Getting Started

This blog was created in the hopes that those needing a place to share their experiences with cancer, chemo and anything else pertaining to it, could come here as a refuge.


When you have been diagnosed with the big "C", so many thoughts run in and out of your mind at a "zillon" times per second. You may have just left the doctor's office and are shaking your head thinking, "How could this happen to me, what have I done or not done to get this". What will happen to me...I can't handle this, my family can't handle this...why, how, when, what!!!!!


I am here to say that I have been there...I asked those same questions over and over again. I once sat where you may be sitting now. And I THANK GOD I survived!!!!! It will be 7 years on December 13, 2000 that I was diagnosed with right breast cancer. Those few weeks after that were a complete blurr to me, right before the Christmas holidays, having to undergo breast surgery and finding out that "they got it all, but 1 out of 5 lymph nodes showed cancer infiltrating the edges", ERGO chemo and radiation. Then having to proceed through this journey that I was not at all ready to take (for me it was not a vacation). A lot of stuff has happened to me in my thinking about that time in my life....my life was changed forever due to that.


But in my journey down that road, I vowed to God, that as I made my way through that terrible ordeal, I would try and help as many others I could that would possibly end up in the same situation as I. I was given the gift of my life back and I promised I would help as many as I could, even if it was just to sit, listen, cry and laugh (when there was laughter) just to show that we can survive.


The idea for this blog actually came from a dear man who belongs to a prayer group I attend. He has had his share of cancer also and through his journey with it, journeying himself as well as in helping some in his family with it, came upon a group of people who would take their chemo sessions almost at the same time each cycle at the same facility. They became acquainted with one another and became known to themselves as THE CHEMO GANG. These beautiful people had different types of cancer, breast, colon, lymphoma, prostate, etc.


After talking about it at our prayer group, we started to pray for those in the "gang" that they would have the grace, be comforted and gain healing to hold on as they travel down this road. Because I had traveled that cancer road myself, he asked me if I would help out in talking to some of them on the phone if they needed someone to be there for them for support. Of course remembering the promise I made to God 7 years earlier, the answer was a definite yes.


And so I began to phone and email some of the members in this group and have since developed a personal bond with them. I answered that call to God, and He has certainly blessed me with these. I have gained friendships that are a treasure to me. I have met some of them too..others not yet, but I know there will come a day when I will meet face to face and give them a great big "hug". They allowed me into their life and I am most grateful for that.


So here we are....with that idea kicking around in Bill's head and we decided to give it a try...that there may be others who hear about us, need a place to just "be" and maybe just maybe someone on this blog has been through some type of cancer, can relate and give a word of wisdom that will touch that person's heart and make them feel at ease as they go down this road.


Our hearts are in the right place...we are here to help God's children....we know He will bless us for caring...and we will be blessed by what we share. SO WE ARE ON OUR WAY!!!!

Mary Ann T.