This week has been one of the hardest I’ve ever lived through. I’ve had a sore throat for about six weeks and tried so hard to get rid of it - to no avail. I was gargling with hydrogen peroxide. I remembered from somehwere that it was supposed to be good. Well, it’s not. It killed the bad germs but…it also killed the healing germs so I was just making a bad situation worse. Then, I finally went to the doctor and, gulp, it looked like…I had cancer.  Do you know how much I freaked!!? A lot. I mean, I’ve seen the commercials about mesothelioma and other cancers. My former husband even saw an autopsy of a cancer patient and described it to me back th en…this looked like what he described. I was so scared. But…we waited for the test to come back and…no cancer. We all celebrated - a lot!!! Not ever smoking or doing any tobacco or having cancer in my family didn’t ease my mind…but those test results…totally helped me finally sleep at night again. And, my throat? Is clearing up ;-)

It has been so great, the past few months, with my weight loss. I’ve stopped doing the structured diet that I was on back home because it’s difficult to diet when you’re not at home. Still, diet pill or not, I’ve continued to lose weight. I’ve lost 3 more pounds in the past 2 weeks. One of my pairs of slacks I had altered a few months ago are not baggy on me!!!! This is so cool! I’m not a skinny-winny yet but…I have lost some great weight and am watching what I eat. I just love it!!!!

My sister and I had a great time going out to dinner with one of her friends that just came to town and her daughter. Put four women together, of any age, and you’ll never run out of fun things to talk about…including hot guys ;-). My sister’s friend might not be out here very long because she and her family are moving so their looking for a moving companies Los Angeles. With as big as LA is and all the companies they can choose to move them it’s been a trying endeavor. Still, she’ll relax her for a bit and then go back home and make the big decision of who will move them. Should be a fun week!

My exercise program has moved a little forward with my walking on the hills at my sisters. I’m not sure if it’s more difficult than walking on treadmills but…it’s good exercise. I’m drinking lots and lots of water because of the high altitude but that’s also good on my weightloss, right? Now, my sister has a treadmill so I’m thinking of checking my pulse rate on the hills and on the treadmill….which do you think will show the best results for my heart?

My sister’s been looking at netbooks and wow…they are totally cool. She’s been looking at new cell phones, netbooks and software…lots to look at and take  in…but she’s doing it with a little help from her friends. We’re going to get her Outlook up and running soon so she can coordinate all the applications with all her gadgets. Its cool that she’s coming into the next century and having fun learning at the same time.

Some thoughts – and a call for comments – on health-care policy from Dr. Marc Siegel, FOX News’s Medical Contributor and a practicing physician.

The more I hear from politicians, academics, and insurance company representatives about the need to reform health care, the more I wonder what actual patients and their doctors think.

Actually, I don’t wonder, I think I know.

I take care of patients on a day-to-day basis and I interact with practicing doctors rather than bureaucrats. And I can tell you, there are a lot of disgruntled folks out there who don’t believe that President Obama has the miracle cure to our health-care problems.

Doctors are already fed up with insurances, public and private, and are leaving it by droves. Patients are already sick of long waiting lines in doctors’ offices, and of defensive interventional care administered by rushed paper-pushers who are afraid of lawsuits.

Primary-care doctors don’t believe that national health insurance will give them more time to see their patients with less paperwork and higher reimbursements or more control — in fact, they believe just the opposite, which is why only 2% of medical-school graduates choose primary care as a profession. Surgeons are already complaining that after long years of training to a high skill level, their reimbursements for long operations are being cut.

So why don’t we doctors organize and fight the changes, when all they will do is flood us with more patients we don’t have the time or resources to take care of properly?

One answer is that few of us believe that the American Medical Association can properly represent our concerns. A second answer is that we are too busy to band together. A third reason is that too many of us are afraid to stand up, for fear of being signaled out.

But that’s just my opinion.

What is your opinion?

Doctors out there, patients out there, speak up and tell us what your worries are about the sweeping changes in health insurance that President Obama is trying to make a reality.

Write back to us here with your opinions and insights. There is still time for doctors to fight back before we are swept under the bus.

Marc Siegel, MD
Fox News Medical Contributor

This is so cool! Have you ever heard of the Kettlebell?  Trust me, it could be better than the thigh master. The Kettlebell is like a ball on a rope that you use to exercise. They even have exercise videos if you’re lacking in inspiration. Kind of like Dancing to the Oldies but…better. I’m giving it a try because it looks fun, looks easy and doesn’t even remotely look like exercise! And, you know me…I refuse to do anything that looks like exercise.

I am so excited to have my laptop!!! It’s so cute! It’s red and fun. My mouse is even red! When we were looking at the notebooks we looked a the notebook memory since that’s important for my graphic arts. Outlook was also very important for all my new laptop. It’s the only way I can keep track of what to do and when. I’ll tell you what, when it comes to buying a new computer, notbook, desktop or laptop…there’s a lot of stuff to consider. Back in the day, when I had my first computer in 1986, it was an IBM that we paid about $5,000 for…and that was with a discount because my sister worked for IBM. They told me then that I’d never need more memory…not sure how much that IBM had but…they lied. Of course, back then they didn’t know what computers were going to do to the world so they really didn’t lie…they mis-spoke.

It’s been interesting watching how insurance has changed over the years. I spent more than 20 years in the industry from life and health to property, casualty and disability insurance. The more things change…the more they stay the same. I remember when I used to call for life insurance quote and when I calculated auto rates by looking numbers up in huge manuals. Now…calculating auto rates was tricky. Not only do you rate the car a person drives but you rate the driver, too. Can it be confusing? Yes. Is it fun? Only if you do it as a hobby. All in all, the insurance industry was good to me, helped me put my son through day care and grade school. Insurance has helped me since I retired because I’ve been able to help others understand their coverage and find the best rates…and that’s pretty cool

So, let me ask you…do you try new weight loss pills that come out? Or do you study them, talk to friends and talk to your doctor before you delve into a new product. For my weight’s sake, I was looking at several liporexall reviews and thought it was very cool that this one product blocks more than 28% of the fat calories. This, my friends, is very cool. What tricks do you try to lose weight? Or do you have hard and fast methods?