Content Rating Notice: Recommended for Readers 18 Years and Older Only
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 |  | Walking Through The Valley | | Rated: 18+ | | My journey through the valley with Cancer as my companion. | | by: Turkey-Bud, umm, Bird! ![View kybudman's Portfolio. [Offline / Private] View kybudman's Portfolio. [Offline / Private]](http://imgs.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/costumicons/ps-icon-hiking-40.gif) | This item requires reviews with ratings. |
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| Item Size: 285 Entries Created: 2:49am on 11-28-2006 Modified: 12:22pm on 11-22-2009 | |
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Dear Friend:
This is not a Blog about writing! (I already have one of those.)
This is a blog about a journey I am taking with illness. I have recently been diagnosed with Cancer. My goal is honest therapy as I progress through, and beyond this new reality in my life. I hope that, somewhere along the way you will find some words that will help you too.
While this is, in fact, an interactive Blog, I hope that you will scroll slowly down this page. For you see, the front of this Blog IS my journey. The entries are conversations that are held along the journey.Yes, there is a lot on it--before actually getting to the Blog entries. But, I hope that by the objects and words which appear before the Blog itself, you might come to understand just a little bit about me, and my journey, and some truly amazing friends who have agreed to journey with me. I hope that you, too, will choose to accompany me on my walk--through the Valley.
I invite you to join me, and discover the wondrous truths, meet some truly amazing people, and share those "memorable" moments this journey will undoubtedly present. Come along, won't you?
In His Care,
![My Gifted Siggy [#1242657]
This is my first ever gifted sig](http://imgsx.writing.com/main/images/action/display/item_id/1242657.gif)
Would you like to help me help others? I found this amazing organization, and I am proud to be a sponsor. I hope you will check it out. It's called The Network For Good. 
"RISUS OMNIA - INCRUMENTUS PER DEDECUS - SAPIENTIA PER DAMNUM"
("Every thing is funny - Growth through humiliation - Wisdom through loss")
~Leunig~
The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.
~Helen Keller~
"If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people."
~Virginia Woolf~
"There is strength in truth."
~The Barton Family Crest~
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
— Helen Keller, American social activist, public speaker and author (1880-1968)
I have moved the list of my thanks for those who have helped to make this little Blog so very special. I hope that you will take a moment to read the list, growing every day, and let these fellow travellers along this journey know that you appreciate the contributions they make to our walk together.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
James 1:2-4
Please feel free to click on the Blog Rings icon below to be transported to some of the very best of the Best Bloggers around WDC.
My Blog 
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You just GOTTA know there's a story here. You'd be right, there is!
Okay, so I find this auction. I like the sponsors and the beneficiaries. I got a few GP. I bid on an item that my friend Daizy~Gobble x2 ![View daizy's Portfolio. [Offline / Private] View daizy's Portfolio. [Offline / Private]](http://imgs.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/costumicons/ps-icon-daisy-40.gif) had bid on. It's two days before the auction closes. I got some GP to throw around.
I decide to bid on a couple (OKAY! FIVE!) items. Some of the items are twins: the items you receive, a friend can receive as well. I think that's just really cool. There I was, mindin' my own bizness, not botherin' anybody--almost!
In the forum for the auction, I gets me this sideways greetin' from my friend Daizy, who seems none-the-happier that I upped her bid. Seems like she was ready to just waltz away with MY item! HA! (See above!) She upped my bid!! No, really! I KNOW!!
What's a good ole Amurhican boyee ta do? Of course I did. Immediately. Forthwith, anon. It started at (I think) my first raise to 35k. After 2 days, the auction was over. This FRIEND went to 150k, telling me she had a friend she wanted the package for, and she was gonna have it if it took millions! I figured that any friend that had her for a friend was pretty well lucky to begin with. In the interest of fair play (and GP preservation, dangit!) I let her have her bid!
The last day of the Auction was busy for the auction hosts, believe me. I was following five items, while they were trying to keep up with 30 of them! Of the five I bid on, I won one.
Given the odds, that's a clear win. I was happy. I got some reviews, Daizy would be able to gift her friend, and the auction was a flying success, especially GP-wise!
Guess what?

Thanks, Daizy. If'n only I hadda known!!
But, that's the way it is around here. When you find a site where people are "out-nicing" one another--and for no other reason...stick with that site, friends. No matter what, it is worth it. This is just one reason why.
Do me a favor, would ya? Over the next few days, go on over to Daizy~Gobble x2 's Port and look around some. You'll find some excellent writing from a truly gifted writer, and you might just find one of the best friends you could ever hope for on this (or any other) writing site. Tell her somebody else sent ya, though. I might have to outbid her next time!
