Since I was born on the cusp, I suppose it's fitting that my life now revolves around cancer.

Most people who read this blog are familiar with my cancer story. I used to be very afraid of cancer and people dealing with cancer.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation considers someone a cancer survivor from the moment they are diagnosed. I knew these people as freakishly colorless and hairless sick people.

Maybe I was afraid because they reminded me of ghosts, and I've never run into a ghost that I wanted to be close to - proximally or emotionally. Or maybe I was racist against white people.

(Digression: Dave Chappelle had a hilarious skit where a blind African-American was the leader of his local Ku Klux Klan. If you can wrap your mind around that, you can imagine the hilarity that ensues!)

But the plain and simple fact is that I didn't understand. It basically took Thomas Hodgkin to make me learn what a great man had already said: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

And now, some of the most influential people in my life are cancer survivors and caregivers.

As a survivor myself, I have become a "go-to" person when someone else gets diagnosed. I hear about friends and family members, friends of friends and acquaintances who get diagnosed, and I run... to them, instead of away from them.

In some aspects, it's for these people that I wrote "Cancerboy". Read about my experience, and learn from what I've gone through and mistakes that I've made. Make the most informed choices possible, and know what the possible outcomes are.

As easy as it is for me to talk about, this topic is still uncomfortable. I know there are people who want to stay ignorant - ignorance IS bliss - and those people won't have read this far. But the reason I am writing this tonight is because I just had a conversation about cancer and chemotherapy, stemming from my wondering aloud how Carolina Panther Mark Fields is doing with his treatments following a second diagnosis of Hodgkin's Disease in three years.

I wondered if he would be following the same nasty protocol (or "regimine"... potato, tomato ;)) of Adriamycin, Bleomycin, Vinblastine and Dacarbazine or if he would be treated with a bone marrow transplant.

As a patient, I learned quickly how frigging nasty these drugs were... as a result of this conversation, I learned that they were wayyyyy nastier than I originally thought. Let's put it this way: chemotherapy puts new meaning to the phrase "killing yourself to get ahead".

As a result, I was reminded of how much love and compassion I have for my cancer community brethren. And still, despite all the crap we have gone/will go through, I have to agree with what Lance said: we truly are the lucky ones.

Much love and much peace...

Now in the CD player: