Patrick Glass comments

I switched to ANA and have been much happier with the food and service. All the Asian airlines are much better than any from America. Unfortunately, I still have to fly to Houston on United, but at least it's a short flight.

It seems a lot of accidents by elderly people are caused by momentary confusion concerning the brake pedal versa the accelerator pedal. Since almost every car sold today has an automatic transmission and being ambidextrous, I use my left foot for the brake and right foot for the accelerator. I doubt i will ever hit the accelerator thinking I'm braking. I wonder if many others do the same?

I was diagnosed with tongue cancer (stage 4) almost 3 years ago. It had spread to a lymph node above my right chin (secondary lesion.) I too, was misdiagnosed by an ENT doctor that completely ignored the swollen lymph node which he absolutely shouldn't have done. Four months later, I was properly diagnosed at a university hospital where the doctors finally found the primary lesion which was deep at the base of my tongue. BTW, I had no pain. I was not treated with surgery, but radiation and chemo. The 32 radiation treatments was the worst! I couldn't eat for 6 months because of the pain when trying to swallow, instead feeding myself with an implanted stomach tube. The treatment was absolutely brutal - I lost 10 kilos. I look back on it now and really don't know how I survived the treatment. BTW, I never smoked or used tobacco in any form.

I lost most of my salivary glands from the radiation as well as taste buds, the salivary glands will never be functional again, but the taste buds have mostly come back. Today, I feel great and so far, my 6th monthly checkups are good. The radiation literally melted the cancer off my tongue and today the tissue in that area looks completely normal. Do I worry that some cancer cells could have traveled somewhere else in my body? Sure, but I don't obsess over it. If I hadn't gotten treated when I did, I would be dead by now.

When I first read this story I cried. I also suffered with a father that was a bully, not physically but emotionally which psychiatrists claim is almost as bad. It doesn't kill you physically, but spiritually. Thank God I had a loving mother that always took up for me and protected me from him. If it hadn't been for her, I'm sure I would have been in worse psychological shape than I am. Yes, he bulled her as well as my brother, but she protected me. This poor girl had no one to protect her and it still makes me want to cry for her. No child anywhere in the world should have to suffer like her.

I just wonder how many other children are out there being abused and no one knows. it's a really awful thought!