Dear Congressman Jim Matheson

I called your office a couple of weeks ago to express my hopes that you would support a public option as part of healthcare reform. The person who answered your phone in DC hung up on me the minute the words "public option" passed my lips. I was stunned. The next day there was a letter to the editor in the Salt Lake Tribune by a man who had the same experience. Unlike me, he kept calling back until he found someone who would answer his question, which was "Why would you hang up on a constituent calling to express their opinion?" He was told, that there were just too many calls coming in for a public option and that it had always been "off the table." My question now is, "Why did you run as a Democrat if you don't care that your Democratic constituents support a public option for health care reform?" It seems to me this is a slight of hand. You are not really acting like a Democrat. We already have two powerful Republican Senators who don't care what our wishes and concerns are. You ran for Congress in Utah's moderately liberal district as a Democrat, but you are not representing your constituents interests. I will be working very hard to find a liberal to run against you in the next primary. I will do all I can to defeat you even if this means voting for just another Republican. Better to have an honest enemy than a false friend.

Sincerely,
Peggy Pendleton

It's Boob Squishing Time Again

It was only a week and a half ago that I got my boobs squished. But they found a hinky spot on both breasts, so today I have to go back for a diagnostic mammogram and maybe an ultrasound as well, depending on what they find with the diagnostic mammogram. If it were just my breasts and everything else were fine, I wouldn't be worried. But I've had a low platelet count for a long time. There is a big range between high-normal and low-normal. I've been below low-normal for well over a year.

So now I'm under the care of an oncology hematologist. He ordered an ultrasound of my liver and spleen three weeks ago and the only thing they found with that test was a few gallstones. These gallstones aren't bothering me, so I plan to do nothing unless they get to be a problem. And in my latest round of blood work they found that my platelet count was up a little from the last time it was checked. Still not low-normal, but better, on the upswing, maybe. At least for the time being. I'm hoping to avoid a bone marrow test. That is the next test if my platelet count is lower next time I go in to get it checked--in three months.

So, for a relatively healthy woman with a family history of high blood pressure, heart disease, and bipolar disorder, all of which require the taking of pills, I'm sort of peachy. And I plan to come back after this new boob squishing has been read, to tell you, I really am peachy.