Friday, October 4, 2013

Our day was interesting and a bit disturbing...



I know I know that all former smokers are goodie, goodie two shoes and at times way too critical of the few still smoking public.

But today it took all my emotional restraint to not say something, while waiting for Hubby, out in the car, in the Morton Ace Hardware Port Charlotte parking lot, when I saw a woman pull in, in a white Range Rover smoking one of those girlie thin cigars with a holder. The woman was older, perhaps around my age, ok real old, with also enhanced blonde locks, but pulled back in a ponytail. She had parked her SUV in the opposite direction of our vehicle, but right in the next slot. She got out and opened the passenger side door and it appeared that there was some type of black bag-like object on the seat. At first I though it was an infant seat and she had a grand-baby with her, but I was wrong for she hung the bag on her back like a backpack while pulling the clear plastic tubes out of it and attached them to her nostrils… She either had COPD or Emphysema, boy was I baffled.

None of my business, I kept saying in my head.
Many’s argument would be, as I have heard most recently that the damage is already done and so why not?
But REALLY?

Who knows if I would’ve been so foolish too?
She seemed to be handling herself fine, no one was with her and she apparently knew how to fix things otherwise why would she be at a hardware store… as I said none of my business, and anyway our car was running with the windows closed for the air-conditioning was on…

Nope, none of my business to say anything, besides she went into the store and Hubby was coming back out.
WHEW!

What luck; you see in the old days I might have been more tempted to say something, but ya know I could relate to this obscene act of harming one’s self, she has every right!
Like the one man said to us that we see at the gym, he survived a coma after a head injury and has been using a walker and works out the same days we do, he’s a couple years older than us and a NJ guy too and so we chat often.
His wife has the same cancer that Valerie Harper has, and was told she has only six months to live; she’s a year older than me and is a smoker.
I was trying hard to be helpful when he mentioned all this and so I went online to find out info for him about protocols and online organizations and more places like cancercenter.com and even finding out Valerie Harper’s doctor’s name and his hospital so maybe they could find out what worked for her to be doing so well, with her lung and brain cancer, allowing her to be on Dancing with The Stars. Oh Valerie Harper, an actress and comedian who made her fame from the Mary Tyler Moore Show, playing the best friend Rhoda and got a spin-off show of her own called, Rhoda: to read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Harper

And when we saw him I gave him what I accessed and he sincerely thanked me.
The next time we saw him he said that she didn’t want to do anything, she was all done and that she even goes outside to still smoke. And he and we said that at this point I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore, but not the words out loud that "the damage is all done"… but still, he was devastated that she had given up. So we all changed the topic and that seemed to help.

People out there don’t know that not all lung cancers are from people who smoke, some get it from second-hand smoke of course and some even get it from chemicals and pollution.
Valerie Harper was not a smoker.
And I do believe she said 60% aren’t or it could have been 40%, I may have gotten that backwards.

 Any-who, this month is Breast Cancer awareness month and it is extremely important for all women to check themselves monthly for any changes in their breasts from; http://www.breastcancer.org/
Ages for certain tests should be there as well as how men should also be aware of what they should look for in signs and symptoms not only for the women they care about, but for themselves too.

Please people take care of yourselves; many cancers if caught early enough are curable! And so take the steps to make sure you are screened for as many as you know that could be in your realm. I almost said family, but even without family genetics involved many cancers just happen at any age.
Now don’t get all scared, but be diligent and cautious, not paranoid or hypochondriac, just smart and aware.

On that note of all types, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all of your blessings and share all of your overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

PS day 4 of the shutdown, no nice comments and so I am holding my tongue. 
And that poor woman who was shot yesterday in D.C.; again someone with mental health issues and was overwhelmed, sad ending for a person who really just needed mental health intervention, no weapon was ever found, since she had none and she was scared.
Question to any who might know: Why is her child not given to her surviving parent, her father, or even the grandparents; why is that child being held in protective custody? Too many questions still unanswered. Hopefully, over the next several days, we will know more…

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