Nov
22
2010
Debbie
We passed a couple milestones recently. And the occasion was made even more special by an email from a grateful reader. It’s the sort of thing that keeps us going. The visit counter just ticked over 70,000. About the same time I recalculated the blogs on all the lists. I have discovered quite a few new ones lately. The new total comes to over 1200 personal cancer blogs!
Just before I wrote this post I finished doing some redesigning of the Cancer Blogs Lists. I have combined the cervical and ovarian lists under a new “Gynecologic Cancers” section. I renamed “Widows and other Survivors” into the more direct title “Grief Blogs”. I edited the “Uncommon Cancers” section, moving many of the blogs to other more appropriate lists (for instance, “Wilm’s tumor” blogs to the “Kidney Cancer” section as this is a type of childhood cancer of the kidneys). Diseases with smaller number of blogs – bone, bladder, pancreatic, testicular, etc – move to the “Miscellaneous Cancers” page. Finally, the now smaller “Uncommon Cancers” list resides on the “Miscellaneous” page also.
What I am really excited about today is the following email:
Hi Dennis,
I found your blog a little over a year and a half ago. After being diagnosed with oral cancer on January 20, 2009, I started frantically searching the web for any information I could find. I found a blog of a young woman who had a diagnosis of cancer almost identical to mine, hers was the one and only blog I found, at that time, that was so close to my diagnosis. I found her blog to be so critical in my understanding of what I was going to be facing. Since then my computer crashed and I have been unable to locate her blog again. I did, however, after viewing her blog, create one of my own to chronicle my experience in the hope of not only keeping our many family, friends and acquaintances informed in how I am doing, but also to hopefully be a help to anyone who may receive this horrible diagnosis in the future. I have tried to be very informative on by blog including some graphic and very unflattering pictures of my cancer journey.
I check your blog daily, excited to read each new post. I can’t tell you how much help and comfort I have received from reading the blogs of other cancer patients you have made available from your web site. It was so wonderful to find your web site at a time when I was desperately seeking to hear from others who have been through what I was facing. I don’t know if you would be interested in including my blog on your site or not. It has been my desire, in writing it, to possibly be a help to anyone else facing this rare form of oral cancer. My blog is There Will Be Grace
Once again THANK-YOU for taking the time to set up and continue to add to, and maintain your web site!!!! It seems as if every post I read, touches my life in some way.
Today’s entry, Cancer Symptoms Endure, is so relevant to what I have been experiencing lately. It is wonderful to know I am not alone in the things I am experiencing a year after finishing treatments. Before my cancer diagnosis I hadn’t been to the doctor in probably five years, but now sometimes, I find myself wondering if I have been sick for so long that these symptoms are somehow only in my mind. Then I read something you or one of your guest speakers have written and it helps to know I am not so unusual!!! Wow, I can’t say thank-you enough!!!
Sincerely,
Debbie Ruppe
Nov
07
2010
A new blog section has been added to the Cancer Blogs Lists – a Miscellaneous Cancer Blogs section. This is devoted to blogs that are ancillary to the main body of disease categories. One section features a blog that is devoted to the needs of cancer caregivers. The next section offers a selection of cancer blogging communities, places where survivors add their collective voices to a community dialogue rather than maintaining an individual blog. We needed a place to put blogs by cancer doctors and nurses to offer their own unique take on the cancer experience. And finally there is a section to help children deal with a family member’s cancer.
I still need to look for ways to improve the listings under “Uncommon Cancers”.
An update of my life: we returned last Monday from our trip to Boston. The drive never gets shorter. But the twins at eleven months were a delight. I have an appointment at the transplant clinic this week. One of the topics for discussion – whether it is time to come off of disability. My insurance company, Unum, has just about completed their evaluation, collating information from six physicians and tax returns for the past two years. And, no, this website is showing no signs of profit so no additional income worries there. So I may be facing a decision to return to nursing in some capacity or else seek an early retirement.
