Man, I have a lot to talk about today!

Today in school, we started our Oncology unit. It's scaring the stuff out of me because based on sign/symptoms, I have about 4 types of cancer right now.... not really, but it's still scary to think about. It's very depressing. It's also supposed to rain 7 of the next 10 days so this should be an interesting/gloomy couple of weeks. Anyway, we have oncology lectures today, Thursday, next Monday, then the unit test is Tuesday, and our Med/Surg 2 FINAL (which covers surgical orientation, orthopedics, gastrointestinal, and oncology) is next Thursday...after that is SPRING BREAK!!!

So, today I learned a few things. I'm pretty opinionated at times (but I try not to be rude), so if you feel that you might be offended by some of the things i'm fixin' to say about cancer, nutrition, and smoking, stop reading now. :)

1) Cigarettes kill more people in a year than illegal drugs, alcohol, AIDS, homicide, suicide, and MVC's (motor vehicle crashes) combined. They kill more Americans in a year than World War II did. Smoking cigarettes is a leading cause of heart disease, and heart disease is the # 1 cause of death in the United States. And, smoking can lead to so many types of cancer, it's ridiculous. In my opinion, cigarettes should be illegal.

2) Good news for some, bad news for others: Cancer mortality rates have dropped nationwide in the past few years. More people are surviving and more people are going into remission! This statistic says "nationwide" but the exception to that is Abilene, TX and the rest of the Big Country (Brownwood, San Angelo, and other tiny lil towns around here). Why? I have no idea....all that I know is that I'm gettin' the heck out of Abilene ASAP!

3) This one is TERRIBLE news for me! The FDA (food and drug administration) recommends cooking on a BBQ grill only TWICE per year. This is because the chemicals released from the charcoal and the gas used in bbq grills is thought to lead to some kinds of cancer. That means, what, maybe Memorial Day and the 4th of July we can cook out? Um, no! I'm just going to have to deal with it and get cancer because I love barbecuing. That's what we do almost every summer night.

That's all I have to share about what we learned today. Some of these statistics are super scary.

Happier news, I have one of the best moms in the whole world! She's a great mom overall, but especially in how she and my dad raised my sister and I. I feel so blessed to have the parents that I do, and I hope that when I have a family of my own, I will be the kind of mom that my mom was.

Because I miss my mom's home cooked meals so much, and because Mrs. Cook was talking about what she made for dinner last night, I am going to attempt to cook some pork chops, mashed potatoes, and peas tonight for dinner! Yummy!