Time to say farewell to Healing Well Prostate Cancer forum....very bittersweet to me

David,
I understand and completely respect your decision, but I will miss following your post and trying to find out if the medical wonks ever find out what is going on with your health. I was so happy with your resent post with the dramatic drop in your PSA, and hopeful that more good news will follow. One of the reasons I still log on many times each week is to see how you are doing. Your courage is remarkable, and our family will continue to keep you in our prayers. As one who has enjoyed your books, looking forward to a new book if you decide to follow through and take up your writing again. Best of luck and hope you will find fair winds and following seas.

Kerry (Beachbum)

David, like so many others, i have learned from and been supported and encouraged by your wisdom and experience. God Bless ya, buddy, and if i don't see ya around here, maybe i'll see ya show up at Amazon. take care, bob

David -

A good long time ago (decades) there was a neighbor and his wife next door who became good friends with my wife and me. When they moved in, they had kids the same ages as ours, and as kids of course play together and run all over the place, into each others' houses, etc., we naturally came to know these neighbors, and we all actually got to be good friends with them.That doesn't always happen with neighbors, and sometimes they're just people next door that you nod to occasionally and that's it.

Then one day he got the word that he was being transferred to a position in another city. So we said our goodbyes and they left. Then after they had gone we realized, with the house now empty next door, just how much we had had a good friendship with them, but now it was over, and we felt sad about it for a while.
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That's sort of what it will be like with you, if you depart, like the loss of the good neighbor, the good friend.

I have noted before, and it is well worth noting one more time, that the courage you have shown to all in facing the health challenges that have been dealt you, has been exemplary. Such a model for all who have followed your story.

And the knowledge and advice you have shared with so many here has been as good as they could have received. I once commented that Raddad while he was here was the heart of this forum, but you were the mind of it, because of your insight and your knowledge. You proved that to be the case time and again.

But sometimes in life we do get a feeling, an intuition, that it is indeed time to move on. If that has now happened in your case, and you feel that it is the right thing for you to do now, then the rest of us just need to wish you godspeed.

Of course if you ever change your mind, you know we're all here for you, just a computer click away.

Best of luck to you, David, now and always, and, indeed, godspeed.

David, I was saddened to read that you intend to leave HealingWell. I just wish you would give some thought to a more moderate course of action: post less, read less, but continue to visit from time to time.

Our situations are quite different, but that's sort of what I've done. I still visit a lot to see what people are up to, but I post a lot less. There IS a middle course of action, and I guess I wish you'd choose it, because you'll be missed by a lot of folks here.

Whatever you choose, I wish you well, my friend.

David,

You leave a large hole here by your departure. I've appreciated the connection with you at the forum these past years, since you first arrived with the strange name , Purgatory, which has been medically prophetic for your difficult and tortuous prostate cancer journey. I'll miss you. May God shine his face upon you and give you peace.

Tim

David,
Everything has its time and place. Your contributions here have meant a lot to me, and will be missed. I hope you change your mind at some point, but certainly understand. Wishing you all the best.
Henry

David, thanks for sharing all of issues you've faced. I have followed your case and have learned so much. As a G8, I feel I will face additional treatment and have soaked in so much you have willingly shared with all. Good luck to you and please check in from time to time and let us know how you are doing.

David,
As always, you're in my prayers.

Andrew

David, the first post I read on this forum was yours. Your words were appreciated. Vaya Con Dios Warrior.

Semper Fi.
Walt

All the best David.

This forum is a great place but pc can eat you up at times and a break or a goodbye is sometimes the better option.
Hope things work out for you and thanks for all the help you've given to me and others.

Cheers,
Mike

David, I understand ending this part of your journey. Many of us have backed away and only visit to catch up on our friends to see how they are fairing.

Finding something else to occupy our minds I. Place of PCa is not a bad thing in itself.

Take care.

Cajun Jeff

Wow, kind of overwhelmed tonight with feelings, with the many kindly worded posts and some special e-mails that arrived today. Thank you to one and all, makes me wonder if I am doing the right thing for the right reasons.
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ziggy and tud - we are the "old timer's" now at HW, along with a few others, those going back to 2008 and earlier. we lost one of our other "ancients" when tonyc bowed earlier this year.

