The past couple weeks have been extremely rough. I discovered that I had cancer, told my close friends and family that I had cancer, then found out the cancer was far more serious than initially thought, had to re-tell all my close friends and family the unfortunate news and finally find out a way to eventually let everyone know what is going on. While saying that I had to plan my Facebook announcement sounds completely ridiculous, there were many well thought out reasons for doing so.
1. This is an extremely depressing and difficult time of my life and any and all public support can maintain my spirits going into the next step.
2. It is almost impossible for me to call/email/text all the people I would want to tell personally of my current situation. Cancer sadly leaves your schedule fairly booked and certain formalities are tossed to the curb. (sorry Mai for having to tell you via G-Chat)
3. Facebook despite all of its faults is the worlds best source of social networking and if there is a chance there there is a person out there that can help me with potential clinical trials, experience as to how to best handle chemo or anything, I will gladly take it.
I am essentially going in blind. My experience with cancer has been extremely limiting and I have been absolutely blessed to be surrounded by so many doctors who can help translate and make sure that everything is going as best as possible.
My announcement was a little sooner than desired, which was oddly forced by a mini viral campaign accidentally started by Billy Olli. He took it upon himself to change his facebook profile picture to one of us from when we were children. This caused many others to follow suit leaving people who knew, excited to join in and people who had no idea left completely in the dark and in some instances, thinking that I was actually dead. After a couple worried calls and messages I decided I needed to make an announcement. I was absolutely shocked and amazed at the public out pour from everyone and it really touched me in a way that cannot be described in words. It is one thing to hear from a friend that they have your back and that there are so many people that care for you. It is quite different to see thousands of posts/likes/emails/calls/texts all to express sympathy to the cause.
This is my first entry in what hopefully will be a continual update of my status and progress. I will be starting Chemotherapy this weekend and look forward to starting the fight against cancer.
Thank you all so much for your love and support
#RyFight