Craig aka Sundanceh

VickiCO said:

Me too
Craig,

I will be praying extra hard for you. You are an inspiration, as I said before. We thank you for your input.

Keep us informed! Many hugs, Vicki

Prayers
I to will be keeping you in my prayers...You will come out of this and go on fighting like you do.......JULIE

Hi, Kim
I've been out of
Hi, Kim

I've been out of pocket today and just got in a few minutes ago and came to log in and see what's going on out in our world...

I got the biggest surprise when I saw my name mentioned in the subject line of your post. That was so very thoughtful of you to do for me. In fact, that's one of the nicest things anybody has ever done for me. I was very touched and moved by your gesture of kindness. I had to wipe away "tears of joy" from my face, I was so caught off-guard.

I am glad that you feel that way. I'm beginning to get to know you and everybody and it feels so wonderful now to have a support group that I've never had in my life - ever.

A month ago, I did know anybody here and did not know any of their stories, and now I know so many people and their stories and it is beginning to feel very good to get to know you and everyone!

I've been asking myself if I was making any kind of difference on the board - Kim, your post tells me that maybe I have done some good or at least tried to, and that's what it's all about for me. The true "connection" between human spirits and reaching each other across cyberspace is such an inspiration to me and is technology that is well spent and invested.

I'm not sure how I lasted 5-years with nobody to talk to about it - friends, family, and even your spouses don't want to keep hearing about it and so you just keep quiet and move on. I now have people out there that understand the condition and that I can share things with and try to be of some assistance if I can.

This board has been a true blessing to me as I know it is to everybody else - bigger than any one us, but collectively together, it is truly an amazing thing. You are some of the most happenin' people that I know and all of your courageousness and fight continues to remind me that we must fight so that we can live to tell about what we learned.

Vicki: Thanks again for your warm comments.
Julie: Nice to meet you and thanks for your kind sentiments.
Amy: Nice to meet you too and thank you so much for your support.
Linda: Thank you for your support and kind words too.
Jennie: Thank you for your support and prayers too.

I know I came crashing through the door like a bull in a china closet, but I wanted to thank you one and all for welcoming me here and making me like part of the family. I really care about each of you, I just want you to know that.

I'm going to close with one of Eric's lines, but I told him yesterday that I wanted to elaborate and add to it - so here goes:

"Cancer does not define us - but how we Fight and Handle the Cancer DOES define us."

All my blessings and prayers to each of you and to Donna tonight -

Kim, thank you again. You made me feel like a million bucks!

-Craig

Hi
Hi Craig,

Just wondering how things went with the surgeon. Hope you got good news and are well.

Donna

donnare said:

Hi
Hi Craig,

Just wondering how things went with the surgeon. Hope you got good news and are well.

Donna

UPDATE: Chest Surgeon Appt....
Hi, Donna

Unfortunately, I ended up slipping through the "cracks" in the medical system for my appointment.

The new oncologist neglected to get my CT and PET scans loaded into the hospital server so they could be accessed. When they set up the appointment with the chest surgeon, they assured us they would have the scans loaded and everything set up for the visit.

When we got there, I ran through my history with the PA of the surgeon and then in came 4-trainees who were there to observe. It was like something out of Grey's Anatomy

Then the surgeon made his entrance and got his PA all shook up - he must be the intimidating type, because she got very nervous around him.

Bottom line is they did not have my scans loaded into the system, so there was nothing for the chest surgeon to look at.

He began barking orders and ordering up scans, and his pager was constantly going off, and he would return the phone calls right then and there were many of them, seemingly uninterested that we were even in the room.

So, he ordered CT's and PETs and said to forget about biopsies and VATS and all of that until we scanned. We were trying to let him know that we had every scan he was looking for, but that the scans were not loaded. He just has so much going on, he was not listening to us or even his own people. My wife and I were upset at the treatment we received.

At the end, he finally understood that we had scans AND he would now review them. Well DUH, that's what we setup the appointment for him for - he was supposed to review scans and let me know about the VATS etc. during the appointment, that's what we were there for. So, we both missed a half day of work and came away with nothing, except the bill of course.

Oh my! So, we're back to waiting another week to see what they come back with. He did confirm that the potential tumor is in a bad position in the pleura. But I knew that already.

Thanks for asking and thinking about me. Maybe I'll open a post when I get some hard decisions.

Thinking of you and your husband as he starts his first chemo on Monday.

-Craig