pelf-ism is contagious

If you’re picking up my feeds in a feed reader, I’d like to invite you to click through because I’ve got myself a pretty flowery pink theme in conjunction with the Breast Cancer Awareness month This flowery theme was one of the pretty pink themes I’ve found (there are a lot others) and I’ve spent a lot of time tweaking it. Special thanks go to GeminiGeek for helping me add another column to the original 2-column theme.

So what is this all about?

Pink for October is an annual initiative to get people to learn more about and create and spread awareness on breast cancer. This year, Pink for October will be run by Matthew Oliphant, Tammie Lister, and Zach Inglis.

What can you do to help?

1. Spread the word. Announce the event on your blog. You could write a blog post (like this), or a little note about it. Whatever you choose to do, just go ahead and tell your readers about it.
2. Go pink. Modify your theme if you know how to, or get yourself a pretty pink theme If you run a website, turn your website pink. But if you don’t like pink, you could still participating by putting up a badge on your sidebar.
3. Design badges and banners. Design a couple of “Pink for October” badges or banners for other participants to use (for free) and to publicize the event. Some of the existing badges and banners can be downloaded from the official Pink for October site.
4. Design blog themes. There are a lot of bloggers (me included) who can’t even do simple designing, so if you are good at it, perhaps you could design and release a few pink themes?

Apart from switching to a new pink theme, I will also be blogging about breast cancer whenever possible, hopefully twice every week. And in case you’re interested, these are my breast cancer-related posts published last year:

1. Welcome to Cancerland
2. Breast Cancer: 22 myths you should know
3. Breast Cancer Welfare Association
4. Mammography and Ultrasound

Please let me know in the comments section if you’re going pink this month so that I could go visit you

The “Chen family” most certainly has a hereditary disease called the “ugly teeth disease”. Every-single-one of us has had to wear braces in a stage of our lives (all thanks to Grandpa!). Well, except for those who are still too small to know what braces are

But despite all of us being on the same boat (or so to speak), we have all had different experiences, and I think my personal experience is somewhat more dramatic than that of my cousins’ (which is against my will, of course)

You see, I had to surgically remove 2 of my 4 wisdom teeth when I was 19 years old. The procedure was a pretty simple one — I sat on the dentist’s chair, the dentist anaesthetized my mouth and after a while, she started drilling and I could feel that she was cutting my wisdom tooth into four parts. When she was done, she dug each of the parts out one-by-one. And finally she sutured the opening. The entire procedure took between 45 minutes and an hour, depending on how strongly my wisdom teeth were stuck in my gums

My mouth was swollen after each surgery, which were scheduled a week after the other. I couldn’t eat solid foods, and it was just too painful to talk (which was even more depressing). My Mum treated me like a princess, and the blood scared the sh*t out of my sister After removing my wisdom teeth, I had to have 6 of my remaining teeth manually removed, one during each consecutive weekend. And at the end of 2 months, I had 8 teeth less than any adult

And then, began my journey of wearing the braces for the next 4.5 years, which was nothing remotely close to sweet and dandy. I couldn’t eat hard foods, no eating drumstick like the KFC advertisement, no chewing gums. There was once I broke my braces while eating murukku (a kind of Indian snacks).

To put it simply, I had to visit the dentist every month, and she would tighten my braces so that my mal-aligned teeth would budge. At one point, I was even asked to wear a head-gear for 16 hours a day (pic).

I had my braces removed in September 2003, and is it worth all the lost blood and painful and terrifying experience, you ask?

You bet!

Mike and Tish @ Blogs We Luv will be blogging for The Glaucoma Foundation during this up-coming blogathon. And as an added incentive, they will be giving away a $25 Amazon gift card at the close of Blogathon 2007, and for every $5 you contribute, you will be eligible for one entry into the drawing.

You see, at present, there is no cure for glaucoma. However, if it is diagnosed and treated early, blindness can be prevented.

I am one of the lucky glaucoma patients. I was diagnosed eight years ago, at the age of 27. I see my doctor frequently, and I am on daily medications to control the disease. I have suffered very little optic nerve damage so far, and with any luck, it will stay that way. I dream of the day a cure is found – hopefully in my own lifetime.

- Tish @ Blogs We Luv

Two weeks ago, I wrote about my Grandpa’s glaucoma — whatever object you focus on will appear clear and crisp, but there would be an area to the side of your focus which will be blurry. But as soon as you gaze at the blurry area it becomes crisp because now you are focusing on that area – and so now a different area on side will become blurry.

Now, my grandpa isn’t as “lucky” as Tish. His glaucoma is already at an advanced stage, and despite applying eye drops as prescribed by his ophthalmologist, the pressure in his left eye remains high (high pressure causes progression of glaucoma and visual field defects).

And the scary thing is, it runs in the family! Is anybody in your family affected by glaucoma? You may read more about glaucoma, which is the leading cause of preventable blindness at The Eye Digest or The Glaucoma Foundation. Or if you’re feeling generous today, or tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, please support Mike and Tish by pledging to donate to The Glaucoma Foundation