(no subject)
Hello my darlings...I have missed you all. I hope everything has been well with everyone. It has been a mixed bag here. I just finished watching the Mets lose to the St. Louis Cardinals and I feel very badly for our beautiful birthday boy because his team lost just minutes before the stroke of midnight right before his special day. Ah well....maybe next year, Viggo...*pets him*
This has been a very busy month for us, last week being very emotional for me so far this season. The highlight of last week was my daughter celebrating her 8th birthday on the 11th. YAY! I can't believe she is eight already. While in the midst of all that, I was locked in a battle with her bus company and OPT (Office of Pupil Transportation) because I had to file a formal complaint against her bus matron who was harrassing her. Yeah...you read right. Unbelievable, huh? These are special needs kids and here we have a matron who is there for their protection, but instead she harrasses my kid. The supervisor at the bus company tried to defend her somewhat, and I was extremely frustrated because she was backed by a union so they couldn't remove her from the bus route. Nor could they place another person on the bus to ensure that no further inappropriate action occured between student and matron. A real pisser indeed! "So the union protects this woman, but who protects my kid?", I tell the supervisor. They still couldn't do anything until after the investigation was complete. I went back and forth with so many people about this until last Thursday when another incident occurred with the matron. By then I had had it, and I got ahold of a supervisor at OPT after leaving numerous messages and complaints in the days before. After my yelling and screaming, they finally moved my daughter to another bus route, and I still have yet to hear from the office of investigations regarding my complaint against this woman. I will be calling back to follow up and make sure they don't drop the case just because my daughter is on another bus now.
In addition to that, my aunt had surgery that same Thursday of last week for a mass in her lung which they found to be cancerous. This is my tiny aunt (her nickname is Dolly) who fought her way back from 4th stage cervical cancer before I got married nine years ago. She has battled so much in her life and is one of my real-life heroes. We were terrified and distraught when we heard the news and were waiting for the results of her lymph node biopsy to make sure the cancer in the lung was an early detection and an isolated case. Our prayers were answered and the lung cancer was stage one with no other cancer detection anywhere else in her body. She is now in for a long recovery, but we are thanking God for the great news.
On that note, I changed the colors of my journal in the beginning of October to pink to reflect my support for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This was not the change I had in mind for my journal's layout when I last mentioned I would be changing it, but it is for a good cause. Because of my aunt's cancer, I have always viewed this month as simply "Cancer Awareness Month" because my aunt had cancer of the cervix and not the breast. But in honor of that, I just called this past Tuesday to schedule my first mammogram. My doctor told me back in the spring that I should start having routine mammograms this year. I am 35 now--soon to be 36--so I guess it is finally time. I am waiting to hear back for my appointment and I am nervous as heck, not because I detected anything or am afraid of the results. It's just that I heard it is painful as hell--and I hate pain! :P But when you think about it, a brief period of pain is worth a lifetime of health, right? So I ask you all, for any of you out there who should be having routine screenings, and you haven't started yet, or haven't gotten around to doing it this year (or you know someone who should), PLEASE make sure you do before the end of this year. You are needed in the lives of those who love you, and your life is definitely worth the time and brief discomfort! *HUGS*
Peace, health, happiness and love to you all!
~Poet