My friend soorya posted this. It’s a selection from an email update she got from a volunteer at work. I got teary when I read it earlier today and had to get up for a breather.

One of our “superstar” volunteers was diagnosed with cancer a couple of years ago and has been keeping everyone in touch with status updates. A portion of his last update is below that makes my day, week, month, etc.:

“Two years ago on Sept 11, I had a colonoscopy to confirm the suspicions of a prior peek, which led to the diagnosis and treatment of this little inconvenience some of us are accustomed to calling “Cancer.”  Well, I had all that removed, so we now call the residual transmogrified lung nodules, “Cancer.” Sure, subtle difference, but one I am intimately familiar with.

Now, an early-on conversation with the Oncologist revealed that statistical mortality (how long you got) with my particular condition is about 24 months, from the date of the diagnosis. Well, now, counting back from today, that would make it -OH, 24 months ago TODAY!

Now, I’m sure nobody who knows me doubts that I’ve been planning for this anniversary with some anticipation. This is primarily because after the statistical mortality date, one is supposed to live on what many people refer to as “Borrowed Time.” Now, I don’t have a lot of experience with borrowing time, but if it’s anything like borrowing money, this is going to be expensive.

SO, if anyone has any experience borrowing time, I’d like to hear from you, because my borrowing apparently starts tomorrow, and I don’t want to miss out on any great deals.

You might also be wondering how the therapy is going, and I must say, though it’s really nothing to complain about, this month has been a couple of stairsteps worse than I felt last month, but all in all not terribly uncomfortable. Anyway, my impression is that the feelings of a slow poisoning to my system gives me confidence that the drugs are lingering in my body, and hopefully are kicking cancer cell butt! (I can say that, I’ve had surgery there.)” - R.W.