Get Thee To A Cheerleader

Where I went to high school, we only had female cheerleaders. To have done it all over, I would have initiated a push to add male cheerleaders to the squad and I would have "volunteered" to be one of them.

In the process of the last year, I've had countless cheerleaders. Some of them have cheered with nice encouraging things and others have cheered with challenges. I needed them both. And although some of the cheerleaders may have been concerned whether they were saying the right thing at the right time, it didn't matter. I learned how to accept the cheer, use it immediately if needed, or to "file" it and pull it out later when I needed it.

I've doubted myself and my own statements from day 1. "When I was a child, I spoke as a child." I was a child of cancer last fall. I still am, but I can look back on my blog and see the growth. I did some things right in the beginning. Did some things wrong. I'm still alive, so I'll give myself a break on some of the things I did wrong. I did some things right and may have thought they were wrong, but as time progressed and as I have listened to the stories of other cancer patients, dumb luck and intuition carried me through.

"I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger
A travel'n through this world of woe.
But there's no sickness, no toil nor danger
In that bright world to which I go." - Traditional Spiritual

When I met with the Nurse Practitioner the other day, we discussed the story that was on "60 Minutes" about the gentleman who developed the radio wave machine. I asked her how metal particles know how to find cancer cells. She explained that gold particles, in particular, are attracted to cancer cells. I found this article that was interesting.

I asked her, "Are you telling me that Goldschlager may be a cure for cancer?"

I wonder if other patients have those kind of conversations with her. Probably not, or she would have resigned a long time ago.

RIP Soupy Sales (January 8, 1926 – October 22, 2009)
"Sales, who was typically clad in a black sweater and oversized bow-tie, was once suspended for a week after telling his legion of tiny listeners to empty their mothers' purse and mail him all the pieces of green paper bearing pictures of the presidents." - Washington Post