Permission

Last night I was talking with a close friend and a buddy of his, and my friend's buddy was completely aware of my whole story, even though I think we'd only met once before. My friend had filled him in on everything, which I appreciated. It's nice when I don't have to keep repeating the whole thing all the time, especially in fun social settings. The C word tends to bring lively conversations to a halt. But at one point in the conversation, my friend seemed almost apologetic about the fact that he'd been talking about my cancer to his friends. I assured him that I trust him to say whatever he wants to whoever he wants. After all, I did go public on Facebook back in October. The cat's out of the bag.

I was very touched by the fact that he wants to tell people that I don't even know about his concern for me. He said it helps him to cope. That meant the world to me.

That conversation had such an impact on me that I wanted to tell all of you the same thing I told him. Feel free to talk about my cancer with your friends. If there's someone you think should be informed, tell them. You have my permission to tell anyone about this that you think should hear about it. As I've said before, I need as many people praying for me as I can get.

My need to talk about this stuff is obvious, and it's obvious why I need to talk about it. It's therapeutic for me. But it blows me away to think that others might be so upset about my cancer that they need to talk about it. I've never felt more loved in my life.

So please, feel free to share with anyone and everyone about me. If there's a journal post that's meaningful to you, or that you think is funny or good, feel free to share it on social media. The more people we have here, the better.

Once quick update: I made an appointment to see my new oncologist on Wednesday the 27th. I'm very much looking forward to it.

To all of you who care enough about me to be here, to love and support us, and even care so much that you need to talk about it with others, we owe you a debt that we'll never be able to repay. We are rich indeed.