Ralph,



Thank you for your kind introduction and condolences. As I'm sure you
probably agree, I always say we have the best opportunities to grow and
become stronger during adversity. I feel like super woman sometimes with
all my opportunities! :-)



In addition to your email, Ralph, asking how you can help, others have asked
the same question. For those of you who would like to help the Braingels
project, there are ways for you to participate.



Altogether, over the past several years, we have raised over $4,000 which
has been donated to various organizations (Muzella Foundation, ABTA, Brain
Trust, FBTA, and more) The benefactor for 2009 is the Florida Brain Tumor
Association (FBTA). Profits from sales at the Braingels website,
www.braingels.org <http://www.braingels.org/> , will be donated to FBTA for
calendar year 2009. In addition, each year I hold a fundraiser at their
January conference each year. This year, we raised $350.00 in two days
through the sale of jewelry items at the conference. (Yay!). Another member
of our group and a dear friend of mine, Carol from Palm Beach Gardens,
donated time to help me both before the conference and at the table. It was
very busy!



Among others, many of you stopped at the table and bought items - it was
wonderful to see everyone pitching in for the fundraiser and stopping by to
say hello. Thank you to all of you for your support and participation.
(you know who you are... Anne, Nancy, Karen, Cindy, Bruce, Susie, etc. etc.
etc.... )



So, besides coming to a conference and making purchases, there are several
things those of you who are interested can do to help with the Braingels
Project.



1. Stay active in the BrainSurgery@yahoo website and try to assist members
with questions and concerns;

2. Visit the Braingels website and consider purchasing items as gifts or
for yourself.

3. Pass the word about the fundraiser by word of mouth and email. You may
even consider putting a blurb about it in your email footers; for example:



"Help the Braingels Fundraising Project raise money to assist brain tumor
patients and families. Visit www.braingels.org <http://www.braingels.org/>
. All profits from sales of these items are donated to nonprofit
organizations dedicated to assisting and educating brain tumor patients and
their families."



4. If you have any type of website (Facebook, Myspace, etc.), consider
putting a link to the Braingels website on there.

5.. Strive to increase community awareness about brain tumors in your
community.



Thank you to everyone here for all you do... just knowing you are there to
turn to is such a good feeling. And to think, if it wasn't for a brain
tumor, none of us would have met. Now there is a silver lining!



Good luck, Mr. Lincoln, and all my best to all of you!



Trisha







_____

From: BrainSurgery@yahoogroups.com [mailto:BrainSurgery@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Ralph C Lincoln
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 3:53 PM
To: BrainSurgery@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [BrainSurgery@Yahoo] Where do I begin?



Dear Trisha
AM just now clearing and cleaning up my emails and came upon this. Am SORRY
to hear of all the pain and what nots that you have been through. Mine
have not been as bad. My surgery was in Aug 96. Brain Stem, and it has
left me with damage to my right side. Understand some of the things you
described in your email, mentally more so with me have problems with memory
and the crawling bugs in my head, besides regional headaches. Sorry,
getting as to the why of my email, I would like to propostion you :) in a
way of saying maybe we could help one another. It's about the brain tumor
association, how can I help? Can you give me info on how it works, and if
it goes to Congress to ask for funding for better research and teaching
Doctors to understand the warning signs that one might give/have? Please
remember it took too too many years of complaining before mine was found.
Here's my end, I have not given up the SHIP! Recently I grew a
beard, since growing it everyone tells me I look more like Abraham Lincoln,
and I have started working on it, my website is www.alincolncousin.com .
Thinking that maybe if President Lincoln could help create a better
awareness. If you think that this might be of assistance, we could talk.
But please note I am limited on finances
Thank you for listening and understand if you would not reply
Wishing you all the Best
Stay Safe
Ralph C Lincoln



--- On Wed, 10/22/08, Trisha Williams <trisha4080@bellsout
<mailto:trisha4080%40bellsouth.net> h.net> wrote:

From: Trisha Williams <trisha4080@bellsout
<mailto:trisha4080%40bellsouth.net> h.net>
Subject: [BrainSurgery@Yahoo] Where do I begin?
To: BrainSurgery@ <mailto:BrainSurgery%40yahoogroups.com> yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 12:03 PM

Hi everyone. Hopefully, most of you know (and remember!) me, but for
those of you who don't, let me reintroduce myself and explain my absence.

My name is Patricia Williams and I am the founder of this website. I
know you all to be those who understand the issues and tribulations of
living with and after a brain tumor so I write the following words
knowing you will understand. I just want very badly to reach out and
pull this group back together with a clear direction.

I started this group due to a lack of follow-up after my brain
surgery. My story is already on the website so I will not say more
about that other than the fact that, as a registered nurse, I felt
compelled to do something to improve the level of follow up provided
to patients and families and to provide a forum for communication and
support to those of us taking this journey.

I miss all of you and am sorry for letting so much time pass without
participation. So let me explain.

About a year after my surgery in 1999, my husband left. I was not the
same person inside my head and everything from my habits to my
personality had changed. Instead of being the independent, type A,
"family coordinator" , all of a sudden my husband found himself with a
person who needed assistance on many levels. In the case of my
husband, it was too much for him and he moved on; we divorced and
that's that story.

Bear with me... after remarrying in 2003, my life seemed to be
progressing in a positive direction and I was growing and relearning
skills I thought I had lost. I learned to read again, relearned
improved communication skills, relearned the ability to do math and
many other life skills I thought I would never have the joy of
experiencing again.

One thing never returned, however - my ability to multitask and handle
significant levels of stress without a price to pay. That price being
a lowered seizure threshold and having to stop one activity in order
to focus on a new one.

It is due to these deficits I have been unable to participate for
quite some time. About two years ago, I found out my new marriage was
over after finding out about many affairs my husband was having or had
had. I won't go into all the details, but having to deal with this
realization, along with managing through a divorce and all the
emotions and confusion associated with it, I find myself left with
very little energy to contribute to this group. I wasn't even getting
any of the posts because my email address had changed.

I have continued to do my fundraisers on a lesser scale, raising about
$4,000 for various non-profit brain tumor organization and I conduct
my annual fundraiser at the Florida Brain Tumor Association conference
each January.

Having now made it through this stressful period of my life, I am
ready to jump back in. I do miss being part of this community.

I hope many of you are still interested in continuing with this
website and exploring ways in which we can help each other as well as
those patients and families to come. I do feel we have made a
difference to many people as a group and look forward to continuing on
in this regard.

I look forward to discovering how many of you are still reading the
messages and if there is an interest on your part in continuing on
with this community.

I hope to hear from some of you soon!

Please forgive me for my absence and let me know what has been
happening!!! I will read back over the posts now and delete those
that are inappropriate (spam) from the archives.

Glad to finally be back,
Trisha

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