SillyDog701

[Lorraine]

Hi Ramona:
Thanks so much, it's nice to hear from you again.
Well, you know I'm a pretty determined person, and just go along with the bumps in the road... No use worrying about things, doesn't make them any better... it's hard to do sometimes..

Yes, we do have pretty good health care, I have never had any problems with it. I hear about people in emergency rooms waiting for hours, but I never go to emergency rooms without consulting a doctor first, like I did in 1987. The room was full, but when they saw the paper the doctor gave me, they took me right away. Then transferred me by ambulance to Montreal.

I'm feeling much better these days, I still get tired easily, but better than I have been....so that's good. I think the radiation treatment has finally left my system. I still sleep very well.

How are you doing Ramona? I hope all is well with you. I guess you are keeping busy.

I don't spend as much time on the PC as I used to.
These days I have a lot to do around the house. I let so many things go the past couple of years.

I found my PW for BBS but have to find it again. I jotted it down in my little book and will have to look it up again. My memory isn't as good as it used to be. I will just have to start writing things down on something better than a little book or get organized.. That's what happens as you age..

take care
-Lorraine

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[Edward]

I still say Canada has a better health care system than the U.S. On my first visit up there (fall of 2002), Blue Cross was in an office tower across the street diagonally from the hotel we stayed at.

At the time, I could not understand why Blue Cross was up there, when Canada has national health care.

Now, I understand.

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[PaulD]

Lorraine,
My wife had a double mastectomy in 2001. No radiation; chemo for 4 months. Then Tamoxifen initially. Then switched to Arimidex (generic: anastrozole) in 2003 after it was proven superior for her type of cancer, and had been approved for addition to the formulary. It is quite expensive: her last refill was Aug '06, retail was $679 for 90 tablets. She paid $30. HMO - Kaiser. At the five-year point in '06, no more cancer drug.

But the choice of drug depends upon the type of cancer relative to hormonal response. So 'ask your doctor if it would be appropriate for you'. (Sounds like a commercial, doesn't it?)

Chemo not only takes off the hair (it regrew much more curly), it causes a 'chemo fog'. Memory is shot, thinking is impaired. But it all comes back (although slowly) after the drugs have cleared the body.

Kaiser discovered the cancers during an ultrasound because a routine mammography was inconclusive. "They saved my life," she says. There have been horror stories concerning HMO's and some even of Kaiser, but we have been generally very happy with them. (This IS a commercial.)

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[Ramona]

Paul,

How wonderful for your wife, and it says so much about the advances that medicine has made in detecting and curing breast cancer. I know from experience that the family goes thru so much when a loved one is stricken with cancer. Congratulations to you both for having survived cancer!

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[PaulD]

Ramona,
Thank you.

But one day I almost gave her a heart attack. This was after she had finished her course of chemo treatments. Her hair had been falling/pulling out freely and she was wearing a wig (there's another story of generosity there). She came home from work one day; I was at the computer. (This is in a bedroom cum 'home office', with my back to the door.) She started to tell me about her day as she was turning the corner from the hallway into the office. "Oh, no! Oh, NO!" she exclaimed. She turned around - presumably to verify that she was in the right house - and turned back toward me again. "Ohhh no." I had gone to the barber and had him cut off my hair as much as he could, then come home and shaved off the rest. It wasn't a shiny dome, but there was no fuzz left. So we regrew our respective heads of hairs together.

My macho demonstration of empathy wasn't all that well received then. And we don't talk about it. But the barber hasn't forgotten it yet.

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[Ramona]

Paul,

That is a wonderful story, and indeed you must be a very special person. However, it is also hilarious, and I can understand your wife's shock at seeing you bald. That would have been a "Kodak moment" to end all...

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