HEALTHCARE SHOULD BE RIGHT, NOT A PRIVELEDGE… BUT OF COURSE THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE

First of all Thank you, Thank you, Thank you….

For the kind words, and reach out of support. It really does touch my heart.  

So here are a bit of updates…and a link to something I wish you will all check out.

Every since my diagnosis my mom have been going to the “Santisimo” almost every day, and my Buddhist friends are chanting for me…Well, someone’s prayers were answered, because after anxiously waiting the results of all the additional ct scams of the head, neck and torso… I found out they came out clear!!! Yuu-hoo!! My type of Cancer, ACC (that’s the nickname I’m giving it) spreads through the blood and nerves, and the concern was that it would have taken over the glands in the neck or spread over a major organ like the Lung. Well my sweet pair of lungs are clear as a baby’s :))!! That piece of news when I got it, made my day!! If not my year!!

The not so great news that I just got at the end of the day today, is that it seems right now I won’t be able to continue at Kaiser, the hospital that was recently treating me, and need to pick up my files and seek treatment elsewhere. Yes - It is disappointing. Especially when I finally thought I found a good doctor, reachable, in whose hands I felt safe, and since just a few days earlier (even after the ct results) I received a much different type of call from their Medical Financial Program telling me that they would be extending the program and I should be able to complete Tumor Board and the radiation or chemotherapy there – which of course was an amazing great peace of mind.

Still I’m not very sure what changed, but Dr. Ditirro along with the head of the program were the ones that broke the news to me. As I immediately got on the phone to the alternative they refer me, and started hitting one bureaucracy after the other…my spirits began slowly to sink down…I realized I’m not yet quite as strong as I want to be.  External stressors do bring me down.     

I talked to a couple friends and went to see the Hangover 2 for cheers – that wasn’t doing the trick. (Sorry Hollywood, you need to become more original). So I decided to go back to a source of inspiration. Kimberly, who was the one that originally encourage me to start this blog, is an actress, baker and many other great things, who was diagnosed with a very aggressive type of breast cancer shortly after relocating from NY to LA. Not only did she beat it, she did it with grace and guts. We met back East and when I bumped into her 2yrs ago at a playwriting charity event, she was bold as an eagle, beautiful, joyful and with a formidable life force. I reach out to her the very first day I got diagnosed with cancer. If I was going to go thru this, I wanted, needed to know how she did it.

So tonight, I revisited her own blog, as I was sure in her path to recovery she must have also encountered stumbling blocks.  And there it was: “I have Limbs” is the title of one her blogs entry. It talks about a time, when pretty much like myself right now she found her mind spinning with questions like … auditioning?  personally I find myself asking should I try to get ft job or continue freelancing? Can I be searching if I need to go thru radiation? Would I have energy for these jobs?…my most recent one, how I can keep determinant if I’m not even sure where I’m going to be able to get treatment?

Well she wrote about Nick Vujicic, the in my opinion actually quite sexy ( alas of course he is married with kids) young man with No Legs and No Arms, just torso and a chicken cutlet as foot, who created value out of his situation and now motivates people all over the world, besides being a successful business entrepreneur who donates to schools and hospitals.

Check one of his many clips, in youtube, and let me know if it doesn’t put a smile in your face, it did in mine:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bL3GR4iAW0&feature=related

 Talk about perspective, vision and choices… I recommend checking it out next time you feel stuck or wanting to b*%ch about your life…He suggest to focus on what you have, not on what on you don’t….So instead I started asking myself what do I have? And oh I have so much, so much to be thankful: I have a pretty great family, really good friends such treasures, I too have my limbs, an innovative mind, a mouth to speak, guts to use it, and heart that doesn’t seem to know how the heck to give up.  

    

It is said that “Adversity gives birth to greatness. The greater challenges and difficulties we face the greater opportunity we have to grow”

Well, I tell you what: I’m expecting these obstacles are just the weights I need to sculpt a pretty formidable spirit to let me do all sort of great things in the future.

I’ll be working most of this weekend on acouple of freelance gigs…but come Monday I’ll pick up those records and do whatever it takes to get the care I need. The care one deserves. The care everyone should be able to have.  

Have a great weekend everyone…..Love, Liana