Rest in Peace, My Friend

Brian and I first met our cyber friend, Gregory, in January 2007. He was right about Brian's age, and had been misdiagnosed with his first melanoma. He brought a mole to the attention of his doctor in Nov. 2004 and she told him to "chillax", as Gregory put it. He shared his concerns 4 times before finally being diagnosed in July 05, with surgery in October, nearly 11 months after initially asking the doctor.

Just goes to show you, folks, they don't know it all. You have to be your own advocate. I shutter to think how many of you are reading this and have shown something to a doctor that has dismissed it. In defense of the docs, not everything is of concern. But go with your gut, and if you want something removed, have it removed immediately...don't end up a sad story.

Gregory died last week. I will greatly miss his candid position on being a melanoma patient. He never tip-toed around how bad it was, he was brutally honest. This is fake cheek Gregory, who upon my request for pictures for the Relay for Life event last fall, emailed me and offered pictures of himself to "scare people into getting their moles checked". We wrote back and forth, and he promised me pictures of his prosthetic cheek.

What? A fake cheek? It was pretty strange and amazing, although I do know that he did struggle later with it staying attached.

He's the Gregory that put himself up for auction on eBay to bring about melanoma awareness.

And he is gone, another notch on melanoma's belt. But for me, I will always remember him, for he gave me the chance to vent my frustration of this terrible disease and what it was doing to Brian and our family, and he supported me and many others through the really rough times.

I've missed him for a few months now. Melanoma did the same thing to him, just knocked him off his feet finally where he could not function. His brain mets were growing out of control.

I wish him much deserved peace.