Brenda's Brainstorm & Trevor, a T Man Production 2009 - 2022

Before 2017 ends, I want to get this out in the open once and for all. After that, I never want to talk about it again. This will give you a real sense of why I dread the holidays, more and more each year. This year, has by far been the hardest, since I lost my mother. As a child I always loved the holidays and then one year, I didn't anymore. I was sick for many of them, missing school or church programs, that I looked so forward to. By the time I reached college, it was getting harder and harder to enjoy them. I would go caroling and sing in choirs. I was basically going through the motions. It was also a busy time at work, as I was working in accounting/mail center. The accounting especially was busy with year end details. Our mail center was ridiculously busy, with personal packages being shipped UPS and USPS. You would have thought we were a regular post office. The question that I received the most was, "When will my package get there?" How was I supposed to kno...

This blog post has been in the developing stages for several years, and I thought it was time, to share it with our readers. These will be my thoughts on advocacy and while I feel so strongly about it. I made a promise to my dying mother, to live my life and grab what I want. At the time, having no idea what that meant. I was losing my best friend, but wanted her to know, that I would be able to go on and honor her memory. Her passing was very hard and I still miss my mother every day, but that chance came along, to do something I had never done before. I became a true patient advocate. I had always advocated for myself. I asked for a CT for my head issues, because I knew something was wrong. I never once thought, it would end up being a brain tumor. The medical community did not really back me up on that decision. In fact, I was told twice during a telephone conversation; "If we find nothing, we're done." Although I have forgiven that great injustice done to me, I ha...

Hello, my friends! It's Trevor here, with our last tale of 2017. This one folks, is going to be serious. Brenda has lived with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), for over 26 years. She also became a 9 year brain tumor survivor on September 8th. She deals with daily chronic pain and on top of that, nausea most days. There never really is a reprieve with the pain. Brenda tells me, that there are times, when she can block it out. It helps to remain positive. That is not always easy. We thought the title; 'Pushing Through the Pain' would be quite apropos, for this particular tale. Brenda fights every day! She knows how important it is to keep moving. That is not always easy, when you are hurting all over. For those of you who are not familiar with RA. It is considered an autoimmune disease, which basically means, that the body attacks itself. It does not know what it is doing, so it ends up attacking healthy tissues and joints. RA can also be considered inflammatory. Brenda defin...