Beginnings - Let's Get It On!!

Hi, and welcome to my newly-created exercise in mass communication and full disclosure. I'm writing this post just before heading to my initial trip for radiation. Today is just to make sure everything is aligned correctly, and I get my permanent tattoos as well. The tattoos will make sure that they focus the radiation on just the right spot, and nothing else. Hence the title of this posting, "Beginnings - Let's Get It On!!" (apologies to Marvin Gaye)

With all the goings on relative to the fibrosarcoma in my arm, lots of my relatives and friends have been wanting news as to my condition, the progress of my treatment, etc. While it's been fun chatting on the phone with all of you these last few weeks, and I will continue to talk to you on the phone, I found myself wanting a more efficient and effective means of communicating with everyone. You can blame my dear sister Lora, the Rev. Chapman, for the creation of the blog (short for web log for those of you new to "blogging"), although she had no idea that she inspired this. Quite an indirect occurrence, springing from her habit of keeping a notebook of my medical journey.

When she went with me to Greenspring Station and her car broke down, I called her after my appointment, to fill her in on what transpired so that she could keep the notebook up to date. I was also spending a fair amount of time retelling my doctoral escapades to various family members, friends, and colleagues at work. Just this past week I was in Ocean City at a library conference, and I attended a seminar on blogging and podcasting (I may be podcasting to you sooner than you think!), and it clicked that starting a blog would be the ideal way to keep all concerned parties appraised simultaneously. Not only will the blog be a means for me to keep you posted on how my medical procedures are going, but it gives you the opportunity to send back comments, good wishes, and any other observations you feel fit to share. So it is interactive. And I figure that even after the surgery I can just fire up a laptop, sit back with a beer, and share the process with you.

A couple of ground rules for replies. First, no cursing (It's the librarian in me that had to say that)! Second, feel free to say whatever you want to say, it's all appreciated. Third, you'll be able to read and respond to what other visitors to the blog have said. Fourth, forgive me if every now and then I post another photograph of some bird or seashell or landscape or rock or something without a person in it, it's just what I do, okay? ;-)

So there you have it. Feel free to join in the experiment, the fun, and the opportunity of this, my blog about my cancer treatment journey and recovery. Make no mistake, I will recover from this, I'm in incredibly capable hands (God's, surgeons, physical therapists, plastic surgeons, bill collectors ;-) ) and surrounded my unbelievably caring people - you, my family and friends and co-workers. So come on in, sit a spell, and contribute to this blog, a little piece of virtual reality that I call Steve's Big Arm News.