LORENZO and KIM

Wow, Where do I even start. A day or two after I was diagnosed w/ Leukemia my sister Kim went on a mission to find someone I could relate to and draw inspiration and a positive outlook from. We knew my diagnosis came with a grim prognosis from what we were told and then even worse when when we found out I was Philadelphia chromosome positive. Kim went on to do her research which I actually knew nothing about at this time. And I remember her coming into my hospital room one day, probably one week after my initial diagnosis and she sat down on my bed and said, "I just wanted you to know that I have found someone with your exact diagnosis and he has a blog I'd like you to read". At this point I was pretty sure I was going to die. My doctor at the time didn't have a single patient with my cancer, didn't know of any doctors that did and there were no support groups in my area with my cancer because obviously you need patients or survivors for that...there were none. So while my family and I were set to "give this our best shot" I must say in the back of my mind I was thinking "I'll put up with this until I cannot physically do it any more". I had heard and read horror stories about going through chemotherapy and quite frankly, I wasn't interested in "being sick". Kim knew how sad I was; sad I had dropped my children off at school and two hours later I was diagnosed with cancer, sad arrangements had to be made for them to be picked up from school because they told me my life hung in the balance and I must stay to start chemo the very next day, sad someone else had to explain to them that mommy is very sick, sad (and grateful) their father came to pick them up, sad I didn't know if I would ever see them again etc...I think you get the idea...I was sad, depressed however you can identify. But Kim also knew that reading this mans blog would change my outlook completely because she had already read the entire blog before telling me about it for the obvious reasons. You can read and have a good understanding of illness usually with no problem but there isn't as much on ours. I read the blog. My Mom read the blog. Jennifer read the blog. Aunt Sherry read the blog. We all had a better understanding of what was to come after reading "THE BLOG". (except for Jenn, she was my guru in the medical sense). It was a man in New York named Lorenzo Fortunato. Reading it immediately changed some of the feelings I had. He still lived his life to the fullest extent he was able given his situation. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade! This guy did it! But after reading it a deep dark feeling came over me again. I said "Kim, did you realize his last post was June 27th? This is October. (Yes, we did think he probably passed away and no one updated his blog). It's was still so inspirational that I read it daily. I would research terms I didn't know and came to know quite a bit about my cancer through his blog. It was maybe a week or two later that Kim came to me again and this time she didn't even sit down but couldn't wait to tell me that she found him! Yes folks, she facebook stalked him and found that not only is he alive AND well, but that he is pretty active on facebook, so she sent him a message...(Kim would NEVER send a random person a message on facebook, but she did this solely for me! She needed her sister to have that "FIGHT" in her and she was determined to give it to me)! When I learned that he had responded, it's weird to explain, but it was like Christmas to me. I would finally have ONE person that I could relate to! It's not like breast cancer (raise your hand if you know someone with it, who has had it, a family member with it, a friend of a friend etc..) everybody knows someone...Susan Komen has made sure of that. I needed this one person....badly! And God picked the perfect person. He has been a huge part of my treatment and recovery. He certainly knows when I'm having a bad day, and why I have some of the feelings I do when others don't...what human being doesn't need that? He's been a great mentor and friend and I need him to know that! His staple is "HOW U DOIN"....hello, he is a New Yorker haha. I bring that up because the day before my transplant he called the hospital and the note I got said "Hi you're doing"...yes, well not everyone in Texas understands a New Yorker I guess lol. But it felt great knowing he was there cheering me on! Kim recently got to meet him in person in New York, she had the best time and I was excited for her! Ten months post transplant. Lorenzo is 5 years! This gives me new hope and inspiration on a daily basis. How u doin!