I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

and welcome susieq! At least for me, as I have been on and off the boards lately.

PD = Parkinson's Disease

Athena.....funny you mentioned the fireplace. It is so cold here today I tried to turn on the gas fireplace earlier to warm things up and realized my hubby had turned it off for the summer.  Thanks for the welcome. You all are a very welcoming group.

A big welcome to all of our new friends!  We do love our dinner talk.  :-)

Britchick -  I'm not sure what can be done about the dangerous posts you reference.  I would hope that a scared newbie would discuss alternative treatments with his or her oncologist before making a final decision.  Perhaps bringing such comments to the attention of the Moderators would be helpful, as past attempts at self-policing and/or offering contradictory advice seems to have gotten us nowhere.  It's a dilemma, for sure.

As far as creating a separate thread to address dangerous bc myths...well, I'm sorry to say I think it would turn into a flame-fest.  We have a vocal group of alternative ladies here and I doubt they'd appreciate their beliefs filed under "myths."  Unless you had something different in mind?

E

Looking for the "Like" button, Blue!

As it is about 100 degrees with the heat ratio here, I would gladly take some of that cool Colorado weather.

We will be grilling chicken and veggies tonight.  I love my fresh herbs in the garden.  I cut them up and put them in the butter or olive oil.  There is a recipe for grilled corn in the Williams Sonoma cookbook that is divine!

hola all! 

I also was struck with wonder that Britchick's post was noticed by someone who doesn't read the thread.  But then I remembered what I figured out last night: TheTruth.

TheTruth is that no one comes to any thread on this forum voluntarily, nosirreebob.  Nope, in fact TheTruth is that once you sign up (or for some singularly unfortunate people even think of signing up) you are assigned a "Watcher" (think buffy the Vampire Slayer) whose job it is to storm your home or office or coffee shop and force you--under penalty of violence to your person--to read threads you might otherwise find offensive and push the report button on your sisters-in-stupid-fucking-cancer hood.  Threads like this one, threads like Yan's.  Anyone who is of the opposite philosophical bent as yourself.  (I'm not sure but I think they are matching us with our evil twins by blood type. . . )

Come on PEOPLE, admit it!  You know this is TheTruth.

But there is HOPE!!!!!!  The scourge of mandatory posting to threads of people you don't agree  or finding yourself hitting the "report" button causing unnecessary flooding by stress hormones with can be dealt with.  After considerable research I have determined there is a solution.  Simply take a nice roll of aluminum foil and fold one of those tin hats we all remember from childhood.  Be sure to squish it down tight over your head paying special attention to your ears (which we all know link directly to the brain . . . .)  This keeps your thoughts to yourself and prevents the Watchers from knowing you are on line or forcing you to follow and read and participate in threads you find personally offensive or forcing you to report people when you---being deep inside a nice person would never do were you not under extreme duress due to the Watcher standing behind your shoulder.

Its even better than the ignore feature.  Trust me, I have been using this technique for months.  I am no longer forced at point of sword, gun or wet noodle to read threads I find incompatible with my Buddhist beliefs.  I no longer find myself posting argumentative messages (well mostly) just so I can disagree with the OP of a thread or tell someone they are stupid. 

I am at peace.

Try it today!!!! Don't delay!!!!!

I haven't seen anything useful on the new Alternative/Holistic thread yet - just a bunch of pictures - how does that help treat bc?

I made it in to work - eating my apple/cinnamon muffin with a hot chocolate - my usual arriving at work snack. It was 6 degrees celcius this morning 42 in farenheit I think.

Over here we have these things called 'lovely legs' ie they are chicken legs which have been skinned - very healthy. Tonight we are having organic lovely legs marinated in a honey/soy/garlic marinade (I already put them in to soak all day) and then baked - served with salad and little potatoes in their jackets - add Paul Newmans Ranch dressing and YUMM.

Sue

On other topics, for Father's Day we went all out on an eatting festival:

French toast stuffed with goat cheese and topped with strawberries macerated in cognac and scrambled eggs and lox for breakfast.

Dinner was multi-course:

amuse bouche of crackers with chicken liver pate

appetiser of leek and black forest ham tart

roast duck with roasted asparagus and beans cooked with thyme

salad with vinegrette

cheese---amazing cheese. . . .

lemon bars made by my MIL.

We had kir and pastis for appertifs and two types of wine. . . .

 MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

As for all the other stuff---human beings want total control in their lives.  They just do. Always have wanted control and always will.   And they don't have it.   Death and getting sick are things that happen (along with getting old) to all of us.  No different today than it was in the time of the Buddha.  People gravitate towards crazy diets, alternatives, etc because they think they will be able to have control over their lives. 

Life is short.  Death is inevitable.  Enjoy life while you are here. . . . . 

Thanks for the welcome girls - I was quite outspoken on the Alternative Survivor thread and also got very upset about wornoutmom. As someone who had HER2+ve bc I know how important chemo/herceptin is and mine was just a tiny wee thing - still I did the treatment - no one in their right mind would not do it. I also get upset when people who have not had chemo run it down. To me, it's fear talking. You don't know what it will be like until you do it - none of us wants to have to do it, but we want to be here for a long time and make the right choice for ourselves and our families.

Sue

Sock puppets again

Agreed, Patty! 

Susie........I did not realize that!!  Glad that wasn't suggested to me. lol

I evaluate the situation based on personal knowledge.  Over time, I have known 4 women with breast cancer.  Two of those refused varying types of conventional treatment.  Of the two, one wouldn't do surgery but tried chemo alone.  The other did surgery but refused chemo and I believe radiation.  Months later after putting their families through hell, they both died.  In one case the cancer had progressed to brain mets and she ended up dying in a nursing facility.  In the other case, a mother was forced to bury her oldest daughter.

Of the other two women, both did everything their doctors told them.  One died of old age.  The other is still alive and kicking.  When I got my diagnosis, my head and my heart went to the memory of these women.

Cancer is not something to be screwed with.  It plays for keeps.  But like I said, people don't like to accept that they really don't have a lot of control in their lives.  And I do get that -- when I was initially diagnoised I tried to figure everything out by myself, tried to figure out where I went wrong.  A dear friend flatly told me to stop--that doctors spend years and years learning this stuff and I simply can't learn as much as my doctor.  This doesn't mean I walk in ignorent but it does mean that I take the advice of experts.

The fact is, I didn't do anything "wrong."---I have eatten organic for YEARS, eatten locally grown stuff, not overindulged, not overweight, not out of shape, don't consume chemicals in my food, don't smoke etc etc etc.  I still got stupidbreastcancer.  Sometimes, sh!t happens.

If you think the comments on these boards about alternatives make you cross, don't ever set foot in one of the cancer cure conventions. . .. . that will take you to a whole 'nother level of angry.....

OMG .. Blue got deleted again?!?  Whatever for .. I didn't have a chance to read her note.  Something about lobotomy maybe.  Any long time reader of this thread knows that 'lobotomy' is just a word we use. 

What a sad state of affairs.

Bren

3monstmama.....I for one probably have done everything wrong to my body so I initially blamed all my bad habits for the cancer. But then I remembered my mother and her mother who never smoked or drank, got plenty of exercise, were never over weight and still got BC. It will be wonderful if one day we can pinpoint exactly what causes cancer and fix it. And I agree, "s**t happens" and it is, what it is. It's how we handle it that is so important right now.