Amazing Day

I went from a terrible and irritating day last week to one that was the exact OPPOSITE yesterday.  I was debating whether to share and blog about yesterday since it is work related, but it was so AMAZING that I can't avoid it!

I knew that a patient insight seminar about sarcoma was scheduled for November 8th at work.  There was going to be patient interviews, sarcoma background, Q&A, and Votrient info (submitted June 28th to FDA for sarcoma).  I never knew if I would be able to attend the seminar because of chemo treatments and/or radiation; however, a few weeks ago I contacted both work and Dr. S and said I'm going to this seminar.

I was at work early yesterday chatting with Dr. N who works for oncology at work (he is a former pediatric oncologist) and was the meeting host.  (He has offered numerous areas of help!)  As long as it was OK with me, he offered up the idea of me participating in the Q&A session.  For those of you that know me, opening up to an audience is certainly not a problem!

I was in the auditorium early since I needed to understand where to sit and be set-up with a microphone so I got the chance to meet Dr. D from Boston who would be interviewing his patients.  My doctor knows this man very well and has shared with me that he feels Dr. D is a wonderful expert in sarcoma.  Dr. D already knew my case prior to Tuesday due to wonderful resources at work (of course, I approved those discussions)!

As we were waiting for the seminar to start, one of the patients that would be interviewed started chatting with me.  She started asking me about what I did at work so I gave brief and easy explanations since I did not know her background.  As it turns out, she is a biochemist!  Throughout the day we had opportunities to chat and are now communicating with each other regularly.  From a spiritual perspective she was truly a huge reason why I needed to attend this meeting.  Not only do we share a scientific mindset, but I think we are very similar in many respects.  She is calling us "sarcoma twins," which I think is awesome!  For anyone that would be interested in reading about Corrie here is her blog http://www.jamforfries.blogspot.com/.

While I'm chatting with Corrie, colleagues started coming into the auditorium.  It was great to see so many familiar faces, but there was a point when I started tearing up.  As an aside, an email was sent the day before mentioning that registration for the event was low.  Not only did I send out a mass email to my colleagues, but my manager and others sent out emails mentioning that I would be at the event, but not certain of my involvement in the seminar.  The exact opposite actually occurred in the auditorium - people were sitting on the floor because it was "sold-out"!  This started the tears of joy.  It was important that so many people were there to learn about sarcoma.

The next line of tears happened quickly.  The meeting started with a brief intro from Dr. N about sarcoma and then he mentioned how there was a local connection with me.  A video from our wonderful Chairman of R&D shared how despite the fact that I was diagnosed with sarcoma I was focused and shared with work the problems I was having with breastfeeding and taking drugs during my diagnosis.  He had wonderful things to share about me and mentioned the numerous levels of support I have received from the company.  (I shared those stories with him!)

Dr. D was next inline to discuss the details of sarcoma, which was easily understood even by non-scientists and humorous in many respects.  Biggest learning is "Dr. Google" is NOT a good doctor!  Corrie and Les were interviewed after the sarcoma education.  From my point of view it was great to hear and see people that survived!  Granted it always seems like there are issues whether from diagnoses or treatments, but these people are living and doing well.  A wonderful thing for me to see. 

Q&A.  Luckily no major questions were asked to me specifically for a little while until Dr. N, the host, asked me to share my thoughts about estrogen receptors and sarcoma.  Haha!  loved this!  If you remember from previous blogs, Dr. S did not want to discuss this and treated me like an idiot.  I have had countless oncologists and chemists actually interested in this notion so I shared this openly like I did in the last blog.  Even Dr. D was open to the thought and didn't view it as a completely odd and inappropriate notion.  I just shared with the entire work community why my tumors might not be shrinking with rationalization and appropriate research AND I WASN'T TREATED AS AN IDIOT!

At the end of the Q&A session I had an opportunity to mention anything I wanted...Oh boy.  I started tearing up quite a bit because I needed to share and thank everyone for the support and help that they have offered.  These people have contributed to my positivity climb and my mental and emotional state has been wonderful as a result.  I don't remember all that I said since it was purely spontaneous, but I think I mentioned something about being a patient and still wanting to help patients.  I do remember offering my blog (think I might have mentioned that it might be crazy) and contact info.

I did get to see a lot of colleagues after the meeting and countless hugs were given.  Love you guys!  I did get a chance to have lunch with the Votrient team and spent more time with Corrie.

WOW!!!  What an amazing day for me.  I'm still thinking about the day because it was so meaningful.  It was also wonderful that my hubby, dad, and mother-in-law were there to experience it as well.  Things happened with my case for very specific reasons so that I had the ability to attend this amazing meeting.