when I was diagnosed with a fibroid as big as a normal 9 month pregnancy the only articles I could find about non-hysterectomy alternatives were from Israeli and French Medical journals...though I found two good articles on removing them from horses.

My first doctors insisted hysterectomy was the only option and that I had to immediately have surgery in case it was really cancer...due to the fact that it appeared within two months and was so big. I was stupid and did not get a second opinion. I did have my Mom come and supervise - she's an RN - and refused to sign consent for hysterectomy unless it was cancer. My husband also stood his ground along with my Mom and made sure that the Docs stuck to the agreement. It was not cancer - it was a gigantic external fibroid around my right fallopian tube and ovary. Instead of removing the fibroid, the Docs did a great deal of damage due to its location and their 'fear' that I would bleed to death if they removed it. In the end they closed up the wound which did not heal well - it stretches from above my belly botton to below my pubic bone. I was pressured to seek counselling to get over my neurotic desire to maintain my fertility among other rudenesses. I was very close to suicide when an acquaintance, an older sensible woman who was a french literature professor, told me to go to University Hospitals and see Doctor Sogor. He did his damnedest to repair the damage... plastic surgery for the interior, removed the fibroid - I did need transfusions - and tried to repair the wound. Everything but one fallopian tube came out looking fine and apparently working. We tried getting pregnant beginning as soon as I healed completely. Dr. Sogor sent a letter and a video of the surgery to my previous Docs explaining to them how this should have been done and offering to assist them further in their education. We were not able to get pregnant after many attempts and options but at least we had the chance. At least one Doctor felt that a woman's fertility was not a frivolous or neurotic choice.

Thank heavens he's educated a whole new generation of Docs with brains and hearts.

Well said as always - I keep meaning to watch Dog Whisperer and now I finally will. I think we do okay - but every dog deserves their owner to be well trained ;)

Meg March and John Brooke... in Little Women - that's what I wanted. We came close. My friends and family still talk about how nice it was to be able to sit and talk and enjoy each other's company at our wedding dinner. My Mom-in-Law was wonderful about trying to make sure we had flowers and table things and making sure we did formal invitations and arranged the church/hall etc. as we got married in my husband's home state and not mine. I was frankly oblivious. I was more worried about was I making the right decision about my mate - the details of the ceremony were not a key issue :) We had a Hungarian style dinner that my husband insisted we had to have and the Hungarian church ladies came to the Lutheran church to cook it. I was starved after the ceremony and was chased out of the kitchen...zee keetchen is not zee place for zee bride..by Margaret Tokar waiving a wooden spoon hot out of the stuffed cabbages. Everyone was told to dress for a hot June party and relax and bring their children. I wore a head wreath of daisies and dark red roses and a simple ivory lace tea length dress I bought at J.C. Penney's on sale (husband and I were both undergraduates and I'm the oldest of 9 - my parents were still paying for diapers much the less weddings...24 years of happy marriage have followed from that simple day. I still remember Michael grinning like a loon as I started to walk towards him :) He had no doubts for some reason.

This is insulting and sexist - Gary what is your point? This makes McCain what? The dwarf in the porn movie? Why not do the same kind of sexual objectification to the other candidates? They are 'men' and therefore sacrosanct? Find a sensible critique and stop making sex objects out of women - yes she's sexy - you can say that - but stop objectiying her. You also give ammunition to the right wing noise machine when you do this kind of stupid juvenile crap.

I read the article - I see the point - but it will still be fodder for the right wing noise machine who are not so subtle.

Thank you Glenn,

This is exactly what I was thinking. Palin is an able and intelligent politician, but she is just not ready for national primetime. Even on her own turf I think her appeal was mainly that she's appealing. I feel sorry for her but not overwhelmingly. She could have said no I'm not ready yet. She could have started by being a campaigner and getting some experience that way. She might have been good in the cabinet and be ready for VP status in a few years. But, I doubt she really understood what she was getting into. I was very proud of Katy Couric. She was very good and so was Charles.

I couldn't help but compare Sarah Palin's photo op tour yesterday with Carla Bruni Sarkozy who ably supported her husband's political career even to the extent of standing in for him at U.N. functions. Mrs. Sarkozy has been an actress on the international stage for her entire life. She moves in that milieu like she was born there because she was...It takes time and energy and experience - not all the tutoring in the world can make up for that.