second opinion Archives • DAVIDPDX

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BIGGER PICTURE, FUZZY FOCUS

April 4, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

Looking hard at the bigger picture takes attention away from the small stuff. Everyone complains about hair loss, overweight, under motivated, but forget their sense of freedom to itch, eat, and flop around. The solution comes to everyone and it’s never the same. Do this for that, but not too much, not too often, and […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, bigger picture, biggest pitcure, disease, drugs, injections, medicine, misery, pills, second opinion, sickness, street doctor, Weight Loss, writer

HARD RAIN FALLING, GUTTERS OVERFLOWING, NOW WHAT?

January 7, 2026 by David Gillaspie

I’ve got a hard rain falling in drops you can see. Not the usual drizzle, not a sheet of water, but individual drops spaced and timed to perfection. It’s cold out, the kind of day that makes you think of other places you’ve heard about, seen on advertisements, the kind of cold and wet people […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, American Baby Boomer, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, better days, blog, blogger, Bob Dylan, boomer generation, call to action, Death, education, facebook, flood, getters, hard rain, history, hunger, Jan 6, learning, now what, Oregon, revisionist history, rewriting history, second opinion, show up, sink hole, stay warm, twitter, wife, writer, writers, writing, wrong history, WWII

KNIGHT CANCER INSTITUTE: SECOND OPINION ON SECOND OPINIONS

August 15, 2025 by David Gillaspie

The Knight Cancer Institute has been on my mind since its inception. Why would a sports company founder devote huge resources to starting a cancer institute? It wasn’t a one time donation. Yesterday the Institute pulled in another $2 billion. It’s a big story built on little stories like this:

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: $2 billion, big story, cancer, chemo therapy, curing cancer, education, gratitude, happy gratitude, knight cancer, Knight Cancer Institute, knight clinic, Nike, ohsu, opinion, Oregon, Phil Knight, precision medicine, radiation, research, second opinion, sports company, story, targeted therapies, timing

NO PROMOTION, AND WHY THAT’S GOOD

July 29, 2025 by David Gillaspie

You get no promotion if you compare yourself to the wrong thing. If you feel the need, aim your comps higher than a jumpy sheep. I’ve got a dog who does the same thing and I know how happy she is. Remember the last time you tried to be happy? Chances are you tried too […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: boomerpdx, break schedule, common sense, drug availability, focused, good thing, good things, hardships, help, job, know better, library museum, museum, my promotion, neighbor, Nicholas Kristof, no promotion, no promotions, non profit, organized, pain, promotion, promotions, revelations, second opinion, social conditions, training, work, your promotion

CULTURE CHANGE FOR AGING BOOMERS

December 18, 2024 by David Gillaspie

Culture change happens when things aren’t going exactly the way you want them to go. You hear more about it in sports with losing teams. Troy: They need a culture change in Chicago. Joe: You can say that again. Troy: They need . . . Joe: We’ll be back after a break.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: better listening, boomer husband, Boomer men, boomer wife, Boomer Women, bronze, cancer, change, common respect, culture, culture change, doctor, found art, habits, hot, making, melting bronze, mercedes benz, old habits, productive, respect, second opinion, shopping

TUMOR REPORT: MIKE KELLY GETS THE COOKIE

May 11, 2022 by David Gillaspie

A tumor report is what you get if you find a tumor. Mike Kelly found one the hard way: I was having trouble finding words, getting them out of my mouth and, to top it all off, I had an episode Sunday night — while we were watching “Call the Midwife” — where I could […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, Baby Boomers, BOOMER, boomers, cancer, feelings, health problems, health writing, hip replacement, italian food, lake oswego, medical story, mike kelly, Nicoletta's table, personal health, second opinion, story, tumor, tumor report, wedding anniversary

FIRST CHEMO OPINION ON #WORLDCANCERDAY

February 4, 2021 by David Gillaspie

Chemo: Work In Progress on World Cancer Day: Men who take women to their medical appointments are one thing. Women who insist on going with their men are another. Elaine insisted, but I insisted first. I wanted my doctors and specialists to know I had a fucking pit bull ready to turn loose on them […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: cancer, chemo, chemo celebration, chemo oncologist, chemo opinion, chemo pump, second opinion, tongue cancer, world cancer day

GROWING OLDER WITH A SECOND EMOTION

October 26, 2020 by David Gillaspie

No one cures aging; growing older is not a disease. Instead of seeing it as a problem to challenge your mental health, flip the idea of growing older into an opportunity: You are older today than you’ve ever been. What makes it different than yesterday? A week older, a month older, a year older? What […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: aging, alternative medicine, challenge, covid19, growing older, growth, kindness, Love, medicine, naturopathic medicine, obsession, oncologist, opportunity, pandemic, problem, purpose, second opinion

SECOND OPINION: WILL THAT BE ONE CHEMO OR TWO

June 26, 2017 by David Gillaspie

From cancer.org: Cancer cells tend to grow fast, and chemo drugs kill fast-growing cells. But because these drugs travel throughout the body, they can affect normal, healthy cells that are fast-growing, too. Damage to healthy cells causes side effects. Side effects are not always as bad as you might expect, but many people worry about […]

Filed Under: Toughen Up Tagged With: army medic, cancer, cancer drugs, chemo, chemotherapy, hpv, hpv16 throat cancer, Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, second opinion, throat cancer

SECOND OPINIONS SAVED THE D-DAY

June 6, 2017 by David Gillaspie

When the truth feels a little sketchy? Get a second opinion. A real estate agent listed my English mother in law’s house in Culver City, CA. They talked about the market, then the price. The real estate lady gave her best number. My mother in law disagreed, too low, and gave her number. It sold […]

Filed Under: BOOMER YEARS Tagged With: Cambridge, cambridge american cemetery, Cambridge England, D-Day, England, Europe, normandy beaches, second opinion, truth, world war, WWII