The SpasticSurgeon does have a heart.

Addendum…
10/15/2011. It’s with a heavy heart that I’ve learned my friend Cindy has finally succumbed to breast cancer. Cindy bravely fought for 11 years, she touched many many lives and will be sorely missed. Rest well my friend, those that knew you and loved you will always remember.

The SpasticSurgeon recently learned that one of his old pals from the past has been fighting breast cancer since 2000. Not a great way to start off a new century. She spent 24 years serving in the United States Air Force. The SpasticSurgeon had the pleasure of serving with her.

The following is a cut and paste from her email to me:

I’ve been fighting breast cancer since 2000. Had a bilat mast and 6 months of chemo then, and 4 years disease free (I deployed as EMEDS/CC to Saudi in 03 after they lifted the “C” code) and then, just after I retired in 04 and started at a local medical center as the OR educator, a routine chest X-ray found lung nodules, and a liver biopsy, a liver mass and the cancer was back. Since then, I’ve only been on chemo or other treatment the whole time except for a few months at a time and currently, I’ve had so many chemos that they’ve run out so I’m on an experimental study of estrogen 10mg/d to see if we can’t get them shrunk again! My quality of life through all this has been good to great although I’ve learned to live with much less energy/stamina. I started this current regimen 17 Dec and doing well currently, with just a little shortness of breath from some pleural effusion in right lung….nothing that stops me, but it does slow me down. I’m blessed richly to be alive and don’t take one second for granted. Doing lots of volunteer work and fund raising for American Cancer Society and Relay for Life.

This young lady is certainly an inspiration, as we moan and groan about the weather, the economy or whatever, she just wants to be able to walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded, take her dog for a walk around the block, to just live a normal pain free life.

She is deeply involved with 2 causes, the American Cancer Society and Relay for Life. A link to her Relay blog will be at the end of this post.

The SpasticSurgeon is honored to announce he will make a 100% donation of all sale proceeds from his CafePress Shop to this young lady’s Relay For Life cause. We all know someone, whether it be family or friend who has been touched by breast cancer. Will you join the SpasticSurgeon in helping us beat breast cancer in our lifetime? If you would like to make a straight donation to her cause, that’s alright too. You can make your donation by clicking on the link below.

Please feel free to comment. I have disabled the required new user registration and login for comments on this post. All you need to post a comment is your name..you may use just your first name only if you like.