Thought I'd broadcast it, and encourage anyone reading this to take it further.
Some of you already know some of this, but I'm going to take it from the top.
I went to Spain this summer, through the study abroad program of Arizona State
University. I was supposed to be there from June 1 to July 22nd, gathering 8
credits in Spanish 201 and Spanish 202. Unfortunately, things did not go as
planned. The first weekend there (June 8th or so), I took a weekend
pleasure-trip to Morocco with 31 classmates (and 2 teachers) and, my final
night there, had a few convulsions (or seizures, or whatever you want to call
them). By June 13th I was arriving in LAX, to be remanded into the custody of
my family, who took me to the emergency room at UCI.
Turns out I have a mass in my head. Well, technically I have quite a few of
them (like a skull, a brain, etc.) but this particular mass isn't supposed to
be there. It's a tumor in my right frontal lobe, putting pressure on my brain.
Probably it's been there for years. As you might expect, this is bad. On
Monday, June 18th, I will be undergoing a 12 hour (or so) surgery to have it
taken out. After that comes recovery and rehabilitation, and who knows how
long that will take.
Well-wishes and other words can be sent to me at lxndr@asu.edu, or to my family
at justincaselaw@aol.com. Internet access at the hospital leaves much to be
desired - my being able to get online to send this myself is basically a fluke
that will probably not be repeated, so if you want your words to get to me
quicker, go the family route (but remember, my mother will read all those, so
try to be clean!). Otherwise I'll likely not be responding to anything until
after I'm released, as I won't be able to return to this terminal, but I will
be able to read the ones sent to the aol account pretty quickly.
Specifically, I am in the neurological wing of the UCI medical Center, in
Orange, California if you want to try to reach me (probably after Tuesday,
since most of Tuesday will likely be spent sedated). There's a phone by my bed
and everything.
PLEASE forward this to anyone you know might want to know about this, or post
it on message boards, blogs, bbs'es, or whatever. Without my home computer and
the address book therein, I am relying on my somewhat spotty memory, and the
email addresses I happen to know by heart. Though all the names are bcc'd, you
all should know I'm spreading this pretty broad, including even some former
classmates and professors. If this is something that really doesn't concern
you, just hit delete and move on - I'm sorry to have bothered you, but at this
point I'd rather spread the news too broad than wind up missing out on anyone,
especially considering my limited internet resources.
If you read down this far, thank you.
-Alexander Cherry
