Wouldn't we all be better off without this person?

[Colleens_Husband]

During the ancient days of the Athenian democracy, the Senate, in an effort to run smoothly, had a policy of voting one person each year to be banished from Athens. The person being banished was chosen based on how obnoxious, over-bearing, or long winded they were. Since anyone could be voted out, most Athenians tried to conduct themselves in a civil and cordial manner.

With that in mind, I would like to open up nominations for someone to be banished from society for one entire year. Feel free to make your nominations as well.

My nomination is a couple of thirty somethings who were standing in front of me on Friday evening at the Oregon City Hagens Grocery Store. As this couple were getting their groceries scanned, they saw a woman walk up to the Starbucks counter for some coffee (well, it was probably a skinny vente' frappucino with sprinkles, I'm not even sure if Starbucks even sells just plain coffee) who had extremely short hair. She was about forty, had a cute figure and a pretty face.

The lady said, "Ewww gross!" I can't imagine why any woman would choose a disgusting hairstyle like that!"

The husband said "She looks butch like a dyke or something."

The lady says, "Why in the world would anyone do that to their heads?"

The cashier, who is a friend of mine looks at me and shakes her head, mouthing "Just let it go, Lee".

And upon retrospect, maybe I should have just let it go. I recognized the hairstyle as the "I just got done with chemo and it is a hot day hairdo."

I was going to say, "Have you considered that the poor lady who is the object of your derision has a valid medical reason for her coiffure choice?" I must have misspoken because what came out of my mouth was something like, "You obnoxious jackasses! The lady has obviously had chemotherapy and is growing her hair out. She didn't choose that hairstyle, she chose life instead of death. Cancer is hard enough to survive without some judgmental morons criticizing her. Even so, I hope you two never have to face the ignorant condescension of inconsiderate louts, such as yourselves, because NOBODY deserves cancer. If her fashion sense makes you uncomfortable, then don't go out into public places, because one in eight women will get breast cancer and one in seven men will get prostate cancer. If you think her hairstyle is troublesome, I think her courage and spirit are commendable. Instead of heaping scorn on this woman, who has already been through so much more than your shallow lives can contemplate, why don't you go talk to her and learn a thing about integrity and bravery!"

They quietly paid for their groceries and left the store and the lady got her espresso.

I was still pretty angry at these people when I got in my car to leave, but I thought that life is too short and precious to waste being angry. That is something that my wife's cancer has taught me.

Anyways, what can you do about these type of people? Nothing really, but maybe I can nominate them for some sort of Hall of Shame. Thats what I'm doing now. And you know what? I feel just a litle bit better about everything.

Have a good day, you deserve it,

Lee

[Faith in Him]

Thanks, Lee. I have had people stare at me too. I learned quickly to hold my head up high anyway.

[lilyecuadorian]

yes for me too ....but I 'm sure that going out bold or with extremely short hair is the better way to awareness ...plus if other doesn't like to see that ..is kind like "we are all sharing our pain ...me having the short hair style and you watching ..."

[hutchibk]

Lee - you are my new hero! Isn't it funny how what we mean to say and what comes spewing out of our mouths is sometimes two entirely different things??? I have learned to love what spews forth! And I only wish I had the quick brain/quick tongue to put together a tirade like yours! Hopefully those jackasses are still sitting at home with their tails between their legs...

[jenniferz]

Your wife is an extremely lucky lady to have such a warrior on her side! It would be nice to think that these two people learned something from what you said, but sadly, I doubt it. They have missed that life lesson somewhere along the way. Once stupid, always stupid.

I think you said what others think. I applaud you!

Jennifer

[StephN]

Lee,
Your took out the arrow and aimed it well! Just like any good Athenian.

You meant to wound them rather than politely educate their naive little minds. Hopefully now they will keep their mean comments to themselves from now on. But, it may have a secondary effect of them telling their "grocery line calling out" story to others who they catch doing the same as they were doing.

You must have had to clam up and take many curious stares as you are accompanying your wife in her various states of hair/hats/scarves.

I recall going to the opera to see La Boheme wearing a scarf in a (hopefully) somewhat fashionable way as I did not want the people behind me to have to peer over or around a hat. I knew the scarf would draw more attention to my baldness, but did not care! I was as well dressed as anyone else as was my hubby. We were just glad to be able to get out to a cultural event.

[Bill]

Way to go, Lee! But, next time, don't sugar-coat it, tell us how you really feel!

