My name is Blue, and this is how I got here.
I was fairly normal (well, not quite), until shit hit the fan when I was 11.
It started with a headache that felt like a thousand bricks pounding one spot inside my skull.
My family didn't know what to do, and all they told us at the hospital was that I had a bad migrain.
A week passed slowly, seconds into minutes into hours into days. I was completely bedridden. Throughout the week the bricks kept pounding at my skull, never relenting for even one peaceful minute. The people at the hospital were confounded, until a brainscan revealed a malignant non-germanoma germ cell tumor in my pineal gland. The headaches were because the tumor was in a waterway in my brain. After the surgery, I endured a year of radiation and four years of chemotherapy. I was literally living in the hospital for two years. When I went home to rest after sessions of chemo, I always knew I would have to go back the next week.
All I could think about was the pain and suffering. The chemotherapy had poisened every cell in my body. I am still in awe that I am able to stand before you and tell you how I got here. I feel no bitterness towards the world that put me through this.
I could not end this story before saying that it is you all, cons, and this community, that inspire me to survive. You are one of the most important parts of my life. I must tell you that while I was in the hospital, I kept thinking to myself that I had to make it to the next con; I had been to one before the cancer struck. It was great. In closing, cons have been a huge part of saving my life from cancer.
Thank you so much.
