I've been thinking long and hard about why there's so much consternation as we apparently approach the end of this discussion board. Trying to get to the root of our anguish. I noticed the new site has a feature on the profile page titled "My story". Well, that got me to thinking about this thing we have here in cyberspace. So here goes:
Our story begins with someone telling us "Something is wrong with your blood." And then there's a rush of activity as we undergo more diagnostic tests and bone marrow biopsies. It's a rather emotional time as we come to grips with the fact that we have cancer. Then we begin to search for information about this intrusion upon our lives and we eventually find this discussion group hosted by the LLS. That's when our individual stories were joined together in this this group to become "Our story".
Over the years, our story has ebbed and flowed as new threads were added by each post that's been added to this massive jumble of data. Questions have been asked and answered, jokes have been told and laughed at, research has been presented and speculated about, theories have been presented and debated. It's been a good thing.
A couple of years ago we were informed that the LLS had bold plans for a new format. We checked it out and didn't understand how our story would fit into this new framework. We ranted and raved and were relieved when we heard that the powers that be had relented and allowed us to continue on in our little corner of the Internet.
Now we've been told that there's been a change of heart and that we won't be able to continue our story here. There's been a flurry of effort and emotions as we search for answers as to what will become of our story. It seems many of our pleas fall on deaf ears as we try to explain why our story is important and plead for a chance to continue it. They don't understand because even though they are a character in our story, they haven't participated in our manuscript.
Well, I'm proud of our story and even if some of us depart from this narrative, I know we'll still soldier on. After all, we are survivors and warriors and caretakers. We'll just have to join other stories as our time here together ends.
