Cracked elbows and cancer info

     I have worked with horses since I was 19.  I dealt with everything from Crazy ass racehorses, to sweet old retired brood mares.  I have been kicked in the head, thrown into a wall, kicked in the hip, been drug through the gravel by a foal (thanks Rab, now Kanu), all that and NEVER broken or cracked anything....
     That is until Friday June 11, 2011.  I was riding a 25 yr old gelding who was feeling particularly lazy thus was dragging his hooves (long in the feet), I was staying on just fine when he tripped 4 times prior.  Then he stumbled and I fell off, right onto my elbow, cracking my radial head. In my mind I called him a stupid heffer.  What came out of my mouth was a shocked and very shaken up, "He stumbled".  Alas as any good rider knows you have to get right back up there or else you will lose your nerve and be scared the rest of your life.  Now I have cancer and if Snarla did not scare me, I am damn sure not going to let a little fall scare me.  Everyone tells me what I already know: People DIE from falling off horses.  DUH I know that.  Hell I worked with theses big ole giants.  I also know the safest place for you is on the back of a horse.  Be calm and don't make loud sudden noises and you won't get stomped or kicked.   Now if your horses is attacked by bees Just hold on tight (Speaking from experience)  I was riding on a horse packing trip when my horse got stung by several bees at once, she reared then bucked and stopped.  By the grace of God I stayed on her back.

   Someone who shall remain nameless said, "Horses are dangerous. Just look at what happened to Michale Reeves."  Ok I did not have the heart to point out the astonishing number of differences there.
    1. He was jumping.
                 I am not alowed nor would I ever (without proper training) ever attempt a jump on a horse that I did not know or had not ridden before

     2. Michael Reeves probably did something drastically wrong with his body which caused the horse to shy and him to fly off over the horses head and land on his neck
                   I know how to fall when its off of a horse.  Tuck your shoulder and roll.  However because he STUMBLED i.e. almost went to his knees mid canter I had no space to tuck,  I did roll though.  I didn't go over his head I went off the side.

    Yes accidents happen but I don't need or want anyone telling me what I obviously already know.  My father for instance just said, "you do realize that people fall of horses and die."  I know they are worried about me and I appreciate that so much.  But what I don't appreciate is when someone makes a left field comment about something that is TOTALLY unrelated to me situation.  Like a JUMPING accident when I DON'T jump horses.  If you ride correctly there is nothing to worry about.  Just keep your weight IN the stirrups, don't get left behind, don't ride a horse that is too advanced for you make sure your tack is on correctly..... and so and so forth.

     Anywho, I will come down off my soapbox now.
   Who wants to know about my MRI??!!!!  Me, me, I do, I do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was good.  Though the radiation damage is causing short term memory loss.  Example:  Yesterday I went to the stables to pay for next session and they got 2 new horses.  After being told 3 times what their names were, I finally remembered them like this, "there's a CHANCE you're gonna be JAZZY"  I was told I wasn't the first to fall off Jax.  I hope I will be one of the last though, he earned his retirement.





now on to the cancer stuff. we as cancer patient are stronger than people that have never had cancer.  Our caregivers are some of the strongest people in the world.  That doesn't make us better it just makes us different.   For those of you that are new to cancer or caring for someone with cancer, my heart goes out to you.  I am going to say to you the words that got me through my ordeal. 
Just remember, You CAN do it you can do it you can it.  and then when think you cannot go on YOU CAN DO IT.  Never ever give up.

A friend asked me to post this

Cancer Support Programs

It is no secret that when a person has cancer, is in remission, or has survived cancer that they are looking for support any way they can get it. Many patients with terminal cancers such as mesothelioma credit their family and friend's support for helping them get through the hard times. Treatment is hard and a supportive person can make things a little bit easier. There are many resources for cancer survivors and patients; one includes support networks and programs. According to Cancer.org, support groups "provide comfort, teach coping skills, help reduce anxiety, and provide a place for people to share common concerns and emotional support."

It may not be easy for a person to share their feelings and emotions with someone who has not experienced what they have. Support groups meet to discuss everyone's concerns and emotions. It can make some people stronger because the people they are sitting and talking with know what it is like to be diagnosed with cancer. Stress and anxiety can be reduced and the quality of life in a person can improve through a cancer support groups. There are thousands of support groups found around the United States, and the physician treating the patient is sure to give them those resources.

The difference between a group therapy and a support group is who is leading the group. Cancer survivors, group members or professionals may lead a support group, but licensed counselors lead group therapies. There are many different types of support groups. However, no matter which support group you decide to choose, it is important to find one as soon as a mesothelioma prognosis is given. A cancer diagnosis is hard news to take, and it would be beneficial to that person to get a head's up on the road in front of them from people who have been there. Cancer survivors or people in remission have the most knowledge to give.