[dhealey]

I applaud you Lee. Last year during my chemo phase I sometimes chose to go out bald ( I hated wearing a wig) I got so many stares I sometimes wanted to put on a sign that said " yes, all you morons I have cancer, this is what we look like." I still deal with the stares and comments from others as I had bilateral mastectomies and did not chose reconstruction. I wear my flat chest as a badge of honor for having survived 14 months of grueling treatments!

[swimangel72]

Lee - this reminds me of a time, many many years ago, when my girlfriend and I were about 20 years old and standing in line at a fast food place. My girlfriend laughed and pointed to a little girl who's hair was long to her shoulders, but only in bits and pieces - she was obviously going slowly bald. Back then, in the haughtiness of good health, youth and ignorance I was STILL shocked that my gf didn't recognize the signs of chemo, so I told her that didn't she ever consider the fact that this poor child was obviously getting chemo treatments? My gf's eyes and mouth opened wide with embarassment. Fortunately the child didn't hear her ignorant comment. Why people are programmed to be so quick with criticisms of anyone different from themselves is a mystery to me - must be some kind of weird "survival-of-the-fittest" gene or something of that nature, because even good-hearted people (like my girlfriend) say the most negative things. So.....education is the answer.....unfortunately compassion isn't taught in too many schools.

[Becky]

I can't remember what visit it was with my rads oncologist (who I still see). I think it was either the last day of rads or the visit that is one month after rads are over. My rads onc is very short for a man (maybe 5'4" or so) but his wife is shorter than him. She is okay looking but certainly not even pretty (but also a doctor).

Anyway, I went to the appointment and wasn't wearing my wig. My hair was very, very short and quite gray. I really don't believe the rad onc had ever seen me that way because I always came to rads flying into the room straight from work (that was a one hr drive away).

So, he was alittle shocked - my wig is much like how I wear my hair so it was longer and brown - now shockingly short and gray (to a point where I was still wearing a wig). He said, "Are you not wearing anything now?" I told him I was because I didn't want people at work to connotate me with being ill. He said, that thank goodness his wife wasn't around because she likes to make fun of people who look or dress funny (with a chuckle).

Why do I still see this man? I told him its very sad that he has to be married to such an overbearing and insensitive woman. (Knowing she was no great beauty and that she is a doctor who never sees patients (radiology)) - I added in that it must be nice to be beautiful and perfect and well loved by everybody. It must be nice to be married to someone like that.

For some reason, we kind of clicked on a certain level AND I like to see him because he knows that I know that not only is his wife a jerk but I know that he is too since his initial reaction to her behavior was endearing. Maybe he was ribbed one too many times for being short but I don't care. When I see him, I always ask how his wife is doing.

Some people were not born nor raised with manners and its that simple. After cancer, I feel it is my duty to let folks know how I feel.

Good for you Lee!

[Mary Jo]

Hi Lee,

I don't have anyone to nominate, although I'm sure if I thought long and hard enough I could come up with someone.

The reason for my post is to HIGH 5 you. I loved your post so much that I made my husband pause the DVR so I could read it out loud to him. He loved it too and said "good for him!!!"

Good for you Lee. You gave it to them with both barrels and they deserved it NO DOUBT. They have learned something also because of you. Hopefully they will never, ever look at someone again and judge them. Hopefully your words will always reverberate in their hearts and minds and they will feel shame for what they did.

Once again - HIGH 5's to you Lee..........and I'm sorry you had to witness such a "jackass" display of ignorance BUT I'm confident you taught these people what real men are like. And you are that real man.

Love to you and Colleen,

Mary Jo

[Leslie's sister]

I'm reading this thread and realizing that there are just plain dumb people out there.

Anyway, here is another idiot comment/question posed to my sister

My sister's hairdresser asked my sister after her very recent double mastectomy, "So what is it like to not have any nipples?"

How would one answer such a question?????????????

Besides the obvious, "So what is it like to not have a brain."

[hutchibk]

I like this response that I learned at the Day of Caring last week in Denver - during the Fear of Recurrence meeting:

moronic statement to cancer patient: "Wow, you must have done something really bad to make God mad at you..."

appropriate answer: "Well, if that's the case, then I sure hate to see what he has in store for you!"

[Bill]

Good one, Hucklebuck. Alot of people are so thoughtless in what they say. I'm guilty of that too.

