Julie Pippert: Using My Words

BEFORE: AFTER: The best birthday my dog ever had was one of his early ones, age 2. At the time, my husband and I were both working full-time so our dog, Bo, attended a fantastic local doggie daycare in Beverly (MA) run by a great guy named Joe. Joe loved planning parties. We had Halloween parties (with prizes for best doggie costume), playdates, holidays, and birthdays. The birthday cake was meatloaf with mashed potato frosting. It even had fancy script that read, "Happy Birthday to Our Best Friends!" Our dog is a best friend, a member of our family. Like other good friends and members of our family, he dealt with cancer. Luckily, we caught it early -- it was an ugly one with a very low (single digit) survival rate. So we've gotten to celebrate more birthdays with him, and that means so, so much to us. I love birthdays. I love the excuse for a party, a reason to celebrate, getting together with special people, cake (!), giving a gift, and even the singing. I love getting ...

I got this via email, from the council I'm on at the American Cancer Society. The photo is of Kathryn “Kay” Hire, captain in the US Navy Reserve and NASA Astronaut, who recently launched on the shuttle Endeavour. You probably know I have a huge bias in favor of NASA, largely because most of my family works there, but in addition to that (and maybe because of that) because I know how many valuable services NASA has provided to us that help our daily lives, and how much I know they are working on right now that will continue to help us. It's not all about glorified manned space flights -- all of the missions have a greater purpose. So when I got this press release, I thought how awesome is that ! And I had to share. Celebrating More Birthdays in Space On Saturday, February 7, the more birthdays movement will broaden its mission of a world with more birthdays and set its sights on a new frontier – space. Kathryn “Kay” Hire, captain in the US Navy Reserve and NASA Astronaut, will ...

Last week, colors began appearing in people's Facebook statuses. I received several messages about it, some entreated me to join in and a few asked me what was going on. Most of the messages were the same coy message most other women -- and yes, just women, no men -- received. It begged that we, to paraphrase, titallate our fellow Facebook users, especially the guys, by posting our bra color without explanation. The concept, you see, was to raise awareness of breast cancer. Always a supporter of initiatives to benefit finding a cure for cancer, I decided to play along...in my own way. I dropped the coy thing, but kept the playful element. When I saw people ask "what's up?" I was honest. Initially, okay once, I stuck to the original message. After that, I began sending out my own. I said, to paraphrase, that the idea was to "check your bra to remember to check your breasts -- self exams monthly!" The next day, I went in for my annual check-up and I tweeted th...

It was days, really, between learning my friend was being sent home, cancer treatment suspended, and learning she had passed away. Sadly, the first symptom came well after the cancer had already metastasized and spread. They began intensive treatment, aggressive. It was hard on her, but she had a lot to live for: loving family, loving friends, and two beautiful children, as well as all of her work, including a book she authored for children about children on the autism spectrum . That was her: a do-er. She was the sort of person you could picture growing older, still doing. I could even picture her forty years from now blowing out a cake full of candles. In my imagination, over her cake, her hair was still bright, as it was before she got sick. She’d do that, I knew, keep herself looking nice. She’d have a big smile, and she’d tell everyone they shouldn’t have made such a fuss, but everyone would ignore her because they knew she was deeply touched -- family and family times were everyt...

Foreword: I'm not a medical person, or any kind of expert. This post shouldn't be taken as God's word carved in stone by Moses. In other words, don't consider it to be any kind of authority or use it to treat, diagnose, or select medications. Do your own research and talk to your doctor, an actual expert, who, you know, went to medical school and stuff. This post is merely my best understanding of cancer and cancer treatment and prevention, as related to our situation, based on what I've learned from reading and talking to doctors. Author's Note: If you aren't interested in the cancer discussion and the things I learned, and only want to know the outcome of our appointment with the oncologist yesterday, skip to the end. I've divvied this up by sections, so go to the last section. What would you do if one day a postcard arrived in the mail to warn you that sometime in the next three years you would be diagnosed with cancer? Would you believe it? Change an...

Friday a.m. My dog began acting so oddly I was concerned enough to call the vet. They squeezed me in for the morning appointment and I called my friend to take Persistence, and completely dropped everything planned for the morning. HIGH: Haven't thought of one yet. LOW: Dog is sick and my day was shot. noon After a thorough examination by the vet, the dog is declared to have tumors and we get an immediate referral to a surgeon. HIGH: The location of the tumor gives a hopeful possibility that it is benign, or at least not the most aggressive cancer. The vet is highly entertained by my story about Fuqua (that's Few KWAY not fuck WA) Street confusion. He said that story beats his former non-native favorite which was Bexar (that's BEAR not BEX arr) County confusion. LOW: My doggie is sick. My doggie needs surgery. My doggie is uncomfortable. My beautiful chocolate only 7 years old Lab might have cancer. And we are going to have to schedule surgery, which probably costs as...

ADDITIONS! You might also want to check out Izzy's excellent post, " Prepubertal Man Boobs and Other Not Good Things " alerting us to the lavender-scented lotion risk and other links to good information about bad products. And...while we're on the topic, another one of my product soapboxes. I don't want to add to hysteria here. No need. But next time you run out of dryer sheets or fabric softener, before you buy your usual, consider a few things: is it safe? what are the ingredients? what byproducts does it emit to my air and leave on my clothes? does it include animal tallow and is it tested on animals? The natural health and organic healing site offers easy-to read information and some excellent healthy living tips to avoid dangerous products but still have soft and cling-free clothes. I use Method dryer sheets. They contain no tallow, are cruelty free, include only nontoxic ingredients, are made from biodegradable green-friendly material, smell great without b...