Sunday, November 25, 2012
Lucy remembers Christmas traditions with her family as she also says goodbye to Patch.
I hand it to all of you who venture out into the world on Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving, I can barely rouse myself out of bed due to the turkey, stuffing and pie-induced coma I’m in. So to anyone who managed to get up early (or who camped out before the stores opened) to battle the throngs of bargain seekers, I salute you. For me, one of the best things about the holiday is that it marks the beginning of the Christmas season. Obviously, Black Friday shoppers feel the same way. The tree goes up that weekend, and I’ll watch every sappy Christmas movie ever made – twice – while I decorate and bake. The kids usually take bets on how long it’ll be before I start to cry, and then spy on me until a winner is proclaimed. But the most …
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Lucy's Matt doesn't think there is such a thing as too many Thanksgiving turkeys.
To me, Thanksgiving is the harbinger of the Christmas season, and I look forward to putting up the tree that weekend. For Matt, however, it marks his favorite day of the year because he loves turkey. He looks forward to the big dinner and all the leftover turkey sandwiches, turkey casseroles, turkey stir fry, you name it. He loves turkey more than Santa loves his elves. So one year, we were out and he wanted to stop in at one of those discount food stores. We don’t have one in our town and Matt likes to shop there whenever he can because second only to turkey, he loves bargains. When we got to the meat aisle, we saw that they had Jennie-O turkeys on sale for 38 cents a pound. I glanced over and saw Matt’s eyes glaze over. He was thrilled; …
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Lucy still can't get used to setting the clocks back.
I know that Daylight Savings Time was implemented many years ago and for a reason. I, however, happen to be of the belief that one shouldn’t mess with Mother Nature. Remember those old “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature” commercials? Sadly, it doesn’t annoy me for altruistic reasons such as standing up for Mother Nature. No, no; it messes with my system and adds to my list of things I have to do. When it was started during World War I, people didn’t have clocks in almost every gadget in their houses. Heck, they didn’t have many gadgets at all. Today, we have coffee makers that we can set to have coffee ready when we get up. No stove made in the last century is without a clock; same for microwaves. We have clocks on our DVRs, alarm clocks…
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Lucy looks at charities and awareness campaigns - from a survivor's view.
As I said in last week's column, the pink ribbon stands for breast cancer; but for many businesses, it represents huge, huge profits. Sadly, some of the charities that purport to want a cure have lost their way and they, too, are making money hand over fist in the name of breast cancer. For example, I truly believe that the Susan G. Komen Foundation started out with the best of intentions. It’s also mine (and many other breast cancer patients/survivors) opinion, that they’ve lost their way. When the organization began, “for the cure” was its battle cry. To this day, they covet that phrase and spend lots of money suing smaller, grass roots efforts that dare use “for the cure” in their name. Feel free to fact check me by Googling “Susan G. …
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Lucy writes about something that she and her fellow breast cancer sisters have known for a while - and it's not pretty.
I’ve always loved pink. But not just any pink; the Barbie pink that’s associated with breast cancer ribbons today. Little did I know that pink would one day symbolize more to me. Now, the pink ribbon is everywhere. I’m thankful that women wear them to support people like me. In fact, my daughter often wears one. That being said, I’m not annoyed with you if you don’t feel the need to sport one – even if it’s October. I also don’t get offended if you skip buying an expensive can of pink labeled soup and instead reach for the generic brand. Many of us are closely watching where every penny is being spent. However, I AM annoyed with businesses that have turned every product out there pink for October. Making money off the pink ribbon has …
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Lucy shares the last installment in her story about her long journey battling breast cancer.
Chemo was finally over; it was time to prepare for 32 rounds of radiation. Before then, there was a break during which I got my port taken out. It would be a few weeks before I started, and those weeks were some of the worst of my life. I’d been sick, and in so much pain, I was too busy to really look at myself. And when I did, my spirits crashed. I’d lost my hair, eyebrows and eyelashes. I had an indentation where a breast had been; the scar was over an inch wide due to the many surgeries. The other breast was smaller and misshapened. The long showers I used to enjoy had become a chore. I got in and out; never looking at my chest. To make matters worse, my plastic surgeon, Dr. Morrissey, told me that after everything, reconstruction was …
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Lucy continues her story about her battle with breast cancer.
This is part three in Lucy’s story about her battle with breast cancer. You can read the first part here, and the second part, the mastectomy, here. I had finally beaten the MRSA, and it was time for chemotherapy. The doctors were nervous, though, because there’s a window of time following surgery that is considered “safe” to wait prior to beginning treatment. My window was quickly closing; they were anxious to get me started. I should backtrack a bit, however, and share that I had a port put in. Chemo is administered through an IV, and since it’s really just controlled poisoning, it can damage your veins. A port is surgically implanted, either on your chest or your arm, which allows them to insert medicine directly into a vein, with only …
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Lucy shares her very personal story about her long journey with breast cancer.
In October of 2009, I was given the news no woman ever wants to hear. I had breast cancer. I knew that I had a lump, but my family doctor didn’t think it was anything to be concerned about; he wanted to be sure, though. I went for a mammogram and later, Skippy the Radiologist (my nickname for him – he looked like he’d just graduated high school) told me I had three tumors in my right breast and a smaller one in the left. He wanted biopsies to be sure, but he was pretty confident I had breast cancer. The first thing I thought was that I can get through this. Matt and I almost lost a child; if we could get through that, we could get through anything. The second thing I thought (hoped) was that the biopsies would prove Skippy wrong. I got …
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Lucy remembers a pick-your-own apple trip that neither she or her family will ever forget.
Every September, I think back to a time years ago when I took the kids to an orchard to pick our own apples. Some friends of mine knew how to can and preserve them, and were willing to teach me. Channeling my inner Martha Stewart sounded like a good idea. I picked a beautiful September day; we got in our 15-year-old, beat up mini-van that made more noise than Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and headed to Bob White Acres. The kids each grabbed a bushel, and off we went. The first took no time to fill, but after their second bushel, the kids began to get tired. Aubrie had hers about half full, while Elyse had two or three apples in her basket. Boy put his bushel on his head, found a stick which he waved wildly, and began running around breathing …
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Lucy waxes poetic about the summer months for all parents; homeschooler or not.
Matt and I have homeschooled our children for years. So when summer comes around, I don’t know who’s more excited – us or them. After the last test is graded, we throw on Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out for Summer” and then dance around like a bunch of drunken sailors. We’ve got a whole lot of nothing to do for a few months. I want to clarify; we don’t homeschool because we think teachers aren’t doing a good job. On the contrary, we think teachers have the hardest job out there these days. When I was younger, if your teacher looked at you cross-eyed, you were nervous; bullies were thrown out on their bullying rear ends. These days, teachers are asked to be teacher, friend, parent, babysitter, nurse, mentor, role model, and a host of other …
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