Wishing you a Merry Christmas

On behalf of my entire family I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and in the words of John Lennon, “Let's hope it's a good one, without any fear.”

To my blogging friends and to the individuals who have come here over the last year, thank you for your support. You do make it all worthwhile!

To my family, yes, that includes you Nicole and Emmi, I also wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Touch Wood, I hope to see you all back here next year!

“2010 here we come ready or not!”

Take Care as always!
Peter

To be continued…

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You know you’re getting old when…

I must be getting old as one out of three of my life experience stories that I pass on to the people at work respond, “You know, I wasn’t even born then.”

But what can I do when all my life’s highlights and lowlights happened in the birth years of the ones giving it to me!

How time flies as it doesn’t them all that long ago that I was the new boy in town. Yes, “what goes around comes around” so I shouldn’t be surprised by any of this, nor should the younger ones around me when their time comes to be labelled as, old.

The funny thing about working with a small group of people for so long is that you get to watch each other grow old, see their babies become adults, see who keeps their hair and to observe the spark in individuals either grow stronger or dimmer. Have you experienced this?

For me, I feel the same as I did twenty to thirty years ago. Sure, I’m not as fast as I used to be but in our workplace it’s not about being the fastest but getting the job done properly in a timely fashion.

Yes, my eyes require reading glasses but my teeth are still my own and I continue to successfully jump the same physical examination hurdles as my much younger counterparts to stay where I am.

But the writing is on the wall; forced retirement may not be far away, but not without a fight I say. What about you?

This sounds negative but who can blame me. Hurdles, like dogs of war, that are put in front of us keep getting higher and goal posts keep getting moved in order to test our metal over and over, and, to somehow avoid unavoidable past events where others have suffered as a result of going about their work with total dedication and self sacrifice; only to be ridiculed later on down the track by the ignorant. Does this sound all too familiar?

For time immemorial this phenomenon has been snapping at the heels of people who, while recognising that more years lay behind them than in front, refuse to acknowledge that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting a whole lot brighter, even though they consider themselves fit as a fiddle and totally able to do the job they have been doing for so, so long without any trouble.

To rid any workplace of experienced and senior people in a misguided, although well intentioned, duty of care initiative is fraught with danger as who will be left to pass on the tricks of the trade to the young.

Charles Darwin was right with his survival of the fittest methodology where the fittest organisms prevail, with me adding that age of the beast had a lot to do with them surviving the rigors of time.

To be continued

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I Love You Mum

Mum, you're the best!

Isn’t she lovely

Isn’t she pretty

Isn't she lovely

To be continued...

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Melanoma - The Silent Killer

With another extremely hot summer upon us here in Australia, I’ve taken the lead from Cancer Council Australia's latest campaign titled, “Don’t be a victim” and put up my side of the story here on blog about skin cancer, especially melanomas, in the hope it may prevent someone suffering at the hands of skin cancer as I have.

According to the Cancer Council “Australia has one of the highest incidences of skin cancer in the world, at nearly four times the rates in Canada, the US and the UK” with 1700 Australians of all ages dying this year due to skin cancer.

Here is my story: In the mid 1980’s my wife discovered a pink irregular shaped skin lesion the size of a small coin on my back. Thank God my better half did as I would have died a horrible death if she hadn’t.

Shortly after I rushed off to the nearest medical centre to have the lesion looked at and to my relief the doctor - a general practitioner (GP) - informed me it was most likely a reaction to an insect bite and not to worry about it.

However, forever a Doubting Thomas, I made an appointment with my regular doctor just to make sure. Waiting anxiously for the skin biopsy results, my worst nightmares were realised when it was confirmed the skin lesion was in fact a melanoma - the most dangerous form of skin cancer.

The melanoma had developed as a direct result of spending my days as a child and a youth playing in the sun with no protection.

Z-shaped scar in the middle of my back is a result of the flap repair used for reconstructive surgery

In my case I was extremely lucky as the melanoma had been discovered early, with my surgeon, a highly respected skin specialist, informing me I had a 97% survival rate after removal of the melanoma. Well, he was right, wasn’t he? As I’m still here to tell my story.

Since then, I religiously have my skin checked every one to two months by a skin cancer specialist, and, on every visit having a newly diagnosed skin cancer to contend with. If you asked me how many skin cancers I’ve had cut out or frozen off, I couldn’t give you an exact answer as I’ve lost count.

The scars I can handle but in the back of my mind is the dread of suffering from another melanoma. Knowing that the damage has already be done that could lead to another, I do my best to keep out of the sun, to use protection when out in the sun, and, to try to remain positive knowing early detection measures can go a long way to saving my life.

What do you do to stop yourself from becoming a statistic?

To be continued…

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