Posts Tagged ‘fight 4 a cause’

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As such, you may see a plethora of pink from pinned-on ribbons to new webpage graphics to ties and other attire… all of this is in attempts to honor those who have battled with breast cancer as well as to raise public awareness of the issue. While October is the power-promo month, the NBCAM website is available every day of the year to provide information and references to those interested in learning more about the fight against breast cancer – and, according to the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month website, the fight to encourage the “practice of regular self-breast exams to identify any changes, scheduling regular visits and annual mammograms, adhering to prescribed treatment, and knowing the facts about the recurrence” of breast cancer.

This month, in respect of Breast Cancer Awareness, Colloquy Moms is featuring our readers – have you or has someone you love fought this battle? Send your story to team@colloquymoms.com along with a short bio, a link to your blog (if applicable), and a photograph (if available). Submissions will be accepted through October 25th as celebration of the NBCAM’s 25 years of awareness, education, and empowerment. All acceptable submissions will be featured between October 17 and October 31st! Our purpose is to inspire, to inform, and to enlighten others about the seriousness of breast cancer and the necessity of getting involved in the fight to continue to move forward in research and public awareness.

Spread the word – save a life!

A couple of weeks ago, I’m sure everyone heard about a man who slapped the 2 year old child of a complete stranger in Walmart. Aside | from | a few | harmless | tweets, I’ve maintained my silence on this issue for the most part – until today

I’ve seen people knock the crap out of their kids in WalMart… you know, the whole “PUT-THAT-DOWN!”-*smack!* kind of thing. But never… NEVER… have I ever seen anyone knock the crap out of someone ELSE’s kid in WalMart. Until now.

Ok, granted *I* didn’t personally see it, but just the mental visualization is enough in itself. I’ve pondered many a day over this situation and no matter how I look at it, I just keep coming back to the same question: HOW did this man get his hands on this woman’s kid with her standing there? The report says that the man WARNED the mother to quiet her 2 year old daughter or HE would. This would be immediately become a problem for me. Did you just THREATEN my toddler? {I would have been asking this question rhetorically as I was taking off my earrings and rolling back my sleeves.}

I think the thing that bothers me the most about this whole ordeal is that I keep being burdened by the question of WHO is going to protect our children if WE don’t? I mean, seriously – think this through from beginning to end:

You’re walking along through WalMart with your 2 year old kid in the buggy. You’ve been in there a while. The kid is bored… she’s just entered into the terrible-two world of autonomy, limitation stretching, and boundary breaking. She was ready to GO like 20 minutes ago, but you’re only got a fewwww things left to grab. So, what does she do? She starts whining… and it gradually gets increasingly louder as the minutes roll by. You’re stressed… you’re going as fast as you can. You’re doing the best you can. BREATHE. Up walks this old man and you’re thinking that – like everyone else – he’s going to say something about how cute your precious little girl is, but instead out pops this rude and shocking comment about shutting your kid up FOR you if you don’t do it yourself.

My reaction process would go a little like this:

1. BRAIN MELT DOWN
2. … must find keys
3. … must gouge eyes out
4. … MUST PROTECT OFFSPRING!

There just IS no other way to respond to this type of threat. I mean, this is your KID he’s talking about! Dude, I double … no, I TRIPLE-dog dare you to stick your hand over toward my cart. You don’t even have to touch it. Just ease it over this way. YOU WILL MOST DEFINITELY DRAW BACK A NUB! Yep, that’s right – one of those things without any digits on it… Anyway, back on topic – so let’s give the lady the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps she ignored the comment thinking he was just being a mean old fart and not imagining in her wildest dreams he would actually DO anything. BUT, oh dear Lord…

The man reaches over and commences to slapping this child about the FACE. Re-peat-ed-ly…

All rationale and reason goes out the window at this point as far as I’m concerned. There is no right or wrong. There is no calm and collected. There is no understanding you’re an old fart. There is only THAT IS MY KID YOU’RE HITTING! But, this mother actually allows for enough time for her child to be struck at least 4 times.

I’m getting a headache just trying to wrap my mind around that.

FOUR … count with me … 1 … 2 … 3 … 4 … FOUR times this man struck this little girl. And the mom is SCREAMING at him. Really? He has enough time to extend and retract his arm FOUR times while popping the little apple-of-your-eye in the FACE and I have to assume that there is some type of genetic issue with your arms which prevented you from DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT!?

