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Friday, August 5, 2016

From beginning to end



posted June 23

Let me start off by telling you who I am. My name  is Joe Gabriel.  I live in Iowa with my wife Judy. We have two grown daughters, a son-in-law and three grandchildren.  Oh ya and soon to be son-in-law to our youngest daughter. 
My wife Judy has been diagnosed with a Chordoma tumor on her clavicle. Sounds like a lot of big scary words and it definitely  don't sound good.  We'll your right.  

Chordomas are very rare.  A Chordoma is primarily found on the base of the skull or the lower spine.   This is an example how rare they are. When my wife went to her family doctor for the first time after finding out about her chordoma, her doctor had to look it up on Google. We seen about 6 times so far.

1 in 1 million  people  are  diagnosed with a Chordoma every year. That's around 300 Americans annually.  That's where I came up with #uronenamillion.

The first first time I read that stistic I looked at my wife and said to her see now I know you are one in a million.  It's not a laughing matter,  but I always seem to TRY to add humor when it not need, you Can ask Judy about that, she will agree. 

What we know so far

We know because it can't be completely removed and it will someday return.   She also has a chance this tumor could spread to other areas.  So the goal is to remove as much as possible with surgery.  The surgery happens in a week.  After the surgery they will most likely be using some sort of radiation therapy to contain and shrink what is left.

So that is where are today. Pre-op junk.  I will be telling you the entire story in the next couple of days my hope is to have her entire story told by the her surgery is here.


posted June 26








I am not a writer. You can probably tell that already after reading the first couple of sentences of my post. So let me apologize for the grammar and spelling right from the beginning.

Our journey starts April 16 2016 at one of our local movie theaters. The movie was just about to start when my wife leaned over to me and asked, "is the screen out of focus to you?"

I replied "no, it looked fine, why?" Judy then followed with, "it just looks like it is out of focus." Little did we know that moment was going to be the turning point for the rest of our lives.

Judy excused herself to go to the restroom, but it was not until after the movie that I knew the real reason.

When she went to rest room she looked into the mirror only to see two of herself starring back, so she went  outside,  she saw two moons, two lamp posts, two of everything.  It was DOUBLE VISION.

She was not seeing a blurry screen. Judy was seeing two of every thing on the screen.  The only way she could stop the double vision, was to cover one eye. So that is what she did for the entire movie.

She knew something was not right, but though to herself, maybe she was getting a migraine headache.  She decided to try to tought out the movie so she would not disappoint me.  It just goes show how sacrificial she is.

So that was the start of when Judy started to realize something was not right. It also is the start of our Journey.  Lots more to come!  Follow along with our story, follow along with our journey. #uronenamillion


  •  Find me on Twitter at  #uronenamillion

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