2009 Spring Lake 5 5/23/09
I did not sleep all that much last night. It wasn't my hot flashes or too much caffeine keeping me awake. It wasn't thinking about the upcoming Brooklyn 1/2 marathon on Saturday or making dinner for my girlfriends tonight either. No, it was more than that.
Last night I had the honor of attending the 2009 Gala for the Northside Children's Center at Cipriani's in NYC where they honored the CEO, Dave Snow, of my employer: Medco. Dave graciously accepted the award presented to him in honor of another - Victoria Rubino. Victoria was the 21 year old daughter of Medco's CFO, Rich Rubino. Victoria passed away recently in her sleep due to an undetected heart defect. She was a senior at my alma mater, Boston University.
It was this event that kept me awake. It was thinking about the loss the Rubino family had endured. It was realizing that 20 years ago, I too was a senior at BU. 20 years ago!!! Had you told me then that I would one day face cancer I would have laughed at you. As I drove into the event I thought about how I had been driving into the city a year earlier but for a much different reason - I was heading to NYU Medical Center to get my chemo port. As I tried to sleep last night, I wondered about how weird the world is and why we are given the path to follow that we do. I contemplated this past year and the fact that today marks one year since I started chemotherapy to combat the cancer detected in me. My mind raced all night as I tried to remember that chemical taste and lethargy that the drugs pumped into to caused. I thought about the fact that here I was one year later, attending a grand event looking a bit different but feeling wonderful. Amazing what can transpire in 365 days.
Yesterday I also heard from my oncologist's office that lab work I had done last week came back and my results were "perfect". In the big scheme of things, it really doesn't get any better than that.
