I was the point person, in a sense, when a friend was recovering from a broken neck that made surgery impossible. Meaning, his neck and head were stabilized by a carbon fiber 'halo and healing helped immensely by local ultrasound. He had a CT scan and appointment with an (amazing) neurosurgeon every six weeks while living in a post-hospital rehabilitation facility.

One of my jobs was to pick up the CD of the scan as soon as it was available and take it to the neurosurgeon's office. He explained that, while he referred to the radiologist's written report, he was sometimes looking for very subtle signs of healing that can be different from what the radiologist might look for. And looking at the digital file copy transmitted by the hospital digital archive wasn't as valuable as seeing the actual CD for clarity.

PS Merry, I had no idea that people could have, yet alone survive, cancer for years, yet alone decades. I am very unwillingly new to what I think of as Cancerworld. Only one family member has has cancer and that was my father who survived aggressive prostate cancer the first time but succumbed to it thirty years later. Everyone else seemed to die of heart and stroke stuff with a sprinkling of COPD.

But a Bad News Biopsy, resulting from a Suspicious Mammogram last September, resulted in a lumpectomy and my first real concern about what-ifs. I'll be the first to note that I was and am not pleased with the idea of rogue cells hanging out in my body, but am happy they were discovered early and, hopefully, left no buddies behind.

But reading of others' oddly positive experiences during some rude health challenges made me rethink what I thought I knew about facing inconvenient crises. And living life during them. For that, and an unfailing graciousness, thank all of you who built this resource.