A Very Painful Day

Today is my blog’s 6 year blog-versary, it should be a day where I do something special or at least have something exciting to post but sadly my world was rocked pretty hard today.

In the 6 years that I have been posting I say very little about myself. I don’t think I have ever used a real name only my nickname (Corky) outside of the people that I have traded with but today is different. Today I am going to open up about my family a bit.

This afternoon at 1:05 pm after battling lung cancer, which metastasized in to her liver and kidney, my aunt Dawn passed away. She has been a major part of my life since I returned to Arizona in 2008 and for the past 8 months I have been her caregiver while she fought a valiant battle. This has been a painful day for my family and while I went back and forth about the post I felt I needed to get something out.

She was diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer in August 2014 and after a heavy regiment of chemo and radiation, plus three hospitalizations, she was declared “Cancer free” on January 2, 2015. Sadly a follow up scan two weeks later showed that while the cancer in her lung had disappeared, it had spread to her liver and then later her kidney and adrenal gland. She began a second round of chemotherapy in February and felt she was doing well but on April 14^th she was told that the tumors had spread and were getting larger, after discussing the options it was decided to end all treatment and she was given 4-6 months. We have been celebrating her life ever since.

 In honor of continuing her celebration I am opening up and I am posting the last picture I took with her, which was one month ago shortly after we shaved out heads in support.

So here I am, the real guy behind the avatar, and this is my aunt Dawn (lovingly called Anty).