[Sheila]

The best thing I've done was get a port...although not the most attractive accessory on my chest/neck area...I've gotten a few stares and eeewwwssss..like I've swallowed a grape or something...I always tell them "I Love it!!! Its the most expensive jewelry I will ever wear around my neck!" They don't know what to say.

[PinkGirl]

There is a joke that I like. I don't think it is appropriate for the newly dx. or those who have recently had
mastectomies, but me and my sick sense of humour rolled on the floor
when I heard it, and I was newly dx.

The story about the hairdresser asking about what
it's like to not have any nipples reminded me of it.
(I can't imagine someone ever asking that question!!!)

So, here's the joke.

What is one of the advantages of not having any
breasts????

No one knows when you're cold.

Get it???? You know how we worry about our nipples sticking
out when we shiver????

Anyhow, I must have heard it at a good time for me because
I laughed til I cried.

[Leslie's sister]

Pink Yeah, I get it. It is good to laugh about all of this.

Would have been a good response to the stupid hairdresser too. Though it lets her off too easy.

Had I been there with SIH (stupid, insensitive hairdresser), I most certainly would have said the "What is it like to not have a brain" comment. Rude, OVERLY insensitive comments irk me.

Keep laughing,

Lisa

[hutchibk]

That's a good one Lisa! You know, you really can't fix stupid.

[fauxgypsy]

I went to the dentist with my daughter during my no hair days. I was wearing a pink baseball cap and I felt awful. A mother and grown daughter sat over on the other side of the room and stared and whispered. I still wish that I had gone over there and told them that my lack of hair was a temporary condition but rude was forever. You go, Lee.

[BethC]

Lee, that might have been me with the goofy hair, so thank you!

I had an experience kind of like yours recently. My family and I are going to Disney World next week and we can't wait. Yesterday, a couple of ladies at PTO asked how long we would be gone and I told them 10 days. They both said "Wow, who gets to go to Disney World for that long" and continued with comments like that. Finally, after the third comment by them, I said "People who have had breast cancer in the past year." I didn't mean to be harsh but they were being so insensitive and clueless I couldn't stand it anymore. Sometimes people need a reality check.

[chrisy]

People are just ignorant. Not necessarily mean-spirited (although sometimes they ARE that), just ignorant and they say stupid things.

It's tough with strangers because so often, as in some of the more appalling examples above, they say dumb things and they don't even think about the canser thing...unless someone "calls them" on it. I think once they are, even if we do it in a gentle way or a funny way, most people are mortified and probably punish themselves for much longer than we even would! In my experience, it's even MORE effective to slap them down nicely because then they have the added guilt of having offended such a nice person (who also happens to have cancer!)

I keep these comments, and people, on my imaginary "wall of shame". Some of them I can actually laugh about (later) because they are SO stupid!

[Colleens_Husband]

And now for something completely different.

I know, piling on Kim Jong Il is just too easy and a waste of my unique talents, but this is just beyond the scope of weirdness. As a review, Kim Jong Il, the supreme leader of North Korea, has the world's largest Daffy Duck memorabilia collection and the world's largest pornography collection. I can only hope that they are mutually exclusive. Furthermore, Kim Jong Il believes he is a direct descendant of Darth Vader. Yes, that is Darth Vader from the Star Wars fame. I don't think that is possible, if you look at the light saber scene from Star Wars III, didn't Anakin lose his ......... errrr, naughty bits in the fight with Obi-Wan? Use stop motion on the DVD and I think you will see flying off to the upper right hand side of the screen ........ anyways, I digress. So he is a bit whacked.

If he was only whacked, you could only almost forgive him. Who doesn't have a peculiarity or two? But he is evil as well. He once had someone shot for failing to address him as "The beloved and benevolent father of all the Korean people."

"Geeze Mom, I'll miss you but if I make the exception for you than I'll have to make the exception for everyone.

Yes, this is the guy who is spending billions of dollars on a nuclear weapons program while his people are starving, but that isn't even the strangest thing.

Kim Jong Il said he isn't going to join multilateral talks on nuclear disarmament until the United States stops printing money that is so hard to counterfeit. One of the few things in North Korea which is still economically feasible to pursue is counterfeiting. Counterfeiting is believed to be North Korea's largest source of foreign capital. There are only a few currencies left in the world which are worth counterfeiting and only one currency, United States, which is so widespread that counterfeiting isn't tremendously obvious. So the new currency with security threads, watermarks, microprinting, ultraviolet inks, and laser etched holographs puts a serious bind on North Korea's most profitable industry. I am getting all misty eyed thinking about how American currency is creating such a hardship on the regime of Darth Vader Jr.

