Seahorses Running Wild In The Wiindy City

I'm Back....,

I know I said I was going to move on from this blog but then this weekend happened.

Saturday I got to be a part of this amazing event in Chicago Illinois put on by the No Stomach For Cancer Organization called Spotlight On Stomach Cancer.
So I drove to Chicago on Friday and spent the night outside the city visiting a local brewery(because I like beer) and then Saturday morning Uber'd my way to the event. The event was being held at the University of Chicago Medicine Center for Care & Discovery.

Now to be honest, I didn't know what to expect. I have been to conferences, symposiums. and seminars before but they were almost always as part of my professional life, never my personal life. I was worried that I was going to be told that I needed to do this or I needed do that. To many conferences end with here "buy my book" or "congratulations you now own a timeshare". So I didn't know what to expect but I knew that I needed to go. I can't tell you why I thought it was so important that I attend, I just knew that it was.

I am so glad I went, what an amazing event!

There was so much information and support. The No Stomach For Cancer organization was there with information. Doctors from the University of Chicago medical team and a surgeon from the National Institute of Health out of Maryland were there to talk and answer questions. They talked about strategies, technology and advancements that will make the surgery safer and easier to recover from.They talked about the procedure and how they biopsied to look for cancer cells.
There was time and the opportunity to meet folks from all over. People like me, who had to made the decision to fight back against cancer by having there stomachs removed. I met people who were just starting their journey and were hungry for information and support to let them know that they would be OK.

Then later in the evening things got real.
After the event they host what they call "A Night of Healing". This not only included the families with the CDH1 mutation attending the conference. It also included the Medical Professionals, and the staff from the No Stomach for Cancer Organization.

We moved from the hall to a smaller more intimate lounge for some food and beverages. There were nice places to sit, to get to know one another and talk. We talked in small groups as we moved randomly around the room. We talked as a large group on a wide range of topics. No question was off limit. We talked and talked. There was laughter, there were tears, but most importantly there was support.
Just an amazing night.

We call ourselves "seahorses' because seahorses have no stomachs. There is not a lot of us. Still our numbers are growing. I could of said that regrettably the numbers our are growing, but that's not really the case. This conference was about knowledge and this knowledge is giving us the chance to fight back. To take back the control. Becoming a seahorse is just one was to say "F.U." to stomach cancer.
So Thank you to the No Stomach for Cancer organization. Thank you to the University of Chicago Medicine Center for Care & Discovery for hosting it and all the professionals who gave of their time. Thank you to Dr. Jeremy Davis from The National Institute of Health for coming out to talk to us.

And if there was one thing I could say that I took away from the conference, it is that we not in this fight alone. Our numbers maybe small, but there are a lot of folks fighting for us. We are not alone.

Forget what we're told before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

(Chasing Cars  Snow Patrol)