Race for the Cure Day

Race for the Cure is going on up in Portland today. The weather, on cue, turned to rain across the valley.

Friday, a friend of mine had both breasts removed. Earlier in the summer she'd gone to see a doctor when she found a lump in one breast. She had a mammogram, under a state program, since neither she nor her husband can currently afford health care. The lump in one breast was a cyst, but cancer was found in the other breast.

She has a history of cancer, so due to the risks later and costs associated, she had both breasts removed. She's doing good, her husband told me yesterday, chirpy and wanted to be home.

So many women, even young health minded women I run into, have had breast cancer or have it currently.

Makes me wonder when I'll get it. My grandmother had breast cancer back in the 50's. She survived it and died an old woman. My mother did not get routine medical screenings or care because of whom she married. Nobody knows what really caused my mother's death.

I do believe the constant exposure to pseudo estrogens in food, air and water play a part in the breast cancer epidemic. I think they play a very large part. Our chemical world, from chemical farming practises that leave chemicals in food, soil, water and air, to transportation on the I5 corridor leaving the air sheened in benzene.

Since reattaching the cat yard wire, with arms overhead, I've been suffering the consequences, with my neck and spinal problems. My arms will go numb if I turn my head one way, causing me to drop things, if carrying something heavy. I have a twitch in one side of my face and my right knee, the darn problem knee with improper nerve supply, has been painful and almost useless. I have to balance over it just right or it will buckle on these occasions.

It's taken longer than usual to recover. I'll not do that again, although I don't know how I'll solve the problem of leaves blanketing the cat yard wire.

Always before, in rentals where I've lived, I've attached my own wire, making the wire simple to detach along lengths, to drop, for leaves or snow or ice.

But I didn't put up this wire. My brothers workers did. When I described how I would need to easily drop it, for snow or leaves, they scoffed at me and told me to leave and let "the guys do it". Out of respect for my brother, since these were his guys, I left it alone. I was grateful for help putting it up, and since they wouldn't listen to me, I figured I'd find a way later to make it work.

Since then, I have had to revamp most of what they did, but, have not completely redone the chicken wire attachments because it creates such problems for my spine. Somehow, I've got to get it done.