For all the bad that can come from the Internet, it can definitely be used for good.  Take patient blogs.  Thanks to websites that allow people facing health challenges to post regular updates about their latest doctor visit or procedure, keeping tabs on a family member or friend or even someone you’ll never meet in person is easy.  Currently I am following 5-10 of these blogs.  I receive an email notifying me every time each one has a new update, thereby limiting the time I have to take to find them.  There’s the little girl who survived brain cancer who just moved to California.  Kate McRae has family in eastern Iowa and I’ve been honored to talk with some of them about her.  Ken Earnest is the father of a former KWWL employee.  He had a leg amputated when infection wouldn’t heal after knee replacement.  Bob Foster is in Rochester recovering from a stem cell transplant after years battling cancer and Michael Baird, the son of my dad’s cousin, just found out his colon cancer has spread to the liver.  My heart breaks when I read some of the latest details of their medical journeys–but is always buoyed by their expressions of hope and faith.  Regularly I post words of encouragement in their virtual Guest Books.  But to be honest, they probably comfort me more than the other way around.  As a cancer survivor once told me, when you’re the patient somehow you end up talking others into accepting a situation you can’t change.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 48