TDWL: Michael C. Hall & Hodgkins

UPDATE: As Linda mentions in the comments below, this is actually NOT a NTDWL post, it's totally a TDWL post. Michael C. Hall has been married for a year to his co-star, Jennifer Carpenter, who is a Louisville native and a Sacred Heart graduate. (And my favorite character on Dexter). I totally forgot that I too have heard rumors of the couple hanging out together around town. Anyone know if there is truth to the rumor that they own a house on Cherokee? I'm so happy that this reminder allows me to blog about Dexter and Hall to my heart's content. Thanks, Linda!

So, one of my better Christmas gifts this year was Season 3 of "Dexter." Roommate (he's on Twitter now @etammooR) gave it to me because we just started watching Season 1 before Christmas. 2010 has been a very Dexter year. We're through Season 2 (after every episode in Season 2, we said, "How the HELL is he going to get out of this one??" You've got to love a show that makes you ask that EVERY episode.). But Roommate is out of town, so Season 3 is burning a hole in my coffee table (and my mind). Hurry up and get home, Roommate. We've got some serial killer to follow.

Anyway, y'all know me. I'm cancer girl. Had cancer... blah blah blah... doing much better now... blah blah blah. But this week Michael C. Hall announced that he had Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Hall is the actor who plays Dexter and who played David Fisher in what is probably my favorite TV show of all time, "Six Feet Under." And tonight, Hall took home a Golden Globe for "Dexter" Season 4. He appeared at the ceremony in a wacky black stocking cap, looking rather... sickly, honestly.

I know this is a local blog. So pop culture news is not apropos. But, as a breast cancer survivor, I hear a lot of criticism about the fact that the Pink Cause has raised SO much money, but so little progress has been made. Hell, sometimes I'm the gal leveling that criticism.

BUT...

My dad was diagnosed with Hodgkin's when he was 17. Massive doses of radiation/chemo bolted him into remission long enough for him to think he was okay, go to college a year late, meet my mom, marry her, and conceive me. But several months into Mama Lou's pregnancy, Dad's remission ended. Doctors said he wouldn't live to see me born. But he did. I was, in fact, born on his birthday.

And he died when he was 27, when I was 3. Of Hodgkin's.

Doctors said, when he was 17 and again when he was 24, that he had a single-digit chance of living five years.

But now, Michael C. Hall's chance of surviving Hodgkin's is 90% or higher.

I need to say that again, just for myself. Hodgkin's survival rate now is 90% or higher.

Back when Dad was diagnosed, it was single digits percent. They didn't even put a number on it because the words "single digits" were dire enough.

So... I'm just saying. I get pissed off about the pink Snuggies too. I do. But I totally benefited from all the cancer research that has been done over the years. My breast cancer was not the same breast cancer that the previous generation had.

And my dad's death sentence is, for Michael C. Hall, just... not... anymore.

If my poor dear dad's cancer hadn't reared it's awful head back in the 60's and 70's, but had managed to hang innocuous til the 80's and 90's, it's quite possible that I'd still have a dad.

Anyway, seeing Michael C. Hall on the Golden Globes tonight stirred all kinds of porridge inside me. Good luck and best wishes Dexter/David. I am, indeed, a huge fan. And I'm hoping you'll end up being the "face" of "how far we've come" because of cancer research. Single digits to 90% in 30 years. Thems are good maths.