What A Year This Has Been So Far!

I meant to post for New Year's to "pop the cork" with you guys, but even as things have slowed down a bit (finally, right?), they've also gotten a little crazy (so, what else is new?). Here's a run-down of the good, bad and ugly that 2011 has rung in so far.

The Good:

Things are looking good on the work front. In addition to my current work, I've started on as an email marketing manager for a bio-diesel company, which is exposing me to a form of marketing I've only read about before...awesome! I'm also in the middle of an interview for an online marketing manager for a finance website...again, exposure to something new, at least in practice. I'll know more there by the end of the week. It will cut into some of what's left of my free time, but the timing's flexible, the mentoring's there if/when needed and the experience would be helpful since I'll eventually do the same with my own website.

I've started some chi-enhancing supplements and they're really working! That or I'm manic, maybe both, but they seem to be helping! I found them at Taostar...you may have seen Dr. Mao on the Dr. Oz show (I thought he looked familiar!). I also got a Qi Gong/Tai Chi DVD from Amazon, but I haven't found the time to open it yet. One way or another, I'm getting back into shape this year!


The Bad:

School started and I'm getting a B in Management. I'm down to 89.?%. I know, I know...my boyfriend's laughing too but after the ass-whooping I took in Intermediate Algebra (failing by a mere fraction of a percent!), my GPA could use some babying, LOL

I had an appointment yesterday to see if my endometriosis is causing my mid-section woes...that looks good, but they did find a fibroid (not big enough to warrant a surgery to remove but we're keeping an eye on it). If it isn't one thing, it's something else, isn't it? The good news is that my OBGYN is taking me seriously where the nurse at the local office did not. I asked her to check my gall baldder and she kind of huffed, said "It's GERD, here's some Nexium" and walked off. My doctor (an hour's drive from here) set me up with a family doctor up there and scheduled a gall bladder ultrasound for Friday morning! Maybe they'll even re-do the Crohn's Disease test since the other place still hasn't given me my results (months later).


The Ugly:

OK, it wasn't bad enough that my sister's boyfriend has Stage 2 colon cancer (she moved back up where he lives from here a week or so ago). I had gotten back in touch with a good friend, only to find that her husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 brain and lung cancer after Thanksgiving! He had brain surgery and is going to start chemo before they operate on his lungs. What adds to it is that he'd been having horrible headaches for years now and was told, after some scans, that they were "cluster headaches, here's some pills". Now, his oncologist (an hour the other way from my doctor) is saying that he had to have had it for some time and wants my friend to get copies of those scans so he can see if there was any negligence on the part of local doctors.

I hate to say it, but healthcare in my area is like that...doctors do the bare minimum and many people have died because of it. There are lawsuits galore and everyone is going elsewhere for their treatments. It doesn't help that the county I live in is number 1 in the state for prescription drug abuse (in some cases, doctors are actually running the "pill mills") and is actually in the top 10 (or something like that) for drugs in the entire country! This tiny little town...really! I really hope that my friends get past their cancers and they and their families can move on from these experiences!