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Thanks for sharing. Lovely story. Hope you kick cancer's ass. :-)

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14.4 years with a chronic cancer... I've worked constantly to change my relationship to stress, released lots of stressors, eat healthier, in fact I've made lots of changes. Cancer for me, fortunately, was a wake-up call, not the beginning of the end.

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That's good. I have an enormous amount of stress in my (work) life, and as an adopted child I have no medical history to speak of. Both of my adopted parents were lost to cancer, so I have an unhealthy concern about it showing up at the worst possible time, that is, any possible time.

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I'm so sorry to hear that Kevin. Are all avenues closed to you? To change the job? To talk to management about shifting the job to be less stressful so you can still supply your excellence to their organization without it wiping out your health? No access to tracking down adoption papers. A dear friend, who has been in a wheelchair for almost 40 years, found her birth mother two years before her death. When your adopted parents died, were there no papers saved about your adoption? I hope you can find something to help shift your level of stress!

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I own the company. Changing the job isn't exactly in the cards, as I am the management. :-)

Regarding my bio-units, I did find them 3 months after my bio mother died and about a year before by bio-father died. We did get some medical information, but it was so random and disorganized. I also believe that the melanoma that took my parents was related to the water supply in the town where I grew up, as there's been a lot of that sort of thing there, and I drank that water for 18 years.

Writing shifts my level of stress. That, and golden retrievers! There's just so much of it!

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I got sidetracked and am reading your Deconstructing MAGA. Wow, you're a great writer with deep skills and sensitivities. This piece alone should be available in every county, in every one of our UNITED STATES. You are brilliant. Dude, the more you think of the bad, perhaps the more you attract it. Just sayin... manifest what you want instead of what you fear. Obviously you've been able to do that in many ways. Ever-refining our tastebuds for life.

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Wisdom. Love it!

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This hit home. I had a routine endoscopy yesterday and the doctor found a "lesion" in my stomach. It needs further examination. Trying not to panic. I wish you well and hope you are the victor in the battle. 🙏🏻

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You've had a lot of stress. Hopefully within a year things will simplify, you'll see that happening, and can simplify your stressors. Our bodies reflect how we're dealing with our environment. Change our environment and often times what has physically gone awry, can heal itself. I wish you ease, peace, and the great simple healing of deep love.

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Thank you and to you as well ...may we both find simplicity in our worlds. 😘

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100%!!!!!!! We have a code word for that in my family. “Er-eee-er-eee!” That’s the wheel. Squeaking. One of my name nicknames is Squeaks McSqueaktoy for this very reason. So ridiculous!!!! I’m so glad that you had the energy to squeak, to acquire a little more comfort amidst your health “care” needs. The crap we go in for is bad enough, without having to also battle the very system that’s supposed to be helping us. Squeaks ahoy!! Huuuugs!!!

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Alexx, thank you so much for reading and commenting! My mother when she was alive, notoriously sent back to be fixed whatever wasn't to her liking. I came by it honestly. Again, thank you so much. Keep squeaking Squeaks McSqueaktoy!!!!

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So happy to be here with you! I always get excited when your stuff comes up in my feed. I came by it the exact opposite way—watching my mom NOT squeak. She squeaks pretty good now. 😈 I’m so happy yours did. It’s important.

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My mom had an unused card in her card collection for a daughter... I was her only daughter and I know she bought it for me, but never gave it to me. Perhaps forgot she had it when she started into her dementia. But the card admits that she learned as much from me as she ever taught me. You taught your mom to squeak. A big accomplishment!

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It is! Oh wow! It is cool that you found it anyway, so she could tell you even from afar. 🥰

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You're a fighter! Good!

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I hope you have the kind of friends around you that embrace your thin-skinned nature. You’ve suffered enough. If not I hope you feel able to kick them to the kerb!

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The curb is covered but the ones that give a sh*t stick around! I don't like to be crowded or busy so I'm fine with a lightened social stratosphere.

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Thank you for sharing, and speaking up and being an inspiration.

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Thank you for reading. Your using the word inspiration means a great deal to me.

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