Today is my anniversary date! I had my cytoreduction surgery May 15th 2001, so May 16th 2001 I was cancer free, all tumors had been removed. This is the first year I wasn’t absolutely sure the 16th was the day. I just know my anniversary day is the same days as my daughter’s best friend’s birthday, and I double checked, yes, today is her birthday and my anniversary date! Next year will be 20 years! And still no one calls me cured, I am just in long term remission. Whatever….just words. I feel cured and that’s what matters!

I had so many dates in my head…March 28,2001 was the day I was diagnosed. I believe I was in New York for my evaluation 4 weeks after I was diagnosed, and my surgery was about 6 weeks after I was diagnosed. I was discharged from the hospital 6 days later. I had my 6 EPIC (early post operative peritoneal chemotherapy) treatments over several weeks following the surgery. The first two were done in New York, but the last 4 were done at my oncologists office at home. They had never done peritoneal chemotherapy in my office at home, but I was a nurse and learned how to do it in New York, so I taught my oncologist and her nurses how to do it! I supervised them while they did my infusions! My last day of IV chemotherapy was January 22, 2002, so I was in treatment of some sort for almost a year.

I’m working with my website designer. We will build the support group into the web site. In the end, the support group will be by request. If you want an invitation to the support group, you will need to submit your email address, then you will be mailed the link. I think that will be a good thing. As I am a college professor, so I’m also thinking of good ways to use the support group for education! Don’t worry, it won’t be a class, it will be a support group. I like it that we can do it virtually, we can see and speak to each other. It’s almost like “being there”! I’m sure it will be a learning experience for all of us. Until we get it set up on the website, though, I will still post the support group links on my blog. We will just transition down the road.

Also, several years ago I had my previous we designer design a Facebook page for the Appendix Cancer Connection. I used it for a bit, but since I don’t use Facebook myself personally, I let the business Facebook go. Someone said I needed to use Instagram and Twitter for my non-profit, so I went to a seminar to learn how to do that -but my web designer said I might better be able to communicate using Facebook. Now I’ve forgotten the password, and the email that was my username is no longer active, so I need to find a way either to get back on that Facebook page, or to delete it and create a new one for us. I just got to realizing how many people I know who use Facebook…more people than I know who use Twitter! So that’s in the works too!

I am open to any comments or suggestions any of you may have! You can email me at Carolyn@appendix-cancer.org or leave a comment here on the blog!

Take care!
Carolyn