Studies and evidence have proven that support groups help people feel less lonely or helpless. They can move forward with their diagnosis and treatment when they have the support of people just like them.   Nobody is perfect therefore support from people going through or who have gone through the same thing can reduce tension, anger and confusion. Medication schedules are more likely to be followed when a cancer patient has support from their group. Many programs and networks help patients to fight the cancer and become survivors. If anything, quality of life is guaranteed to get better after the prognosis of cancer and treatment plan.

Support groups are crucial to the health of cancer patients and survivors. While medication and chemotherapy work on the physical aspect of the body, cancer support groups work on creating a positive mental attitude. Cancer support groups can help people to accept, cope and deal with their feelings around people who understand.  Nobody is prepared for tragedy to strike when receiving an unfavorable prognosis, but it can be easier to cope when there is support provided.

By: David Haas

 Remember You are not a bald freak.  You wear your bald head or scars as marks of a warrior that has stared death in the face and spat in its eye.

Life goes on (even if you don't want it to)

     I know what you are thinking... The title of the blog, is she depressed?  No. It is just a fact of life that we have to go on living even when our world seems torn apart.  I have taken up working out.  I tried pilates, hated it, tried spin, hated it.  So I tried zumba and I LOVED it.  I was soaking with sweat and stunk when it was over, but hey that's what showers are for.  I went to cardio dance party, I liked that even more than Zumba.  The problem is they don't offer them every day so some days I walk the dogs down Preston Ridge Trail. 
     I never believed people when they said getting a workout would make you feel better.  But they were right.  However today I was a lazy bum.  I sat on my laurels all day, slept from 10-12.  made lunch of a salad, slept from 2-4.  Walked dogs then made dinner. 

     Mike's parents are coming in town this Thursday.  I have a riding lesson Friday at 330.  Therefore if they want to come to that they are welcome. Tuesday Evening at 615 I take Indy to her agility class.  But I have NO idea what they are going to want to do.  I am making moist pork loin with rice and broccolli, Cornish game hens, Turkey shepherds pie, and something else that I haven't decided yet. 

     I have an MRI on the 21st and an appointment for the results on the 23.  No worries little miss Snarla is still asleep.  If she is not I will just BEAT HER ASS BACK INTO SUBMISSION.  I do not want to do any more surgery, also no more radiation but if they insist on radiation I will comply.  Chemo is no big deal for me.  I feel massive empathy for the people that chemo hits much harder.  Mine isn't the I.V.  it is just 3 pills  I take in the morning. 

     So every day I look up and see Grandaddys' flag and am reminded of just how lucky we are.  I was chopping green onions and was struck by a memory of him. He had a toothache and I was trying my best to get him to take some meds for it,  He did not want to and called me a "Bossy lady".  I got my feelings hurt so I went out to the yard and started pulling green onions out.  When Dad came to pick me up I reeked of onions and after washing my hands 3 times I still couldn't get the smell off.  He was right I am a "Bossy Lady" and proud of it.  I used to get run over all the time not anymore.

     We got a new Blu-Ray player!!!!! The old one was just messed up, it cut in and out and the last straw was when we were watching Megamind and it got stuck.  We were going to get a new one that weekend but before we could Grandaddy passed.  So two weeks later we went to Best buy and picked up a new one.  Now you would think that the new one would work...No.  After 3 trips back to Best Buy we finally got one that worked.  Michael was going to return it too but he figured out how to work it the next morning.  Now you may be thinking "Isn't Michael an ENGINEER?"  Yes he is but he is an Senior RF Engineer that deals with cell signals, not blu-ray players.  Excuses, excuses right?

     People are complaining it is sooo Hot.  To that I say Just wait until August.  I will be a hermit by then.  Only going out in the morning and to the gym.  Humans are just not equipped for a sudden transition from 70s to 90s. 

     I seem to have forgotten all the punctuation lessons from grade school.  I am afraid I am never going to get a job and my paintings aren't selling.  So I have to either stop painting or give them away.  Nobody has any money for frivolous purchases such as paintings.  Albeit some of the proceeds got to Brain tumor research but I will be taking a loss when shipping them.  Any ideas?  One solution is to take them to the Grey Matters meetings and let the other brain tumor survivors pick and choose what they want for free.  I also am afraid that I will take them an no one will want them.  I have been hanging them up in the guest bedroom.  I put nail holes in the walls everywhere and now I am trying to cover up the damage by putting nails in the holes and hanging the paintings.  NO NEW nail holes.  But a big thank you to Bob V for teaching me how to hammer correctly.  I haven't smashed my thumb...yet. 
    
