one worth checking

there are a few websites out there that i check every day. most of them aren't worth sharing with you, my beloved blog readers, because in most cases, knowing that i check these websites every day would only serve to lower your assessment of my character. sure, i'm willing to fess up about cute overload, but there are others. yes, there are others*. occasionally, i so enjoy something i read on one of these other websites that i share it with the few people who check this website every day. today, i want you all to read a post from leroy sievers' "my cancer" blog at npr.org. this is one of the website's i'm not embarrassed to admit that i like.

"After that day, your life is never the same. "That day" is the day the doctor tells you, "You have cancer." Every one of us knows someone who's had to face that news. It's scary, it's sad. But it's still life, and it's a life worth living. "My Cancer" is a daily account of my life and my fight with cancer."

Defying Expectations

Two years ago today, my life changed forever.

The day started out like any other. I had a job interview that afternoon for a position I really wanted. It was a phone interview, and the only thing that worried me was that I had started to slur my words. I couldn't figure out why. None of my friends said anything. I wrote it off to fatigue. I wasn't sleeping well. I was waking up with headaches, which was something new for me.

The interview went fine. But at dinner, it was clear that things weren't fine. One side of my face was drooping. We went to the emergency room and the doctor's first thought was Bell's Palsy, a temporary paralysis of the face. I remember thinking how awful it would be if that's what I had.

Then everything changed. I had a brain scan, and as I was wheeled back into the ER I caught the eye of my doctor. And I knew.

"We found a mass." I had a brain tumor and tumors in my lungs. I was told three to six months. I remember the room spinning, or was it my head?

Well, two years later, I'm still here. Thanks to the skills of my doctors, the strength of my friends and loved ones, and the generosity of all of you who have included me in your thoughts and prayers. And also a little stubbornness on my part.

I won't say I shouldn't be here, I don't think that's right. I wasn't expected to still be here, that's certainly true.

I'm a different person in many ways. Everything I've gone through, all the things I've learned, have changed me in ways large and small.

Who knows how this will play out?

Today I'm not going to think about that. Today there's really only one thing to say.

I'm still here.

*no, none of them are porn.