, instead, hold the phone with your hand or use the speakerphone.

- While watching television or relaxing, don’t use the sofa arm as a pillow. The angle is much too sharp for your neck.

- Use a cold pack if your back begins to hurt. Wrap an ice pack in a towel moistened with warm water. The warmth gives way to gradual cold, which likely will alleviate the discomfort. (“No ice? Try frozen veggies instead.)

- If pain persists for more than a day or two or if you experience numbness, tingling or weakness in your arms or legs, see a doctor of chiropractic.

Dr. Baker can help…

Although minor aches and pains can come and go, there are a few things to look for that may indicate a more serious problem. If you or a loved one experiences any of the following, please contact our office.

- pain that radiates into your arms or legs

- numbness or tingling

- stiffness lasting three or more days

- restricted motion in neck, back or any joint

- swelling in a joint

- repetitive pain

- nausea, dizziness, or headaches

- symptoms that affect your overall feeling of well being

Remember to Try Chiropractic and Acupuncture First!

That seemed a little wordy to me. I like my version MUCH better:

Housework

Household chores can be a pain in the sacroiliac. Unless you’re careful, routine activities around the home – washing dishes, vacuuming, even talking on the phone – can strain your back, including the sacroiliac area near the tailbone, and result in debilitating discomfort.

But you CAN protect your back—by just not doing housework.

See how simple that was?

Flo

Georgia On My Mind

I met Georgia in 1980 at Officer Candidate School. You can imagine the number of memories packed into almost 28 years of friendship. Besides OCS, we shared an apartment together for a while, vacationed in Hawaii, and were bridesmaids in eachother's wedding - one week apart, 21 years ago.

Georgia gave me one of her first guitars and put together a songbook just for me. She showed me a few basic chords and how to play them, and off I went. That guitar was my stress-reliever through OCS and nursing school. Now it's something that MFD and I share.

Georgia battled ovarian cancer for over a decade and she died Saturday. She was only 49. Georgia has been an inspiration to me, and I'm sure many others, as she went through surgery and chemo. She was realistic - she knew she would die from this cancer - but she was always laughing and joking and bringing smiles to faces.

Her main goal was to live to see her daughter's high school graduation. She not only attended, she was the guest speaker. That was a year and a half ago.

I haven't seen her in quite a while, and the last time I spoke with her was only for a few minutes. Of course she's been in pain for quite some time, and it's all been wearing her down. She's been tired and ready for a long while, but she kept going the best she could as long as she could.

I'm very greatful for the friendship we shared and I will miss that. But she left a lot of memories and examples that I will never forget.

Thanks for the memories, Georgia, and rest in peace.

Love and hugs,
Flo

P.S. KSA and I are having a fabulous time with HollyB and JPG, and I get to meet Phlegm this evening, so I promise to post something happy soon!

Look Out...

…Flo is pissed.

Here I am, minding my own business, following up on treatment for breast cancer, cleaning the house and cooking for all the relatives that came to visit for Thanksgiving, trying to find the energy to shop and decorate for Christmas, figuring out what to do about Christmas cards, when out of the blue, in response to this post (be sure to notice the date), I receive this:

“Flo,

That quote, ‘somewhere a true believer is training to kill you’ can be found here:

’Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what workout to do - his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home.

He knows only The Cause.

Still want to quit?’

NousDefionsDoc
www.professionalsoldiers.com

Flo, you don't want to plagiarize someone elses work now do you?

JD
Adminstrator
ProfessionalSoldiers.com

Posted by JD to Flying Flo's Forum at 24 November, 2007 08:55”

Again, notice the date.

I have a few things to say before I answer the question.

First, get a life, JD. Life is precious, and instead of searching the web for possible True Believer plagiarisms, you ought to spend some of that time with family and friends. If I were one of them, I wouldn’t care much for your priorities if you were out making questionable comments on nearly 11-month-old blogs, instead of sitting around killing time with me.

Second, are you proud to be defending the PS website in such a way that you totally detract from the essence of a post? Did you even read the damn post? My sole purpose in writing that particular post was to pay homage to members of our military that were out risking their lives to defend our freedoms and lives back home. As a former soldier, it disgusts me that you’re more concerned about proper credit being given to a quote, than about the welfare of our military. I don’t supposed it occurred to you to say something to the effect of, “Thanks for remembering the troops, Flo! BTW, that info about the True Believer is from a quote that can be found at PS.com.”

Maybe I’d be thanking you for pointing that out, instead of calling you a moron.

Third, what does an “adminstrator” do? Oh, was that a typo? Hm, perhaps you should use a spell checker. And a grammar checker.

Fourth, yes, I do happen to know that quote can be found at the PS website. I know that because you also stirred up the SOS at my friend’s blog. Eleven months ago. After she copied that particular post to her blog and said she had gotten it from my site. Eleven months ago. A little slow, aren’t you? I also know I found several other references claiming credit for that quote, which I believe included some high mucky-muck at some elite soldier course graduation. Just because that particular quote is located on your site doesn’t mean a thing to me. As much of a stink as you’re raising, show some proof. But not to me—I don’t give a rat’s ass.

