With Breast Cancer, a Week is a Very Long Time*

Just home from a couple days in the hospital. I hate to admit it, but it was a very good thing for me. Almost 72 hours doing absolutely NOTHING but healing. Obviously my body needed it. I have a wound that, with traditional packing and closing, the doctor anticipates would take two months to heal. Instead, they have hooked me up with a Freedom Vac that should heal the wound in one-to-two weeks!

Our cat is more than a little freaked out! She sure missed me the past couple days. Now she's most curious about this little black shoulder pack that accompanies me everywhere. It purrs like a male cat in heat. The Freedom Vac is supposed to give you the freedom to carry on with life -- I'm not sure I'll be making a visit to the grocery store. If you didn't know it was the machine, you'd think I had uncontrolled flatulence! We sure won't be going to the movie theatre anytime soon, either.

The Freedom Vac is just slightly bigger than a portable DVD player and weighs about the same as a laptop computer (their website says 3 pounds, but I must have the older model). It's new and takes a little getting used to remembering to bring it everywhere with me. After we got home from the hospital this morning, my father asked, "What happens if you forget to take it with you?"

It's like that scene in the movie 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' when Toula is working at the travel agency with the headset on and Ian comes in to see her. (Click the link to watch the movie clip!)

*Today's blog title was inspired by Harold Wilson, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, who said "In politics, a week is a very long time." Courtesy of The Book of Origins by Trevor Homer.

No Wonder You're Tired All the Time!

"Women constitute 53% of the earth’s population. They perform two-thirds of the world’s work for which they earn 10% of the income. They own 1% of the property and they have 100% of the children. Given these statistics, women should hold the majority of the political power in the world. -– Helen Caldicott, M.D., pediatrician, anti-nuclear activist, author of If You Love This Planet

We don’t because we are too tired from looking after our families, jobs and homes." -- Lorna Vanderhaeghe

Lorna Vanderhaeghe, a researcher and journalist in nutritional medicine, offers a valuable website on women's health and nutrition, including free access to the online book, "An A-Z Woman's Guide to Vibrant Health." I highly recommend spending some time at her site. While much of her focus is on women's health, she does research and review topics of general interest and has a few vitamin/supplement formulations designed especially for men, too. Click here sign up to receive her free enewsletter.

Yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to blog about my battle with breast cancer. It has consumed my life; I guess I've changed my mind.

The Bystander Effect

The Bystander Effect is described in Wikipedia as “a psychological phenomenon in which someone is less likely to intervene in an emergency situation when others are present than when he or she is alone.”

In the parable of The Good Samaritan, two men bypassed the victim without offering any help. Psychologists coined The Bystander Effect in the 1960’s after the sexual assault and murder of Kitty Genovese in New York. Kitty’s assault and murder was witnessed by over 35 people, yet nobody intervened to stop the attack.

I’m a participant, not a bystander. I don’t necessarily gauge my reaction according to the people around me, I assess the situation and take action. I evaluate a situation and interpret whether it’s an emergency. In the next second, I ask myself if I have a responsibility to take action. Then I choose the most appropriate action.

Even in non-urgent situations, I exercise the same process. I ask myself, ‘What needs to be done? What responsibility do I have in getting it done? Then I take action so that the required results are achieved.’.

Sometimes doing nothing is the right action. But here’s the thing: if it’s also the easiest option to choose, then it’s probably not the right thing to do.

Maybe just knowing the Bystander Effect exists helps me not become one.

from CBC Sunday Report (May 13, 2007)

I am uninspired, my thoughts are scattered and unfocused, so today's post is courtesy of my sister, Christine Lee.

Way Too Much TV

Today, two weeks after my surgery, I still have a very limited range of movement. I cannot turn my torso from side to side and can only sleep sitting up or flat on my back, if I can sleep at all. My attention span for great literature is quite limited. I started reading John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" and rereading my favourite book of all-time, "Larry's Party" by Carole Shields, but both books are too heavy to hold beyond a few minutes. Even some magazines are too heavy; the new issue of Oprah Winfrey's O magazine has more than 400 pages for God's sake! This means I've spent the most time ever in my life watching endless hours of television.

Some of my viewing choices have been extraordinary TV - yesterday I watched a two-part, four-hour documentary by director Spike Lee about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that was both disturbing and compelling. It is a combination of social commentary and filmmaking art. It's featured on the Movie Network this month and I highly recommend it. Set your PVR to record it on May 24.

I also confess to enjoying a 4:00 a.m. presentation of "10 Things I Hate About You," a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" starring a very young Heath Ledger. The script was surprisingly sharp and the lead actors very strong for their young ages. Overall, it reminded me of an upscale kind of John Hughes movie twenty years after the original Brat Pack movies.

It seems though that for every hour of quality presentation, there are 10,000 hours of useless, moronic, uninspired crap. Someone offered Star TV as a good source for mindless programming. I almost choked when I saw this program in the line-up: "Hollywood Stars: An In-Depth Look at Jennifer Aniston." Now, it's not that I'm not a fan of hers, after all, where would I be without 37 episodes of Friends every day? but has Jennifer Aniston done anything with depth? I'm guessing that the follow-up program after that would be something like "The Many Sides of David Schwimmer."

Have you seen the current Clearasil commercial? The one where the older brother counsels his younger brother on getting clearer skin? It's like watching a poorly dubbed movie from Hong Kong, except both the brothers are speaking English. It's just that what their mouths are saying is not what the voices are speaking. I tried to find a copy of the commercial on-line, but, alas, it seems unavailable. For the budget Clearasil has for buying commercial time, you'd think they'd have invested a little more to ensure they had a good script from the get-go.

Speaking of commercials, there is a current Chrysler Sebring commercial on the air, perhaps you've seen it? Not one to miss many details, I actually try to read the fine print. Often car commercials warn "Stunt driver on closed course. Do not attempt." The Sebring commercial actually states in very small white print along the bottom of the screen: "Always sit properly in seat and securely fasten seatbelt." OK, I understand the seatbelt warning, but what driver needs to be reminded to "Always sit properly in seat"? (Click here to read the fine print on the Chrysler website....)

There is a program I didn't see: "Hollywood's Greatest Mysteries." It inspired me to wonder: how did the producers of "The Toy" and Nacho Libre ever get the money to make their films? Didn't anyone ever read the scripts? If Tori Spelling's father hadn't been one of TV's most successful producers, would she have ever had an acting career at all? Why did the early "Everybody Loves Raymond" writers change the twins' names from Matthew and Gregory to Michael and Geoffrey?

It's 4:30 in the morning. Why am I spending any time at all thinking about this crap?