Friday’s Quotes for the Chicks
Seize the moment. Don’t expect someone else to do something you want done. If you don’t do it yourself, perhaps no one will. By the same token, don’t put things off to the future. If you don’t do it now, you might never do it at all. Melchor Lim Quotes
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Today will be a public service announcement of sorts.
As many of you have probably figured out, I’m not entirely fond of Doctors. As such, I tend to, um, let appointments and tests slide (whatever do I need that for? There’s no history in my family – not gonna happen to me.)
But this year things have changed. A close relative got a very aggressive skin cancer and a (second!) friend also developed cancer. Things are starting to get real.
Last week, I had a baseline examination done by a dermatologist (and let me say that you have to be pretty comfortable with a guy who is leaning over you, has his hands all over your body and who is looking at your skin with a pair of magnifying glasses.) I don’t have to go back for two years and that’s because nothing was found. (And now I can stop worrying about that situation for at least a few years.)
Then I went to the dentist and while there is no progress on that end, (in that I still can’t eat food unless it is soft and cut into tiny pieces) I do have an appointment in two weeks to go over the *endless* x-rays and photos that were taken. We will look at the options and decide on a forward path.
Do I want to be there? Absolutely not, but the desire to be able to eat in public again is beginning to trump not having any work done. The time has finally come (and I know, much of this could have been avoided if I hadn’t put it off for so long – it’s my disgrace and I own it.)
This morning, I had a 3-D mammogram. Me – the mammo-graham cookie lady, has put off that exam for years. When was my last one? I’m actually embarrassed to say that it was in 2003 and was so long ago that the results have been wiped from the system.
I know, I know. It’s stupid people like me that die from things that can be taken care of IF CAUGHT EARLY ENOUGH.
So folks, it’s the beginning of a new year – a fresh beginning. If you’ve been putting off going to the docs or getting a test done, pick up the phone and make an appointment. Don’t be a chicken. If I can do it, trust me, so can you.
We want all of our flock members to be around for a long, long time.
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Just a heads up, my article on Respiratory Distress in Chickens is in the current issue of Backyard Poultry. In the same issue is an OUTSTANDING article on treating leg and foot problems in chickens by Gail Damerow. This issue is definitely worth keeping in your chicken library.
Have a great weekend. I’ll be at the Northeastern Poultry exhibit on Saturday, let me know if you’re going so that I can say “hi.”
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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at Wendy@SimpleThrift.com
Also, join me on Facebook to find out more about the flock (children and chickens) and see some pretty funny chicken jokes, photos of tiny houses, and even a recipe or two.
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Not sure if you’d like this info, but here goes:
Met-analyses in the past couple of years show that yearly mammograms do not save lives, and actually do more harm than good by initiating treatment for most common types of “cancer” that go away on their own.
This site’s design looks more reactionary than I’d like, but all the highlighted links go to major research in peer-reviewed journals.
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/millions-wrongly-treated-cancer-national-cancer-institute-panel-confirms
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/dire-warning-cancer-industry-owns-media-and-your-mind
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/cancer-creening-doesnt-save-lives-meta-study-reveals
You might have been better off avoiding . . .
I apologize for the delay in getting this comment up, it went into moderation (because of the links) and I had to manually approve it. Having said that, I have absolutely no problem with sharing this information and in fact, some of what you’ve said has added to my reason not to get an exam done in years. Having had two friends who were recently diagnosed with and treated for cancer though, I’m a little jumpy these days. It couldn’t happen to them, right? And it couldn’t happen to me. But it did happen to them. In both cases, early detection were key in their treatment. Anyway although I had reservations, I decided to go with the 3-D imaging to get a baseline (just as I recently got a baseline with my dermatologist.) Now if something happens, at least we will have something to compare it to.
But thank you for the information, I do appreciate it.
Wendy