Republican plan to eliminate Medicare

[timmgirvan]

Originally Posted by Mike

I have a personal interest in this, as I was born with my esophagus growing into my right lung(instead of my stomach). I spent the first two years of my life in Boston's Children's Hospital. No skin graft in 1962, they simply detached and stretched the esophagus, sewing it into my stomach. During those two years I had a lot of tears and pinhole leaks, and some pneumonia and extreme fever that got me some early Last Rites by a Catholic priest.

Used to run 5 miles a day, was an amateur boxer, etc, but two years ago(at the age of 46) everything began to unravel. I have near constant choking and coughing, and am experiencing the loss of the functioning I did have for the 44 years before. I don't have cancer, but I will miss eating. Seems the time to revert to being tube fed is coming faster than I thought

Sure could use my Pool 2 future wager exacta of The Factor/Astrology to come to fruition

Mike: I am truly sorry to hear about your condition. I can't imagine what you're going through.

[Mike]

Thanks, Tim

Oddly enough, I started reading and listening to Christopher Hitchens just about the time that he was diagnosed with cancer. He earned his cancer(if you can say such a thing) thru heavy hard liquor consumption and cigarettes, whereas my condition was with me from the start. I never smoked (cigarettes) but have, being a good Irish-Catholic, drank my fair share of quality beer

I'm a single dad now(kids are 10 and 12), so I am worried about the possibility of fairly quick death due to aspiration pneumonia. But, I can do a lot of things to be healthier, and may live for another twenty years

BTW, that Astrology/The Factor exacta from Pool 2 pays about $7,000!

[timmgirvan]

Originally Posted by Mike

Thanks, Tim

Oddly enough, I started reading and listening to Christopher Hitchens just about the time that he was diagnosed with cancer. He earned his cancer(if you can say such a thing) thru heavy hard liquor consumption and cigarettes, whereas my condition was with me from the start. I never smoked (cigarettes) but have, being a good Irish-Catholic, drank my fair share of quality beer

I'm a single dad now(kids are 10 and 12), so I am worried about the possibility of fairly quick death due to aspiration pneumonia. But, I can do a lot of things to be healthier, and may live for another twenty years

BTW, that Astrology/The Factor exacta from Pool 2 pays about $7,000!

If this were a poker site, I'd say you had a bad beat! Try to stay pro-active on cures or procedures that would alleviate some or all of your distress, and hopefully lengthen your life for a good, long period of time.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Mike

Thanks, Tim

Oddly enough, I started reading and listening to Christopher Hitchens just about the time that he was diagnosed with cancer. He earned his cancer(if you can say such a thing) thru heavy hard liquor consumption and cigarettes, whereas my condition was with me from the start. I never smoked (cigarettes) but have, being a good Irish-Catholic, drank my fair share of quality beer

I'm a single dad now(kids are 10 and 12), so I am worried about the possibility of fairly quick death due to aspiration pneumonia. But, I can do a lot of things to be healthier, and may live for another twenty years

BTW, that Astrology/The Factor exacta from Pool 2 pays about $7,000!

Oh, Hitchens. I absolutely despise a lot of his political op-eds, but he says them so eloquently. And his writings on his cancer leave me bawling. He'll be a loss to discourse, for sure. The man can write.

Thanks for sharing about your own medical history, Mike. I think it reminds us all that good health is not something we earn; it really is a gift, and one that those who have it often take for granted. My mother did all the things you were supposed to- ate well, exercised, had kids before she was 30, etc. and yet she was dead of breast cancer at 35. You just never know.

I think we seek to assign blame for a person's bad health on his or her lifestyle because it relieves us of the fear that at any time something could go wrong with our own bodies. And lets us avoid the fact that all of us, at some point, will need health care, and maybe it's a really, really dumb idea to leave it up to private industry to make a profit off of the certainty that we will all become sick at some point.

And I'm glad you spent your time drinking quality beer. Life is too short to drink swill.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

Oh, Hitchens. I absolutely despise a lot of his political op-eds, but he says them so eloquently. And his writings on his cancer leave me bawling. He'll be a loss to discourse, for sure. The man can write.

Thanks for sharing about your own medical history, Mike. I think it reminds us all that good health is not something we earn; it really is a gift, and one that those who have it often take for granted. My mother did all the things you were supposed to- ate well, exercised, had kids before she was 30, etc. and yet she was dead of breast cancer at 35. You just never know.

I think we seek to assign blame for a person's bad health on his or her lifestyle because it relieves us of the fear that at any time something could go wrong with our own bodies. And lets us avoid the fact that all of us, at some point, will need health care, and maybe it's a really, really dumb idea to leave it up to private industry to make a profit off of the certainty that we will all become sick at some point.

And I'm glad you spent your time drinking quality beer. Life is too short to drink swill.

i wish i had found hitch much sooner than i did. i don't agree with him a good portion of the time, but i admire his style. it also leaves me shaking my head when people say it's his own fault that he was struck with cancer for failing to believe in the almighty. i wonder how they explain believers who also have a fight on their hands with that illness??