My Persuasive Speech

I know you guys really want to read the speech I will be giving tomorrw, but it is a topic that is close to my heart. Some of the facts has been omitted or embellished for dramatic effect but the stories are true.

Please read:


Angela’s Will to Live

One morning when I was twelve years old, my eleven-year-old sister Angela started complaining that her leg hurt. As the day wore on she began to cry in pain and by nighttime, her leg hurt so badly she could not walk. By that time, the regular doctor’s office was closed, so my parents put all of us kids in the car and rushed over to the Scottish Rite Urgent Care Center. The doctors did some x-rays and then admitted her into the hospital for more tests. After a night filled with x-rays, CAT scans, MRI’s, and any other tests imaginable, a team of doctors came into the room.

I will never forget the moment the doctors told us the results of the tests. Angela had cancer in her hip joint. An hour later Angela was in surgery having half of her pelvis and reproductive organs removed. As soon as she woke up from the surgery, the chemotherapy and radiation treatments started. These treatments lasted for a year and then she was in remission, or cancer free.

Less than a year later, we found out that the chemotherapy that saved her life also caused her to have heart damage. The poison, or chemotherapy, the doctors pumped into her body to kill the cancer weakened her heart and put her into congestive heart failure. Medication helped for around four or five years, but then her heart became so weak she had to be placed on the heart transplant list. Her chances were small of receiving a heart due to her rare blood type of AB-, which is the rarest, and her small body.
This is the beginning of my story dealing with transplants and organ donors, but my family is not alone. According to The Organ Procurement and Transplant Network, as of today there are 100,601 people on the transplant waiting list. This is something that applies to you and your family. Anyone at any time could suddenly need a transplant. According to Donate Life America, every twelve minutes another name is added to the organ transplant waiting list and eighteen people die each and every day due to the lack of organ transplant donors. You or a family member could be the next name on the list. Do you want another person to die because you did nothing?

The solution is simple. Sign up to become an organ donor when you renew your driver’s license. Fill out an organ donor card and have it witnessed by two people. Talk to your family about your wishes, because most people do not realize that even if you want to be an organ donor, your family has the final say and will be asked to sign a consent form before the organs can be donated.

According to www.giftdonor.org, “85% of Americans believe in organ and tissue donation, but only one-third of the available organ donor’s families actually give their consent for the donation.” This is a problem that occurs because people do not discuss death with their families and their family does not know their wishes. According to an article titled Transplant Medicine; Family conversations may be key to organ donation published by Heart Disease Weekly in November 2005, “92% of people surveyed said they would be likely to donate a family member’s organs if that person had expressed their desire to be a donor, while only 43% said they would be likely to donate a relative’s organs if the person hadn’t mentioned it.” I have completed all of these steps and even had the witnesses for my donor card be my husband and my parents so they cannot say they did not know. I carry my card with me at all times because I know what can happen to someone’s life when a transplant is not received in time.

For Angela, a transplant was not received in time. After spending the last two years of her life waiting for a transplant at The University of Alabama Hospital in Birmingham, she died. She was eighteen years old and could finally make her own medical decisions. She was given two choices: Number one: She could choose to get a new heart pump because the old one was causing her to have mini strokes. There was a fifty percent chance she would die on the operating table. Or number two: She would have a massive stroke caused by the excess blood clots formed by the old heart pump and would be a vegetable for whatever time she had left. She chose her one chance at life – the surgery. On the operating table, she had a massive stroke and an internal bleed the surgeons could not stop. She went into a coma and never woke up.

Not all transplant cases end like this: My dad is involved in a medical malpractice suit because when his eye doctor was performing Lasik eye surgery on him he picked up the wrong syringe and blinded him. The doctor injected disinfectant into his eye. He has received a cornea transplant and can see perfectly, actually better than he could see before. My mom was in a terrible skiing accident in Lake Tahoe about five years ago. She tore all of the ligaments in her knee when her skis did not detach from her ski boots when she fell. She received new ligaments from a donor and can now walk and run. She has no problems and is in better shape than she was before the transplant.

So, in conclusion, believe that organ donation can make a huge difference in people’s lives. According to an article titled Give the Gift of Life Become an Organ Donor published by the US Fed News Service on April 20, 2007, “the power of an organ donor is immense. A donor has the opportunity to save up to eight lives through organ donation and up to twelve lives can be changed through tissue donation.” I ask you to choose to give the gift of life. Talk to your family about organ donation. Fill out an organ donor card. And sign up to be an organ donor when you renew your driver’s license. Angela donated what organs could be donated upon her death. I like to believe she gave the gift of life to many even though she did not receive it for herself.

