Christine Lee Update

Thanks to you the Toronto Star has received a number of letters in reply to the story about Christine.

Click here to see a sampling of letters published on www.thestar.com.

We are attempting to bring her tragic story to a larger audience. If you have contacts at any of the major television or radio media in Ontario, please feel free to share Christine's story with them.

Thank you and God bless.

Random Thoughts from My Hyperactive Mind

Not in any order at all:

Roni is stunningly beautiful bald. Her big blue eyes have always been striking, but now, it's almost as if that's the first thing you see. It was a bold and courageous decision to shave her head before all of her hair could fall out on its own. As she said, "It's not my fault I have cancer." Bravo Sister! Besides, hair is definitely over-rated.

I'm a Soprano. Not the Tony Soprano kind of Soprano, a REAL soprano! I've joined the St. Arsenije Sremec Serbian Orthodox Church Choir. I've been to two practises now -- and just like EVERYTHING in my life, I do it all or not at all. It's definitely one of the harder things I've tried -- first you have to read music, find the note, read over the Cyrillic line to the Latin alphabet translation, figure out how to pronounce the foreign word, then sing the note, holding it for the right length -- quickly moving to the next note, repeat from the beginning, all the while keeping up with much more experienced singers. Everyone has been so very kind and patient -- and impressed, too. After one week, I could sing the Liturgia from heart, off book and stay in tune! (I found a few great sites online where I could download the music, burned a CD and have been immersing myself in sacred Serbian music during my long drives to Belleville.) I am getting much faster at reading Cyrillic, too. For example: my name:

МИШЕЛ

Think that’s easy? Try reading this and singing!



At the end of this week’s choir practice, Ana, the “assistant director,” said, “Michelle, I’m really glad that you’ve joined our choir.”

I’ve already amazed my husband – I can’t wait to sing for my mother-in-law! (Lest you think my head will get too big, fear not. As one of my sisters said, "You? A soprano?")

I'm quite worried about my hearing. Did you know that most of the time I watch TV with the closed captioning on? If you're talking to me and turn your head, I probably can't hear what you just said (I spend a lot of time lip reading.) Last night I walked into the bedroom while my husband was watching Sportsnet. I couldn't see the picture, but heard only a commentator wrapping up his interview with a baseball player in this world series. This is what I heard: "Good luck then and enjoy gay sex." What the commentator really said was "Good luck then and enjoy game six."

I've been meaning to write about the new TV show "The Class." It's not often, OK, maybe never in my life, have I raved about a TV show, working my schedule around TIVO'ing a program, but The Class is absolutely hilarious. It's on Monday nights on CTV. It's an hilarious premise for a show to begin with (a grade 3 class reunion), but the situations just keep getting more believably hysterical. (Producers of The Class, please send a cheque to the address below.) If you're a fan, please write!

I am procrastinating. I don't know why. The things I'm putting off are not painful. I just don't WANT to do them. In the meantime, I am obsessing on the ridiculous. What is wrong with me?

I've started a new painting. It's my second "angry" work; in this case, an expression of my rage at the challenges being faced by my sisters Christine and Roni. I hope someday, long after my death, some art scholar will know the real meaning behind every layer and object in this still life (after someone buys the painting at a yard sale, I'm sure!). I don't even LIKE painting still life, but I guess you could say I've been painting "furiously."

For the record, my brother Joe did NOT forget his lunch. I made it up because I thought it would be funny. What I didn't know at the time was that I would pee my pants laughing at what would happen next. Joe, you're such a good sport, I love you!

Additional random thought that occurred to me today (Friday, October 20): Why is the 'ch' in chemotherapy and chiropractor pronounced like a 'k'? The 'Ch' in Chicago is pronounced like 'Sh,' while the 'ch' in chortle and chop is pronounced, as you would expect, like 'ch' is supposed to sound. And we complain that immigrants don't speak English -- is it any wonder?

Today is My Birthday

Listen to this wonderful birthday greeting.....featuring the lovely and talented Miss Ashlee, age 4. Click the image to play. Make sure your speakers are on -- and listen right 'til the end....it's the best part!

My Sister's Story - from www.thestar.com

Starved of cure by red tape
Woman pleads for effective, less costly stomach pacemaker
Oct. 13, 2006. 06:14 AM
JANICE MAWHINNEY
LIFE WRITER


Christine Lee has an illness that has prevented her from eating or drinking anything for years.

The Oakville mother, 39, lives with gastroparesis. That means her stomach will not empty itself for the next stage of digestion, causing daily nausea and vomiting.

She stays alive by spending hours every day and night taking her nutrition, water and medication intravenously. It takes 10 hours a day for nutritional liquids, four additional hours to keep her hydrated and more time, depending on circumstances, for medication.

"I feel sick all day every day," she says. "I just want to feel better."

There is a device that would allow Lee to live a normal and happier life at a considerably lower cost to taxpayers than her current routine. It's a pacemaker which, implanted in her body, would regulate her stomach, moving food and liquid out normally.

She knows it works because she had one implanted in 1996 as part of an experimental program. It had to be removed due to complications from an unrelated surgery.

But her pleas to the bureaucracy at the province's health ministry for a replacement have so far fallen on deaf ears.

Her husband, John, and their two children, Andrew, 16, and Jessica, 15, also find their daily lives profoundly affected by Lee's medical condition.

Click here to download the complete story.....

If you'd like to support Christine in her efforts to have the gastro pacemaker approved, please send your comments via email to health@thestar.ca

Give This Headline Writer a Bonus, Please!

