Friday, August 13, 2010

The gathering

I could have been struck by lightning. I could have won the lottery. Blue ice could have fallen on me from Donald Trumps personal jet. Instead, I got a cancer that strikes 1 in 10 million. A cancer that my very first oncologist refused to consider. A cancer that made him viscerally angry at the uppity pathologist who wrote the word angiosarcoma on that very first pathology report when I was still a child, naive and happy to bounce along toward some undetermined fate....way off in the distance. It seems like a lifetime ago. Time's a funny thing..but I love it regardless of what it lets unfold before me.
One of the first things I did when I was diagnosed was scour the Internet for information about this ridiculous cancer. What I found was a world of hurt, a universe of shitty statistics which dangled time in front of me like a melting scoop of ice cream in the hands of a child on a hot summer day. You just know it's going to end up smeared all over the place, dropped on the concrete and left to melt away before it was fully enjoyed. There was however one thing I found that has profoundly changed my life for the better. The angiosarcoma facebook page set up by Lauren through which I have forged deep relationships with the other members. To say that time is of the essence is an understatement, so we engage each other with no barriers at all, as kindred spirits.
I had the opportunity to meet Alyssa, Lauren and Precious when I went to NYC to meet the real doctors....I almost cried. We met up again in Boston this past week, only this time we added Bethany, Josephine and Wendy. All of us in one place...the worlds largest gathering of angiosarcoma gals. We already knew the outlines of each others lives, but it was incredible to fill in the broad strokes with fine details. We went from 1 in 10 million to 1 in 6. I'm choked up a little thinking about it, I just love them all so much. Can't wait for the next one...

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