Thank you.

Update!

So, once again I have been slacking on this whole blog thing.

Finals are next week and everything was due last week so I am pretty much tired and grumpy from a lack of sleep. Not to mention I decided that since people were coming over to my Wildtree party (www.wildtree.com if you want to order something) that I should have the house decorated for Christmas. If you have been to my house at Christmas time, you know I put up four Christmas trees and it is pretty much like Christmas threw up (in a really festive good way). So the house is decorated, minus one tree and a huge Christmas village, all of the presents are wrapped and under the family tree, all of my projects are turned in, and the house is even clean. Not bad for a week's worth of work. So now I have to concentrate on my last day of class tomorrow and finals on Wednesday and Thursday.

Last time I told you that I thought Brad would get used to his new job, he didn't. He quit and went back to his old job a week after I wrote the blog. Needless to say, he is much happier. If you know Bradley, you know he hates any type of change. He has a very content soul. Bradley was grumpy last week too because it was his week to run end of day. Normally when he runs end of day, he gets to go to work late and sleep in but this time he had to be at work at 7am after running that computer thing at midnight. All because I had to go to the library to study for all of my tests and finish all of my projects. Aren't you glad you guys didn't visit us last week? LOL!

Victoria is doing great. She has lost her first two teeth, which is kind of early at four years old. She was so excited because her Mamaw's tooth fairy brings $10.00 per lost tooth. I say Mamaw has a very wealthy tooth fairy. Our tooth fairy is frugal, she brings $1.00 per tooth. She lost her second tooth down the drain while brushing her teeth and was very surprised to find her dollar in the sink and not under her pillow the next morning. Supposedly the tooth fairy leaves the money where she finds the tooth, really her mommy forgot and snuck it there with a big fat lie to keep her from getting upset.

We had fun at Halloween. Victoria went as Dorothy and really wanted to bring Buffy with her as Toto but we finally convinced her that a stuffed Toto was a better option. All of the kids, with the exception of Nikki who had scarlet fever, had fun and got lots of candy. I took Nikki a goody bag earlier that day because she had been crying all day and I really felt sorry for her. It has to be awful to be sick on Halloween (especially when you are going as Cinderella).

We all had a great time at Thanksgiving. I wish the people who came could have stayed longer, but everyone always has so many places to go during the holidays. I wish the people who didn't want to be sociable would have come because the food was great (since I cooked it) and the company was fun. The kids had fun playing together and we are planning a swimming outing at Bogan Park at some point this winter. Maybe we will do it when school is out in a couple of weeks.

In the next few weeks, I am going to get the website up and running for anyone who wants any handmade jewelry. I will post the address when I get the whole thing going.

My gripes for last week were:

"If you say you are coming to something, show up. If something happens and you can't show up, call and say you can't come. There is no excuse needed for why you can't come, there is also no excuse for being rude and just blowing someone or something off either. My mother raised me better than that and I expect other people to behave accordingly. Maybe I am asking too much."

"Treat people the way you want to be treated. We have all heard this before, but for some reason at Christmas time everyone seems to forget. People are rude to each other in stores, rude on the roads, and lets not even talk about mall traffic and general courtesy. Maybe if everyone could remember this lesson that our parents and grandparents tried to teach us, there would not be near as many horns blaring, middle fingers in the air, obscenities shouted, and just general rudeness."

And I saved the one that bothers me the most for last . . .

"Don't lie when someone doesn't even ask you about something. I really hate it when someone calls and gives me this whole big lie when I first answer the phone and then tells me why they are calling. Jeez, I never even asked a question that was lie-worthy. All I did was pick up the phone when it rang and said hello. If you are asked something and you need to lie just say I'm not telling you, I plead the fifth, no comment, or some other nonsense. Don't lie or make up excuses because they make you feel better about something crappy you are doing. Oh and by the way don't lie and then contradict yourself later in the conversation with the truth because you couldn't keep the lie going. You just look really dumb."

Sorry, I am on my soapbox this week because sometimes people drive me crazy with the completely ridiculous way they act.


Things I missed last week:

my grandmother - I called her old number by habit and then realized that I didn't know why I did when she has been dead since March.

