The Kiss and Cry Spectacular

The 2010 Winter Olympics starts soon. In 1994, 16 years ago, my husband and I traveled to Norway to witness this multi sporting event. When we walked off the train and a reporter asked me who I worked for and about fell over when I said we were on our own dime, I should known something was unusual.

The Olympics is not just an athletic event for the athletes, but for fans like us it is an endurance event. Bracing the cold to stand on top of the snow for hours as a skier swooshes past. Up predawn to take a series of buses to sit in a cold ice arena, or to climb to the top of the luge or bobsled course. How about sitting outside in the cold to watch award ceremonies and then getting back to your room at midnight with a predawn trek the next day? It was the one vacation when I wore all the clothes I packed and actually tried to wear them all at one time it was that cold. It was also the one vacation where I lost weight not even watching what I ate because of the physical exertion, the cold or the fatigue, or all together!

The Olympics are exciting and I am glad we did this once in a lifetime vacation. This year in Vancouver, the weather may not be as cold as Norway was but the logistics will be the same. Getting from point A to point B on time is an Olympic achievement. The excitement is always there and seeing great athletes is a wonderful treat. In Norway they opened up one side of one of the mountains for skiing to the public and we rented skis and hit the Olympic slopes. It was a humbling eye opener to ski down and see 10,000 people milling around and looking at you. I have skied the mountains in Vancouver for this Olympics and hope they open some runs for tourists to get the first-hand thrill of victory or the agony of defeat.

This year like most people, I will watch the Olympics from the warmth and comfort of my home. I will be judging the skaters costumes, make-up, as well as their skills on the rink. I will be listening to the commentaries on the skiing events and cheering the underdog teams, or participants that always arise from the winter Olympics.

As far as the kiss and cry corner for the skating events, I think it is just another aspect that makes the winter Olympics so special. Waiting to see your scores while trying to catch your breath with hundreds of cameras trained on you could make anyone cry. Sweating while everyone else is trying to stay warm while maintaining a cool confident manner sounds like menopause.

Yes one more example of how menopause symptoms can be found anywhere to anyone, even Olympic athletes!

Night Sweats, and Hot Flashes Story Contest

Here is the scenario; you have just finished working out at the gym in a spin class, aerobic, or yoga class or have been on the machines and now you are cooling down. You feel good and wiped the sweat off and are walking to get your stuff to leave. Who should stop you but (fill in the blanks here) the handsomest man, former co-worker, old boyfriend, or old flame, to chat. You notice during the chitchat that you are again sweating profusely. What is going on you ask??? Welcome to the world of hot flashes. Now take the same sweating you had going while working out but you are sleeping, or trying to, and welcome to the world of night sweats.

The reasons that cause night sweats and hot flashes are varied. Here are several reasons or causes: menopause, medications, various diseases, stress, diet, humid weather, too hot a bedroom, too many blankets, or just a high internal thermostat. So with all these reasons or causes affecting so many women, I can only imagine the hilarious stories around night sweats and hot flashes that need to be shared. A shared laugh with a sense of humor is the only way I know to get through this sweaty condition. So if you want to share your story, you may win a Haralee.Com item of your choice. Send us your story to Haralee@haralee.com.
Entry must be submitted by March 1, 2010. Winner will be announced by March 22, 2010.
The winner agrees to have their story published on our blog with your first name, or initials only.
Pictures are welcome.

Here is one of my stories: I just got out of a business meeting and met my sister for lunch. She told me I needed to freshen up in the restroom. Yes, one eyebrow was heading south down my check and my lipstick from my lower lip was creasing my chin. Not a pretty site and of course I wondered how long I looked like this while I was giving a presentation? All my sister and I could do was laugh.
Have some fun and share a laugh!

Procrastinate No Longer

This is not about New Year Resolutions. This is about putting off doing things good or bad in your life until…. The until times mount up quickly; until you have more money, until you have more time, until you drop 15 pounds, until you meet your insurance deductible, until you are in that area, until next week, next month, next year. Sooner or later until the ‘until’ never happens.

Gift cards from companies have been banking on this procrastination behavior for years. The card may have an expiration date of 6 months or 1 year or no expiration date and still many people never use them. They fall into the trap of waiting for the right time, the right reason, or the right gift to use the card. Some airlines are now putting a deadline on frequent flyer miles. No activity in 12 or 18 months and all those miles you have been saving until you have enough will be gone.

A colonoscopy, a visit to the dentist, or a mammogram can easily come under the put off until later category. But what if there is no until because you put off too long? What if you lose all those gift cards and the people who gave you them want to know what you bought? What if that perfect trip to France you have been planning with your miles and vacation days doesn’t happen? Can you still have just as good of a vacation using those miles to Louisiana instead?

What makes life interesting is that things change. No life is ideal and waiting until whatever is not making life Today any more interesting. I say do not put off the good or the bad UNTIL; add some interest to your life today!

Absent from the State of the Union Address

I will not be at the State of the Union address this year. I can hear a collective sigh of disbelief and regret. I feel it too. I asked Mrs. Obama and President Obama to include me as a guest at the address. I got the phone call a few weeks ago that my request could not be met. There must have been some misunderstanding because I was told “There is no public ticket availability for the address, so your request could not be met”. I wasn’t requesting to be the public; I was requesting to be a guest!

