Our MNCC member poguesrun has graciously agreed to let us claim his fine and moving diary from late last night (or mid-evening, depending on where you live) for tonight's MNCC. Please follow this link to his diary--Childhood Cancer: The way of the survivor--and join the conversation there.
The catch is that poguesrun won't be there until about 7:30 PDT/10:30 EDT. So in the meantime I'll be saying hi here but not much else.
Next week, I expect to post the diary that I would have posted tonight had this great opportunity not arisen thanks to poguesrun's generosity. But I may also be late to the party tonight, since I'm going to a local information meeting about ACA implementation. It won't affect my own insurance since now I am covered by Medicare, but it does have a potentially serious impact on my husband and 17-year-old daughter. With luck I'll have some interesting details with which to fill out the great resources that Kossacks have been publishing these past couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, I fervently request you to consider writing a diary (or two) for the MNCC yourself. If you're here reading, you have an interest, and no doubt a valuable perspective to bring to bear. It makes the whole series far more interesting (at least to me!) if there are other contributors on a regular basis.
In the next few weeks, I expect to cover the following topics:
--The Impact the ACA Will Likely Have on You
--2nd Year Anniversary of MNCC
--Comorbidities
--Treatment Side Effects
But this little list is so far even from scratching the surface...! So let me also include the other list of potential topics, though I fear that some of these commitments have become obsolete:
--Cancer and Depression
--Cancer and Anxiety
--Race and Class Disparities in Cancer Survival
--Clinical Trials (murasaki)
--Cancer and Genetic Testing
--Cancer and Environmental "Hot Spots" (DWG)
--Cancer and Patient Advocates (Avila)
--Politics of Cancer (ZenTrainer)
--Cancer and Survivor's Guilt
--Prostate Cancer Treatment Choices (outragedinSF)
--(Breast) Cancer Advocacy (Betty Pinson)
Plus, there are at least two more of you who have indicated you have a diary in the works, or will shortly. I hope you know who you are! I'll be sending a reminder in any case.
It is hard in some ways for me to believe that it's almost two years now (as of 10/3) that I began this series. Especially since at that point I was challenged by metastases, and had begun treatments with no way of knowing how well they would work. I am grateful to have had the past two years with all of you.
However, there is a more poignant anniversary to observe tonight: the passing of ulookarmless. If you knew this wonderful man, then you will understand my gesture of remembrance tonight; I still cherish the few exchanges we had. If you didn't know him, I recommend checking out some of the links that follow. On September 30, 2012, Nurse Kelley announced the sad news that we were all hoping would be postponed indefinitely. For some glimpses into the life and accomplishments of ulookarmless/CJ Campbell, a truly amazing human being, I hope you will take a few moments to read his memorial diary written by Nurse Kelley in a true act of devotion and to look back at his prodigious output at Daily Kos.
CJ, I honor your passing and salute your life. May you rest in peace forevermore.
All right, my friends, that's it for now. I'll see you here and there and everywhere....