Dr. Susan Love

I have deleted my account as an Army of Women volunteer due to the stand Dr. Susan Love takes on the governmental task force on mammography. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in my 40's, and without years of comparison films, my tumor would not have been found as early. I feel that women's health has now been weighed by the government, and a certain percentage of the population will now be considered "expendable". More women will die and/or have additional long term health problems due to cancers being found later in more advanced stages, and the recommended treatment being necessarily more aggressive. How much is a human life worth? Certainly to those of us who have had cancer, we would like to see our survival valued by the providers of health care in this country. I am so disappointed in Dr. Love's stand.

Jesse's 1st Day of the 8th Grade

I will forever more remember the first day of Jesse's 8th grade year. He started at Maitland Middle for the first time, and I was nervous about being sure he was able to catch a bus he'd never caught before, at the right time, etc. Before I left for work, I asked him to please send me a text message when he got on the bus so I would know he was okay. Of course, circumstances being what they usually are where my life is concerned, his cell phone wasn't charged, and the text message never came. I really tried not to worry about him when the appropriate time came and went without any word from Jesse that he was alright. In the end, worry won out (after David and I had text messaged all morning wondering where he was). I attempted to call Maitland Middle School, but their phone system was out. You couldn't even leave a message. I called the Parent Hot Line at Orange County Public Schools to say, "How can you have more than 1000 kids in a school with no working telephone. After all, I just wanted to ask the Attendance Office to let me know if his teachers were counting him as present...no big deal...no one would be any the wiser to my demented worriment. A very nice lady at the Parent Hot Line offered to contact the Community School located nearby, and the Community School emailed the school secretary at Maitland Middle School, who then radioed the teacher (Jesse was in P.E. at the time) to ask how Jesse was doing. Evidently, the radioed message could be heard throughout the gym class that Jesse Dobbs' Mother wanted to know how he was doing. The coach/teacher replied to the secretary that Jesse was fantastic, and then told Jesse that his mother was the same way. The very nice lady on the Parent Hot Line called me back at work to relay the message that Jesse was doing fine. I was so relieved that I didn't have to worry the rest of the day, and I said, "Oh, he got on the bus and arrived at school okay!" The very nice lady got really quiet, then asked, "Is your son in Special Education?". I don't believe Jesse will forget to charge his phone again, or fail to send a requested text message. :o]

New Inspiration!

I haven't written anything on my blog for a very long time. I have struggled to overcome depression about the many negative events that have happened in my life since January 2008. I didn't want to relive those things anymore by writing them down, and I didn't think anyone would ever want to read them either. However, when we had our moving sale a couple of weeks ago, a professor from UCF stopped by. As we were talking, I discovered he was an author who wrote about his own experiences. He told me to write for no one but myself. According to him, if I write for myself, others will want to read it. So, here I am with fresh inspiration to write down those things that impact me in my "life in the bottle". I will be posting much more in the future as I write strictly for the internal need I have to review my life in print!