Stacey - I will never forget this!

Hi All,

I am starting a new thread because I feel so strongly about this. It's about what Stacey did for me and other newbies.

Jan 2, 2006 I came home from the hospital, scared, lost, and in a kind of dazed funk all together. I posted my first message that said "Newbie here. Really scared. What do I do?". Right about the same time there were a few other newbie emails.

Then came Stacey who posted the a message (included below) asking the veterans to share their survival stories so us newbies would have something tangible to hang our hopes on. The response to it was so overwhelming, no less than 16 of veteran semi-colons wrote back with their amazing stories of survival. That was the day when I began to believe that there is life after cancer. Yeah, I knew about Lance, but Lance was bigger than life. Stacey opened my eyes to a world of survivors out there, ordinary people achieve extraordinary things.

Thank you Stacey for that helping hand, and for the hope and the belief! On your anniversary, I want to add my voice to others' to let you know just how special you are!

And thanks also to all who responded on that rally started by Stacey - jerseysue, nanuk, gasman49, kangatoo, SpongeBob, fedester, Betsydoglover, moesimo, oneagleswings, ron50, Lisa Rose, rthornton, RunnerZ, jana11, living and Ernie53. Thanks you guys! You are the best!

Below is the message which Stacey posted, a call to action, a message of hope and plenty of practical survival tips, just as timely now as it was then. Stacy, your Karma bowl must be overflowing!

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I'm sure a lot of the veterans here have notices the influx of rookies to our family. I think we should take a minute to do as we've done in the past and give a brief message of hope to them with our own little success stories. Don't you think? I also encourage all the newbies to read the web pages. It will give you a WHOLE new insight to this disease, and all the people who have proven the system wrong with their successes.

I was diagnosed at 33, over 4 yrs ago. Normally a healthy female. Ended up being stage 4, lost 40% of my liver, and haven't had cancer since my surgery 4 yrs ago. There IS hope. There are several people who tackled their "beast" with chemo and radiation; some with only nutrition; and others who combined both. OBVIOUSLY, everyone is different, and what may work for one, may not work for another. So DON'T immediately jump on a bandwagon of treatment without discussing things with your doctors. If your docs don't make you feel comfortable with the degree of info they provide, find another doctor. WE PAY THEM, WE DESERVE PROPER CARE AND TREATMENT! Do NOT listen to statistics! Many people here have proven traditional statistics wrong. As I like to say....if your doctor can predict your expiration date, have him also give you a few winning lottery numbers, too!

You will find a wealth of support here. We even plan international field trips! You can browse the Expressions Gallery listed on the left of the home page to see our latest trip to Vegas by typing in colon in the search section of the Expressions Gallery.

So keep the faith everyone!

Stacy
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