I'm thinking that if Kim Jong Il wants to do something special for the people of North Korea, then he could dive off his platform shoes into the deep end of a dry swimming pool and put himself out of the misery of the North Korean people.

[chrisy]

Lee, you've made a pretty strong case. I agree, we could do without him.

[Bill]

I also wish he was out of power. I'm probably one of the few people that you will meet these days that was in support of invading Iraq, and I still am. I wanted that b*****d Saddam out of there. He was a threat to us and an evil Hitler-like creature to his own people, much like Kim Jong Il. I'm glad he's no longer in power.

[Colleens_Husband]

Bill:

As if I needed to say this, but I wanted Saddam Hussein out of power too. Weird isn't it. I got a contract to map mass graves in Iraq based on radar imagery. What was discovered is so horrific that it can't be described here. It made tough hardened soldiers cry. Saddam needed to go.

Lee

[hutchibk]

I am fully in agreeance with you Lee-Bill about Sodomy Insane and Ding Dong Il. I support(ed) the invasion as well. So what are we going to do about Uckmadinnajihad?

[Colleens_Husband]

Sorry for dredging this thread out of the morgue, but when I see someone doing something evil, I don't just sit around. I make snarky comments about them. So there!

Today's candidate to be banished from this planet is Christina Erteszek who was selling special bras which are supposed to promote breast health and according to her web site, prevent breast cancer. The bra has dozens of lumpy things all over it and it is supposed to massage the breast and provide better lymphatic circulation. The bras sell for $71 dollars and are called The Brassage. I know, I thought I should put Ms. Erteszek's head into a toaster as soon as I heard the name. Anyways, several breast health experts including Dr. Susan Love, said the bras were useless and they were also exploitive in that they played on women's fears and may actually provide a false sense of security. No medical doctor could be found that would suggest that the Brassage had any effect whatsoever. So, for trying to make a buck off of the misery of women with breast cancer, I nominate Christina Erteszek for the hand grenade eating contest.

Oh yeah, the brassage makes it look like the wearer is smuggling marshmallows. I'm just saying.............

[StephN]

Hey Lee! Good call.
Here is a video clip - the woman was not up to fielding the reporter's questions and walked out on the interview.

http://living.aol.com/morning-rush/the-brassage-good-morning-america/17988531001?icid=main|htmlws-main|dl

Anyway - sounds like "snake oil" to me.

[Colleens_Husband]

Just one final thought on the brassage and then I'll let this thread fade into obscurity where it belongs.

If massage could in any way prevent breast cancer, then Colleen should be curing people like the Lady of Guadeloupe. I'm just saying that I did my part for cancer prevention. I did it for science.

[Believe51]

Hahaha.....Lee, you are killing me with these posts. I am actually getting looks as I laugh outloud over here. Now how do I explain that?? Or do I??>>Believe51

[tricia keegan]

I'd like to nominate my surgeon, or ex surgeon as he is now!

Some time after my surgery I had begun asking questions and wanting to understand more about this disease and the type I had.
We don't as routine in Ireland get a copy of our path report (although I did request it and was given it by my onc ) so one day at a check up I began asking him (my surgeon) questions. he answered the first one or two which were fairly harmless but when I questioned further he completly shut me out by saying and I quote, " I think thats all you need to know for now"......gulp!!!
Hence he's now my ex surgeon, he was the best in the country at his job and a complete gentleman but what a let down in the info catgegory:(
I think a year of being banished may help him contemplate his error's. :)

[vickie h]

Bumping this up.....Very good, Lee!

[Colleens_Husband]

You know. If the world wasn't filled with a bunch of scumbags, there would be no need for this thread, but...........

Colleen went to a Relay for the Cure event in our town yesterday. There were several vendors that were, for the most part, offering volunteer services. There were booths which gave the various hospitals and the state government opportunities to let cancer victims and their families know about counseling services. There was a booth for Locks of Love. There were booths from some local businesses which were offering free trinkets, most of the booths manned by cancer survivors. There were a few booths selling food at a reduced cost for the day long event. You know. A bunch of people who pitched in and were trying to do a good deed. It was an event that the organizers could take a lot of pride in.

