Naive

What I did as a much younger person most likely caused where I am today.  This message is mostly for the younger generation, so please share it with your children, grandchildren, and/or anyone who would listen, maybe even your students at school.

This could happen to you, hopefully not but it could.  I know that you are probably saying to yourself ‘nah’, well I did too and look where I am.

I will start with smoking, granted that they say that my cancer is mostly found on non-smokers but my own second hand smoke didn’t help so here you have it…  I started smoking at 13 years old, got pretty heavy from my mid-twenties to early thirties and then I stopped for a couple of years.  When I restarted, I would smoke 5 to 7 cigarettes a day and up to 10 if I went out drinking.

So now drinking, I was not a big drinker until I got to my mid-twenties and even then, I did not drink that much.  But by my mid to late thirties, I would have two to three rum and Pepsi every night, again… more if I went out.  Double whammy, the alcohol was killing my good cells one by one and my cancer cells were feeding and slowly growing with the sugar from the Pepsi and the rum.

So what made me drink more?  Well stress of course.  I had a very stressful job and as the years passed and promotions came, the job demand increased and so did the stress, which of course made my cancer cells go yippy!!!

So what is next, oh yes… eating, since my mid-thirties till my early fifties, I did not eat breakfast or lunch, get this, I had 3.2 pounds of peanut M&M’s a week…  you know the bag at Costco that has XXL, well that one, every week.  Can you hear the cancer cells?  Well I didn’t then but do now.

And finally exercise, I was a size 2 most of my twenties until about my mid-thirties, I was a size 4 from then until my early fifties and then started venturing into some size 6.  Basically, I was and for the most part still am small so in my wonderful wisdom (NOT) I felt that there was no reason to exercise. 

Why am I telling you all this, oh yes, in hopes that you do not make the same mistakes, any or all of them, as you can see I made 5 deadly mistakes.  And believe me when I tell you, I did not listen and do not know what to do or say to make you listen but hope that you do because as you know I have been fighting cancer for over 2 years and now I am fighting for my life.

In conclusion:

If you smoke, stop… honestly, smoking stinks and no one wants to stand next to someone that just smoked.

If you drink, okay so maybe one here or there and please do not drink and drive, even if you think you can.

Stress is a hard one but I read once of a man who when he got home from work would put a nail in a piece of wood by the garage.  The nail represented his work issues and then he would walk in the door without taking work with him and giving him the opportunity to unwind and enjoy the family.  Someone told me once to wind up work in the morning on the way to work and in the evening unwind work and wind up the children like remember to ask how was school or soccer practice and this way you would not carry the stress from work.  I tried it but my children at times gave me more stress then work… so you know how that ended up, let’s have another drink.

If you have bad eating habits and eat junk, it is time to change that too.  Just go back to the basic food groups, meats, cheese, milk, bread, eggs, fruit and veggies and all in moderation.

Finally, exercise… you do not have to go to a gym, you can do your legs and arms from home, jog on the spot or use the WII but spend 20 minutes a day.  YES, every day.

Please know that this message has kept me up for the past few days and that is why you are getting such a long message.  And if you are still thinking that this could not happen to you, let me add that Cancer does not run in my family.  My grandfather and mother were both diagnosed with cancer when they were over their 80’s and both were smokers at one time or another.  The women in my family live way into their 80’s from both sides, mother and father except my godmother who was a heavy smoker and died of emphysema.  What I am saying is that my situation is not genetic.  Environmental, maybe but my sisters are okay and Pat is okay, so which environment.

Just accept as I have that there are things that you can control and that there are consequences to every action and in this case the consequence for me is breast cancer, lung cancer, and lung cancer metastasize and spread.

Love y’all,

ME