Friday Peace Vigil, Youngstown, OH, and surrounding area:

PEACE VIGIL
YOUNGSTOWN, OH
Friday, November 2, 2012
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Downtown on the Square (Federal Plaza E. & Wick Ave.)

Ray Nakley (330-506-1999) and Ron Dull (330-518-9881) will hold their weekly Peace Vigil this Friday, November 2, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., at the corner of Downtown on the Square (Federal Plaza E. & Wick Ave.), Youngstown, OH. They invite anyone who is interested in showing their support for ending conflict in the world to join them. Hold out positive thoughts for that!

　

This week:
　

This week I’ve been reasonably productive, but I have a couple more life things to get through before I can get back to writing on my novel. Maybe by next week. We’ll see. Meanwhile, this week I had an all-important annual medical test, and we took care of our semi-annual civic duty.

VITAL MEDICAL TASK
Today I crossed my mammogram off my to-do list. Or as I like to call it, my annual ritual of booby-smooshing. My mother and her mother had breast cancer, both when they were past the age of 70, and I’m fast approaching that milestone. I make a point of keeping a close eye on ‘the girls,’ just to catch any trouble so I can deal with it swiftly and effectively.

As an old registered nurse who began practicing before World War I, Grandma was not a fan of ‘old school’ doctors, so she didn’t go for help when she first discovered a lump. Once she began receiving medical treatment, at my mother’s urging, it was much too late, and she eventually succumbed to the disease.

That’s why her daughter, my mother, was so diligent about going for treatment the moment she discovered a lump in her breast. As a result, she had a simple lumpectomy. The cancer was so small and contained at that point that she didn’t need any further cancer treatment for the rest of her life, nearly 20 more years. With all the other medical complications I have to deal with, I have to be as diligent as she was. Which makes me think of the other vital task Jim and I both took care of during the past week.

VITAL CIVIC TASK
We voted. We filled in our early ballots and put them into the mail in plenty of time so they will be counted. I’m proud to say we both voted for Barack Obama and Joe Biden for President and Vice President. We also voted for the Democratic candidates for the other state and national offices, especially Rich Carmona for Arizona’s second Senator, and the return of Ann Kirkpatrick to the House of Representatives, where she belongs.

The reason it’s so important to keep the current administration in the White House, the Democratic majority in the Senate, and to bring the Democrats back into control of the House is that the Medical Care Act must be preserved and improved. This momentous victory for President Obama is one of the most important and moral laws the United States has implemented in decades.

Although so-called Obamacare isn’t quite the universal coverage that must be the eventual goal everywhere in the world, it is a vast improvement over the old system in which profit-greedy insurance corporations held the power of life and death over people who paid them for health insurance coverage and then were denied payment for necessary medical care. To say nothing of the millions of people who couldn’t even afford any kind of medical insurance and were even denied access to state Medicaid benefits.

If the Republicans win this election and gain control of the Executive and/or Legislative reins of the country, there is every reason to fear that they will dismantle the system that allows most Americans to have access to necessary medical care. That means insurance benefits will be further gutted, medical costs will continue to skyrocket, and tens of millions of people will become disabled and sickly from conditions that could easily have been prevented with timely intervention.

The cheapest and most effective health care systems in the world are the ones that provide care for everyone that needs it, when they need it, paid for through a single payer. Why the GOP can’t understand that is beyond me. But they will not be distracted from their reverence to the ‘religion’ of filthy profits bled from human misery.

And they have the audacity to call socialized medicine ‘immoral.’

Positive thoughts and, for those who are believers, prayers for all the suffering souls all around the world!

Don’t put them off. Get tested for colon and breast cancer.

After my struggle over the last couple of months trying to obtain proper medication for my ongoing medical conditions, I’m happy to say I finally had a great experience with a medical test that no one looks forward to but everyone should eventually have done. Yes, this week I had a colonoscopy.

With a history of colon cancer in my family, I’ve made sure my husband and I have had regular colonoscopies since we turned 50. Since we’re anesthetized for the procedure--not to mention the prep process, which doctors admit causes a certain “discomfort”--we have to schedule our tests a week apart so we can be each other’s driver for the trip home afterward. That’s why Jim’s test will be next week. We’ll both be delighted when we can stop worrying about our insides for another few years, depending on the results of Jim’s test.

And while I’m at it, the same advice applies to regular mammograms. With breast cancer in my family too, I’ve been getting that procedure done every year since I was in my early 40s. At least there’s no prep involved for this rather simple procedure. I just have to show up for the test, and any “discomfort” only lasts a few seconds at a time. Besides, if you want real discomfort, just ignore these handy tests and see how bad it feels to deal with either of these terrible diseases.

So, if you’re 50 years old (possibly as young as 40 for mammograms), have a family history of colon and/or breast cancer, or have suspicious symptoms, talk to your doctor about getting a colonoscopy and/or mammogram. I can’t deny that these tests involve a certain “discomfort,” but it’s definitely worth the peace of mind you’ll have when the doctor says everything’s clear and you don’t have to bother with the test again for a while. No excuses. Get checked!