Kendall,

I've been meaning to send you an encouraging message about my own experience -- I've spent most of 2004 (since discovering a lump in my neck and visting a doctor on New Year's Eve) dealing with my own throat cancer, and I am lucky enough to be healing up nicely now and getting *almost* back to normal.

Now that I'm back from hurricane evacuation and have read this whole thread, I can see that you're facing a tougher set of choices than I had to confront. I'm not even going into any more detail about my own situation, which isn't that much like yours, after all.

I'll say this much: I was always aware of the support, prayers, etc., of many friends and family, and I was always able to maintain such a positive attitude that my doctors and nurses often commented upon it. Did my positive mindset help bring about my eventual recovery, or was I able to maintain that good attitude only because I somehow knew I'd come out of it relatively OK? Who knows? All we can know for sure is that faith and hope can't hurt, so you might as well conjure up as much as you can for yourself.

It's very encouraging to see that you're starting out on a new marriage at the very time that you have to confront this nasty disease. Staying hopeful and orienting yourself to the future rather than to the past is probably the very best medicine for you, so you seem to be on the right path. You've got plenty of good friends, all over the world, sending you all the positive energy they can muster. Hang in there, buddy.