In His Care,
Budroe
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I was perusing today. Yes, I know, I'll wait. Let it bless yer hearts! Out in public, n everything! I have no shame!
It seems that, somehow, EarlyHours ![View earlyhours's Portfolio. [Offline / Private] View earlyhours's Portfolio. [Offline / Private]](http://imgs.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/costumicons/ps-icon-clock-40.gif) has his computer infestd with an information-seeking, slightly neurotic (but completely friendly) circuit board named VA, or Vigilante Angel. I KNOW!!
It seems he's been locked up in this computer, or the WDC site for some eight years--all the way back to the stories dot com days! Well, all of a sudden this AI thingey is runnin' loose all over the site, making a real hash of things! Seem he likes reviewers--and Blogs.
If you get the chance, you really should get on over to his site. He's one of the good ones, y'all. Say a Howdy!" to 'im, and let him know that we aren't entirely prejudiced around here, okay? No, really, CC, we ain't! Blink....blink. Ahhh SWARE!
Vigilante Angel ![View vangel's Portfolio. [Offline / Private] View vangel's Portfolio. [Offline / Private]](http://imgs.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/costumicons/ps-icon-regular-2nd.gif) .
Better yet, get OUTSIDE his computer, and say hello to the "other" part of the act, EarlyHours ![View earlyhours's Portfolio. [Offline / Private] View earlyhours's Portfolio. [Offline / Private]](http://imgs.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/costumicons/ps-icon-clock-40.gif) . I dare ya!
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Hey!! Ya got two of 'em yesterday! Gimme a break, already! 
A bit testy, is he? Mayhaps but methinks mayhaps he is merely feeling the fatigue of living any sort of life with purpose these days. It's been a while, you know. I'm nearly 8,000 words into the novel (3,125/day to meet the goal I have set.) and I know how it will end, but as for who will make it to the final page...no idea.
This book has been difficult to get to, but just a ton of fun when I finally get there. But, distraction has ruled the day. Marketing ideas and other things have really kept me walled off from the world, and the book. It's just one of those days.
Tomorrow is a medical day. I get lab in the morning, and then it's off to see the sleep center folks. I use an assisted breathing device now at night (or whenever I sleep, actually) called a BiPap machine. It's a doozy, I tell ya. I've got to explain something to you, so you will understand the "patient behind the mask", here.
As a professional truck driver, I abhored anything which took away my total concentration from my primary task: driving. I did not wish, want, or voluntarily accept any situation that would make me more comfortable while I was driving. (Well, the air conditioner/heatin system, but I'm just sayin'!)
Remember those old war movies, where the bomber pilots were at a gazillion feet, and they had to wear masks for hours on end to breathe?
Yeah, it's like that. What makes it more fun is that you are supposed to put the mask on when you are ready to sleep! Are you kidding me? Strap a five-pound assisted breathing mask onto your schnoz, and feel the rapture of air being forced into (and out of--ergo, BI Pap) your lungs--like it or don't. I'm not talking just a little friendly, helpful assist here, either. The pressure I'm on now is the strongest pressure available on this machine! They had to give me a special one before because it was the only machine available that could deliver the pressure I require! I had them change the pressure after seven days of no sleep! New machine: same thing. Max pressure in--and out--while sleeping. Distilled water chambers are filled to moisturize the air. Mine is set on its highest setting to avoid "cotton mouth" in the morning. I'll tellya: there's just nothing quite breathing in (involuntarily, I might add) a tropical rain storm. Where'd they get the technology for this thing, anyway? This is like "water bording lite!"
They have these cards that are just like credit cards. They store all the settings for you, and then document how much you actually sleep, and how the machine helps you breathe in and out--every day. When the need changes or the info fills the card, you just take or mail them into the provider, and you get a new card. Presto Changeo!!
Right now, I'm thinking I would dearly love to slap that sucker on my face! I'm all kinds of tired. We hoped this would help my constant fatigue. So far, it hasn't. The only noticeable difference for me is that I hear virtually nothing with this contraption strapped to my head--except the machine helping me breathe.
You know what that's like? Well, I'll just tell ya! You like apples?
It's like being conscious--while you are on a respirator. That's exactly what it's like.
How you like THEM apples?
Yeah, I definitely gots me some breathin' issues. No surprise; we saw this one coming back in '06. Right about the time I get my head all lined up to get some quality time with maybe even a little bit of a new life, I lose the use of my legs. Now this!
Since I can't do anything about the damned machine, I'll write about it! Harrummph!
In His Care,
Budroe
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