Stats

INDIANAPOLIS - I had an interesting conversation with a fellow survivor recently. She wanted to know if I was aware of statistics about cancer and divorce, cancer and discrimination, cancer and (fill in the blank). I told her that, indeed, I was very well aware of these stats based entirely upon my own interactions with other patients.

I've known about them for years, actually; it's a quiet little rumbling conversation that no one really wants to bring to the open. I've been asked more than once: What do you think about this?

It's a percentage, that's how I look at it. Certainly, there are times when things will go wrong. Devastating, disheartening, discouraging. There seems to be a common thread with those who have come out on the other side, however.

We just survive. Find another reason to get up and keep fighting. I'll cry with you when you need it, pray with and for you always, and I'm always quite happy to celebrate the victories as well. Chin up, survivors. Rally around each other so that we can ignore the stats. :)


Image: Courtesy of ImageNation

On the Line

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - Apparently in football they have this thing called the ’50 yard line’. It seems to be an important marker for aficionados – they want their team to cross said line with great regularity, they want the opposing team NOT to cross, they want to make sure their seats are as close to it as one can possibly come, that kind of thing. As a hockey girl, I was only vaguely familiar with said line. Until the day that I put my foot on it at the Indianapolis Colts game (the Sunday, October 4th game). Then I got the whole picture; I was standing in the middle of the field when the soldiers brought in the flags, the national anthem was being sung and the Blue Angels flew over the open stadium. All this before the team even came in! When the Colts ran in, the crowd erupted and a few of the guys came over to us and gave hi-fives and hugs. Some were wearing pink tape and others pink shoes (no one had mentioned how fun the footwear was at these events, I might have attended earlier had I known!). Why on earth was I there, how on earth did this come to pass? The Indianapolis Colts decided to honor breast cancer survivors and one fabulous surgeon from the IU Simon Cancer Center (my own wonderful Dr. Bob Goulet) and I was selected to be one of the survivors on the field. Thank you, Colts, for making such a day for so many important women. And their friends. And their families. We all go through it together. GO TEAM!!!