There was however one booth which had a semi-deranged pitchwoman giving away water which had some ridiculous health claims. The water was supposed to be slightly alkaline. You see, supposedly disease, and we all know that cancer is a disease, cannot survive in an alkaline environment. Since normal water is slightly acidic, then it actually could promote disease, including cancer. Of course she mentioned the liver, kidneys, and the spleen, so naturally, one had to assume that she knew what she was talking about. After all, who in the world even knows what the spleen does?

I listened to the pitch politely for a while until I saw that a few gullible souls were starting to get sucked in by the pitch so I decided that I should, in good conscience, turn on a lights so that this cockroach would climb back into the dark where she belonged.

"Excuse me, did you say water is slightly acidic?" I asked.

"Why yes it is" answered the cockroach.

"So why did chemists set a neutral pH value of 7.00 to the acidity of pure water?"

"Well, pure water is pH neutral, but what about all the additives they add to the water?"

"Reading the latest water board report, only pH neutral additives can be added to water as a matter of state and federal law. Just one more question. Can drinking water which is slightly alkaline change the alkalinity of your body?" I asked.

"It only makes sense that if you add alkaline into your body through drinking water that your body alkalinity will increase." proudly proclaimed the cockroach.

"Really? I thought body acidity is a fairly complex system which is regulated by thirst, kidney, and liver function, and by trying to force the body to be more alkaline or acidic will only make the internal organs work harder to try to maintain a normal pH level."

The cockroach began to get pretty peeved at me at this point. She asked if I even cared about the cancer survivors and those individuals who were fighting cancer.

"So you are making the implication that this water can fight cancer?"

"Yes, it can. It fights all diseases," said the cockroach.

"What complete dummies we all are. We inhumanely watch our loved ones go through horrific operations, radiation, and chemotherapy treatments when we could just be slurping down over-priced water instead. Why in the name of God aren't the doctors tuned into this miracle cure?"

"It's all about profit and big pharmacology!" she said.

So there you have it, the big conspiracy theory. You all went through so much grief instead of just drinking alkaline water because it is all a plot to make money. Never mind that our HMO is a non-profit organization. They are in on it too for some strange reason.

Colleen went back and got a bottle of the alkaline water. I tested it with a pH test kit we had laying around the house and the alkaline water had a pH of 7.00, the same as our tap water. Nice.

So is it wrong of me to wish that the cockroach goes on a fishing trip and gets a salmon treble hook snagged in her lip? Is it wrong of me to dream about the cockroach riding a motorcycle under a low strung piano wire, and thwippppp!!, her head comes off.

The thing that worries me the most is that someone will eventually believe the cockroach and think they are invulnerable to cancer and stop doing PAP smears or Mammograms. Maybe someone will have cancer and choose to drink this supposedly alkaline water instead of getting medical help which could save their lives.

[Believe51]

Oh Dear Friend, as I feel your frustration I also smile, as the terminology you exhibit expressing this story is so true. Yes, the cockroaches are out there in droves and I guess I am not the only person they bug!>>Believe51

[Colleens_Husband]

Britney Spears may be pregnant again. Need I say anything more. If that isn't evidence that another Biblical Flood needs to be ordered, I don't know what would be.

If I wasn't such a solid web community citizen, I would mention that one's uterus is not a clown car, but I will show restraint and not mention it.

There is no need to thank me for my show of restraint.

[Westcoastgirl]

Thank you for speaking out. My hair is just short enough now, or should I say long enough that people are not sure if it is a choice or if I had cancer. I am just glad that it is long enough that it looks like a choice and I no longer look like a cancer patient. I would have laughed to hear you speak so bluntly. Hurray for you.

[Bill]

This Tololos a**hole. I'd like to throw him down a well and then hand him down a greased rope.

[PinkGirl]

Don't hold back Bill, tell us how you really feel!

[Colleens_Husband]

Bill said "This Tololos a**hole. I'd like to throw him down a well and then hand him down a greased rope."

Bill, I am shocked you said that on a caring community web site. You completely forgot the part about fire ants along the walls of the well, putting piranhas in the water below with jagged spikes protruding out of the water and laughing hysterically when Tololos fell in. Please strive to be a better web citizen.

I hope this can be a lesson to us all.

[Colleens_Husband]

"I hope you get cancer again"

That quote is from the crazy lady across the street. She said it to Colleen on the Fourth of July.

We were lighting off legal fireworks in front of our house and the crazy lady across the street came home. Usually when she hears fireworks, she comes running out of her house, usually without clothes on, and yells obscene things to the entire neighborhood, so we weren't real pleased to see her car pulling into her driveway.