     Until next time.....

stories about Sam

GUEST COLUMN: Rome medical community loses giant of a man

by Jack Runninger

14 hrs ago | 80 views | 0  | 1  |  | 

HIS PATIENTS knew the late Dr. Sam Garner as a gentle, patient, loving, and caring physician. I never knew a single one of his patients who didn’t love him.

“I cried my eyes out when he retired,” my friend Charlotte Jones told me. “He was always there for you, and insisted you call him even at night and on weekends if you needed him. My husband Larry heard him jokingly answer a stranger who had asked him if he was a doctor, ‘Yes, and a damned good one, too!’

And he really was!!”

Many of these patients didn’t realize that he could also be a real character.

Much of everyone’s life is, of course, shaped by the heredity and environment of their family. Undoubtedly Sam inherited many of his father’s traits. Also a physician in Rome, his father was also noted as a great and good man, but one you didn’t cross.

His office was above Enloe’s drug store on the corner of Broad Street and Second Avenue. During a renovation the entrance door got hung backwards, resulting in the door being locked from the outside.

“Mr. Bradford, this damn door is locked, and I can’t get out,” he phoned to the pharmacist downstairs. “Send Willie up with the key.” Things got real busy about then, and Mr. Bradford forgot to send Willie.

“No need to send Willie,” Dr. Garner phoned an hour later. “I took a 2 X 4 and knocked the damn door down!” And he had!

SAM EVIDENTLY also inherited some of his deviltry and toughness from his father. His nephew, local CPA Ben Whittington, says Sam was the “enforcer” at Neely school when he was a child. “If any kid needed a whoopin’, Sam was the one delegated to do it.”

This and his sense of fairness and justice later got him in trouble when he was attending Wake Forest U. A large, tough, and strong football player often bullied other students. He made the mistake of jamming Sam’s face down into a drinking fountain from which Sam was drinking, breaking a couple of teeth.

Sam went seeking him to retaliate. When he found him, he broke a stick across his jaw. For this he was kicked out of Wake Forest, and then transferred to the University of Georgia.

Other stories related to me by Whittington about Dr. Garner include:

When Sam was a young boy, the family had a cow who always followed Sam like a pet dog. He would get the cow to follow him into the house and follow him upstairs. From an upstairs window, Sam would leap out the window onto the roof of an outbuilding, and from there to the garden below to soften the landing. Trustingly, the cow would follow.

His father came home one evening, and was dumbfounded to see his cow hurtling through space and into his garden. His only comment was, “No damn wonder my canna lilies don’t grow!”

YOU HAD TO BE CAREFUL playing tricks on Sam, because he was good at getting even. As a joke a female friend turned two rabbits loose in his office one weekend. Later the lady brought her 16- year-old daughter to Sam for examination.

After the exam, he returned to the reception area and announced to her mother that the girl was pregnant. The momma about had a heart attack, until Sam said, “April fool.”

And I found he was quick on the comeback as well. He and dentist Dr. Bob Woodruff were good friends and always played golf together. They were fierce competitors, and hated to lose, despite the fact they were both lousy golfers and their betting stakes were a Coke.

One day I was in the group waiting as he and Bob teed off on the first hole.

Sam hooked his drive so badly, it ended up on the parallel 10th hole on the back nine, which was closed for repairs.

“Hey, Sam,” I gleefully shouted. “The back nine is closed.”

“I know it and I wish your mouth was, too,” he one-upped me.

SAM IDOLIZED his older brother Geston. Like Sam he also never lost a fight, and was very intelligent and clever, and thus Sam was very disappointed over the fact that when Geston was about 13 years old, he would always lose in wrestling matches with a gal named Marjorie. The girl was well developed, but not all that strong. Yet she always won.

“Why do you let that girl beat you like that?” a disappointed Sam asked his brother.

“Because,” replied Geston with a sly grin, “if I beat her she won’t agree to wrestle me any more.”

Sam first “prescribed” medication when he was about 10 years old. He found some Ex-Lax among his father’s drug samples, and after removing the wrappers gave it all to a friend as chocolate candy. The boy got five demerits for hiding in the school basement all day.

“I see lots of doctors every day,” a security guard at Floyd Hospital once told me. “Some of them act mighty biggety, like they think they’re better than anyone else.”

The exact opposite of Sam!!

MORE THAN anything else I will remember Sam as a great and highly successful person and physician with a marvelous sense of humor, who was a really nice guy, and never conceited or “biggety.”

Jack Runninger of Rome is a retired optometrist and state and national award-winning humor columnist and co-author of “Fixing Stupid—Two Curmudgeons’ Pet Peeves.” Readers may contact him at runningerj@comcast.net

Read more: RN-T.com - GUEST COLUMN: Rome medical community loses giant of a man