Jacob's Song Pick of the Day (9/20/2015): "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M.

My song pick of the day today is one that's very meaningful to anyone who is struggling and serves as a reminder to everyone that we all need to help each other; "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M. Have a listen and read why I picked this as my song of the day:

"If you think you've had too much/Of this life, well hang on/Everybody Hurts/Take comfort in your friends"

Today I did something that I have done every year for the past 4 years, I ran in the Terry Fox Run.

Well, I ran a few feet every now and then, needing to use my wheelchair to get through the whole walk. The Terry Fox Run is very special to me. My Papa is a stage 4 bladder cancer survivor and I've lost quite a few friends that I have made along my journey to this disease. Having severe Crohn's Disease, I'm also more likely to develop stomach/intestinal cancer. I was thinking while I was out on the trails about how Terry was so sick, literally dying, yet his determination kept driving him forward through the pain. I was thinking about my old cub leader who fought bravely, trying to help out as much as possible with Scouting while undergoing treatments. I was thinking of all of the kids I see when I'm at Sick Kids Hospital who have IV poles requiring two or three pumps for all of the medicine that they need. I was thinking about what a great gift it was just to be able to be out on the trails. Terry's vision of a cancer-free world and his efforts to make it happen inspires me greatly. He took such an ugly disease as cancer and managed to make something beautiful from it. He managed to inspire a whole country, and still inspires so many more. I want to be like this. I hope that one day I can be even a bit of the hero that Terry Fox is. I want to be able to inspire others, to tell them to "hold on", that there is always hope, that life does go on despite the hurts. Our world would be an even more awesome place with more people like Terry. All it takes is kindness.

Jacob's Healing Rooms is going to help kids receiving IV medical treatments as an out-patient. For Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), by the time a kid gets to the point of needing an IV treatment like Remicade, they've often gone through, and failed, a handful of other treatments. Often, Remicade might be our last medication prior to undergoing surgery like a resection or a colectomy (removal of the colon). Us kids have a lot on our minds when we get to that point, so do our parents. Jacob's Healing Rooms will take away some of this stress and provide a great distraction from the medical world. Because let's face it, we all want to escape the medical world sometimes! Please help me make Jacob's Healing Rooms become more than a dream of mine. Together we can make a difference.