4.5 years and still not smoking

It's been a very long time since I've blogged and I want to apologize to all the wonderful men and women I met during my quit. I wouldn't be here without your support. The plan is to be a lifetime quitter.....hmmm, somehow that doesn't sound as positively as I said it.
I'm living life with oxygen and lots of meds but thankfully there have been no hospital stays and I'm seriously going to entertain getting back into a pulmonary rehab program and sticking with it for the long haul.
I have had a very sick husband for the last few years and he lost his battle in May 2011. I guess I'll be writing about being a wife, caregiver, and now widow. Blogging helped me with my quit and I think it will help me here too.

Start Again?

I started blogging essentially when I quit smoking more than two years
ago - OMG, it's actually been that long, I'm amazed. I'm still quit
and finally at peace with not being a smoker anymore. The last year
however has brought health challenges to my husband and I and I have
not dealt with mine so gracefully. I was diagnoised with severe COPD/
Emphesema (thanks in great part to smoking all those years) and
started having panic/anxiety attacks both while I was in pulmonary
rehab and after I quit going (which by the way was a bad idea as it
was the best I've felt in probably 10 years). My doctors have played
with different medications trying to find the one best for me and that
trying didn't come without a fair amount of physical anguish on my
part. Then I've also experienced post menapausal issues that are the
most uncomfortable physical issues I've ever experienced. I pretty
much drew myself into a self absorbed shell.

I'm on the road (hopefully) to recovery and I'm going to try to
reconnect with friends. I'm trying mobile blogging for the first time
so bear with me.

To my blogging friends, thank you for your friendships and
encouagement, I couldn't be back here without you.

Sent from my iPhone

Apologize

I want to apologize to all those blogs I drop on everyday but today EC was down the vast majority of the day and now when I have some time the day is almost over and I won't get everyone done - I'm very sorry!
What happened with EC anyway - anyone know for certain?

From Howdy Doody to Erectile Dysfunction

I enjoy watching “some” television but I’m increasingly disillusioned with the advertising and the programing of most channels. No doubt I should remind you that I’m 54 years old and started out young with no television in the house and black and white picture when we finally did get TV, and the few times a week that we were given permission to watch television instead of playing outside or doing chores we watched the likes of Howdy Doody, Red Skelton, and Wagon Train. Adults had begun watching Peyton Place and Soap Operas. My mother didn’t allow us to watch either, she said the story line was for adults only (of course this kind of attitude drove teenagers to have to see what they were missing).

How did we move to Sex In The City, Taxi Cab Confessions, commercials about erectile dysfunction, menstrual periods, birth control, cursing, adults half or fully undressed, or dressed so seductively and suggestively?

I'm not a prude and I've been known to be able to take any topic and turn it into something sexual (I grew up with 5 brothers and their friends), but most of the time I talk this way with girlfriends or my husband not in a public forum and certainly not around small children.

Is all this in your face sexual content really ncessary? Is everything in the end about the almighty buck?

What I think about paying for healthcare

So much debate (as there should be) on health care reform and it's gotten me to thinking about why there are so many people that feel that health care should be inexpensive if not free. Yes we have health care but we pay a pretty penny for that care/policy. We have an HMO and although it doesn't cover necessarily all doctors or all procedures it's been good for us (my husband with cancer and me with copd-emphysema). We have a copay for what seems like more and more procedures but that's okay, it's still less expensive than the alternative.
If everyone were to pay for their health care it would probably be less expensive. When someone goes into an emergency room for care and they don't have insurance, someone has to pay for this specialized care (and the ER is a medical specialty) and who pays for it are all the people that are already paying for health care insurance (as the costs are passed through the insurance companies for care and they pass the cost on to it's members).

I don't believe that if you want to pay for your insurance that they should be able to turn you down for pre-existing conditions.

My son is a doctor and he's gone to school/trained/worked for 9 years since he finished college and is finally ready to take his oral boards to to board certified. He and his wife have taken on a huge amount of debt for medical school and living expenses during residency and his fellowship when he wasn't making diddly (his wife was working). Doctors really do have to pay for their training and testing (yes they pay to be tested). Doctors also have to pay for their health care (no they don't treat themselves or their family members).
Contrary to popular belief, "most" doctors do not make a huge salary.

What Do You Think Is Your Responsibility?

I was reading a post on another blog and the blogger was talking about it being her responsibility to leave her children/grandchildren an inheritance. I'm wondering if this is the case in different countries.
I thought Wow, I'll leave enough to pay whatever debt I may still have at the time and leave enough to deal with my death but otherwise, I'm spending the money I worked for, I'm not planning on leaving my children/grandchildren an inheritance (although there will probably be one).

What about you, do you think you are "responsible" for leaving your heirs an inheritance?