Fifth, in answer to your question: No, I don’t want to plagiarize. It’s a good thing I didn’t, or I might have to apologize. According to dictionary.com, plagiarism means “1.) the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work, or 2.) something used and represented in this manner.” (plagiarism. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved November 24, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plagiarism).

I NEVER EVEN ATTEMPTED TO CLAIM ANY OF THAT WORK AS MY OWN.

So fuck you and the horse you rode in on. (Oh dear, I hope that’s not plagiarized.)

Now, as opposed to wasting time like you do, ranting about this has actually been very beneficial for me. Because I feel EVER so much better now.

Flo

Thank You!

You all are just the best! Thank you so much for the support, and know that your prayers are working.

It’s Holly and Lainy’s fault I haven’t written. Holly was here last week, and Lainy got here today. But don’t give them too hard a time, I’ve had/am having a blast and it’s keeping me out of trouble. Well, major, bail me out of jail kind of trouble anyway.

Surgery is tomorrow, we’re keeping it simple. She’ll take a little more tissue from the area she took the tumor, then check lymph nodes. If they’re clear, she’ll insert a temporary catheter into the tumor cavity. The MRI results were fine, so as long as the final pathology report is good, there’s no fluid around the catheter, and there’s enough clearance between the catheter and the skin, I will be doing the short form of radiation. It’s called mammosite therapy, and twice a day for five days they will insert a seed through the catheter, radiate me, then take it back out. I’ll go for the final evaluations next week, then hopefully start the treatment the week after.

I was going to tell you about all the fun stuff I’ve been doing, but the mind sort of just went blank. Imagine that. So I’ll leave it to Holly to fill you in. I do know that she probably needed a couple of days sleep to recuperate from all the running around we did.

I’ll get back as soon as I can. Maybe I can get Holly to post a note about how surgery went, so check at her place. (Is that ok Holly? Can you do that for me? Can ya, please? Huh? Ok?)

Thanks again, y’all just give me goosebumps!

Flo

Rant and Pray

Ok, well, we never went out of town. Here’s the deal:

I received a call and the day we were supposed to leave I had to go in to see the surgeon about the pathology report on the lump that was removed from my breast. It is ductal type cancer, however, it is very small (0.6 cm) and Stage 1. The tumor profile came back the next day and the nurse said it was “favorable,” but I don’t know the specifics of that yet. I had a special MRI Friday afternoon and am waiting for the results.

Right now, I basically have three options; all involve further surgery. Option 1 is clean out a little more around the area the tumor came from. The margins of the tumor were clear; this is just extra precaution to make sure they got it all. Then they’ll check the lymph nodes while I’m in surgery and take some out if necessary. Afterwards, I will have to have some type of radiation therapy.

Option 2 is a mastectomy; option 3 would involve simultaneous reconstruction. I will probably not require radiation with either of those.

We don’t know about chemotherapy yet. I imagine that will depend on what the profile results mean, and if the MRI shows any more tumors.

I know things will turn out fine. It took a couple of days for the shaking inside to go away, and I think that mainly came from the word. Cancer, no matter how favorable the prognosis, is a gut-clenching, kick-in-the-teeth word. Especially if you’re not expecting it, which I wasn’t. I think even my doctor was caught by surprise.

Supposedly, a mammogram can detect tumors that can’t be felt. This one could be felt, but didn’t show up on the mammogram. My PCP also requested an ultrasound of the lump. Nothing there. When I saw the surgeon, she said of course it felt abnormal, but it didn’t feel like a tumor. Even when she took it out, she didn’t think it felt cancerous.

How in the hell can something that’s there, especially something that’s now obviously abnormally there, not be there on the films?

Anyway, as I said, I know it will be ok. However, there are already some changes in my priorities, and the time I spend on the computer is one of them. Right now I’m doing well to keep up with my email.

To my daily and regular readers, I’m sorry I’m going to become scarce and unpredictable, but I want to thank all of you that have taken the time to visit. I told MFSG that there were about a bazillion people praying for me (and she responded that she made it a bazillion and one), including a priest and an entire convent of nuns, and this simple gesture of love from my family and friends brings tears of gratitude to my eyes. Because of the blog world, I’ve added a few more to my family, and you have brought me laughter and joy with your visits and comments and your own blogs.

May God bless each of you. You’re all special people, and I hope to continue seeing you around here and there.

HOWEVER…

(What? You thought I would leave on a mushy note? Not hardly! It’s time for the rant part.)

KSA and I did get out for a couple of days last weekend. One of the things we did was go see Jodie Foster’s new movie “The Brave One.” If you haven’t seen it, and you want to see it, stop reading right here.

I like Jodie Foster, I think she’s a very good actress, but I expected better of her. This movie pissed me off. I was ready to leave after her third violent encounter. But I told myself: “I know she’s usually the good guy, but surely she isn’t portraying a person who is glorified for purposely, knowingly, going-out-of-her-way calculatingly, to find and off the bad guys.”