She really is crazy. Not just sort of crazy but bull-goose, moonbeam, acorn fed boar hog, bat doot, loony toons crazy. She was featured on the O'Reilly Factor on a segment about cities which cannot outlaw public nudity. She has a phobia about plastic and believes she is the only sane person in the world because she is the only person on the planet who doesn't have plastic seeping into her skin, moving up to her brain and telling her what to do.

Anyways, she came home as we were cleaning up the fireworks mess and she made some snarky comment like, "Lighting toxic substances on fire, now that's real intelligent!" Beings how we get this sort of comment on a regular basis, our family answered in unison, "You smoke, don't you?" (She does but she insists that she only smokes healthy organic tobacco.) She went away for a few moments and we thought that was the end of it. She came over to Colleen and says, "I hope you get cancer again!" and off she went.

I am almost never at a loss for words. But I cannot think of an uglier thought than to wish anyone get cancer. I wouldn't wish cancer on my worst enemy. Maybe Kim Jong Il or Bob Ahmedinijad just because the world would be safer place and it would ease personal suffering in their countries, but certainly not anyone else.

And to wish that on Colleen, that is just ludicrous. Colleen is one of the most mild-mannered, even tempered persons I have ever met. I have never met a single person who couldn't get along with Colleen.

So, I do not wish harm on the mentally ill, but comments like that are beyond any bounds of common decency.

Is hoping for a little bit of Karma or cosmic justice wrong of me? Probably, and this poor lady is tormented enough already. But the ugly sentiment behind the comment makes me wish this person would move ....... to some other planet.

[Delaney]

Wow, well done!!!! If that had been me behind them in the queue I would only have thought of a good response way afterwards. You have a talent!!!

[Jackie07]

Not sure where to post what's been happening to me and hubby lately. Thought it might be safe here since Lee has the power to 'banish' people. (not? :)

My husband's first girl friend of 3 - 4 years (from 8th grade through 11th, 1/2 year after his family moved 45 miles away) got hold of us through her sister's interaction with my Brother-in-law on Facebook (I know - isn't Facebook wonderful/powerful/terrible? :) After going through 3 divorces and finally married another old 'classmate' (who had a secret crush on her in high school and they got connected through classmate.com) 6 months ago, she decided to find hubby and tell him why she had broken up with him when they were 17.

Her Mother had 'ordered' her to break up with hubby because she thought they were too 'serious' together. Because her 3rd Brother, who is two years their senior and hubby's best friend - both were on the track team - had gotten his girl friend pregnant before they went to college, her Mother thought she should date other people so she wouldn't get too serious with hubby.

Since hubby was very close to her brother and her late father (a physician and 'the nicest guy I've ever met', according to hubby,) she did not want to tell the truth and hurt hubby's relationship with the two guys.

She and I had e-mailed back and forth for a couple of days before hubby finally dictated a short e-mail telling her it was nobody's fault (Hubby is the rare bred that doesn't use Internet/computer.) It was an emotional event for both of them.

She has also been through treatments for a rare type of cancer and is now in remission. Her first husband (the father of all her three children) had died of a heart attack three years ago at 49.

I was feeling like an accomplished 'volunteer counselor' but was soon scolded by one of my local friends saying that I was 'playing with fire'. It was just impossible to explain it to her. So I thought I would post it here and hopefully get a 'pat on the shoulder' from Lee. :)

I'm thinking about becoming a licensed counselor as well. It seems that as soon as a 'stranger' learns about what I've been through, he/she automatically respects my opinion. Not? :)

Oh, yes, the topic was about 'banishing' someone. I was just trying to present a case about the deep psychological effect on people who'd either banished or been banished. For those of you who have 'teens' at home, please seek counseling before you 'make' your daughter/son break up with their girl/boy friend. It could probably cut down the divorce rate in this country.

Certainly it could have gone the other way and made hubby her first 'ex'. I probably do have her to thank for leaving me a wonderful man like hubby. God works mysterious ways.

Having cancer and/or having 2nd chance after remission affects most of us deeply. All of our life events rush back to us when we are faced with a serious illness. Whether or not we will triumph in the situation depends on a lot of factors. I'm just really grateful to Joe, Christine, and all my wonderful Her2support brothers and sisters. Your support not only has helped me conquer cancer, it has enabled me to conquer life.

Thank you.