Starbucks Eggnog Coffee - I usually get it at least once a year during Christmas. Instead of milk they put eggnog in their Christmas blend of coffee. Yummy! I am getting some next week!


The thing I wished for the most last week:

Patience and Sleep


Things I am thankful for this week:

Victoria's teacher (Cindy) - She came over to do the Wildtree party and she is just such a warm and cheerful person that she makes me feel happy whenever I see her. I am glad she is Victoria's teacher because Victoria loves her and is all smiles when she is around. She also has such a dry, sarcastic humor that she cracks me up.

Mrs. Wilda - Mrs. Wilda is my over 70 year old neighbor who lives across the street. Her husband Mr. Fred has alzheimers and she has a really hard time with him sometimes. She cracks me up because she swears that sometimes he pretends not to remember so she will have to go look for his stuff he can't find in the house. Well, she invited Victoria and I over to help her decorate her Christmas tree on Friday and she always makes me smile. She made hot chocolate for everyone and served graham crackers and jelly on antique bone china to Victoria.

Of course, my wonderful husband. Even though we were both completely grumpy and sleep deprived last week, we still made time to smooch in the garage.

Update Needed!!

I know it has been a while, but with too much school, too many activities on the weekends, and not enough sleep I haven't been able to get around to updating the blog.

So, what's new?

Brad has a new job which he sorta hates and sorta likes but it is only the end of his first week. Hopefully, he will like it more next week. I think it is a big change with lots of new things to learn and with a little bit of brushing up on his communication skills and asking for clarification, he will begin to really like his new job.

Victoria still hates school but is beginning to accept her fate. She even picked flowers out of the yard yesterday to take to her teachers. According to her, "If I take them flowers, they will know how much I love them." I think we need to work on this whole "presents = love" thing, but she is only four. Victoria has another beauty pageant on the 25th and is semi-excited to be going. I think she is nervous because she didn't do well the last time. Well. a little more practice would solve that but she doesn't want to.

Well I have been studying like a crazy woman and the house is dirty because I don't have time to clean it. Maybe I will get to it in November. LOL! (It's not really dirty, it just feels like it is not as clean as I wish it was.) I have plants that need to be planted piled up by the front door and bags of dirt in the garage. My garden is feeling the neglect due to my studying too. I am very excited to be going on my first SCUBA diving trip tomorrow. We are going to do five dives in two days (sounds exhausting). We are also going to camp at the campground near the lake. Okay, I am not big on roughing it. I like the idea but am not so sure about this, especially with nine people I don't really know. I will keep you posted.

Until next time!

Leah

Ears Pierced

Victoria got her ears pierced last week! She has been adamant that she would never get them pierced for at least a year now, but she changed her mind during a visit to the mall. Beth bribed her with three pairs of earrings and suddenly she decided to get them pierced. I think a gentle prompting from her Mammaw might have helped. She started to cry as soon as they pierced them but when she saw them in the mirror a smile peaked out. While crying and laughing at the same time she picked out her new earrings, dolphins, cherries, and little dangly butterflies. I am so glad it is over.

Victoria's Boyfriend

Victoria has a boyfriend (actually two of them) at school. I am not even close to being ready for this. She said, "Lennen (?) is sweet to my heart and when I see him my heart turns pink!" The other one is named Kayden (?). Both have blond hair and blue eyes. Does anyone see a pattern here? I think I need to lock her in a tower and make her let down her hair like Rapunzel to get a date. I am confused. I didn't realize children at the age of four thought about boyfriends and girlfriends.

Victoria's First Day of School

I was very sad when Victoria went to school on Monday. With a "See ya mom" and a wave she ran into her school. I guess she is getting to the point where she doesn't need hugs and kisses before she goes somewhere. Well, I still need them! She has had a great week at school and even had the joy of bringing her lunch for the first time. Victoria has made four new friends and loves her teachers. Hope next week goes the same!

Last Day of Summer School!!

Well, today is my last day of summer school and I do not start back until August 18th. I am excited because now I get to deal with how neglectful I have been to my house and even to my child. Studying does not leave much time for hanging out or finishing any projects. My goal is to finish all of the projects I have started in the past year and clean out this house in the next 2 1/2 weeks. I guess we will see how that goes. By the way my garage looks, I am not sure it will be possible. Let's not even start with the unfinished hand painted curtains for the playroom, outfits I started sewing for Victoria, handbags, afghans, quilts, jewelry, etc. I guess it is a good thing Victoria starts school on the 11th and I do not start until the 18th.