Donor contact

On November 6, two years will have gone by since the big transplant from an unknown donor.  That's the mark when I will be allowed to contact the donor and ask if he would like to share information.  I'm already looking forward to knowing something about him.  At the time, I was only told that my donor was a twenty-four year old male from Europe.  Now, he would be a twenty-six year old male from Europe but that's not much to go on.  Since his stem cells were injected into my body, growing new bone marrow and therefore new blood, it's hard to deny that we have a connection.  Hopefully he will be as curious as I am.

I don't expect to become best friends and I may never meet him.  I just want to say thanks and promise to make his painful stem cell extraction worth while by doing two things; surviving and doing something good in the world.

The blog

Why do I keep writing this blog?  It started as a way of keeping friends and family informed.  Early on, after my diagnosis with Multiple Myeloma, I realized people were cautious about asking how things are going.  They were afraid of an uncomfortable answer.  My attitude at the time was to encourage people to ask or if they would rather, just catch up by reading the blog.  It was a self centered endeavor.  It may have even been a bit narcissistic to assume people wanted to read how "I" am doing in a fight with cancer.

One reason that I have continued to write is at the request of some very influential people in my life.  They have requested that I keep writing to inform them of the continued saga of a battle with an incurable disease.  Since I am well over a year beyond my intensive treatment in Seattle, it's too early to claim victory but I'll do it anyway.  If for no other reason, flaunting my relative good health is a slap in the face to one of mankind's greatest enemies, cancer.

To be completely honest with myself and a few readers, writing this blog is a message to myself.  It's the one place where I can vent about the disease that tried to take my life.  It's also the one area where I'm not afraid to express my fondness for life and reasons to go through extraordinary measures to keep living.  As an extension of this blog, I'm considering writing a longer version.  I wouldn't call it a book, since that requires publishing and an interested audience.  But I will label it as my own memories of this horrendous experience.  If I am the only person who ever reads my experience with cancer, it would be worth writing.  No doubt, everyone has life experiences that are worth remembering.  My own memories bring me happiness, sadness, joy and pain.  To me, that's what makes life worth living.