Walking in someone else's shoes

[Guest guest]

Dear Skip,

I think you understimate what you have been through, but we know we could never

stand up to your own personal experience. I think you have walked in everyone's

shoes and more. It is we who have not walked in your shoes. I understand what

you are saying, in that we are all different. I don't know how many read your

post and really saw what you said in the context you meant it to be. Skip went

to the doctor's office every week and every week, there was one less leukemia

patient, until he was the only one left.

It must have been an eerie feeling to know that everyone who preceeded you would

never sit next to you again, and ask yourself if you would live another week to

sit in that same spot again. You have done and been through all of this

experience and come out a whole person, full of faith and optimism and I find

that unique about you. I know I gripe a lot to you about some things, but you

are always so positive, so I feel better after talking to you and reading your

posts. I always say to myself, there goes a man that no one will ever get as

close to the edge and lived through it. You are truly a person who is here for a

purpose. We are like little sheep running around when something goes wrong, but

you hold steady and fast, like you were steering a ship through a storm. No

wonder everyone looks up to you for inspiration.

Did you read the article on Busulfan yet? I sent it to my doctor to refresh his

memory.

That sounds like something they would give to someone in a torture chamber and

you are darn lucky to have survived it, but as my doctor said, it probably saved

your life in the long run. Who wants to live like that, but you prove it can be

done. I was watching a show on TV and some terrible things happened to this

woman, but when she raised her head and looked to the heavens and you could

read her lips when she told God a terrible phrase you hear in music today,

cursing him for everything she was going through. I think we have all

questioned God at some point as to why this was happening to us, but statictics

show that everyone has a heavy burden to bear at some time. You keep on

inspiring us.

You are so close the the north Atlantic, I think I could just gaze at that water

lapping on the rocks and the lobster fishermen coming to check their lobster

pots for hours. Then I would go to Peggy's Cove and order a lobster. LOL. Do

you ever see whales that close in? We were going to take a whale boat, but it

was too early in the season. I'm so glad I went when I did, because the

opportunity never came up again. I was put on INF and HHT and I was too ill to

travel any further than Houston. You had so many sanitary issues and

refrigeration and shipping my HHT bag every week, it was next to impossible. It

would have been nice to have caught up with you then. I was about 4 years into

CML and you were already the longest living.

Take care & keep us posted,

Lottie Duthu