I came up with this idea over the summer and sent my first letter then and subsequently a letter every month. As a middle aged cancer survivor, woman entrepreneur, small business owner with all business done in the USA, and a voting Democrat, I thought I represented a hopeful contingent of the American public. I easily could have been blown off with my letters never seeing the light of day, but I did receive a personal phone call and a form letter from the President. I am sad not to attend personally but very pleased at the personal touch. The return address of the letter says ‘White House’, Washington, DC. No need for the Pennsylvania avenue address since it is THE White House.

I am resolved to watch the State of The Union Address from the comfort of my home this year. Evidently I will be clearer in my request for next year. I will clearly state the sacrifice that as a small business owner I am willing to make to keep my production and jobs in the United States. My competition has gone off shore for production. Although we sell at the same retails their profit margins are greater. I hope my customers understand that not only do I keep jobs in this country but also give back to breast cancer charities. I hope the President understands this issue of small business owners like me, and offers hope for the US economy.

A Colorful Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign

There was a viral campaign on FaceBook recently to reveal your bra color for breast cancer awareness. Here is the message many people saw in their FaceBook inbox.

“We are playing a game for Breast Cancer Awareness," one form of the message read. "Write the color of your bra as your status -- just the color, nothing else!! Copy this and pass it on to all girls -- NO MEN!! This will be fun to see how it spreads."

OK, if it works why not? Many bloggers and reporters took offense while others did not see the problem. The end result is that the campaign was talked about, the pros and cons of this kind of awareness strategy and hopefully raised some awareness. No one group is claiming ownership of the campaign as yet. So if you saw your FaceBook friends with a comment, Black, Pink or Nude, now you know!

Pomegranates have been in the news lately as the next darling for breast cancer prevention. Move over blueberries. So in trying to tie all current news together, let’s call that pink or nude bra pomegranate, and that black or blue bra blueberry and we can show our support for breast cancer awareness and our knowledge of breast cancer prevention.

Ovarian Cancer is the Ugly, Deadly, Killing Stepsister of Breast Cancer

Ovarian and breast cancer are linked together with the BRACA genes. In the world of cancer statistics if you have been tested and have this genetic mutation your chance for one or the other of these cancers or both is likely. Even if you don’t have this known genetic mutation, the links between ovarian and breast cancer are still a concern. For this reason I call Ovarian Cancer the ugly, deadly killing stepsister of Breast Cancer. Think of Breast Cancer as Cinderella and Ovarian Cancer as her stepsister with bipolar and off her medications and carrying a loaded hand gun and you get the idea.

Last week I went to a funeral of a friend of mine who died from Ovarian Cancer at age 53, five years after her first diagnosis. She was a great person, and it is very sad that she is gone. Her name was Sherie. She was a 6th grade teacher for 30 years, and also ran a summer program for pre-teen girls and did tutoring. Her husband added up that she had taught or mentored over 6,000 students.

After her diagnosis, Sherie realized that there were very few empowering events for ovarian cancer survivors. No large walks, charity fund raising events or recognizable logos. Sherie set to change this by starting her own foundation, http://www.shocfoundation.org/, to raise the awareness of ovarian cancer. She even started an ovarian awareness walk. The importance of all of this is that ovarian cancer kills so often that there are not that many survivors. There is no definitive diagnostic test for ovarian cancer and many patients by the time they are diagnosed are in the later stages of the disease. Sherie wanted to help to change that reality. Her foundation to date has raised close to a million dollars of which much is donated for ovarian cancer research.


This August at her foundation’s walk, Sherie was there, looking thin but thrilled to have so many survivors and friends participate. The start for the walk is at a huge parking lot of a big Harley Davidson dealership in the small suburb that she taught in for all these years. A woman’s roller derby team starts the race. Cub Scouts and Camp Fire Girls flag the street crossings. The eclectic crowd and surroundings is proof that cancer can touch everyone. I will miss Sherie, but her husband, daughter and son, and her foundation’s board are continuing her fantastic work.

Medical Studies about Cancer and Lying

What do cancer patients want from their Doctors? A study presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s annual meeting stated among other things patients want honesty about their chance for cure.

I wonder how the question was posed to the 500 patients in their interview.
Was it, ‘True or False, Do you want your radiation oncologist to lie to you about the chance that your cancer is cured?’
Yikes! Maybe I am wrong, but do some people want the lie?

In a recent entry in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Danish scientists surveyed 3,000 women who had breast cancer surgery. About half of the women said they had pain for up to 2 years after surgery, but only 1 in 5 told their doctors about their pain.
I wonder how the question was posed to the patients. Was it ‘True or False, No pain, Right?’
Yikes again!

Doctors know patients lie, and patients know when they are lying to their doctors. The question is; Does everyone know they are lying to each other when it comes to pain and cancer prognosis? What would be the goal to lie?

Cancer is such a complex disease, that honesty is truly the best policy, but then again lying can be easier than the truth. It wasn’t that long ago that doctors held a bad or terminal diagnosis from a woman patient and told her husband or some other male at first. Not that long ago women kept their diagnosis to themselves so not to upset the family. How interesting that deceit has a long and growing history when it comes to the patient-doctor relationship.