A very special thanks

A very special thanks,

Alright then, here we go. This is it now. I am John. The John Benedict the benefit was held for 23 February 2008. My sisters Cathy, Linda and Cindy put this all together for me. I have been diagnosed with amyloidosis. It is a very rare and strange type of disease. In fact I don’t even know I have it as there is no pain at all. Most of the time they don’t find it in people until they are having serious problems with it. From my understanding of it, it is a protein disorder in the blood that cannot be cured at all. These proteins are made to fight disease and all but now for some reason or another certain ones cannot be broken by my body anymore. So what happens is they will slowly build up in my organs or whatever. Slowly choke them off from doing their thing so to speak. Right now the levels are really low and Boston University is keeping a very close watch on it all. Involves a lot of testing and all, but hey, it’s alright. I feel fine. If the levels get high or something changes they can actually kind of wipe them out of me with high dose chemo. This is no cure but it is a lot better than letting it go. Prolong pushing daisies so to speak so I can live as long a life as anyone will. As it stand right now they believe it is just a localized thing so more testing of course. Better than being systemic, or floating all through the body. Right now. I can smile about all of it now. There was a few weeks when I just did not know anything you could image the worry and all. Very troublesome especially when it was confirmed by my doctor in Syracuse, Very troublesome indeed. Was a very hard time for me. About a week a half of that crap and something just snapped in me. Guess I just got good with it. From then on I kind of got my smile back. Wrote a couple songs, got through the holidays very well and just took a different look at things. I have this thing now but you know something, it does not bother me at all anymore. Life really is so good. This benefit my sister’s put together for me is what life is all about. I had such a great time at this benefit. First time in such a long time I realty had fun. I was so worried I would tire before it was over and all but I just had a ball. Met a girl, I’ll can her Ally, danced the night away with her. Not a care in the world as long as it lasted. As all good things must come to an end, that night ended. It does give one hope though. It really was so magical, almost mystical, and so unbelievable now. Sent her flowers the other day with a message that just said, “enjoy”. She got me to smile as bright as a full moon on a clear night. I wil1 always thank her for that. I did enjoy that night very much. Once again it will always be a warm smile when I look back at this night. I want to take this opportunity to thank my sister Cathy Benedict for heading this thing up, my sister Linda Sunday for being there for me all hours of the night as I felt my way through diagnosis blindly and my sister Cindy Benedict for being so supportive through these past six months of my life. I also want to thank all the people that came to the benefit and just wish the best for everyone that was there. The same wish for those that could not be there. Once again, I thank everyone for the support. Thanks so much, it means a lot to me.

John