Anniversaries and Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I hope it is a wonderful day for you and yours. For us, it is bittersweet as it marks a two year anniversary. One we could have easily done with out.

Tomorrow, at around 1:30 or so in the afternoon, was when a number of doctors came in to Sandi's room at Baylor Plano and broke the news to us that she had cancer. Not just cancer, but two forms of aggressive Non Hodgkins Lympoma. The cancer was everywhere in her body, they believed, except for her brain and her jaw. They were "cautiously optimistic" and  were setting up things with the Plano branch of Texas Oncology to take over her case.

I can't tell you what they said after that or ever who their names were--it is all a blur.  I remember sitting there after they left staring at her and the tubes and bags hanging off of her and thinking how in the hell did this happen? First I had gotten sick, then she had a heart attack and strokes, knee surgery, and then this. Cancer wasn't one of the things we had worried about the last three weeks while she had dealt with a collapsed lung, fluid in both lungs, and a seemingly endless cascade of other issues.

Life wasn't supposed to go this way at all. Not that it ever really had, but right before I got sick in March 2010 it seemed like things were finally going better. That was the lull before the storm and we had no clue.

Last year, we thought she was still in remission at Thanksgiving and had no idea that the cancer was already back in a new and far more dangerous form. Thanksgiving was the last normal holiday last year. Soon after, she had a PET Scan that picked up something strange. Three different attempts were made to get to the thing, which started exploding in growth as the days passed. Finally, by late January, she knew what her new enemy was thanks to the pathology sample and that, without a doubt, she was terminal.

The last two years have been brutal in so many ways. Karl's ongoing situation, my own worsening health, a huge health scare with Scott, and the ongoing nightmare with Sandi and cancer. She is still here and fighting every day despite all the increasing odds against her. She isn't the only one as there are cancer patients all over the country and around the world who make that same fight--often not nearly as public as I have made Sandi's.

I did that because I was asking for your help. I did it because there are scammers out there who have ripped people off. I did it because some accused us of being those kind of folks. We weren't then and we aren't now. It is a brutal nightmare I would not wish on my worst enemy. You don't know what is like until you have lived it first hand.

It seems very appropriate tonight as folks gather to give thanks to again thank each and every one of you who have done so much for us. Many of you are online friends who know us by this blog and other sites and have never met us in person. Despite that, you have opened your heart, your wallets, your lives to share with us and we are truly grateful. We are very grateful for the support, prayers, donations and everything that has come our way the last couple of years from all of you. If it wasn't for you, we would have been out on the streets a long time ago. The fact that we are still here is because of your support in so, so many ways.

On behalf of all of us...Thank You.