Ten of us met for lunch last Saturday at El Cholo in La Habra. It was to be a reunion of sorts with high school friends and to welcome Ann and Jack who drove in from Tucson. Unfortunately, what we all hoped would be a happy reunion turned out very sad. There were tears immediately when Wendy and her husband Doug arrived. For some this was the first time to see her since her massive stroke in the fall of 2018. Bob and I and Lee and Chris had seen her six months earlier. In my mind she had not improved. Actually, she seemed much worse. But she insisted on coming out to see us all for what we learned later would be her last outing. In four days’ time she was going to be moved to a home that specialized in caring for stroke victims like her. The night her stroke happened she was giving a talk about her newly published book - one of many she has written throughout her life. Wendy, a professed Wiccan, had a Ph.D., and had been the head of women’s studies at the California State University … [Read more...]
I’m still taking hormones – are you?
I feel so vindicated after reading this article that I have to post it here verbatim. I started taking hormone replacement therapy in the mid 1990s while I was in my mid fifties, and I refused to go off of them as many of my friends did when the 2002 Women's Health Initiative final report came out. I cited my gorgeous and youthful aunt who then in her seventies said she still took hormones and had no intension of stopping. Fortunately I had a doctor who agreed with me. From the literature she read she felt there were some of the flaws in the findings of the WHI - especially the composition of the sample of women tested for its study. So here I am age seventy-eight, still taking hormones and feeling and looking more youthful than my age suggests. I had a checkup yesterday with my gynecologist who said all was perfect - especially my blood pressure - 112 over 61 (and I do not take any blood pressure medication and never have). She was happy to renew my hormone replacement therapy … [Read more...]
