This year, I’ve had to work hard to celebrate Halloween. It’s my favorite holiday and I love it for a lot of reasons, but a few things tried to get in the way of my joy. A lot of you know that I was diagnosed with cancer last year. In March, after chemotherapy, the doctors said it was gone, but sadly by September it was back. I’m about to face another month of chemotherapy starting next week, and this week is my last gasp of chemical freedom before I walk down that road.

I’m pretty lucky as far as cancer and chemotherapy goes. My cancer is Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma of the duodenum, and it’s still Stage 1 in small spots on my duodenum that have apparently not chosen to metastasize throughout my lymph nodes. I’m incredibly relieved about this. The chemotherapy that I will undergo is a gentle one, Rituxan. It targets B-cells instead of ALL the cells. Last time around I didn’t lose my hair. This time, I’m begging the universe that the cancer cells have not become immune, and that they’ll die just as easily as they did last time. I’m in for a lot of maintenance chemotherapy too (every few months for a year or so), but I’m ready for it. If it kills the cancer, great.

So despite this, I’m celebrating my ass off tomorrow. I’m going to wear a costume to my real life job, and I’ll wear all the pretty orange that there is in Second Life. I’m grateful for the full moon and the lack of a storm down here in Florida, for the health and life that I have, and for the medicine that will give me even more. I raise my pumpkin pop to the joy of the season! May you all have even more reason to celebrate than I do!

I have a few more photos and the outfit credits behind this cut.

Nom: Katat0nik pumpkin pop
Dress: Katat0nik Choca Dress in halloween color
Tattoo: Vintage tattoo from Etched
(aye, there’s a tale and a half…I’ll tell it to the first person wot notices this)
Hair: Maitreya Lotte – Almond
Shoes: Schadenfreude Flitter Dreamlander Heels
Skin: Plastik Aleria/Nomad – Plain
Eyes: Plastik Jerusalem – BrownSea
Horns: Illusions Runed Horns Aries