Still waiting for thoughts and suggestions about resuming the Cancer Book Club. I will be writing a post in the near future on issues related to writing a critical review of a cancer book, especially of the always heartfelt cancer memoir. With the coming of cold weather I seem to be easing into a more comfortable writing schedule – posts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with maybe a short news post on Sundays. As always,
Take care, Dennis
Oct
14
2010
My girls...
I have spent quite of bit of time over the past few days adding sites to the Cancer Blogs Lists. I have been able to locate some treasure-loads of links, many providing threads to yet more sites. I will be featuring examples of these in the coming weeks and months as we focus more on the community aspect of cancer blogging.
Today I want to showcase Heather’s blog Just a Young Mama Fighting Cancer. She is a former Special Education teacher, a job that I had immediately after college. In her introduction she writes “the day my daughter turned 6 months old was the day I was diagnosed with Stage IV Melanoma. That day changed my whole life. After a year long round of chemo, I thought I would be able to live my life cancer free. Apparently, God has other plans. On February 12, 2010, I was told that my cancer is back. I am currently in the process of fighting cancer, living my life to the fullest, and being the best mommy and wife that I can possibly be.”
In this post she suggests very directly the redeeming side of cancer that many of us have experienced.
Sometimes I get so mad that cancer has changed me. It has not only changed me in the inside but also on the outside. It has changed how I feel, it has changed what I do, and it has changed how I think. It has also changed the way OTHER people look at me. But, I have decided that I am ok with that.
I don’t think people look at me and say, oh you poor dear, you have cancer. I think they look at me and say, seriously? You have cancer?
And I am ok with that. Because even though cancer has changed me. It has changed me for the better. Odd, I know, but I am ok with that too.
Because, you see, because of cancer, I am a better mom, sister, daughter, wife, and friend. I realize the importance of family and friendship now more than ever. I realize how important it is to be there for the ones you love and to make sure that they know how much they mean to you.
I also believe that cancer has made me stronger. Fairly certain that 2 and half years ago most of you would not have considered me to be brave, or strong, or a fighter, however, I have NO doubt in my mind that those are words that you would use to describe me now. Because I am. I AM brave, I AM strong, and I most certainly AM a fighter.
So, yes cancer does suck, MAJORLY, but because of it I have become a better person. I no longer take for granted those special (and some not so special!) moments with my adorable little babes. And I no longer care about stupid petty things. Things are in perspective. So, thank you cancer for giving me that.
Now, if you don’t I feel as if I must kick your ass… (I’m talking to cancer there, not you readers:)
Sep
08
2010
1st day back at pre-school
Disability woes
Sorry I have been away from the computer for a while. Came down with another viral thing – just a bad cold but without a fever. Still it slowed me down. I figured out that my new job – working at a gourmet wine and spirits shop a few hours a week – is mainly for my mental health. Unnum, the insurance company that I receive my disability income from, figures this is a good time to do a complete review of my case. I spent an hour in a phone interview with a nice-enough “case specialist”. The company wants to make sure that I am able to live up to my full potential. Working three hours three evenings a week pouring wine at the tasting bar has sent up a red flag from them. Of course I only make 1/3 per hour and 8% a year of what I would be making if I were able to work full-time in my chosen profession, nursing. And I have had to call in sick a number of days since I started work three months ago. They plan to contact all of my physicians and get back in touch with me. I guess they’re just doing their job. It’s a reasonable enough request. Yet somehow I sense that their primary agenda has more to do with their financial health than with my reaching my full potential. I’ll keep you posted.
New thyroid blog
Another email from a new blogger: Hi,
My name is Ann Dunlap, and I’d like my blog to be included on your wonderful website. It’s a thyroid cancer blog, and the link is: Strong in Weakness, Glowin’ in the Dark
I really appreciated finding your website today, as I’ve been recently diagnosed, and looking for anything I can find.
Author, Richard Schimmel, dies
I heard on the news today that Richard Schimmel, author of Cancer on $5 a Day, died of injuries sustained in a car accident. His book was reviewed as our January Book Club selection.
Site plans
Plans are coalescing for streamlining the look of this site. I want to put more focus on the Cancer Blog List as it is our most used resource. I am working on ways to make it easier to navigate. Coming it soon will be a couple of book reviews.
