Nurses are the Best!

I received an email from one of the clinical nurses at NIH who happens to know my mom and was visiting her today at the hospital where she works. Janelle came to meet me once in the clinic and she is an inspiration as she is a cancer survivor too. She's very familiar with my team and loves Dr. Wilson and all that they are doing for their patients, which is very wonderful to hear.

Janelle wrote me because I had mentioned another friend's brother who has colon cancer to my mom and Janelle wanted me to know that she has a trial at NIH for colon cancer. She wanted me to know so I could pass the word on to Jen, which I immediately did. I hope that Janelle's trial can help Christopher. That would be awesome if it could. I am so happy mom remembered my conversation and told Janelle about it. I have been praying for Christopher and hoping for the best. This would be truly good news.

I'm going to my Jaycees convention this weekend and tomorrow I'm a speaker for a Cancer Awareness Forum and I'm going to talk about how I discovered I had cancer and then my experience with clinical trials. I also plan to wrap up with some information about healthy eating and paying attention to our bodies when something isn't right. Janine, who was also diagnosed this year with cancer, came up with the idea and she's flying up from where she lives in Florida to also present. Jen will be talking about her experiences as a caregiver. Jen had arranged for someone from the American Cancer Society to also present some information, but she can't make it now so the three of us will have to do our best to talk about it. I think we'll be fine.

I'm excited because I haven't attended a convention since February. In February, my chapter received the highly-coveted Giessenbier award for being the best in the Maryland Jaycees. I also received the Junior Chamber International Senate award, which is the highest honor a Jaycee can receive. I also received a bunch of awards for other things. My last convention was an amazing event. It will be so nice to see everyone again after a long, long haul of chemo treatments. I'm looking forward to it all.