Dan Henry
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thread 1/10
The second time we talked, she was surprised that I remembered how to pronounce her name. She didn't realize I was in love with her. I didn't know it myself until we never had a third conversation.
10:50 AM - May 17, 2024
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Dan Henry
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thread 2/10
Sioban was a server at a restaurant & bar where I held a weekly social event. She didn't work on Thursdays, but she sang in a band sometimes, and she subbed once in awhile for Diane, our regular server.
10:50 AM - May 17, 2024
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Dan Henry
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thread 3/10
She had an amazing singing voice: heavy, smokey, and soulful ... the kind of voice that shocks you coming from a small white girl.
10:50 AM - May 17, 2024
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Dan Henry
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thread 4/10
In our first conversation, she shared that she'd been diagnosed with cancer. Cancer patients have a bond, so we were immediate fast friends in a way that survivors will understand. Even more, though, we shared the same rare cancer.
10:52 AM - May 17, 2024
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Dan Henry
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thread 5/10
Malignant melanoma tends to strike older people. I had got it at seventeen. Sioban was in her late 20s. Even weirder, people tend to get it on their extremities. We both got it on our left sides, just above the hip.
10:53 AM - May 17, 2024
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Dan Henry
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thread 6/10
At her Celebration of Life her eight-year-old son, Daniel, gave the bravest talk I've ever heard. I think about him occasionally and wonder how he's doing. I wanted to share with him that I lost my mother when I was twelve and that it would be OK, but I didn't have his courage.
10:53 AM - May 17, 2024
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Dan Henry
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thread 7/10
In our second conversation, Sioban said that she was treating her cancer with a tar-like poultice that was sucking the toxins from her body. She had all the confidence of someone with a young family and no healthcare plan.
10:54 AM - May 17, 2024
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Dan Henry
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thread 8/10
At seventeen, I got the best socialized health care possible. My dad was career Army, and I had my surgeries at Walter Reed hospital in Washington, D.C.
10:54 AM - May 17, 2024
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Dan Henry
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thread 9/10
Sioban was diagnosed before Obamacare became a reality. She had no options, beyond rubbing tar on her skin. Daniel had no option but to watch his mother die.
10:54 AM - May 17, 2024
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Dan Henry
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thread 10/10
I think about Sioban when conservatives talk about ending Obamacare. I think about how Daniel might have his mother today if we'd have had Obamacare ten years earlier.

So vote blue. It's life or death.
10:55 AM - May 17, 2024
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Laura Spouts N Spurts
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I didnt know where this thread was going when I started it but I'm glad I read it. I'm a RN in the Emergency Dept. I hate seeing people being diagnosed with cancer in the ER when routine care would have diagnosed it at an earlier, much more treatable stage. Affordable Care Act gives early access.
In response to Dan Henry.
11:36 AM - May 17, 2024
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