1000

This is my 1000th post to Lympho Bob.

I've seen it coming for a couple of months, and I've kind of had it in the back of my mind that I should do something special for it. I thought maybe it could match up with Thanksgiving, but the timing wasn't right. Would have been nice to be thankful in the 1000th post.

But, really, I am thankful, and I don't need a federal holiday to do it.

I'm thankful to all of you who read and comment and encourage me to keep writing.

If you've been reading for a while, or if you read some of the posts from the beginning, you know why I started this blog. Like so many of you, when I was diagnosed, I had no idea what I was dealing with. I heard CANCER and assumed the worst. Even for a few months, I still didn't quite grasp what an indolent cancer was, and why watching-and-waiting made sense, and what it all meant.

When I started, the blog became a way of letting people know what was happening. My wife and I know from experience, when someone we know and care about is sick, sometimes we're in a position to say, "How is it going? How are you feeling?" But we also know that sometimes, there are people that you care about, but that you aren't close enough to that you can call anytime and ask how they're doing.

So we decided that I would start this blog. It would be a way for people to know what was going on without wondering, "Is it OK if I call?" or hearing something from someone else who might have heard something about how I was doing and not getting the whole story. Basically, the blog would be a place for people to keep up without having to ask.

And it worked that way for a while. Friends and family visited regularly, and checked in on me, and made comments. And after a while, my doctor visits weren't so frequent, and I ran out of things to say about my lymphoma. And fewer of my friends and family read and commented.

Eventually, it became clear that I probably wasn't going to die any time soon, at least not from my indolent Follicular Lymphoma.

And eventually, my family and friends found other ways to gather together online. Which was fine. I was happy for the reason.

And every now and then, I'd get a comment from someone with Follicular Lymphoma who had somehow found the blog and who appreciated what they read. That was always nice.

And one time, someone who ran social media for a cancer drug company (I don't remember which one) started posting links to my posts on the company Facebook page and Twitter feed. That was pretty cool.

And then, somehow, more people found the blog. And I started to hear from more and more Follicular Lymphoma patients that they enjoyed reading what I'd written. And that was very cool.

Writers love to be read, and when I write on this blog, I always have readers in mind. But in the end, I write this for myself. If all of you went away (not that I want you to), I'd still keep writing. The blog gives me incentive to keep learning about my disease and what's being done to make it go away. I won't stop doing that -- I'll always be a Cancer Nerd. And every now and then, the blog is a place to express a frustration, or work through an idea. I won't stop doing that, either.

I don't know if I could have ever imagined, when I was first diagnosed, that the blog would last as long as it has, or that it would become what it has become. But I'm glad it has.

So I thank you all for reading. I promise I will continue to do my best to write about things that matter to Follicular Lymphoma patients, and I will do it as clearly and accurately as I can.

Expect another thousand posts -- at least.