A Washington Post article about a Bethesda teen who’s recovering from an infection with necrotizing fasciitis (also known as “flesh-eating bacteria”) got me thinking – after I read every word. I couldn’t help but see a few parallels between her 16^th birthday and my own. We both “celebrated” in hospitals, uncertain about our futures. And both of us were changed by our brushes with death at a young age.

We got our schedule for Oct. 19 at Johns Hopkins - what a busy day that will be!

When I first set up this site, I configured the New User settings so that people could register for an account but I would have to approve any new accounts before the user could gain advanced access to the site - to blog, for example. I want my family, friends, and colleagues with my same interests to be able to post their thoughts on the site. However, that experiment is now over - I'm annoyed by the number of requests I'm getting from people who are interested in "cars" or a jumble of characters (just for example), and who were claiming to be my family, friends, colleagues, or clients when - clearly - they were not.

So, as of now, if you want me to set up an account for you, please use the contact form or one of my email addresses (if you know one!) to ask me to do that. I will follow through if I know you, or if you send me links to web pages that show me you are interested in discussing melanoma, drupal, or publishing/journalism/blogging.