Wow, Alessandra, what a post.

It's very hard to find the words to express what I would want to tell you--I thought of saying so many things, but they don't really seem effective when I try to type them up. They don't even come out as I feel them. So, I read and reread your letter, then I closed the blog and decided to wait a few hours to see which, among the many messages I wanted to send, would percolate and stay in my mind as what I should say.

The first and most important thought I had throughout is, "Amazing woman". Yes, you are. I am proud of how you're dealing with... Cartman, you have no idea. I feel your pain--at least some of it--and I realize that you have to be an amazing woman to regroup and continue the fight like you are doing after such a conversation with your doctor. How many people do you think have such guts? Lance Armstrong, you, and only few others. The mindset is struggling? How could it not! But your courage in the face of all this is impressive.

The other thing I had in mind came up when you mentioned battling dentures. I pictured you and me sitting together at age 85 comparing dentures. It made me giggle the first time I thought of it and it still does now that I write it down. Do you remember that photo of the two of us my parents keep in a frame in their living room? We were 7 or 8, I think. We're both smiling, and both don't have upper central incisors. Someone will have to take another picture of us when we're in that situation again as old women... even though I suspect we won't like it too much to be caught on camera like that. Anyway, if you don't mind, I'll focus my visualizations on a toothless and smiling old Alessandra--still beautiful, I'm sure.

A big hug.