Fortune teller didn't see arrest coming
Oct. 5, 2006. 10:59 AM
ASSOCIATED PRESS


CENTRAL NYACK, N.Y.— A tip for fortune tellers: When reading a customer's aura, be alert for any hint of blue.

An undercover police officer posing as a patron busted a Rockland County psychic who charged more than $1,000 for a series of tarot card readings, according to Clarkstown town police. Dorothy Adams, 40, of Nyack, operated her Psychic and Tarot Cards Readings out of a storefront on Route 59.

Adams was accused of stringing the undercover officer along for two weeks, charging more than $1,000 for advice on ways to reverse her negative aura and dispel her bad luck. Adams, who was arrested Tuesday night, was charged with grand larceny, a felony, and two misdemeanors, police said.

The investigation began after town police received complaints about Adams' business. State law requires that all readings be done for entertainment or amusement purposes only, with only a small fee attached.

Don't Drink the Belleville Water

I received the following update from my sister Roni yesterday. It's so powerfully written, I asked if she'd mind being my "guest blogger" today. She's agreed, so I'm taking today off! Roni wrote:

"So, I'm like 7 days out of chemo. You already know that.

Aside from some mouth sores, and being very tired yesterday, I feel okay. I walked to the Habitat For Humanity Store - maybe 3/4 km. away and back. I was pleased with myself.

The strange part however was that I was the last person to use the bathtub yesterday...and when I got out, all I did was let the water drain. Last night I asked (my daughter) Makenzie if she wanted me to make her a bath (cuz she came home from rugby with proof that she does everything with zeal.) I go into the bathroom, pull back the shower curtain and go to rinse the tub when lo and behold, I see whole chunks of short grey and black hair. I immediately call Makenzie in and she immediately starts to rub my back - saying, WOW! Mom, that's weird. I say, do you think that's me? (Our cat) Sam was in the tub y'know....and he has short grey hair too y'know.

Unfortunately, she was convinced it was me which was really freaky. So I finished rinsing the tub and watched my hair slide down the drain. But that's not the really weird thing. The really weird thing was that as I watched my hair slip into the drain, I actually thought to myself, there goes the cancer.

Then in occurred to me that since all that cancer goes into our sewer system, I should steer clear of the Belleville water.

Freaky, eh?

Today the hair on my scalp hurts - almost as if I have a migraine under my skin and I can feel the hair letting go. I slept in a doo rag and checked it and it was almost as if I had gotten a haircut in my sleep - perfectly even strands, all the same width and length. So now I'm thinking I'm on a bad acid trip or something and pretty soon the shiny lights are going to get me. (Wait, that might be the radiation - I go for the consult October 17th in Kingston.)

So it also occurs to me, did my brothers feel this way when they lost their hair?

Curious.

R

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

I am grateful and proud of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

My husband had a court date today for a driving offence. To say that he was nervous is a serious understatement. For at least the past six months, not a day has gone by that he hasn't thought about this day looming before him. But that's understandable -- he's never been in court for anything, not even a parking ticket. And, of course, nothing quite makes you feel like a criminal than having to enter a court building.

It's amazing to me that people complain about our courts and our police. After an afternoon people-watching at the courthouse in downtown Toronto today, I am convinced those complainers are the same ones who appear before the judge in ripped jeans, belly piercings exposed, sideways baseball caps, unshaven, leather jackets, designer bball-shoes, laces trailing behind. We're not talking about the poor, disadvantaged or underprivileged here. I stood outside the courthouse for some time watching the traffic come and go. We're talking about the hip hop boys who pull up in the low-riding Acuras with the bass blaring so loud there are sonic booms in their wake. Or the hair-flipping "Ginas" who show up with their girly-girl entourages driving Daddy's BMW.

Hubby's driving offence took place on June 1, 2005. His agent, an articling 20-something law student working for X-Copper, made an application before the court under the Charter that guarantees all Canadians the right to due process within a reasonable time of the original offence. In the case of traffic violations, that reasonable timeframe has been deemed to be eight-to-ten months, allowing for court back-logs and delays. It has been over 16 months since the original charge was laid. In fact, it inspired me to read the Charter in its entirety and there it is, right near the top:

Schedule B

Constitution Act, 1982
Enacted as Schedule B to the Canada Act 1982 (U.K.) 1982, c. 11, which came into force on April 17, 1982


PART I

Canadian charter of rights and freedoms

Section 11 reads:

11. Any person charged with an offence has the right

a) to be informed without unreasonable delay of the specific offence;
b) to be tried within a reasonable time;
c) not to be compelled to be a witness in proceedings against that person in respect of the offence;
d) to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal;
e) not to be denied reasonable bail without just cause;
f) except in the case of an offence under military law tried before a military tribunal, to the benefit of trial by jury where the maximum punishment for the offence is imprisonment for five years or a more severe punishment;
g) not to be found guilty on account of any act or omission unless, at the time of the act or omission, it constituted an offence under Canadian or international law or was criminal according to the general principles of law recognized by the community of nations;
h) if finally acquitted of the offence, not to be tried for it again and, if finally found guilty and punished for the offence, not to be tried or punished for it again; and
i) if found guilty of the offence and if the punishment for the offence has been varied between the time of commission and the time of sentencing, to the benefit of the lesser punishment.

After checking a few legal points (did the justice of the peace have jurisdiction to rule on this application? yes.), "Your Worship" asked the Crown Attorney to comment on this delay (I have no reply, Your Worship.) The charge was dismissed.

I am quite proud of this Charter. The preamble states:

Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law:

and Section 1 guarantees:

1. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.

I am also grateful that we did not have to invoke Section 12:

12. Everyone has the right not to be subjected to any cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.

and, of course, it was not necessary use the "notwithstanding clause."