Team Ezra, back in the game!

Hi, this is Ezra posting on my mom's blog because I think this is important:

Note: This is a post about why I'm asking for your help, if you'd donate some money to support me as I run Relay for Life... If you don't feel like reading the whole thing, just visit http://main.acsevents.org/goto/Ezra. Thanks!

I've got some big news today, something that I've never shared online before.

It all started years ago, when conclusive and stunningly expensive neural imaging exams discovered a tumor riding on my cerebellum (according to an oncologist, as overheard while pretending to sleep: "medulloblastoma... it's a tricky sucker"). Treatment and removal was, predictably, a pretty poor year on the Ezra calendar, but that's not what I'm talking about today. Soon after diagnosis and surgery, some of my Dad's athlete buddies joined an ultra-marathon out west in my honor, under the name "Team Ezra." I hadn't thought about it for years, but now Team Ezra is back, and it's me running this time in a 16-hour Relay for Life fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Here's why:

I've always been reluctant to accept the "war on cancer" metaphor. I just sort of decided that my hell was over and I didn't want to think about it anymore. But the thing is, as I realized in my course last semester ("metaphors and illness") that there really is no such thing as a survivor. Your "success" is measured in terms of *probability of remission*. If your scans are clear one year out, the gauge of your "survival" is based on the percentage of "survivors" who've suffered a remission more than one year out. So your risk of getting sent back into the "war," for another tour of duty, dwindles year after year, approaching zero, but who's to say you won't be the statistical outlier?

So I guess I had those thoughts in my head and the idea that maybe setting cancer within the warlike metaphor is more appropriate than I'd thought. I'd never participated in any kind of fundraising and outreach, keeping my story mostly private, but this year, when I saw the posters for the Relay for Life, I wanted to "go public" with my experience more than ever before.

Now I'm signed up and raising money. If you read this, please go to my "personal page" on the ACS website and throw some coins in the bucket! Thanks!

-Ezra

Afterthought: some unknown and untraceable (we tried) person left a really nice camera in my house at the beginning of the year. I'll be taking pictures and documenting the relay, so check back this weekend for more!