Look, people… I won’t drag this out to be a terribly long post. All of this is just my extremely lengthy and personally meaningful way of saying STOP letting people take advantage of you! I don’t know what on God’s green earth leads a person to believe it to be acceptable for them to put their hands on someone else’s child… There are some freakin crazies in the world – no doubt about it. That being said, I don’t care what type of fear or apprehension you would have on a normal day, but on a day where some stranger grabs your kid and starts trying to knock her ear wax out through her nostril, I would hope to HEAVEN that you do something to put at end to the abuse prior to lick number FOUR.

What do you think?

Did the mother handle this in a way the typical mother would respond? Am I just some psycho crazy mama, assuming that others would be willing to go to war for their children since, clearly, I would? I’d love to know your thoughts on this situation. I’ve even heard it suggested that the mother was neglectful in allowing this to happen to her child right in front of her. What do you say to that? Post a comment at the bottom of this page to join in the conversation!

As many of you may already know, last Saturday my sister in law was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Hearing the news of her diagnosis, I could suddenly relate to the feeling Wile E Coyote had every time he was crushed by the anvil, bringing him back to the harsh reality that his plans just weren’t good enough; that no matter what he did, he would always be inferior to the Roadrunner. Life is like that. Try as we may, there’s always going to be something we missed in the blueprint… some kink in the chain of events which forces us to realize that we’re just not in control. All the planning in the world can’t prepare us for certain things. The biggest issue when we meet circumstances like this is whether we bounce back or remain stuck under the anvil. There’s a lesson to be learned from that boneheaded, stubborn coyote we all came to know as Wile E: no matter how badly it hurts, you just gotta get back up and try again.

Approximately 200 people are diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) each week in the United States alone. It is estimated that anywhere from 250K – 350K people are living with MS in this nation right now. To give you an idea of what these indivuduals, including my sister in law, are facing… here is an excerpt taken from Wikipedia:

MS affects the ability of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord to communicate with each other. Nerve cells communicate by sending electrical signals called action potentials down long fibers called axons, which are wrapped in an insulating substance called myelin. In MS, the body’s own immune system attacks and damages the myelin. When myelin is lost, the axons can no longer effectively conduct signals. The name multiple sclerosis refers to scars (scleroses—better known as plaques or lesions) in the white matter of the brain and spinal cord, which is mainly composed of myelin. Almost any neurological symptom can appear with the disease, and often progresses to physical and cognitive disability and neuropsychiatric disorder.

MS takes several forms, with new symptoms occurring either in discrete attacks (relapsing forms) or slowly accumulating over time (progressive forms). Between attacks, symptoms may go away completely, but permanent neurological problems often occur, especially as the disease advances. There is no known cure for MS. Treatments attempt to return function after an attack, prevent new attacks, and prevent disability. MS medications can have adverse effects or be poorly tolerated, and many patients pursue alternative treatments, despite the lack of supporting scientific study. The prognosis is difficult to predict; it depends on the subtype of the disease, the individual patient’s disease characteristics, the initial symptoms and the degree of disability the person experiences as time advances. Life expectancy of patients is nearly the same as that of the unaffected population.

The truth behind this disease is that it will bring out a fighter in you that you never knew was there… and will create the necessity to strengthen the fighter you already knew existed. My sister in law has always been a fighter. {Those who know her are laughing right now thinking of just how much of a fighter she has always been!} She’s a strong woman and is lucky to have a husband who is a strong man… a loving man… a man who has been – and will be – there for her through thick and thin. But just think of all the people struggling with this illness on their own. It hurts my heart just thinking of San going through this even knowing she has the support of our family. When I think of the bigger picture – the thousands of people who are going through it alone, that makes my spirit cry.

Honestly, until now I had never given much thought to MS sufferers. For so many of us, until we have a experience with a certain thing, it never becomes much more than a mere blip on our radar. But now, it’s personal. It’s close to home. It’s on my mind. Do you know someone who has MS? Have YOU been diagnosed with this disease? I encourage everyone to reach out – educate yourself. Just like the fight against cancer, HIV/AIDS, and other autoimmune disorders, the fight against Multiple Sclerosis deserves our attention, our efforts, our resources… and our prayers. When you’re healthy, it’s so easy to take that for granted; to consider yourself lucky and to turn a blind eye to the issues others are facing. But ask yourself this question: What if tomorrow, it were YOU dealing with these things. Would you find it unfair that no one cared about your inner battle? … that no one rushed to your aid or found it worthwhile to provide you with support?

Support the cause! Join the fight!
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