She is. And she even ends up with the police detective on her side. I was disgusted.

Sure, she was killing bad guys. The first couple were even understandable. A guy comes in a convenience store and shoots his ex, then comes looking for her when her phone starts ringing. I’m thinking justifiable, even though her gun wasn’t registered. So why didn’t she call 9-1-1 instead of sneaking off?

A dude is holding a knife to her throat on the subway, she blows him away. Sure, I would, too. I’m not sure about his buddy, though. I don’t remember how fast it happened. And again, she runs away. But when she walks up to the creepy guy in the car after he calls to her, oh yeah, she’s lookin’ for trouble.

The humor at the end also just set me off. Then, wah-lah, she’s a heroine.

She might have even been “The Brave One” if she hadn’t taken matters into her own hands.

Flo

I'm Leavin' On a Jet Plane

I do know when I’ll be back again, but I’m not gonna tell you, otherwise you’ll either start worrying about or yelling at me cuz I haven’t posted in ages.

And before you start hollerin’, Lainy, I already got my excuses all lined up for why I won’t be posting while I’m gone. Unlike Holly, who drove, I am flying. Our hosts are picking us up and driving us around, so I don’t have personal transportation to go to the library. And it’s not like I’m going to visit my brother, either. It’s a guy KSA worked with that retired, so it wouldn’t be very polite of me to help myself to his computer. If he even has one. With his view of the mountains, I sure as heck wouldn’t!

We’re headed toward Minden, NV and some kind of air races. Evidently I’ll be allowed to attend one day, whereas the men folk will be going twice. I think I might be flying in a glider, too, and I’m hoping I don’t puke. I heard mention of Napa Valley, but I’m not sure. Isn’t that in California? I hope I don’t need my passport, I’m not even sure it’s current.

Y’all be good while I’m gone, cuz I ain’t comin’ back to bail you out of jail.

Flo

P.S. I see MFSG has visited some. Everybody wave and tell her hi!

Talk Around the Water Cooler

There are a couple of women leaning against either side of the door jamb, just inside the kitchen. This poor dude walks up to the two on his way into the kitchen, and asks one of the women if she needs to stay on the rosary list.

Woman 1: Yes, please, I’d really appreciate it.
Woman 2: So when are you having it done?
Woman 1: Tomorrow.
Woman 2: You know, I still have like a dent where I had it done several years ago.
Woman 1: Really? Was it a needle biopsy or did they take it completely out?
Woman 2: Just a needle biopsy—I don’t have that much there to begin with.
Woman 1: I know exactly what you mean!
Woman 2: You know, one side is bigger than the other.
Woman 1: I know, and they’re taking it out of the one that’s smaller to begin with!
Poor Dude: Excuse me ladies, you’re getting a little technical on me here. I think I’ll just slide on by you and grab me some fruit and crackers.

+++++++++++++++++++

So Lovi calls me the day after my biopsy, checking up to see how I was doing. She asked how big the lump was. I said I didn’t know, maybe the size of a pea, maybe less. So she says, “Do ya still have a boob left?”

Don’t ya just love sisters?

Bitch.

Flo

Stadol vs. Versed

This morning, Holly and I were discussing the benefits of Versed. I think she’s even written a blog about it, IIRC. Yesterday, I had, I think, my first experience with it.

See, I went to see the breast surgeon Tuesday. She’s pretty confident it’s nothing to be concerned about, but we decided to take the lump out for peace of mind. KSA and I are going out of town next week, and the only time the surgeon had open before then was Wednesday.

So off I go for outpatient surgery yesterday. They gave me what I think they called “anesthesia with sedation,” and one of the drugs they used was Versed. It was good, I was nicely sedated. They said I’d go to sleep nice and wake up nice. I don’t know how nice I was, but I did wake up easily, surprised it was all over. And I was tired the rest of the day, but not groggy.

So yes, I have to say that the Versed did relax me. However, Stadol made me feel Oh So Good.

I had Stadol when I was in labor with both of the kids. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to experience its effects with MFS, but I was laying on my back, looking up at KSA, and his eyes were suddenly SO blue. They were about the purtiest blue eyes I ever did see!

Well, it was a whole different story with MFD. (Of course, what else would you expect?) I’m sitting up in bed, they’re pushing the Stadol as I’m having a contraction. I’m starting to feel really good, floating along, and suddenly, I’m feeling so good I’m laughing. Practically hysterically. I couldn’t stop.

In the mean time, MFS is sitting on my mom’s lap, looking at me, and says, “Not funny, Mommy. NOT funny, Mommy!”

KSA’s eyes didn’t turn as blue that time, though. Then again, the back of her head was pressing on my back, so instead of looking at his eyes, I was yelling at him to “get her out of there!”

I still do think I prefer my Stadol.

Flo

Thank You

When it’s more than just Lainy checking up on me, I know I have been horribly remiss in posting. I’m so lucky to have the family and friends that I do, including my blog family. It really brings tears to my eyes when I think of your concern.

Thanks for asking about me, I’m sorry to have worried you and I’ll try not to do it again.

Flo