A SMALL REQUEST
MR. KEN PLUME, an internet journalist, podcaster, Gervaisian, QI activist, man who would choose to save his own toe over his own finger, and a fond acquaintance, writes with A SMALL REQUEST.
AS THANKSGIVING APPROACHES, I hope you will consider it.
BEGIN QUOTED TEXT:
I’m not really known for my moments of seriousness and personal candor here in cyberspace, so this missive will come as a bit of a surprise for those who know me well.
Four years ago, right before the holidays, the doctor found a lump in my mother’s breast. After surgery intended to remove the lump discovered deeper penetration, a second operation was scheduled to remove her left breast. It was right after Thanksgiving.
Months of chemotherapy followed, and my mother was given a clean bill and told the cancer was gone. After a few more months of recovery, she began counting the months and years that would bring her to that magic number for cancer survivors - 5 years out. Expecting she was well on her way towards that goal, she had the port that was surgically installed to deliver her chemotherapy removed earlier this year. After all, she was almost 4 years cancer free, with only one year to go.
And then, nearly four years to the day when the original cancer was found, another lump was discovered in her right breast. Surgery was performed, and the biopsy came back positive for cancer.
The bitch was back.
It was also found that the cancer had metastasized. Tests have been performed. Chemotherapy has begun again. Hopes are high that the bitch can be beat back into remission, leaving my mother many, many more years with her husband, children, and grandchildren.
She did it once, and she’ll do it again.
However, I want to keep my mother’s spirits up, and I want to utilize the power of this here internet to whom my livelihood has been intertwined for almost 15 years. And not only am I hoping for the assistance of the thousands of people whom I’ve befriended and worked with in those years, but also the kindness of total strangers.
With that in mind, I’m hoping that whoever reads this post - or has it forwarded to them - will take some of their valuable time and help me keep my mother’s spirits bright and her outlook optimistic.
Over the course of this holiday season, I’m hoping my mother will receive an avalanche of postcards from around the world - fun and funny postcards - with the well wishes of those who send them. Postcards sent by you, the person reading this now.
And, in addition to the postcards - if you have the inclination and means - please take a moment to make a donation to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
Please send your postcards to:
PAT PLUME
808 BARN ST.
JACKSONVILLE, NC 28540On behalf of myself and my family, I thank you all.
END QUOTED TEXT
Thank you.
THAT IS ALL.
i’m in the hospital with my mother right now - she is having her second mastectomy 16 years after the first. she is just out and things are going really well, all signs look good.
would be really nice to beat cancer.
will be thinking about you and your mother.
Comment by P3T3RK3Y5 — November 25, 2008 @ 6:54 pm
Very nice of you to pass this along for your friend. I’ll join the postcard avalanche for his mom and hope that we on the intertubes can help bring her good cheer.
Comment by Amanita — November 25, 2008 @ 9:12 pm
John
What a whirlwind.
From somehow not know who you are 10 minutes ago, being told about you by3 people in my audience, reading a few pages of your book (they grabbed it back - just because it was theirs and they had to catch a plane but I tried to hold on) then to go to my hotel room and read all those glowing reviews — and then THIS. Considering the date, I will send your Mom a holiday card - and acknowledge that she must be mighty proud of her multifaceted son.
Now that I am back at home with your book (the guy at Book Passage broke out in a grin when i asked for it)I know that you will bring glee to our family and friends tomorrow/Thanksgiving.
Here’s to your health, your mothers - and to all those women who have yet to hit the 5 year mark and to those others who have not yet gotten their b. exam - yet now may.
Kare, moving from me to we
Comment by Kare Anderson — November 26, 2008 @ 11:43 am
Dear comment thread: This post isn’t about John Hodgman’s mother. He’s relaying a request made by Ken Plume, on Ken Plume’s blog, about Ken Plume’s mother.
Comment by Sylvia — November 26, 2008 @ 2:26 pm
Hi Hodg-man: I am one of those strangers who happened to find your site thru Twitter. I read your account of your mom’s struggle with breast cancer.
I am a survivor of 7 years now, initally found in my left breast after my mother and brother died 7 months earlier. It was the year 2000 and the World Trade Center had just been hit by terrorists. Yet I was fighting the terrorist inside my body.
I had the lumpectomy, fortunately my lymph nodes were not affected, but I lost 14 nodes in my left armpit which were removed. I was faced with 6 months of chemo, 6 weeks of radiation and 5 years of tomoxifin ( a drug that supposedly prevents re-occurences).
I was depressed and grieving because of the deaths in my family and yet I was forced to attend to my own survival and it took everything I had in me to fight the disease.
I chose another route and that was to use alternative medicine so I sought out all the naturopath doctors I could find in my area. Well through treatments, supplements, a better alkaline diet, and much meditating I am still here.
I didn’t feel chemo was right for me, because it would destroy my immune system which I know I needed to fight cancer. All I can say here is to introduce more raw vegetables, either through salads or juicing each day. I also take Vitamin D, about 5,000 IU per day, as a prevention dose, more if you are currently fighting the disease.
This may or maynot be of interest to you or your mom but it does work against fighting cancer or its reoccuring in the body. Cancer is not a disease it is the state of one’s body that allows cancer to grow. The more intake of plants which alkalize the body, the better chance your body has to prevent cancer.
I do not believe that it cannot be beaten as I am, and many many others are still alive today.
I would recommend you seek out alternative medicine for your mother, and if you need further information I am on Twitter.
Here is to your mother’s health, and you all your family on Thanksgiving, we are all thankful of our many blessings.
Best Regards
Teriss
Comment by Teriss — November 27, 2008 @ 12:39 pm
Could you please pass on my comment to Ken Plume- I would really appreciate it if he could hear what I wrote for his mom with breast cancer. Thanks, Teriss
Comment by Teriss — November 27, 2008 @ 1:20 pm
Wow, this is such an excellent idea. I’ll definately be sending a card and forwarding this to people I know.
Comment by Kim — November 27, 2008 @ 7:38 pm
[...] December 2, 2008 by wjohngalloway Hey, My enjoyment of the work of John Hodgman is no secret, he was even in the first Flight of the Conchords TV series! Well, given recent events it seems only right to support this request on his blog [...]
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