Who Says I Can't?

    I recently finished the book Who Says I Can't? by Jothy Rosenberg. He is an Osteosarcoma survivor, like me. What a remarkable story! The fact that he is an amputee, has one lung and is still alive 35 years later to write about it is amazing. He was told he had zero chance of survival. At age 16, he was lying in a hospital bed with one leg and receiving the primitive treatment of chemotherapy. Back in the 70's cancer was, for the most part, a death sentence. 24 years after Jothy was fighting for his life I was living that same nightmare. Even though I have never met Jothy I felt, after reading his book that he got me. He somehow, reached inside the inner depths of my heart and put into words the dark and scary truths of what life really can be like for a teen cancer survivor, living an anything but normal life.

     One of my favorite lines in the book was when Jothy said, " I might have thought I had died and gone to heaven...if I wasn't so happy not to have died." Wow. What a powerful statement. Not sure why that phrase stuck with me. I guess maybe because going though cacner evey milestone seems to be such a great accomplishment. Every step taken is a giant leap. I remember learning how to walk again. Not once but twice! They told me I would only have minimal range of motion in my knee. I would probably never be able to bend it at a 90 degree angle.I surpassed all expectations of my doctor. I now have FULL range of motion only because of the MANY falls that I have taken, I broke the scar tissue they had anticipated preventing my ability to bend my knee. My pride as well as my physical body has taken many falls those first few years of rehabilitation. Taking a nose dive in biology class is not on the top ten things to do as a sophmore that's for sure!

 Check this link out:http://www.facebook.com/#!/Oprah4KidsCancer.      

      The goal is to raise enough awareness so Oprah will do a show on childhood cancer. It’s amazing how fast the page has grown in just a few short weeks. As of now, it is 44,000 strong! When you think of cancer you don’t think of babies or children. Your automatic reaction is maybe breast cancer or lung cancer. If people really saw the actual number of childhood cancers diagnosed every year, I think more would be done to improve research. Right now 3% of all cancer funding goes towards childhood cancer research. That’s it. We are talking the #1 KILLER for childhood diseases and we get 3%. It just doesn’t make sense. This has to change. Too many young lives are lost because of the lack of funding. I am here today because of the ground breaking research that they have done since Jothy was diagnosed. He didn’t have the option to save his leg or try a new limb salvage surgery. They decided for him and even then there were no guarantees. This day in age there are protocols, surgeries, and cycles of chemotherapy. All this is around today because of research. We still need to continue with that research. Just because the survival rate for childhood cancers has gone from 10% to 80% doesn’t mean we stop at the 80%. (There are some cancers whose survival rate isn’t even half this good!) The only way we will increase funds for childhood cancer research is bringing awareness to the issue. Cancer is not for the old and unhealthy.  Brothers, sisters, sons and daughters are fighting to see another birthday. I hope after you read this you will go and check out the “Oprah please do a show on childhood cancer” then “like” it.  Not asking for money just a moment of your time! (Although childhood cancer research could use your money too! But we can just start with baby steps!)

     I feel as though every day I walk that fine line between Who Says I Can't and the common sense to preserve the one good leg I have been blessed to still have! It's a tossup most days. Wake boarding on my 21st birthday I will admit, was NOT a good idea with a prosthetic knee. Good news, I can scratch wake boarding off my bucket list. I so rocked that board before I cashed and burned. Yea, that tune up surgery was not  fun. I guess you live and learn.


If you want to learn more about Jothy Rosenberg check out http://www.whosaysicant.org/