Relay, & the Bestest Friends Ever!

For those who still might not know, I'm participating in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life this coming weekend up in Paradise, where my cancer center is located. I'm placing the same blog entry here, and on my personal Relay for Life page, IF the goddamned thing ever lets me. Please excuse the duplication, if there is one, but I wanted to make sure I reached everyone out there. (their little blog app isn't quite working, like several other parts of their site....::sigh::...)

Anyway: Wowee guys!!  You have *really* stepped up to the plate.  I am overwhelmed with the support I'm getting for Relay. Then again, I shouldn't be, because you guys are here for me all the time, no matter what I need.

I just want to thank you all very sincerely for your donations to my Relay. As a cancer patient, you so often feel helpless. Powerless. I've said it myself, that cancer steals your dignity. Show up at the hospital, drop your pants, and drop your dignity at the door.

Well, thankfully, that's not always true, and lord knows the fantastic staff at FRH try their best to make sure it isn't like that, but it sure feels that way a lot of the time. Relay changes that feeling. It gives me something I can DO to fight back against this b'strd of a disease, for myself ands many others.

And for me, this fight has never really been about myself. I've always felt more worried about the impact on my family and friends than myself. And I'm a bit of a worrier, in case we've never met.  ;-)

Well, this feeling of empowerment is new and different, let me tell you! There is finally something real and tangible I can do to help prevent other families, other people's friends from going through this hell.

And it's not one bit ironic that the ACS slogan talks about creating a world with "more birthdays" when I've been saying for a year and a half now that I will be one rare woman who actually likes to grow older each year. It's even LESS ironic that our Relay takes place four days before my 40th birthday. ;-)  

I hope I can help many more people reach those milestones. Relay is something so simple - just walking a few laps around a track - and it can do so much. That is the most powerful feeling I've had since learning I had cancer.

Thank you all, so, so much, for being part of my Relay, my battle with cancer, and more than anything, my life.  I love you all very, very much!!