I think too of zufus and mal and billy, both from down under, some of my earliest friends here at HW. Seems so very long ago that I came here.

To Lynn and Chart, please don't cry, and please let Barb know I am still thinking of her. I may buzz into HW CP here and there to check up on her and your guys. I have a different bond with some of the CP folks, because we fight such complex and enduring pain battles. I won't forget you, as I know you too suffer greatly on a daily basis. And we fight the stigma of having "invisible pain".

I am looking and reading each post, and they bring back such personal memories of your own unique battles fighting the beast we call PC. I never for a moment think that anyone here has had an easy time. Some journeys are simpler than others. But each is a unique cancer battle regardless.

Some of you are winning big time, and that makes me very happy. And some of you are fighting for your very lives, and I understand and respect what you deal with. And then some of us, didn't make it, despite their own heroic and courageous fights along the way, all I can say to them - is that I take consolation in knowing that they suffer no more in the flesh, and hope and pray they are in a better place, and that their remaining family and loved ones are being taken care of in their absence.

Despite my endless setbacks, complications, disappointments, let downs, bad news, pain, fatigue, and suffering in general, I never once, have ever had any envy to all of you that are on the winning side. I truly feel a sense of joy every time someone posts another or a first time "zero" PSA report. Or if someone breezes through surgery, or radiation, or whatever their treatment choice happened to be. I share in your joy and happiness, even if it didn't happen for me.

I too, have become quite emotional when a brother loses his fight here, have shed my fair amount of real, from the heart tears, whenever we have lost another. Even one, is too many to me.

I will always have a special place in my heart to all my fellow vets at HW PC. We have an extended bond that a lot of non-vets will never fully understand. In particular, to my brother Viet-Nam vets. We were all involved in a very ugly unofficial war, most of us at fairly young ages. Doesn't matter what branch - Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, even Coast Guard. We did what we did, at a time when the public was opposed to what was going on, and many of us were horribly treated upon our return home from our tours. It wasn't like the atmosphere that exists now. Gee, if someone goes in the army and does latrine duty for 2 years at some post in Kansas, people will shower them and call them a hero. That bothers me greatly to this day, no disrespect to anyone currently serving. But most of the real heroes that I knew in my time, had to come home in a body bag/casket to earn that title. Despite my feelings and reflections looking back to something that happened well over 40 years ago, I would do it again. I appreciate you special brothers here at HW PC that have looked out for the good of all us veterans. Salute to you, you know who you are.

Then to the women of HW. Weren't but a small number in 2008, but now, there are dozens and dozens, and I respect and appreciate how they speak on behalf of the men in their lives, and act as great advocates for their journeys in progress. Place wouldn't be the same without that balance.

All my advice is old and stale at this point. I have never been one of the great researchers here, just not my personal take. Even my own stories are getting ancient, and probably no longer as relevant.

As I have said many times over the years, there are things I do understand quite well. I understand the fear associated with cancer, being that I am a 4x serious cancer survivor. I understand what it feels like to be totally ignorant about prostate cancer, I didn't even know what or where my prostate was, shortly before coming here. I understand pain, way more than a human should have to know about, and it never, ever, gets any easier to deal with - especially when the doctors all tell me, that it's never going to get better. That's a hard nut to swallow, can't lie. And I know about so many different types of suffering, I can pretty well empathize with anyone else's misery and plight.

David

Wow. I'm a little sad but, glad.

It takes umph to make this kind of change in your life, especially when it involves the expectations of so many people. Sometimes momentum of a thing/s we're involved with seems to dictate the same show must go on and on, no matter what. Good for you for closing the curtain, walking out the side door and discovering what's waiting for you outside of this theater.

You were one of the first people to welcome me on here. I didn't find you stale at all. I'm impressed with your record of surviving Viet Nam with enough left to fight cancer 4xs. I'm concerned about your current weightloss, hoping the cause can be found and remedied soon.

Thank you for your service here on HW. It was meaningful. Along with others here, you helped me when I was in need.