Found Good Cancer Site, Semester Moving Along, need book deal

     The semester is well underway and I guess I am doing okay. You normally have no idea what the students think till the end of the semester, but I gave them an "interest survey" in the beginning and had an idea about what they knew, or supposedly, what they said they knew. And in one of my classes I heard a student say "this is my favorite class." Well, someone likes my class !
And that's a good thing.
      But it pays so awfully little, this adjunct faculty gig. I have a Master's degree and they pay me like I just graduated high school!
     Wish it paid better as I think I have low thyroid-- hair keeps thinning, brain is getting fuzzier in the memory dept. I ordered iodine online and it 'says' it's natural-- from a place in Las Vegas, no less. Vegas, where a stubborn mother, mentally deficient, juvenille sister and unhealthy brother live. Not a lot to cheer up your day. If my mother passes then what then I have to deal with? They don't have a lot of money to live on and the same here. Wish my mystery "The Butler Didn't Do It" would be considered by some agent/publisher. But who am I kidding, as I am not a great novelist. But it would be nice, and then I could afford healthcare.
      So I look online. I found 1uponcancer.com and I need to go back to it as it has some  good information. Well, I need to leave soon for class. Tah tah.

Internet Concerns, Health expenses, politics

    I actually had a hard time starting this as it seemed to have forgotten my password, so I had to get another one. There is a lot to this internet business and you could spend all day learning more about it if you so desired. But I have many things to do, many writing projects I am working on.
    It galls me that the place where I got a bone density scan last year is "hounding me" for money. It is in the third tier of my husband's insurance, so it paid next to nothing. The full price for use of their 'room,' and interpreting the results is $800! Imagine if I had this done in Canada! No, I don't want to go to cold Canada for healthcare; I just want affordable healthcare in the U. S. Are hospitals greedy or do they think poor college adjuncts (my income is close to minimum wage) can afford this sort of thing? Why can't they be more reasonable?
    When I see Pres. Obama on TV talking about jobs and a jobs bill, I cannot for the life of me understand how the conservative "crazies" in Congress can disagree with him? Just as the Great Depression took a full decade to straighten out, so too do we need to look at government job creation options. And during the 1930s they also came up with the 40 hour week and also somethings that are monumentally important now -- unemployment insurance and Social Security. And those wanting to get rid of Social Security don't have their heads on straight. Do they really want to see old people living on the street in this country? It is so expensive to live. Of course we need to give our seniors Social Security. Of course, if you are a millionaire then you certainly don't need it, but many senior citizens do. My husband wants to take advantage of it too. We need to support Obama and not let the conservative crazies run everything!

Economics can hurt health

     My husband and I were at an "Acres of Democrats" meeting and he handed out some info he'd found out about the new healthcare bill Obama. The average citizen knows nothing about this healthcare bill. He "did" drop the public option, but the new bill is supposed to allow those with a precondition to qualify for health insurance, and allow children up to 25 or so to stay on their parents' policy. My son Daniel who had cancer, though, got a job at a hospital in Pittsburgh-- his insurance is much better than ours!
    My husband complains I do research online and am doing "self diagnosis" when it comes to health, but his insurance sucks. There is no doctor who isn't over an hour away I could go to, and even then there would be a deductible. So, yes, I self diagnosed myself to have too little iodine (they say having enough would help prevent breast cancer). So I ordered a bottle online. If I went to a doctor it'd probably be $100 for the visit and then, after that, more for tests. My husband went to his doctor for tests,the second time in a year, and his insurance won't pay for the lab work. We are NEVER out of medical debt! It disgusts me. In Canada I could have a thyroid/iodine test for nothing. In this country we have corporate welfare and too much spent on bombs and such. What about healthcare?

Neat Nellie's Cave Park, Blacksburg, Jolly Rogers amusment park

    Neat Nellie's Cave Park, at Blacksburg, VA. There's probably a cave on the property somewhere. There's actually a little cave on an upper trail at Wildwood Park (Radford) and so why not this trail? 
    And walking on it was funny. The trail we walked on, some grass and sometimes dirt, was partly in the open, away from a tree canopy, and it reminded me of a visit I made to Takapausha Preserve in Seaford, on Long Island, whose trails I ventured on as part of my novel research back in 2000. And th e logs bordering our trail, don't know why, reminded me of a ride I went on at a Long Island amusement park off Hempstead Turnpike called "Jolly Rogers". The ride was for little kids and I think I was outgrowing it, but it consisted of sitting on a board and you had pedals in front of you and you "hand pedaled" the "RIDE" around a track. I actually found a'remember Jolly Rogers' amusment park on FAcebook! So I wasn't just imagining it.
    We actually went to Nellie's Cave Park for a meeting with a new group of Master Naturalists. Some were very friendly; some were reserved. I hope to get better acquainted with someone. I would also love to own a home and invite someone to my house.

Pittsburgh has walking areas, zoo, low iodine affects your health

    Last August we traveled to a nephew's wedding in New York, saw Niagara Falls at night -- pretty colors. Before that, we saw son Daniel in Pittsburgh.
   Pittsburgh has a neat public transportation system with its trolley. You can take it downtown, where the three rivers meet, the Monongahela, Ohio and Allegheny and go to "The Point," the park at the meeting of these three rivers. You can walk along the river and see the yellow painted bridges going across to their the Steelers' football stadium, and eat a juicy hamburgers downtown, or travel a bit farther to the zoo.
   Yes, Pittsburgh has a wonderful zoo, with a polar bear, elephants, Cape hunting dogs, giraffes, a huge aquarium and play area for kids, etc. Pittsburgh has some science and music museums you could walk to too.
    But the battle of the bulge continues for me -- back to now. I seem to have the symptoms of low thyroid/iodine, like hair loss, fuzzy memory, low temperature and other symptoms. Could these have caused my breast cancer? I NEED some iodine!

Learning about Edible Plants, Going off Diet is easy

    It's pretty easy to go off a diet. Even if you've had cancer and really "want" to change the way you do things, it's still quite easy to go off a diet. I went to an instructional day for myself, Ms. Master Naturalist member, to learn about edible AND medicinal plants you can find in a field or the woods. You can even find edible plants in your yard-- if you have a big enough yard, that is. And not a suburban  yard. Suburban yards are ridiculously manicured-- where do you find edible plants --- roses? Actually, you can get vitamin C from the  "fruit" of the rose, what is called rose hips. And you can boil the flowers or leaves to make tea. You can boil inner bark in the woods if you get hungry enough.
    Our instructor had foraged with Euell Gibbons, the fellow who stalked the wild asparagus and wrote about it. So we learned a lot. Jewelweed can be used on poison ivy and bug bites, yarrow, boneset and clover help your immune system, spicebush leaves are aromatic and many things can be made into teas. These things are not being passed down and our food is mass produced and not that healthy. We need to go forage in  the woods!

Dieting is so frustrating

    I think dieting is the most frustrating thing in the world. The idea that not being
able to eat what you want is a good idea is, really, not a good idea. You feel deprived,
then you go and overeat or eat too many snacks or just plain get neurotic about the
whole thing. I should have had a bag of celery and radishes handy to munch on or
something!
     Who else agrees with me that food restriction stinks? I know, I am just a spoiled
American eater. Many people go to bed hungry or only eat what is in season and 
don't have the variety (or exposure to pesticides) that I do. It's toss-up, isn't it?
Either there is too much food around of not enough. At least I exercised at "Curves"
today.