My Coming Out Message

For posterity, here's the email with which I announced my affliction to friends, family, and colleagues. Some of it will only make sense to an inside group--my apologies. Feel free to pirate if you like.


All,
I'm sending this because I wanted you to get this information from me, rather than from the rumor mill.

Last week, I was diagnosed with diffuse small cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which sounds more like something you'd order at Starbucks than a form of cancer. Sadly, it's not. Now, of all the things with which I could have been diagnosed, it ain't the best, but it's far from the worst.

My oncologist (now there are two words I never wanted to string together) feels we can easily beat this into remission, and I've been accepted as a patient by Dr. Bruce Cheson at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of the top three researchers in the country on my particular flavor of lymphoma. One of his other patients is former Senator Fred Thompson.

I anticipate starting chemotherapy in the very near future, and have been told that I can anticipate a fairly normal work schedule. It's likely I'll go in for treatment for a few days every three to four weeks for the next six or so months. Once we get this into remission, I'll be on a monitoring program.

There's no reason with a little luck and a lot of care, I can't live with this for 20 or 30 years.
For the 4.0 Level 2's, I've discussed this with Mr. McCurdy, and we're going to work to minimize any impact it might have on the Competency.

Feel free to share the news with anyone who you think might want to know.
(Please give me the name of anyone who seems happy to hear it.) My apologies to those whom I have forgotten to include on distribution.

And for the NAVAIR crowd, this does NOT constitute proof that Command Staffing causes cancer.

I'll keep you posted.
Tim