I’m not sure if any of you heard the story about the 19-month old who got himself and his mommy booted out of a commercial flight because he wouldn’t stop saying "bye-bye plane".  It happened a couple of weeks ago, in between our two flights with a 19-month old, and so part of me wanted to pretend the story didn’t exist.

Alas, denial will only get you so far.  For the rest of the trip, there is the internet: click here for the story.

Did you read it?  Good.  Back to the story:

Apart from the fact that the stewardess (yes, I’m using that démodé word) was a frigid bitch and that there was obviously a big old breakdown in communication between the mother and the stewardess –especially because Baby Benadryl doesn’t always have a sedative effect in small children, dear stewardess— the fact remains that a tiny little bundle of joy repeating the same word over and over can be one of those things that are the closest any average person will ever get to pure and unadulterated torture.

Yes.  Torture.  I do mean that.  You see, for us it’s been a weekend full of "ChooTEN!" and "SockaBAWL!"

And you would be surprised at how many times in the course of a day those words can be uttered, really. 
They can be uttered while driving, because "CAHOS!" are deliciously reminiscent of "Choo TEN!"; and they can be uttered while eating because "BAYYYYS!" are comparable in spherical appeal to "Socka BAWL!"

And of course as dutiful parents of a boy, everything that surrounds him is stamped, decorated or otherwise hinting at either a vehicle-like structure or a spherical bladder filled with air of some sort, thus extending our torture that much more.

Also, rain does not help: sockabawls are not meant to be kicked indoors.

~~chooten!sockabawl!chooten!sockabawl!chooten!sockabawl!chooten!sockabawl!~~

When you breastfeed, your boobs go through a certain amount of beating-up.  There is tenderness and soreness and leakage and sometimes if you’re not careful you can develop mastitis— which is when your milk gets backed up and the breast tissue becomes inflamed and eventually infected( and hurts horribly, too).

However, reading E’s blog today, I ran into a post that made me really sad and gave me chills– a nursing mom could be very ill and not know that she has an aggressive and deadly form of cancer ravaging her body.  So here I am, reproducing a post from Toddler Planet, to spread awareness and support.  Thank you  E:)!

~~chooten!sockabawl!chooten!sockabawl!chooten!sockabawl!chooten!sockabawl!~~

PLEASE READ AND SHARE!!

From Toddler Planet:

We hear a lot about breast cancer these days. One in eight women
will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetimes, and there are
millions living with it in the U.S. today alone. But did you know that
there is more than one type of breast cancer?

I didn’t. I thought that breast cancer was all the same. I figured that if I did my monthly breast self-exams, and found no lump, I’d be fine.

Oops. It turns out that you don’t have to have a lump to have breast cancer.
Six weeks ago, I went to my OB/GYN because my breast felt funny. It was
red, hot, inflamed, and the skin looked…funny. But there was no lump,
so I wasn’t worried. I should have been. After a round of antibiotics
didn’t clear up the inflammation, my doctor sent me to a breast
specialist and did a skin punch biopsy. That test showed that I have
inflammatory breast cancer, a very aggressive cancer that can be deadly.

Inflammatory breast cancer
is often misdiagnosed as mastitis because many doctors have never seen
it before and consider it rare. “Rare” or not, there are over 100,000
women in the U.S. with this cancer right now; only half will survive
five years. Please call your OB/GYN if you experience several of the
following symptoms in your breast, or any unusual changes: redness,
rapid increase in size of one breast, persistent itching of breast or
nipple, thickening of breast tissue, stabbing pain, soreness, swelling
under the arm, dimpling or ridging (for example, when you take your bra
off, the bra marks stay – for a while), flattening or retracting of the
nipple, or a texture that looks or feels like an orange (called peau
d’orange). Ask if your GYN is familiar with inflammatory breast cancer,
and tell her that you’re concerned and want to come in to rule it out.

There is more than one kind of breast cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer is the most aggressive form of breast cancer out
there, and early detection is critical. It’s not usually detected by
mammogram. It does not usually present with a lump. It may be
overlooked with all of the changes that our breasts undergo during the
years when we’re pregnant and/or nursing our little ones. It’s
important not to miss this one.

Inflammatory breast cancer is detected by women and their doctors
who notice a change in one of their breasts. If you notice a change,
call your doctor today. Tell her about it. Tell her that you have a
friend with this disease, and it’s trying to kill her. Now you know
what I wish I had known before six weeks ago.

You don’t have to have a lump to have breast cancer.

30 Jul This entry was published on July 30, 2007 at 9:35 am and is filed under Herr Meow!. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.