Living Proof

Keat  The other day, I read an article in the LGBTQ Nation about this adorable little 9 year old girl named, Keat from central Ohio. She was physically born as a boy as, "Keith Rows" and her mother, Emily was more than accepting -- which should be a good thing. As she let Keat transition from boy to girl, she also let her attend the same school. The mother announced on Facebook that Keith transitioned to "Keat" and his gender is now female. Keat transitioned in front of her classmates' eyes, leaving her to be bullied and even ridiculed by the other parents via social media.  Keat's mom, Emily was tormented and even accused of "child abuse" from some of the other parents. Here's the thing: I think Keat is such a beautiful little 'girl' with so much going for her. She has a mom who is so supportive, which says a lot about how much love is there. My two cents on this is just that I feel Keat is way too young for this huge transition. ...

Every time I try to get an appointment with my gastroenterologist, it's like trying to book a meeting with the president himself. They book you out two or more months in advance, and if it wasn't for their automated 'day before reminder' calls, I'd totally forget. Siri usually tells me I have an appointment the exact minute I'm supposed to be there. Pointless. Now I tell Siri to remind me a day before. They had given me another doctor because mine was way overbooked. I was getting an examination and scheduling for my endoscopy since I was in the hospital for my stomach pain and upper GI bleeding. That was back in July. Nice, huh? I guess I'm all healed up by now, but they're so itchy to get that goddamn tube down my throat, snaking through my gut. At least I'll get the pleasure of napping with a little help from my friend Mr. Propofol. I remember the last endoscopy I had. I was so scared that they couldn't do the procedure unless my heart rate ...

Each time Madelene and I stop off at a diner, we sit at the counter. Even at a restaurant, we eat at the bar. At the table, it's like your begging to be served, waiting and waiting and waiting. If you're the type to drink your fine wine with a crazy straw, then the bar and counter may just be your cup of tea. Quicker service. I found myself with an hour to kill in between appointments yesterday afternoon. I was hungry, I was tired and needed coffee desperately. I walked into the nearest diner by myself, and sat in between two old men wearing similar flannel shirts and baseball caps (with some sort of company logo on it). I grabbed a stool and put my keys and phone down. The waitress quickly noticed me and said, "Do you need to checkout, hun?" I was a little confused. "I didn't even order yet." Her cheeks turned bright red and she let's out an, "Ohhhh, you're ordering food to go?" As I sat down in my seat, I said, "No, to stay p...

There are so many unfortunate people suffering with cancer. We lost quite a few good ones this year from this awful disease.  I've heard and read quotes that say, "While we're all trying to lose weight and diet, someone out there is just trying to make it through another day of cancer." It makes dieting and worrying over weight so trivial. Makes it seem silly to want to lose weight or better your health -- cause you don't have cancer, so why go out of your way to "improve health"? I say, why not try to prevent it by diet alone? Then again, you hear about people who never smoked a cigarette a day in their lives and voila --- they got the big "C". It doesn't make any sense at all. You can diet all you want, but what's going to keep that tumor from growing on your brain? (I know, the hypochondriac in me…I think I have a headache now.) Even with me -- ever since I've been on Paleo, I've seen some real jerks who are apart of this g...

In the fall of 2011, I remember setting up a flat screen TV in Mom & Dad's living room. They never had a TV in there before because Mom wanted that room to be the "conversation room" --- for parties and guests, etc. She didn't want some TV blaring away while people were trying to talk. As a kid, I was always confused over why we never had a TV in this gorgeous room, but Mom said no and that was that. As Dad and I were having a cocktail together in the living room, we had such an amazing conversation. He was on a good wave that week - no pain, no anxiety and very upbeat. For many, cancer just sucks the life-force right out of you, in all aspects. But that night was a good night. We sat there talking for hours and at some points during our conversation, we held hands. Dad was really never the type to show affection through hugs or by holding hands, almost ever, but he did show his love in many other ways by his actions. For the longest time, he was resentful over ...

As much as I joke around about my crazy hypochondriacal life, a lot of frustration is involved with the anxiety which is the "probably" the root of the problem. We all fear death. We all fear illnesses and pain, but when does it come to the point of losing your marbles over every single ache and pain?  My mind says (and so does WebMD) that the chest pain I'm having is linked to a possible heart attack. When in doubt, check it out, right? Who wants to mess with a possible heart attack? Some people, like myself who have GERD or some underlining bogus diagnosis of costochondritis live with periodic intense pain that comes from the chest, sometimes radiating into an arm (usually the left for me) . So, how am I to know this isn't the big ticket into heaven? (I'm assuming heaven.) For instance, the other night I'm about to go to bed. I slip into my comfy PJs and cuddle up to my wife and our little chihuahua. We were about to watch a movie when all of the sudden...

Facebook rejected my post due to this image. For the past couple of months, I noticed that periodically, I would get an email from Facebook telling me that my post (article) was rejected due to violating their terms of service. It's not like this is an erotica blog or some sort of hate group blog --- it's a nonsensical, semi-political, everyday type of rants kind of blog. It has no importance whatsoever other than maybe someone relating to my madness. Once in a while, something really gets under my skin, like a mother asking her son to "stop being gay". So I write about it and encourage people to accept one another regardless of their gender preferences. I don't think I have ever written anything in a hateful manner -- maybe a few complaints about this and that, but that's as far as it goes. Well, third time's a charm. Facebook once again notified me that they would leave my post up on my wall, however, it would not show up on any of my "fan's...