and the hits just keep coming...

In the last few days this week I have learned about two family members newly diagnosed with cancer. My mother-in-law has had her 4th recurrence and an uncle was recently diagnosed with Prostate cancer.

It just doesn't go away.

My immediate reaction to my mother-in-law's recurrence was to be pissed off that nothing works, no one is getting away clean and it wont go away. I felt helpless and angry and had that gut wrenching pain that reminds me that "remission is not a cure" There are no guarantees.

But after a day of pretending cancer doesn't exist I caught a "Sports Center" broadcast that featured short films or spots about people and their cancer in-between commercial breaks. The spots were from "Livestrong" and I found more of them on-line.

I posted a link to one "Short" on this blog. Certainly I found them inspiring and motivating and
I decided I can't let cancer beat me now...I kicked it's ass (with some chemical assistance) how can I just give up now?

The next day or so later I sat down and found my collective written word count that showed me all the writing I have been doing up til now has amounted to a "book" and that I need to stream line into something people might want to read.

I plan on reaching out to my former Urologist who diagnosed my Kidney cancer and performed my nephrectomy. I hope to consult both my Oncologists along the way and add my wife's version of events into the story. And with a little help from some friends of friends maybe find a sympathetic eye who knows someone who might show some interest in publishing it.

If not...so be it. But I have gotten this far might as well go all the way.

I can't afford to give up now. Even with the news of recent diagnosis and how much it pisses me off...I have to stay in the fight and promote awareness and early detection and get this book, my story...our story out there.

It might help someone recently diagnosed like Lance Armstrong's book kind of helped me.

Finding like voices in like situations lessens the isolation. Finding commonality breeds community and builds hope.

I need to get our story out there because someone out there some where will find it just when they need it and know they are not alone. That is important to me. I didn't go thru this to build character. I went thru this and have been writing about it for someone else.

Just haven't met them yet.


In the meantime...Cancer still SUCKS!

Be Well.